Business Retention and Expansion Study for Collingwood's
Commercial/Retail Base Sector

Section 1: Introduction

BACKGROUND

In June 2007, the Business Retention an Expansion (BR+E) team operating under the auspices of the Office of Economic Development approached 300 Commercial/Retail based Collingwood businesses, with the purpose of gathering information on the state of retail operations, and the perceptions of Collingwood as held by Commercial/Retail owners and/or managers. Each Commercial/Retail business was solicited in person by way of a hand delivered letter as an introduction to the process.

Despite all efforts, only 22% of those approached agreed to participate in the Business Retention and Expansion Survey. Further person to person follow-up by the BR+E Co-ordinator resulted in another 45 businesses offering basic information related to their square footage and staffing.

Of significance is the identification by more than 90% on Retail respondents of the challenges inhibiting their economic prosperity and the growth of individual businesses.

Specifically, the Commercial/Retail Sector survey consistently identified as a major drawback difficulties associated in attracting and retaining experienced sales staff within the Collingwood community. Moreover, even for those having stable staff is the limited inventory of Collingwood based affordable and healthy housing. Currently, the inventory of available housing locally consumed a significant portion of the disposable income of the majority employed within the Commercial/Retail sector forcing many to live outside of Collingwood.

Also identified were the high percentage of part-time jobs, and the high percentage of transient and marginalized employees. This includes those who are constantly move from job to job within the local Collingwood job market or those who lack sufficient skills to retain a job and may be perceived by the retail sector as lacking sufficient essential skills. As a secondary issue arising from those holding part-time jobs, is the challenge of accommodating staff schedules for those holding two or more part time retail jobs concurrently. Concurrent jobs are required by some so adequate income is generated to provide a reasonable quality of life within the community.

An incidental finding on analysis of the Commercial/Retail surveys is the identification of three separate and Commercial/Retail Districts existing within Collingwood, and functioning quite independently one from the other. The identified retail districts include: a) the downtown core; b) First Street businesses and, c) the Western Node.

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