One of Ottawa’s oldest and largest independent skate and snow shops will close at the end of this month, the business owners announced Tuesday.
Top of the World Skateshop at 581 Bank St. has been operating since 1993 and offers everything from skateboards and longboards to snowboards, apparel and footwear out of its 2,000-square-foot retail shop and online store.
In a statement on the store’s website and on social media, Top of the World’s co-owners said it was with “a heavy heart” that they decided that their final day in business will be Sept. 27, 2024.
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Eric Dionne and Corey Hackett began as employees at the skate shop before they took over the business in 2010. Since then, it has become a “legacy shop” and family business, said Hackett.
“I met my wife here and she is standing at the cash right now, helping ring people out. This is a family business,” Hackett told OBJ Tuesday. “Unfortunately, we just can’t keep bleeding like this.”
The decision to close Top of the World comes after a challenging 18 months, which Hackett describes as a “downturn.”
“Everyone keeps asking me what made us make this decision. The reality is, there isn’t one answer. It’s kind of a puzzle of destruction, shall we say,” he explained. “And you start putting all the pieces together and then it becomes pretty apparent not only how much trouble we’re in, but how much trouble brick-and-mortar retail and our industry is in.”
For the past 31 years, Top of the World was consistently successful, said Hackett, as it was familiar with how to follow trends and seasonal demands.
“We understand our clientele, we know when to move and how to move, and then in the last year and a half, it just stopped working,” he said. “We feel it’s a reflection of a lot of things.”
Economic pressures have impacted viability, he said, both with the cost of goods and financial stress among customers.
“For businesses like us, where we sell non-essential goods … Well, that’s the first part of your budget that leaves when your housing expenses go up.”
Hackett comes from a background in e-commerce and as soon as he and Dionne took over the store 14 years ago, they got an online shop up and running, so the pandemic-driven shift to online retail has not had too much of an impact on them.
However, many of Top of the World’s suppliers now offer direct-to-consumer e-commerce, which has shaken things up.
“I was no dummy going into this. We were quite well-situated and (the online store) is how we survived through COVID …” Hackett explained. “But it’s really the direct-to-consumer e-commerce that’s really devastated regular retail business.
“When your supplier starts becoming your competition, it pushes you into a very weird place.”
Climate change has also taken a toll on Top of the World. Hackett said winter is usually a busy season for snowboarding-related retail, but last year the lack of snow in the region hit the store hard.
Add in high operating costs and interest due on pandemic loans, and Hackett said enough was enough.
Hackett said he doesn’t know what’s next for him and Dionne; both in their late forties, they had planned to run the business until they reached retirement and could pass it on. But beyond his own plans, Hackett said he worries for the future of retail in Ottawa and the challenges that businesses like his continue to face.
“This is the end of a three-decade legacy, but this is also the end of an immeasurable amount of grassroots community support,” he explained.
Top of the World has hosted public events and given back to the community for the past 31 years, including sponsoring and supporting local athletes, but that support will no longer be available, he said.
“We’ve sent several local skateboarders on to long-term careers, same with snowboarders. Potential Olympians are coming up through our ranks right now and we can’t support them anymore,” he said. “And the crazy thing is, the city is going to be left with stores like the American chains that you see in all the malls and they don’t support anything local.”
In the statement about the closure, Top of the World encouraged customers to support similar independent shops like Birling Skateboard Shop on Somerset Street West, On Deck Skateboard Shop on Bentley Avenue, BSE Skate Shop in Kingston, and Sanction Skate and Snow in Thornhill, north of Toronto.
“The beauty and the inherent danger of a legacy business like us and especially a multi-generational one is there are people who we used to serve when they were in their 20s. And now they bring their kids in here for the same stuff,” said Hackett. “I think that is the beauty and the danger in the legacy business like this, we almost become like part of the scenery. No one would ever think that we could ever go away.
“But the reality is, it doesn’t matter whether you’re open for like 30 days or 30 years. Independent retailers walk a very, very precarious line,” he added. “We are all two steps away from the edge of the cliff, and in this kind of market, people need to remember that if you only shop at Amazon, don’t be surprised when Amazon’s your only option.”
