Thanks in large part to an obdurate and intractable car park department of Cobourg Town the Peech’s Market at the foot of Third Street will shut up shop. The owners spent two years negotiating with the Town to create an outlet to serve the downtown condominium owners in the harbour area; he a skilled butcher and manager and she an accomplished cook have decided to call it a day. Why? Because the Car Park Department refuses to allow free parking while customers shop. Every retailer needs parking space to encourage business. Ample – and mostly vacant – space is available in the harbour area. The trouble is, this Town has an insatiable appetite for tribute. Anyone who dares to tarry for a moment while they pop in for a loaf of bread or bag of milk risks the attention of a lurking meter attendant and a $20 fine for illegal parking. A miniature sign requires payment for parking during the summer months only, but it is tiny alongside the larger Paid Parking sign that unwitting motorists read and immediately leave for more attractive pastures. The Peeches asked for free customer parking and were told, in effect, to get lost, so that is what they will do. Where is that poet laureate, needed now to write a lament to register our loss?
Tags: Cobourg life
A comparison can be made to the business on the opposite side of the condos, “Harbourlight Delights” and the hotdog counter where they have lasted many years. Lower rent, lower taxes, lower equipment investment, simpler offerings, non-specialized staff seem to add up to success. There’s no parking there either.
Maybe the Peech’s space could be a successful coffee shop now. It seems to meet the comparison features above. Maybe a Starbucks, or for heavens sake a Tim Hortons.
Funny how you can blog about The Big Issues, but the parish pump gets ‘em in every time!
The items stated will in fact be an effect to any business success however, after 45 years in the same business myself, your success is dependant on supplying what the customer wants at a “fair” price – not forcing people to buy what you want to carry at extremely high prices.Not everyone will buy imported or organic etc at high prices in place of everyday labels at affordable prices.
A fair enough observation with which I agree. However, the word is that Bill Patchett and Dick Jefferies too, both experienced supermarket operators, thought the enterprise was doomed from the start for lack of traffic.
Art C
A sign of the times. If the market had been truly embraced by it’s targeted clientele (the local condo owners) they would have survived. I’ve been in there many times during peak operating hours and been the only customer. Unlike cranky old bastards things evolve.
True, Ben, possibly true, the caveat being the Peeches would have known this in their business plan. It was therefore in their area of control whereas the parking problem was not.
Art
Art, not wanting to contradict your supposition that the lack of free parking killed the Peech, I would put it down to a number of factors, the least of which would have been a greedy and grasping landlord, the rent must have been killing them!