By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Patrick Turner had a retirement plan, and by all accounts, it was a reasonable one lacking any grandiosity.
Operating the bargain store, “Your Dollar Store With More”, for the last 24 years, the plan was to continue operating for another few years before selling the business and enjoying some well-earned relaxation.
But like the proverbial spanner in the gears, Patrick’s retirement plan ground to a squealing halt thanks to what many on social media have suggested is motivated by pure greed on the part of the landlord.
With his lease expiring in May 2025, Turner had an opportunity to renew his lease for another five years.
“The game plan was to have had another five years, and within that five years, I could have had an opportunity to sell the business to somebody else who might have been able to expand it,” he says.
Alternatively, Turner says he “could have expanded the business because the building [next door] was vacant for many, many years. Or I could have brought in a manager and eased out gradually.”
But all that became irrelevant when the landlord decided he wanted a big-ticket lease in the form of Montreal-based Dollarama, for whom he expanded the existing building to accommodate the corporate giant.
“The landlord decided he’d rather have them on the property and thought maybe it’d be time for me to retire,” Turner muses.
“The landlord probably thought he’d be doing me a favour by letting me bail out, except he didn’t realize that the retirement plan included selling the business,” he says ruefully.
With virtually the same type of business, but much larger in scale, moving in cheek and jowl next door, that option evaporated even before the first pour of concrete to expand the existing space earlier this summer.
Dollar Store no more – Patrick Turner in front of his business during the final clearance days is now resigned to finding a new path to retirement.
Don Urquhart photo
The Times Chronicle reached out to the property developer of Gateway Square, Don Lloyd, but he did not return the calls.
“With the competition next door that has moved in, there’s just no way that I would be able to make a go of it over the next five years,” let alone sell the business.
“It was a gut punch, and I know it’s been coming . . . they started making overtures to me that maybe it’d be time for me to go.
“But now I’m resigned to the fact that I’m on my way out. Tear things down and move on, which is what you have to do. I can’t dwell on it, it’s not good for my health. So just proceed with the course we are on to empty the shelves, get rid of the shelves and lock the door.”
Particularly galling for many is the fact Dollarama doesn’t even have a local owner or franchisee, as every one of the more than 1,000 stores across Canada is corporate-owned. Despite repeated attempts, Dollarama did not reply to the Times Chronicle inquiries.
Many on social media have also questioned what the need is for another Dollarama when there is already one in Oliver, only 19-odd kilometres down the road. Turner says saturation is part of their strategy, pointing to larger centres like Kelowna where you can find three Dollarama within something like a 20 sq. block radius.
When asked what the plan is now, Turner said wearily, “Divest ourselves of what is here and pack up and then see what the future holds.”
One thing he is clear on – he won’t be getting back into any kind of business. It just takes too long to build back a decent return, he says, and “it just doesn’t make any sense at this time at my age, to enter into another venture.”
“I’ve had numerous people approach me to consider running for town council, but that’s still 18 months away before decisions are made regarding that.”
On the topic of Osoyoos Council, a small but noisy segment of the town population has been pushing a narrative that council is not business-friendly and is driving businesses out of town.
Turner has clear thoughts on this issue. “Town Council’s role is to approve developments, approve zoning of properties. Their role is not to say this business can come to town and this business can’t come to town.
“Members of council have made that clear, and I’ve had to make that clear to many of my customers. They’re putting the blame on council, but it’s not the council that decides what businesses come to town.
“I do not know where these complaints about being unfriendly to business come from other than maybe other people coming to town with some ideas, and they don’t get the answers they want,” he says.
Cheek and jowl – Montreal-based Dollarama moved in smack next door in Gateway Square.
Don Urquhart photo
Overall, it’s been a good run for Turner, and he says in this final chapter that customers have been “very, very supportive”.
As we spoke in the final week of the store’s existence amidst the increasingly depleted shelves, bargain hunters methodically picked over what was left after Turner put up the 50 per cent clearance signs barely a week earlier.
“I’m amazed that they’re still finding things to fill their baskets with right now,” he observes. Over the years, Turner has picked up a loyal customer base, in part because he would go the extra mile to bring in special request items, as long as it wasn’t one piece that customers wanted.
“I specifically bring stuff in for people. Sometimes I get burned on it, okay, but other times they’re quite happy that I’m able to buy more than a dozen of something, “ he says, adding that he’s even supplied hotels with certain items.
Through the height of his business, he was sourcing from as many as 120 suppliers and no warehouse, something fairly unique in running a business, if not surely a bit head-spinning.
“People have been very supportive over the many years, primarily because I have been able to provide what they wanted. I have many customers now coming to me saying, ‘Well, we don’t know where we’re going to find these now, because you were the one that always had these things.”
He gives the example of a customer who comes down from Penticton to buy shoehorns because he can’t find them anywhere else. And demonstrating he hasn’t completely lost his sense of humour, Turner says, “Unfortunately, I’m not going to open up a business called ‘Shoe Horns R US’ because there’s no money in shoe horns, right?”
He does believe this type of bargain store business will remain viable despite the onslaught of online shopping competition from the Amazons of the world and, more recently, the Temus and Sheins who more directly compete in terms of the pricing and merchandise they offer.
The problem with online shopping is “you don’t know what you’re getting. Here you can see it and touch it,” he says, adding that the older demographic in this area is also an important factor.
Once again, Turner expressed his appreciation for the community’s support. “I’ve been extremely pleased with the support we’ve received over the years. We are going to miss our customers, and we feel badly that we had to make this decision.
“I feel like we’re letting them down. But to look at the dollars and cents, it doesn’t make any sense if there’s no dollars, and that’s kind of the bottom line.”
And here’s what might be a little-known fact for many: Turner is a former journalist and newspaper co-owner, having worked for and then partnered with Chris Stodola on the Osoyoos Times from the mid-80s to early 2000s.
