Corner Stores on Main Street

In December of last year I was walking up Main Street doing a little Christmas shopping when I noticed that the little corner store at 28th Avenue called C.K. Mart was closed. Not only closed but completely emptied out as well. I always thought it was a bit of an odd little store as I used to pick up a lottery ticket there once in a while. I'm sure times are tough in the corner store business but having a Nester's Market just half a block away surely didn't help. But I'm also thinking that rising rents along Main Street probably had something to do with the store's demise.

A bit further North at Main and 22nd Avenue yet another little corner store closed earlier in 2016. Again it was another small shop that looked like it was just trying to make a go of it.

This store also had a large Coca Cola sign hanging out front. It never worked but hopefully it'll stay put as these really are a rarity now with only just a few remaining around the city. I follow a sign blog from the US and apparently these type of Coke signs were only made for the Canadian market.

Now all of a sudden in 2017 there's a whole rash of stores closing down or moving on Main Street in the heart of Mount Pleasant in the Broadway and Kingsway area. They include The Foundation restaurant, Hot Art Wet City Gallery, Adhesif Clothing, RX Comics, and Scout Boutique. You can read all about it here in VanMag. All the craziness of Vancouver's overheated real estate market is starting to have a serious trickle down effect on many small independent businesses. It could be the little corner stores on Main Street were just the canary in the coal mine.