As Jackie Morphy prepares to shutter her Bank Street store All Eco after five years in business, she says the only thing that might have prevented the outcome is a crystal ball.
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As Jackie Morphy prepares to shutter her Bank Street store All Eco after five years in business, she says the only thing that might have prevented the outcome is a crystal ball.
Morphy opened her store after more than 20 years as director of operations for The Clocktower Brew Pubs, where she said she was dedicated to implementing sustainable and environmentally-conscious practices. It’s where she gained her business, management and operational skills, and where she built a passion for eco-friendly solutions.
“We were implementing eco-initiatives, getting rid of plastic straws, changing all of our takeout containers to compostable … Anything plastic, we were finding alternatives. That triggered my interest in this,” she explained.
“Then I took a trip to New York City and went to my favourite store, a package-free store in Brooklyn, and that’s when I was like, ‘This is it, this is what I have to do.’”
All Eco opened at 857 Bank St. in the Glebe in October 2019 as a large retail store offering Canadian-made, organic and eco-friendly goods, from laundry soap to jewelry and clothing, and a zero-waste shop. The response was overwhelmingly positive, but a few months after opening, All Eco was hit by the pandemic.
“I was a brand new business, and January and February are really slow months, so when we had to close in March, it’s almost like the store didn’t exist,” Morphy explained.
The store did not yet have an online presence, so Morphy quickly pivoted to offer delivery services and online shopping during the pandemic. She benefited from the CEBA and Highly Affected Sector Credit Availability Program (HASCAP) loan programs, though she said that, at the time, she didn’t see another way out.
“I really didn't want to use it, but I accepted the loans because we just didn’t know about the future of the pandemic and I decided to just take it without the intention of using it. I didn’t want that much money invested in the business because I can’t support it,” she explained. “I couldn’t service that level of debt; I was so new.”
When it came to the CEBA loan, businesses that paid off the required portion of their loan by the repayment deadline were eligible to have the remainder forgiven. Those that missed the deadline lost out on the forgivable portion and saw their debt converted to a three-year loan with interest of five per cent annually.
With economic pressures since the pandemic leading to a decrease in consumer spending and increased costs, Morphy said it all added fuel to the fire and she was unable to meet the deadline.
With the retail industry permanently changed by the pandemic and many consumers preferring online shopping, Morphy said the large footprint of the All Eco store became too large to support, not to mention labour challenges and ongoing concerns about foot traffic.
“It's like an old car; when do you stop putting money into it? How do I just walk away from a brand new business that's got a significant business loan?” Morphy explained. “So, of course, you keep reinvesting and we keep being told that everything's going to normalize soon. But it never did.
“I was really determined and didn't want to relent and have to close my business, like accountants would have told me to do two years ago. The concept is so relevant, the business is so on point with what the world needs right now,” she continued. “People love it and I didn't want to give it up before it had the life it should have had.”
But then, two days after the store’s final reopening from pandemic restrictions, Morphy received her third primary breast cancer diagnosis.
Morphy was first diagnosed in 2014. At the time, she had two primary breast cancers simultaneously and navigated chemotherapy and surgery. In 2021, after reopening her store from the pandemic, she was diagnosed with a third form of breast cancer.
“There’s like a five per cent chance of getting this diagnosis and, of course, it came two days after being closed for five months,” she said. “It was just a mad scramble because I needed staff then, the store wasn’t open … It was just chaos.”
Morphy had a double mastectomy and reconstruction but had to return to work less than three weeks after surgery due to a staffing issue.
“That was the only time in all my history of having my store that I had a bad egg as a staff member,” she explained. “So I was back to work, still recovering, and could only work about four hours at a time.
“Everybody was like,’What were you thinking?’ And I was thinking, ‘I don't have a choice.’”
Then, in March 2023, Morphy received news that the cancer had metastasized and was now incurable. At that point, Morphy said the “perfect storm” of conditions finally made the decision for her.
“I needed to get to a place where there was no stone unturned,” she said. “But the reality for my business is I would essentially need to almost triple my sales, in a recession, with a business that promotes not over-consuming. I finally knew that this was an impossibility.”
The final weekend of operation for the storefront will be July 27-28, but Morphy said just because the store will close, that doesn’t mean the business will.
To keep up with changing demand while taking care of her health, Morphy is shifting the All Eco model and transitioning to an online and local delivery platform.
“I will absolutely miss the human interaction, like my store. I designed it to be experiential, because I wanted people touching and smelling and doing all the things we love to do when we shop in a store,” she said. “But the reality is, especially in a recession, it just didn’t work anymore.”
The new business model will include an online store with local delivery, including a delivery refill service, which offers a zero-waste option for refilling items such as household cleaners or toiletries. This way, Morphy said she’ll be able to continue her mission and servicing her customers while cutting costs and prioritizing her health.
With a more manageable schedule, Morphy said she’ll be able to focus on the rest, eating and exercise plans that she relies on to maintain her health.
“The ideal outcome for my health is that I continue to respond to treatment and that treatments continue to get better,” she explained. “But in order to have that scenario, self-care is uber important.”
Since announcing the changes coming to All Eco, Morphy said she’s been met with nothing but support and “heartwarming” messages from the community.
“I'm very touched and very grateful because with this pivot to online, I’m excited, but I'm also nervous, and it's definitely not fully in my wheelhouse,” she explained. “I'm so hopeful that I don't want to give up on my mission, which is to make the planet a better place and to make people healthier.”
Now, with only a few weeks left of operation for the storefront, Morphy said she doesn’t have regrets.
In hindsight, she said it’s easy to say there are things she could have done differently, whether it was choosing a smaller store with fewer costs or pivoting more quickly during the pandemic. But ultimately, she said nothing could have prevented the “perfect storm” of “unrelenting adversity” that All Eco has experienced in its short life.
“When I started, I was not under-financed. I was set up for success. My growth plan back then was to have three stores within five years and I have no doubt I would have accomplished that if the circumstances had been like the five years previous to opening,” she said. “Everything changed in the last five years.
“The only thing that could have prevented it is a crystal ball.”
