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Smaller store, better location

Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, June 18, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - Most business owners would dread the downsizing of their store and their products, but not Lila Erasmus, who, with her husband Roy, owns Bows and Arrows.

Their business has sold crafts and other Northern-made products since November 2006.

NNSL Photo/Graphic

Lila Erasmus, co-owner of Bows and Arrows, stands in front of her new store. The business switched locations, moving from the Roman Empire Building last month. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

The business recently moved from the corner of 51 Street and 51 Avenue in the Roman Empire Building to a considerably smaller spot, the former location of Crystal Sensations, in the Centre Square Mall. It reopened on May 1.

But Erasmus, raised in Yellowknife from the time she was six months old, said she welcomed the move, considering the alternative.

"We were seriously considering shutting down the business completely," she said. "But it wasn't until we started to tell our customers we were going to shut down that we realized how much support we have from people, not just our regular customers. So while it was hard to find a new place at first, we kept on and lucked out with this new place."

The mall location measures 200 square feet - much smaller than the old space, which boasted 4,000 square feet.

"Being in the mall, we're getting more traffic now," she said.

The old space was too big anyway, said Erasmus.

"We tried to hold a number of workshops, like moose hide-making, in the back of our store, but that didn't work as well as we had hoped," she said.

Working in a smaller environment meant the store would have to streamline its line of products, but Erasmus said that was necessary anyway, as some products, like baskets, were not moving out as fast as others.

"Before, we had a lot of touristy products, like maple syrup from Quebec, but they weren't very popular. The things people want are things that are made locally and are supplied locally, like our jewelry, our moose hides and our medicines, used in First Nations ceremonies. They're things that people can't get anywhere else."

Robert Brown, who frequently shopped at the old store with his wife Leslie, said he was very happy to hear that Erasmus had not pulled the plug.

"We usually drop about $200 every time we go there," he said, laughing, adding that his wife likes the store for its earrings and skirts.

While conceding the new store was smaller, he said, "I'm fine with that. That was Lila's decision and we're supportive of that."