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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Better parking accessibility, fewer social problems, and increased momentum for retail has uptown businesses thankful for their location.

Happy with its uptown location, Barren Land Jewellery and Gifts installed a new sign above the store entrance, pointed to by manager Jessica Mitchell, left, and Cheryl Houweling, a Barren Land employee. - Lyndsay Herman/NNSL photo

"Business is definitely picking up on this side of things," said Artistic Hound owner Scott Anderson.

"It seems like definitely a lot is happening on this side (of town) for retail which is good because it brings people over here."

Anderson purchased the business when it was still J.J Hobbies and located a few doors down from its current location in Stanton Plaza.

J.J.'s previous owners moved the store in 2007 from the downtown location it had occupied on 49 Street for 20 years to get closer to their customers in residential neighbourhoods and access more parking. The business had been located downtown for 30 years.

Anderson said the addition of a second entrance in the Stanton Plaza parking lot has made it a lot easier for his customers to access the store.

"A lot of customers were complaining about trying to get in here because of the Wal-Mart turning aspect and a lot of people mentioned to me that they hate coming to this part of town just because of the accessibility into our parking lot," he said. "But now since that other lane has opened up, it has definitely helped."

Anderson added the location means Artistic Hound doesn't see as much of the social problems businesses struggle with downtown.

"The area that we are in is great," he said. "It's definitely a different clientele that I get here than I would maybe get downtown."

Customer complaints is one of the primary reasons Bonnie Arychuk moved her business, Barren Land Jewellery and Gifts, from downtown to Centre Ice Plaza more than three years ago.

Arychuk said her landlords were unable to fix a temperature control issue in her old store and customers were having trouble accessing her store due to a lack of ramp access, broken power doors, and a lack of parking.

The issues made it difficult for one of Arychuk's most loyal demographics, mothers with strollers, to access the store since the mall and not yet installed a ramp at the Franklin Ave entrance, she said.

She decided to move Barren Land to Centre Ice Plaza which solved every one of those problems with the addition of a few perks.

"We have really nice bathrooms, they are beautiful," she said. "Now we have parking, which is so nice, and the power doors always work. There are no steps to get in ... It's a little more catered to everybody here."

While there are more empty space downtown than there were this time last year, there's less of it uptown and other businesses, such as Telus and possibly SportChek, are anticipated to be setting up shop soon.

Canadian Tire, which first opened in Yellowknife's downtown area, is in the midst of expanding the store by almost half. Canadian Tire's investment in the Yellowknife location is largely because Yellowknife customers spend 30 per cent more per visit than customers at other Canadian Tire locations, said chief executive officer Stephen Westmore during a visit to Yellowknife in August.

"It means that they're selling higher-value items in some cases, that the customers are extremely loyal. So when they come in, they buy more at one time, and it's a destination, too," said Westmore. "It's a recipe for success."

Westmore also announced Canadian Tire intends to open a SportChek, a Canadian Tire franchise, somewhere in town.

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