Whether you’re selling homemade jam at the farmer’s market or the largest company in town — how a customer is treated can make or break a business. The Bargain Shop in Port McNeill strives to provide excellent customer service and it shows.
April 1st will mark the ten year anniversary of The Bargain Shop opening and Michelle Monk was part of the original team. Originally as a “key holder” and one year later she was promoted to manager. I recently sat down with Monk to find out what makes The Bargain Shop tick.
“We’re a smaller more personal store where you can find almost anything you need right from clothing and shoes to houseware products or light bulbs. It’s the store where you can get more personal service. It’s an every daystore. You can pretty much find or we can get in anything you need.” ~Michelle Monk ~
One of the biggest challenges, according to Monk, is competing with stores that offer online shopping. She notes, “we’re a a smaller company and we may get there but we’re not there yet. People from this town can get anything they want or need and easily order it from home, not having to leave their house or shop and look. Tough to compete with that and it’s getting bigger. I see comments on Facebook that someone has just received a big order for food and I can’t comment, but I’d like to say come and check out our prices.” Many items are the same price as stores down island and sometimes they may be priced a dollar or two higher but Monk stresses the importance of keeping business in town.
When asked about attaining personal Monk explains, “some people have a knack for it and those are the ones I want to hire.” Staff are told “never to point” to an item but to personally take the customer and show them where the item is located. That’s also why there are no aisle numbers in the store. It gives the staff a few moments to chat with the customers and make them feel welcome. Monk asks her staff how they feel when they walk into a store without being acknowledged. She says “all it takes is a hello or a how are you and in a small town it is easier knowing so many people.
For those who don’t pay attention to receipts have a look next time you shop at The Bargain Shop. There is a website to visit and fill out a quick survey. If you give them your email address you’ll receive a 10% off coupon and you can also enter a monthly contest for in store gift cards. Monk proudly told me the store scores, “very high on the survey that people can take after visiting the store. My District Manager has me train other stores because we get 80 to 90% on customer service all the time. I remind the staff daily that customers come first and we never ignore a customer.”
Many customers are surprised to learn Michelle is the manager. She spends more time behind the counter than in her office. And not wanting to be just the boss Monk admits, “the staff are family to me. I promised myself when I became manager that I would take all the good points from previous bosses. Firm, fair, helpful and work as hard as the associates.”
For me the store is like a treasure hunt and I’m always astounded at the random items I find when cruising the aisles. I asked Monk to tell me something about The Bargain Shop that people might not know. She admits, “since SuperValu closed people are now becoming more aware of how many food items we carry, also medicine like children’s Advil and other pharmacy items we’re allowed to carry.” She adds,” our canned goods are cheaper, coffee is cheaper and cereal is cheaper here.”
Future plans for The Bargain Shop? The chain of 155 stores does want to expand and according to Monk, “will probably grow bigger and change into Red Apple within the next five years.” All the surveys customers fill out online are printed out and given to head office. Those results are analyzed to see what can be done better and when a store does something outstanding it’s recognized and shared with other stores. Monk encourages customers to fill out the survey “good or bad,” explaining, “we can’t fix something if we don’t know.”
Once a year members of our business community and individuals gather together to celebrate excellence. And the Port McNeill & District Chamber of Commerce really knows how to throw a party !! This year the event moved to the Lion’s Hall which was magically transformed with draped tulle, crisp white table linens and intimate lighting. The glamorous ambiance entirely fitting to honour this year’s nominees.
Multi-tasker extraordinaire Gaby Wickstrom was the master of ceremonies. Wickstrom is not only this year’s Chamber President but also manages the organization from her home office: answering the phone, the email messages, attending conferences and meetings. This night she was head cheerleader reminding us of the excellence & passion businesses and people provide the community.
Originally I was going to post a picture of my dinner. Instead I’ll just mention the buffet was delicious and plentiful. And the extra hot horseradish served with the roast beef was a big hit at our table *insert watering eyes here*. Thanks Yanni and staff from the Sportsman Restaurant for all my favourite winter comfort food. But I do digress.
Generous sponsor support enabled the Chamber to bring up Steven Falk and Richard Jansen, motivational speakers from “Switchback” who entertained and educated in their effective tag team delivery. Their message was simple but profound. Whether you’re a faller in the woods or a Chamber it’s essential to be on a team that comes together rather than falls apart when under pressure. Not sure I’ve heard the word bullshit so many times in one presentation but it effectively underscored the negative, dark place we go when in fight or flight mode.
The Chamber Gala — a night to network, socialize, break bread together, learn a little something about teamwork & celebrate businesses and volunteers
New Business of the Year
The nominees in this category were:
Carson Roofing Ltd.
