A commentary by the manager of W&J Wilson Clothiers, one of the oldest individually owned retail stores in Canada. Part of our continuing series on the impact of COVID-19 on local businesses.
Since we closed our stores in the middle of March and said “see you soon” to our loyal staff, I have only been to town a couple of times, for reasons necessary to our firm.
Those trips have left me with a preview of what downtown Victoria could become if we do not all pull together to save our city.
If our many unique shops, services and attractions fail, our city will remain the ghost town it is now.
Our city must once again become a place that people of all walks of life want to return to.
The patrons of the restaurants, pubs and nightclubs need a place to safely enjoy having fun. The tourists need to have a clean, safe place with lots of wonderful attractions to bring them back. The shoppers need unique and plentiful shops to lure them to our city.
Long before the pandemic, it was common to hear “we no longer go downtown.” Asked why, people would often say that the roads and sidewalks are in a terrible state, there is not enough parking, and they were concerned about safety.
I sincerely hope that the community comes together to create a rebirth of downtown. This will only happen if locals come to our restaurants, pubs and nightclubs, if shoppers patronize the stores as they reopen and if tourists realize that in the whole world, there are few places as wonderful as Victoria.
We will need our civic government, even in a time of reduced budgets, to prioritize funds for the safety, cleanliness and repair of the city.
For small businesses, in particular retail, revenue stopped when we closed our stores. That left us with no way of paying our rent or for our inventory.
We don’t have an online presence, as we are a service-based firm catering to a demographic that is less comfortable shopping for clothing online.
Our company of 158 years of continual business has never had to weather such challenging times.
We are one of the oldest individually owned retail stores in Canada. We hope that the relationships we have built with the good people of Victoria will help us endure.
We feel lucky to be Canadian and to live in Victoria.
Our politicians, bureaucrats and health-care personnel are doing an amazing job of working together to make this one of the best places to reside at this time.
Let’s build on their example to make downtown once again a thriving hub that people from the world over will want to visit.
See you soon and stay safe.
