Residents who like to put together scrapbooks will have one fewer physical location from which to shop, as the pandemic and future construction projects have forced Scrappin’ with T to close.
While the pandemic was one reason owner Teresa Fellinger closed her storefront, the forthcoming street construction was going to be an even bigger headache. The City of Moose Jaw plans to shut down High Street West from Second to Fifth avenues for three months for phase 5 of the cast iron water main replacement program.
Fellinger’s business — which opened almost nine years ago — was on Manitoba Street in 2015 when, without any prior notification, city hall closed the street for eight months for construction work and she lost $30,000 in business, she said. She later moved to High Street West, but then two years ago, the municipality closed that street and she lost further business.
City hall closed her street for nearly two months last year for work, so when she received a letter three months ago saying her street would be closed again for construction, she knew her business would sink and she decided now was the time to close.
Fellinger opened another storefront in Dalmeny last year and recently began selling online. Her rent in Dalmeny is $1,000 less than in Moose Jaw, and after crunching the numbers, she realized she wasn’t making money here.
Fellinger will continue with her Dalmeny and online stores and plans to continue to hold pop-up events around Moose Jaw. She noted she made more money during those events than she did with her storefront. By eliminating $4,000 in rent and staff — dismissing her employees was a difficult decision — Fellinger believes her business can survive.
Scrappin’ with T will have a permanent pop-up location at Past Times Old Photography at 26 Main Street North.
She also thought now was a good time to step back since she has grandchildren and works two other jobs.
“So I need a break. I need a mental break … I think (closing the store is) what’s best for me now,” she added. “COVID-19 has been icing on the cake.”
Fellinger was devastated to close her store, saying it had been a tough year already. With emotion in her voice, she said that’s how it goes when one is a small business owner. It’s difficult to thrive when residents shop at big box stores, tourism generates most of the business, and people think business owners are wealthy.
“I’m not loaded. I’m in a lot of debt,” she continued. “It is what it is. So I just spent the last month selling 90 per cent of the product out of my store. We did it all through Facebook … . That was the toughest three weeks of business.”
Scrappin’ with T will now operate out of the Fellingers’ garage while selling products online. Fellinger explained she never wanted to sell online since she is not technologically savvy and doesn’t like shopping digitally. However, she has no choice since many people now shop online.
With the shape the economy is in, scrapbooking is not an essential activity in most people’s lives, she continued. The scrapbook community here used to be healthy, but with oil prices so weak during the last 18 months, customers whose husbands worked in the oil patch were no longer able to buy scrapbook materials since they had less income.
“People can justify cigarettes … alcohol … (and) eating out, but they can’t justify scrapbooking,” Fellinger added. “That is just how people are.”
