Little Plum closes its doors

After five years in the downtown core, Little Plum Children's Boutique is closings its doors.

The Vernon consignment store that featured children's items has been in two downtown locations and for the last three years it's been in its current spot across from the Towne Theatre.

But the lights are off, the front door is locked and the store is nearly empty.

Owners Camille Hivelin and Nara Straw have poured their heart and soul into the Vernon business, but since January there has been a significant decline in sales.

Hivelin said this past July and August were the worst months they have ever endured, but plummeting sales is not the only reason for the closure.

Hivelin said rent and high property taxes also played a role in their difficult decision to close, but one of the biggest deterrents for customers is parking.

“We are leaving this venue and we are going to try to do something,” she said, adding exactly where they will go from here has not been decided.

“It is too expensive to stay here.”

Hivelin said property taxes, fees for the building, fees for the landlord, adding everything went up and sales went down.

“People don't want to come [downtown]. Parking is the biggest issue,” Hivelin said.

Hivelin said she has heard from customers that finding a place to park is difficult, then they have pay for a certain amount of time and if they lose track of the time because they are looking after young children and stay too long they find a parking fine on their vehicle.

“People say parking is a hassle,” Hivelin told Castanet in an earlier interview.

Referring to city-owned parking lots, Hivelin said there are numerous monthly parking spots but “there is only a tiny space” for hourly parking.

“There should be free parking if they want to keep downtown going,” she said.

Straw said they would be willing to pay a little more in municipal taxes each year if the city would allow free parking in the downtown core.

“It might actually be worth it to get more business,” Straw said. “They did the [2900 Plaza] but they are not doing it this year. Maybe that money could go towards free parking all summer long.”

“For me, downtown now made for restaurants, for entertainment, for fancy shops because those people are rich and don't care about having to pay for parking,” she said. “For a person with an average income, they don't want to come here. It's too much burden to find a place, they are tired and forget to pay and get a ticket. Everyone tells me, it's the worst place to have a shop.”

One of the goals of Little Plum was to provide young mothers with a place to relax, now that has been lost as well.

Hivelin said if they can find another place to rent away from the city centre they would consider it.

Keelan Murtagh, Downtown Vernon Association executive director, said the DVA is has heard about parking concerns from businesses, but there are no simple solutions to be had.

Murtagh said there are lots of opinions on how to address parking concerns.

"There's lots of thoughts on how to improve it and how to make it better," he said. "We did a survey back in March and the No. 1 thing is people wanted to see it be free."

However, free parking would create other challenges such as people taking up a downtown parking spot for an entire day.

"We need to encourage turn over downtown to ensure people coming downtown have a place to park," Murtagh said, adding other suggestions included building another parkade or adding another surface lot.

"There's a wide range of opinions on the topic we do hear on a regular basis," he said.