Glen Lynch has been operating a store in downtown Victoria for 55 years and thinks the core is getting a bad rap.
The owner of Baggins Shoes is closing the Lower Johnson Street store in the fall, keeping its custom print shop open and moving to online sales.
But Lynch said it isn’t because of the crime and social issues that are so widely reported — and then magnified on social media.
Instead, he blames a combination of factors, including upheavals from the pandemic and the slow return of office workers, particularly provincial civil servants.
There’s also higher property taxes, rent and overhead, reduced parking and rising labour costs — on Saturday, the minimum wage is increasing by 4% to $17.40 an hour.
After news got out of Baggins’ planned closing in October, Lynch said he was disappointed to see comments that it was because downtown wasn’t safe anymore, that it was overrun with unhoused people and others vandalizing property and openly using drugs.
While there is some truth to those perceptions, he said, it’s not as bad as people are saying online.
“You have parents in Oak Bay telling their kids it’s not safe downtown. It just sort of builds and builds and then everyone thinks that way.”
Lynch said his experience as a downtown business owner has been largely positive as he has operated the store in several locations — Bastion and Market squares, Government Street and Lower Johnson — over the past half-century.
Baggins morphed from a head shop and hippie paraphernalia outlet to the world’s largest single-door seller of Converse running shoes, and since 2014 has run a print shop that personalizes the shoes.
Lynch turned 75 in April and has a succession plan with Tara Savrtka, a 25% partner in the business.
Their lease on Lower Johnson was due and with what the company described as “skyrocketing rents” for the space, they decided to take the business online only.
Jeff Bray, executive director of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, said the perception that downtown isn’t safe has the “single biggest impact” for merchants.
“It becomes part of the everyday narrative and it’s difficult to change that narrative,” he said.
Bray said the 900-block of Pandora Avenue, where tents of unhoused people fill the boulevard, is often the first thing people see when they’re coming into downtown.
Still, Bray said downtown remains robust, with owners reporting a rebound in revenues from the pandemic, a good tourism season last year and another one expected this summer.
The vacancy rate among downtown stores is about 9% — higher than the pre-pandemic level of 4%, but still lower than in other major Canadian cities like Winnipeg or Edmonton, where Bray said retail vacancies are about 30%.
He said the absence of workers from downtown offices remains a concern, since lunches and shopping excursions after work aren’t happening as much.
Lynch said office workers were regular customers Monday through Friday, but since the pandemic, they’ve been few and far between.
Bray said data collected from card swipes in office buildings downtown indicate 80% of private-sector workers have returned to the office, but only 20% to 30% of provincial employees.
Federal employees are mandated to work from the office at least three days a week, while the province has encouraged work from home, said Bray.
“So in that respect, we feel the province isn’t supporting businesses by making those decisions,” he said.
Bray also said the hike in minimum wage and a payroll tax are additional burdens for business owners, and municipal governments aren’t helping by boosting property taxes and even increasing parking fines downtown.
Terri Hustins, who has been operating toy, hobby and novelty businesses downtown for 35 years and has 26 staff, said her business is also fighting the perception that downtown is unsafe.
Hustins, who owns Kaboodles toy store and two Oscar& Libby’s locations, said she has turned off social media because she “can no longer stomach the slagging of downtown.”
She said downtowns across North America are facing the same social challenges associated with the opioid crisis. Before the pandemic, she attended a retailers conference in Baltimore where the fallout of drug addiction on retailers was the main topic.
“Sure we’ve got challenges here, but so does every downtown,” said Hustins. “We have to start looking at downtown like a community rather than a collection of businesses.
“We are out there every day sweeping the sidewalks and picking up litter and there are hundreds of people living and working here trying to make a difference as part of a community.”
Hustins said downtown is still one of the only places in the region where young entrepreneurs can get a foothold on small spaces at reasonable rents to open unique shops.
The closure of Baggins retail store in October will mean the loss of eight staff, all of whom are summer hires. Baggins’ print shop at 2521 Government St., near Bay Street, will be open for public ordering.
Savrtka said online sales represent about 40% of Baggins’ revenue and have been climbing yearly.
“We’re not closing — we’re just adapting to the times,” Lynch said. “Part of the reason we’ve been around so long is because we see opportunity and act on it.
“We’ve adapted before and we’ll continue to thrive, just in a different way.”
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