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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/347582
bcbusiness.ca 46 BCBusiness august 2014 How do they do it? Why are they still at it? And, most importantly, what can they teach us? Read on as a quartet of unique shop owners explains, in their own words, how they're beating the odds to survive—and thrive—in the face of the superstore Goliaths. Jitendra tanna Founder and owner of Tea Time 1418 Lonsdale ave., North Vancouver I like to say that we don't sell tea; our customers buy tea. They come to us for the quality, the prices and the ser- vice—we don't have to go to them. Our family has had an interest in tea for four generations, in over five continents. Tea is something that started with our grandpar- ents, on my wife's side, and my side back in Gujarat, India. My wife's parents were tea agents in Western India, and then in Kenya and Uganda. But it's not something we personally got into until we moved to Van- couver, after spending 35 years in London, England, where I did property management. In 2001, when we got here, we noticed good tea was something that was missing, and there were a lot of people coming here from different parts of the world where tea, as a beverage, was the number-one drink. The biggest difference between us and other tea shops, like Murchie's, is that they have to supplement the store with other items, like coffee, biscuits, gift items, acces- sories. It begs the question, If you believe in a product and you're passionate about it, why aren't you supporting that product? Why are you watering it down with additional items? People don't remember that you're a spe- cialty. You're a general store—basically a min- iature supermarket, is the way I look at it. We don't do anything but loose tea. When we opened in 2001, it was a sit-down tea room, but it was taking away from what we wanted to do, which was to bring in a greater selection of teas. So we stopped doing that in 2004. Today, I estimate we sell 1,500 pounds of tea a month in retail, mail orders and whole- sale. We have real support from the local community, and that community has also expanded. People move, and yet they come back for tea, they come back to see their dentist and they come back to see their doctor—in that order. Yesterday we had someone from Maple Ridge who made a special trip to stock up. There's no secrets or magic or anything special about it. We just provide what we have to offer, and people appreciate what we do. Carlos BresCiani Owner of aLL-Vacuum STOre 4673 main St., Vancouver W e've been in business for 40 years, and in this location for 23. When I moved here from Peru, I started doing direct sales door-to-door. I was working for some- one else in the beginning, for a short time, and then I opened my own store. It's a good business to be in. Everybody owns a vacuum, every hotel has vacuums, and if they have a vacuum they need supplies and repairs. That's what's different about us—we do the service and repairs. A lot of stores come and go because they don't know how to fix vacuums. They come here, we open it up and, Oh my god, it's a disaster inside. It's different now than it was 40 years ago. Now every depart- ment store has vacuums, and there are a lot of what I call one- way products: you buy it, break it and throw it out. It's cheaper to replace it than to fix it. It's frustrating for me to see, because there's a lot of waste. In the past, most vacuums were fixable. We make sure that if we sell it, we also service it. If we get a company who won't give us the service for the warranty, then we don't sell it. We sell high-end and lower-end brands, but we do try to specialize in the better ones, like Sebo and Miele. We have all kinds of customers, from businesses to households, and we also supply a lot of hotels. We supply all the Fairmont Hotels and quite a few Holiday Inns in Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler. People come to us because we do good service and we have good staff. We have three employees who have been here for years—one for 40 years—and we just hired one more. Everyone who works here stays for a long, long time. We treat them well, and they are happy here. It's simple. I have no plans to retire. I love my work. I like dealing with a lot of people, and everyone's happy here. Like I say, it's a good business, because everybody has a vacuum. If you buy it, we keep you happy.