Cluxewe Cafe & Waterfront Bistro
43K Wilderness Solutions
Flora Borealis
The Garden Shack Garden Centre
The Rock Pub
This company moved to the region in 2014. The owner is a home grown North Islander returning to the region, employing local people. They are known for quality work and excellent customer service. In a predominantly male led industry, this young woman is carving a name for herself.
New Business of the Year Winner — Carson Roofing Ltd.
Michelle Carson, owner of Carson Roofing Ltd. & Gaby Wickstrom, Chamber President
Small Business of the Year
The nominees in this category were:
Absolutely Grape
The Bike Shed & Outdoor Store
Carson Roofing Ltd.
The Clothes Inn
Community Futures of Mount Waddington
Kal Tire
Mugz Coffee & Tea House
Ragged Edge Community Network
Robin’s Pet Supplies
Shoprite Marine
Subway
Timberland Sports Center
They go above and beyond with customer service and if they don’t have it in the store they will surely get it for you in a timely manner. They are supportive of the community and have a wide range of products for people of all income levels and interests. Their staff is friendly and knowledgeable and have created a biking group who are dedicated to improving people’s health.
Small Business of the Year winner — The Bike and Outdoor Store
Eva Koel, owner of The Bike & Outdoor Store and Michelle Alfred, Chamber Board Member
Home-Based Business of the Year
The nominees in this category were:
Carson Roofing Ltd.
The Green Baron – Landscaping by Kirsten Baron
Kallie’s Kupcakes
Leanna Masterman – Epicure
Shayla Fraser- Steeped Tea
Trine Pederson – Hairdresser
This home business’s client base has grown from last year. They are committed to the Farmer’s Market and have an excellent product, customer service and customer loyalty. As a business owner they are involved in the community in many areas.
Home Based Business of the Year winner — Kallie’s Cupcakes
Katherine Tjepkema of Kallie’s Cupcakes & Gaby Wickstrom
Tourism Award
The nominees in this category were:
BC Ferries – Port McNeill Terminal
James Willson – Silver King Ventures
Kingfisher Wilderness Adventures
MacKay Whale Watching
Nimmo Bay Resort
North Island Marina
Stubbs Island Whale Watching
Telegraph Cove Resort
This business has dedicated their lives to tourism and is always full of people in the summer. They are expanding and upgrading their facilities each year. The owner has been involved with the regional tourism advisory committee. They hold annual events open to other communities. In the summer the place is a bustling community with people visiting from all over the world.
Tourism Award winner — Telegraph Cove Resort
Terrance Eissfeldt, Chamber Board Member & Geordie Graham, owner of Telegraph Cove Resort
Customer Service Excellence
The nominees in this category were:
Carson Roofing Ltd.
Jennie-Lynn Noel – Technician at People’s Drug Mart
Kayla Long – Tia’s Cafe
Kimberly Bentley – The Clothes Inn
Liquor Store Staff
Michelle Monk – The Bargain Shop
North Island Marina
Pharmacist Brittany Swanson – People’s Drug Mart
Robert Russell – The Shed Outdoor Store
Robin Neil – Robin’s Pet Supplies
Stacey Coy – Gus’s Pub
Some of the things said of this recipient were: She is always helpful and has a huge smile on her face when you come into the store. She will find what you need and goes out of her way to find it at the other store or order something in to keep customers happy. When you come out of the change room looking fabulous, she squeals and it’s an instant sale. She is an amazing person to deal with and work with.
Customer Service Excellence winner — Kimberly Bentley from The Clothes Inn
Shelley Frost, Chamber Board member & Kimberly Bentley from Clothes Inn
Professional Merit Award
The nominees in this category were:
Dr. Priean Armogam
Dr. Brian Bostrom – Dental Clinic
Brenda Isaac – VIHA
Christie Dreger – Community Futures
Greg Muirhead – Teacher at NISS, Fireman, Ranger
Jonathon Fintoft – Western Forest Products
Jonathon Lok – Strategic Natural Resource Consultants
Terrence Eissfeldt – West Coast Helicopters
This person is an active, gung-ho teacher of Outdoor Pursuits helping to mold young people into well rounded individuals. They are also involved with the Junior Canadian Rangers and the Fire Department.
