CLOSING OF SPECIALTY MARKET IS INDICATION OF HOW DIFFICULT IT IS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO SURVIVE IN SMALLER MARKETS
  

Original Post by Samantha Tummino:
The Specialty Market announced today they are closing at the end of the month. Very sad news, they have such an amazing variety of GF & organic foods.

Annie Roger Mathieu wow that's not good...

Heather Laurin So sad that they are closing. I love that they carry local products!

Rob Stacknik So sad!

Donna Kelly Dennis Trottier :(

Paul Chénier Where is this place? Didn't even know about it till now

Andy Taylor They just celebrated their first year. Too bad. I was just going to go check them out.

Marcel Lemieux That is why small businesses can't survive n one knows they are here

Heather Laurin They're on Hwy 69 In Val Caron! By the Bingo. Such a great little store!

Bobbie Gregory This is horrible news! We love shopping there. :(

Marcel Lemieux Mayhbe the rent was too high also but it was a good place to shop

Dan Rainville :(

Emily McIntosh I also never heard about

Nadia Morin It's very hard to market a small business with little budget ;-(...

Samantha Tummino It's too bad so many people didn't know about it, it's one of my favourite stores!

Lana Ranger I also never heard of it, social media sites and this page are great ways to get the word out, and it's free!! I would have shopped there had I known..

Bobbie Gregory The owner did a lot of advertising through Facebook and also had contests and were featured in the newspaper and CBC radio. It's so unfortunate that so many hadn't heard about it. Those of us who did, loved it. The owner was always so friendly and helpful.

Claire Proulx-Thériault Maybe they should relocate in the south end or New Sudbury area. I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate such a store.

Marcel Lemieux We want them 2 stay not move

Claire Proulx-Thériault I agree except the people who live in Sudbury often don't want to drive "all the way out to the Valley" (making it sound like we're in Toronto). I was selling a kitchen table and chairs on Kijiji a few weeks back and I had practically sold it until the person interested sent me an email saying "sorry, I didn't realize you lived clear across town. Too far. I'm going to pass on that table and chairs". I don't know if she was being serious or was it her way of brushing off the sale but I laughed when I read her comment.

Marcel Lemieux well we are always the one's who have 2 go to town screw them

Samantha Tummino With a store like The Specialty Market, people were willing to drive to it. You can't get the variety of gluten free, organic, etc foods anywhere else. I drive from the Valley to Lively to get things from Gluten Free Galore.... trust me, when you have an allergy like that, you're willing to go the distance to get tasty foods, since most of the GF foods suck!
It's just unfortunate that more people didn't realize it was there, or the amazing products they stocked.

Marcel Lemieux I found chia seeds there that no one had

Robert T. Kirwan There are many reasons why a store like The Specialty Market would close, so we shouldn't speculate the owner's decision at this time. But it does raise the issue of how challenging it is for small outlets to survive in this market place. It is why so many small businesses are in the "service industry" since they don't require a lot of inventory to provide their services to clients. When you need to stock your store with inventory, that ties up capital for a long time. The profit margins are not always enough to remain viable unless you do a significant amount of volume. Judging from the comments on this site and on the main facebook site for The Specialty Market, there were a lot of people who supported the store, but obviously one requires a lot of regular clientele for this kind of business to be successful. We really should try to give more support to our local businesses in order to demonstrate to other businesses interested in setting up shop in Valley East that this is a community that is supportive of its business community.

Jenn Depatie Thanks for everyone's kind words :) It wasn't an easy decision for us to make.

Robert T. Kirwan You will never regret trying, Jenn. There is an old saying that I always follow: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do, than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore! Dream! Discover!" So get ready to catch the next ship, Jenn, and go with the flow.

Tina Bouffard People don't realize how convenient things are until they're gone. With the population of Valley East, business shouldn't be struggling to survive. For some reason people seem to be shopping elsewhere. Its actually too bad :(

Robert T. Kirwan I agree, Tina. You have done an amazing job of bringing top quality clothes to the Valley through your store, Billie Jeans in the Hanmer Valley Shopping Centre. If you ever close up what will we have left?

 
 
 
 

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