Darrell Cox is expecting another strong holiday season for businesses in the Glebe as consumers prioritize shopping local and the World Junior hockey championships bring a surge in traffic.
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Darrell Cox is expecting another strong holiday season for businesses in the Glebe as consumers prioritize shopping local and the world junior hockey championship bring a surge in traffic.
“The Glebe has always been a destination shopping experience for people across Ottawa and beyond,” Cox, the executive director of the Glebe BIA, told OBJ Wednesday. “We’ve got a really healthy, vibrant commercial district here.”
This year, the world junior hockey championship will be hosted at TD Place. With 12 games across 10 days from Dec. 26 to Jan. 4, the event is expected to draw thousands of visitors to the Glebe every day.
“We’ll be working with Hockey Canada to see how we can promote the Glebe and our members, to get people coming before the game to do some shopping or eat and have a drink, and to keep them here afterwards,” he said. “We’re really trying to capitalize on the increased foot traffic in the neighbourhood.”
The BIA’s Glebe Spree holiday contest has already shown that shoppers are eager to get out and about. The contest features 90 local businesses that give out stickers each time a shopper spends at least $15 dollars in-store. Shoppers who spend $150 and collect 10 stickers are entered into a draw.
In 2022, 25,000 people collected all 10 stickers. In 2025, that number jumped to 35,000. With each shopper spending a minimum of $150 across the 10 businesses, Cox said that activity injected over $5.25 million in spending into the Glebe economy.
“You can see the increase in people shopping and getting back to going in-person,” he said. “It’s a really popular Christmas activity and brings people to the stores.”
It’s a welcome end to the year for retailers who have been feeling the squeeze in the Glebe.
In a September op-ed for OBJ, Cox commented on the loss of two neighbourhood businesses – Top of the World and All Eco – which shut their doors due to a combination of personal challenges, economic pressures, and the shifting retail landscape.
Cox called the closures “a wake-up call.”
“All those issues that (Top of the World co-owner Corey Hackett) brought up are going to be ongoing,” he said. “In terms of suppliers becoming competition, that’s not an issue that is going to go away, unfortunately, but businesses are going to have to adapt.”
Cox said his members often see customers trying on items in store, then looking those items up on their phones to score deals on websites such as Amazon.
“There’s this availability of online shopping now that’s really difficult to compete with for our independent stores,” Cox said. “So we’re really trying to push and the BIA is doing a lot to promote shopping local and how important that is.”
While these challenges are difficult for businesses, the area itself has held steady. Unlike the downtown core, Cox said the Glebe hasn’t struggled as much to fill empty storefronts.
Cox said the recently vacated All Eco storefront has been replaced with a new vintage clothing store, while negotiations are underway with another business to lease the former Top of the World store.
Other new businesses, like Vancouver-based brunch chain Yolks and metaphysical supply store Witch Chest, have also opened their doors in recent months.
“We’ve been finding pretty much anytime we get a vacancy, usually within a couple months, we’ve got someone else in there,” he said. “It’s a pretty popular commercial destination in the city, so it doesn’t take long for any of those spots to be snapped up.”