Professional Merit Award — Greg Muirhead
Greg Muirhead & Chris Stewart, Chamber Board member
Senior of the Year
The nominees in this category were:
Clarice Newman
Gloria LeGal
Helen Scott
Joanne Parker
Kathy Martin
Lois Kollman
Paddy Hinton
Peter Barrett
Tom & Julia Hopkins
Some of the things said of this recipient were: A retired school teacher/principal Kathy Martin has spent her life caring about literacy by fostering a love of books & reading, through drama and education. A master grant writer Kathy wrote for and received funds for the Mother Goose program — a traveling bus full of books taking literacy to children on the North Island . Those same grant writing skills resulted in Missoula Children’s Theatre coming to Port McNeill many times over the years. Fostering creativity and engaging youth in the arts Missoula is an amazing program that takes a group of kids and in one week has them learn lines and perform a play for the community. Kathy is a past Rotary member where she was active in literacy programs such as Born to Read (packages for newborns) and selling books for beginner readers at Craft Fairs.
Senior of the Year winner — Kathy Martin (Unable to attend the gala)
Youth Entrepreneur Award
The nominees in this category are:
Danielle Lacasse
Mathew Harder
Both of these nominees are exceptional young people in our community. The recipient of this award is super involved in the community in many areas: guides, quatse hatchery, science fair, etc. She has her own photography business, is an honor roll student and an exemplary ambassador for our community.
Youth Entrepreneur Award winner — Danielle Lacasse
Danielle Lacasse is in the middle of the photo with her award, surrounded by other teachers & students from NISS
Innovation Award
From time to time the Chamber, where we see someone is achieving this, will give the innovation award to a business who truly thinks outside of the box in achieving success.
This year we are giving this award to a special group of young people who started a company with a vision of a better cup of coffee. If you have not have the privilege to have a tour of their school and what they have achieved, you have missed out. Their teacher Doug Abbot saw an opportunity and allowed the students to run with it. In building their business they collaborated with many disciplines: computer science, woodworking, metalwork and the list goes on. Prior to the tour, I had no idea what went into roasting a coffee bean. They are garnering attention from other Island schools and this summer they provided all the coffee for Kingfisher kayak tours.
Innovation Award winner — 1Eleven Roasting Company – NISS Students
Damaris Sadler, Chamber Board member, Adrian Pendergast & Doug Abbot both teachers at NISS & Gaby Wickstrom
Community Spirit Award
The nominees in this category were:
The Gazette Hamper Fund
Christina Hinton
Jay Dixon
Jessica Brown
North Island Farmer’s Market
Port McNeill Events Committee
Port McNeill Kids in Motion
Port McNeill Rotary Club
Robin Neil – Robin’s Pet Supplies
Steve & Jessica Jackman – North Island Marina
Terry Eissfeldt – The Gate House Community Association
Annie LeBlanc
This group of people is dedicated to developing a market where locally produced products are sold. This little organization has grown every year, is inclusive of the other regions and is involved in establishing food security for the North Island. They work incredibly hard not only to develop their own products, but support one another in order to be successful. They are inclusive of all communities and try to rove around the island so that they have a presence in each community.
Community Spirit Award winner — The North Island Farmers and Artisans Market Association
Neva Perrott, Shannon Shepley & Gaby Wickstrom
Chamber Spirit Award
This special award is given to a chamber person who is dedicated to building up the business community. This year’s recipient has owned many businesses through the years. She is a passionate community person, who is known to give back. It’s in her nature to make her community better. She is supportive of business and always looks at ways where we as a Chamber can serve to make the business climate better. She has volunteered as our Treasurer for the last year and a half.
Chamber Spirit Award winner — Annie Leblanc (Unable to attend the gala)
Community Arts Award
The nominees in this category were:
Alana Collins – Portside Dance Academy
Gate House Theatre
Heather Brown – Artist
Pewi Alfred – First Nations Dance and Language/Alert Bay
Teresa Charlton – Highland Dance
Wild Heart Music
Some of the things said of this recipient were: They have successfully run for the last four years and have branched out into many communities. They perform, bring in professionals for young people to work with and sing with enthusiasm. Their program has been approved by the School District 7 schools and participating with: NISS, AJ Elliott, Sunset, Cheslakees, Sea View, Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw & Eke Me-xi Learning Centre.
Community Arts Award winner — Wild Heart Music
Katherine Wykes, Roma Joseph, Linda Waines, Deborah Murray all from Wild Heart Music & Gaby Wickstrom
Business of the Year
The nominees in this category were:
C.A.B.
Carson Roofing
Coastal Community Insurance Services
Cluxewe Waterfront Bistro
Mugz Coffee & Tea House
Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort
Petro Canada- Port McNeill & Hyde Creek
North Island Marina & Fuel Dock
Robin’s Pets Supplies
The Rock Pub
The Shed Outdoor Store
Shoprite/Rona
Strategic Natural Resource Consultants
Timberland Sports Centre
West Coast Helicopters Maintenance & Contracting Ltd.
