The secret to small business success is a slippery slope – one on which Lori and Uwe Gildemeister of Bragg Creek Foods are struggling to keep their footing.
The husband and wife team maintain that after 16 years in business as the only dedicated grocers in the hamlet with a population of less than 600, they may have no choice but to pack it in permanently in the next couple of months if sales don’t dramatically increase.
Lori estimates that she needs a serious boost in daily sales numbers – around 300 transactions valued at roughly $10 apiece, or an additional $3,000 in gross revenues daily.
“We’re trying everything we can to stay open. We are relying on the benevolence of our landlord and at this point, he wants us to succeed,” she said.
In better times, Lori said her payroll has had 20 full-time staff on the roster. She has since whittled it down to seven, including herself and Uwe.
“If Bragg Creek doesn’t have a grocery store, this mall will lose a lot of business.”
Lori asserts that her decline in business can largely be attributed to the economic downturn, beginning in 2015 – forcing shoppers looking to stretch a dollar further to bulk buy in Calgary and Cochrane stores after work.
With weekly flyers to advertise her sale items, much on par with larger centre prices, Lori is hopeful to push past the assumption that her food products always cost more than her competitors.
Without her grocery store, Creekers could find themselves with a problem of convenience when in a pinch.
“Sadly, sometimes it takes the loss of something to realize what you have,” said Bragg Creek Coun. Mark Kamachi, also a business owner and a regular shopper at the Gildemeisters’ store.
“It would devastate me to lose that business,” said Kamachi, posing that the community needs to weigh out whether saving a few extra dollars a month is worth losing an anchor business in the community.
For Mark Betts, 21-year-long owner of Moose Mountain General Store, the best thing Creeker stores can hope for is a good tourist season this year.
Between the summer-long fire ban throughout the region and the closing of the Kananaskis parking lot for paving for the entire season – a popular rest stop for weekend motorcyclists and summer holidayers – hit Bragg Creek businesses hard.
“We missed that all of last summer … it was a huge hit for us,” said Betts.
Census data indicates that Bragg Creek’s population has changed little over the last decade or more, with some years indicating a negative growth rate which, combined with many of the residents working and shopping in Calgary, leaves hamlet stores even more reliant on tourist dollars.
The recent application by the Resorts of the Canadian Rockies - a proposed residential-commercial development at the former Wintergreen ski hill that was delayed by Rocky View County council last month in favour of conceptual amendments - has highlighted a growing desire by many Creekers to develop sensibly and create a more self-sustaining community.
Cheryl Hagan has worked on and off for the family since the store opened and full-time for the last eight years.
“I love the people from this town – they’re good to us and we’re good to them,” said Hagan, tears in her eyes at the thought of losing a job she loves and how it would impact her own life.
Hagan said she is sympathetic to the budget constraints people are faced with, but said their local grocery store offers quality foods and often competing prices to city stores.
Barb Teghtmeyer, owner/operator of the Shell Station located at the Bragg Creek Trading Post II, said consistency is key.
“They have to use it consistently – not only when there’s a six-foot-high snow storm,” she said, adding that the meat sold at the local grocery store is second-to-none.
For Lori, the hope remains that residents and passersby alike will put their dollars where their hearts are and to think of the bigger picture when faced with the potential loss of their only grocery store.
In the meantime, she said she and her small staff will continue to offer up what many of their competitors cannot – on-site butcher services with high-quality meats, hand-cutting of produce, organic and gluten-free selections and small-town customer service.
Bragg Creek Foods is located at Bragg Creek Shopping Centre downtown.
