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Game shop losing its lair Thandie Vela Northern News Services Published Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Croizier has until Oct. 30, when his lease expires, to vacate the premises on the corner of 49 Street and 51 Avenue, currently stocked from ceiling to floor with about $200,000 of merchandise, including classic video games, car games, role-playing games, cards, and board games. "I want to stay open," he said. "If I can somehow, miraculously find a place that's affordable." Croizier is in search of a small, street-level-access storefront, downtown near the schools. The lowest rent he has come across so far is $3,000 per month for a 1,800-square-foot space. "The only problem is that's three times more than what I can afford to pay," Croizier said. Even the mall spaces are too pricey, he said. His left his last storefront in the Yk Centre in 2006, when the rent kept climbing. "You look at what you're paying for rent and the amount of market you have to have in order to be competitive, and you just can't do it," he said. The small business owner's dilemma is "not something that's totally unexpected," said Tim Doyle, executive director of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce. "Usually when you're looking at space in the downtown section of any urban centre, you're going to find that the cost is much higher than if you were looking at a rural or suburban area," he said. "Right now, we seem to be having problems with finding space that is fitting within the range of retailers." The solution, Doyle said, is not easy, because of the high cost to buy property in downtown Yellowknife and maintain it. Negotiating with some of the downtown landlords would be any small business owner's best bet, Doyle said, which is something that Croizier plans to do. Despite admitting to not making very much profit from the business, Croizier offers a fun place for young people to come to, he said, something he saw the need for growing up in the North amid relatively high teen suicide rates, alcohol and drug abuse. "I've kept it going for this long, which if you look at it, is stubborn stupidity or something because I don't make a lot of money doing it," Croizier said. "But if there's some other thing for kids to do, there's another avenue, they don't have to go and be binge drinkers." The option of operating out of a basement or house is out of the question, Croizier said. "People just won't deal with you," he said. "You have to have a brick and mortar store to deal with distributors." Croizier is continuing to look into options to keep his business running, including co-renting a space with another business. Student Cody Campbell, 16, goes to the game shop several times a week between classes to pass time with friends. "It's like a hangout," Campbell said. "When we don't have classes, we come here, hang out, play games. There's no other store like this in Yellowknife." CasCom Communications and Computers is also being displaced to make way for the new tenant, diamond manufacturer Crossworks Manufacturing Ltd., which announced in August that it will be opening a diamond tourism centre in the 49 Street building. CasCom plans to move to a new location in Kam Lake, said Aaron Jacque, president of the Yellowknife-based communications company. Jacque and Croizier agree that Crossworks taking over the space is good for the building owners, Cascade Communications Ltd. "It's a business-made decision so you have to expect that," Croizier said. "You can't really blame the people who own the building so much. "When you're a small business, you just have to stay out of the way."
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