Downtown Saskatoon businesses anticipate spring surge in customers

(Hallee Mandryk / CTV News)

Businesses in Saskatoon’s downtown community are eagerly preparing for the bump in business that often comes along with warmer weather.

“We have many events going on downtown Saskatoon. We have extreme amount of out of town customers that come in. We see the hotels full conventions. It’s a fun time in downtown Saskatoon,” Joy Friesen, the owner of the store Etceteras said.

The Saskatoon Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) recently launched a new Visa gift card which is exclusive to the city’s downtown businesses as part of the organization’s shop local initiative.

“This is a way for you to support downtown, our local restaurants, retailers, salons, hotels and really just, inject confidence in our downtown supporting local,” Shawna Nelson, executive director of Saskatoon BID said.

As warmer temperatures make their way into Saskatoon, the Saskatoon BID is preparing for the increased foot traffic that comes along with it.

“Our second pathway that we’re focusing on is a safe and welcoming downtown. And we do have some of our challenges out there, but we have some great programs in place, such as our clean team. So they’re now moving from the winter cleanup to now the spring and summer cleanup. So soon you will see some beautiful flowers that will be on each corner of our 160 blocks that are in our downtown,” Nelson said.

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Friesen has been operating her business out of Saskatoon’s downtown for more than two decades. She shared that the longevity of her business is thanks to the support of the community.

“It’s always good downtown. We have amazing local supports. And without that... we’d be in big trouble. But it we’ve been here for 26 years. So we’ve we’re quite a fixture in downtown Saskatoon ... Saskatoon is a huge, huge, local independent business supporter. And for that, us independents are extremely grateful,” Friesen said.

And it’s not just longstanding business that are seeing success at the moment. Casa Capicola is a sandwich shop which has been open for about a month in the area, and the owner, Austin Sinclair, shared that the community immediately caught his eye.

“My buddy who’s my real estate agent, he showed me this place, and I was like, ‘This is the perfect location to pick’. All these businesses around and stuff like that. [it’s] a quick walk for a quick lunch,” Sinclair said.

Sinclair expressed that while running a new business comes with challenges, he is feeling very grateful for the support he has received since opening the doors of his business.

“It’s been everything I could have asked for. Honestly, I’ve been lined up out the door. People have been patient with me...as I as I find my stride and other than the windows getting smashed down here, it’s all good,” Sinclair said.

He added that he’s looking forward to seeing the impacts of the Saskatoon BID’s gift card program as his business experiences its first summer season.

“I think it’s awesome to gather more business downtown and be more accessible for people who are downtown for lunches and stuff like that ... I’m excited for the summer months because I know there’s going to be way more foot traffic,” he said.