This winner meets and exceeds the criteria of their nomination. They employ our youth, providing them with valuable work experience and morals. Each time I go there I am greeted by a working student or local and I recognize that importance. The ambiance there is great and offers peace, quiet and privacy if you want it. You can pop in for a quick specialty coffee or stay awhile in a relaxing ambiance with some great comfort food. They are community minded donating gift certificates & coffee/goodies to many local events.
Business of the Year winner — Mugz Tea & Coffee House (Unable to attend the gala)
Congratulations to all the nominees and winners and special thanks to the sponsors and those who donated to the silent auction. Each one of you helped make the Gala a sparkling success.
Chamber of Commerce members followed the aroma of coffee for the most recent Member to Member meeting Wednesday April 15th at North Island Secondary School (NISS). The meeting was hosted by 1-11 Roasting, a student operated coffee roasting company.
This innovative program started with a student looking for another block in Doug Abbot’s Learning Assistance classroom. Abbot explains, “I thought we could do more than that so I offered him an entrepreneurial studies block and he build the very first coffee roaster and started roasting coffee. He built a vacuum brewer and started brewing it and selling it to teachers twice a day.” Teachers being a great market for coffee and requests from people wanting to buy bags of coffee led to a successful fundraiser for the girl’s soccer team. The program got more popular, involving more students and it quickly became apparent to Abbot that it was bigger than one student and himself.
His enthusiasm contagious, Abbot is a huge cheerleader for the program and building relationships with other departments and the community. “It’s interesting how many students were connecting to this and feeling positive about it and learning a lot from the experience of running a business.” Abbot continues, “this wasn’t sitting around and talking hypotheticals, we weren’t doing worksheets, we were actually running a business. And this thing could succeed or it could fail. The more real we can make this for our students, the more they engage, the better they’re going to learn, the more fun they’re going to have.”
According to Abbot the first roaster was a brilliant design but something more high quality and safer was required. A team of students and teachers sat down and started designing a new one (shown above). It took about three months and Abbot praises the design as “phenomenal.” Not pretty perhaps but the stainless steel drum inside an aluminum body is hooked up to a computer with thermometers & roaster all talking to each other. Add engineering, woodworking, computer science and electrical experience to an impressive list of skills students are learning.
And with a second hand espresso machine to be plumbed in, the next phase of the project is teaching students barista skills. Abbot points out, “there are world championship barista competitions. This is something we could eventually look forward to – having some really awesome baristas coming out of this school. Some people make a living, a career out of being a barista. There’s a real art that goes along with that. So we’re focusing on all sides of coffee including where the coffee comes from.” Brazil is no longer just a name on a map to students but the place where they buy beans directly from a farmer. Abbot says the students “are learning a lot about social issues and what we can do in Canada to help. We believe the farmers deserve to make enough to survive so we’re learning how through business we can not only make a difference in our community but the world.”
Jay Dixon, Principal of NISS wants to ensure 1-11 Roasting is a legacy for future students and states, “our long term vision is a drive through coffee shop on our property similar to the one in Port Hardy across from Home Hardware and to have that building constructed by our shop students and managed through our entrepreneur students. Have it so that you can drive through to buy a bag of coffee or have students sell you a coffee.” Not waiting for handouts from the provincial government Dixon adds, “we’re going to build programming that’s unique to the North Island and we’re going to be entrepreneurs.”
When students are working on big orders they set up stations in a classroom with students responsible for weighing, labeling, bagging and in charge of quality control of each bag of coffee. Art students designed the company logo and a booth at the Christmas Craft Fair in December gave students invaluable experience dealing with the public while selling more than 80 pounds of coffee. Kingfisher Wilderness Adventures and Strategic Natural Resource Consultants are two local companies using 1-11’s coffee.
To order coffee from 1-11 Roasting visit their website at: 1-eleven.weebly.com
The Port McNeill & District Chamber of Commerce is a shining example of how great things can grow out of an egregious situation. In 2015 without warning or consultation the Town of Port McNeill made the unilateral decision to take back control of the Visitor Information Centre and stop funding the Chamber of Commerce (previously funded by 75% of business license money collected by the Town). Besides terminating that essential funding other repercussions were the loss of a full time employee that managed the Chamber & Visitor’s Info Centre as well as office space.
What does lunch on a glacier, tree top logging, medivacs and fire-fighting all have in common? Guess no further — the answer inquisitive readers is West Coast Helicopters Maintenance & Contracting Ltd.
Headquartered in Port McNeill with bases in Nanaimo, Bella Coola and Campbell River they’ve come a long way since two pilots, 1 engineer and 2 helicopters started off without a hangar or office back in 1993.
The original vision began as a lifestyle choice. One of company’s owners Terry Eissfeldt laughs when he admits, “we all needed a job.” But more than that he says, “we saw the potential in building a business with the idea that although it was work, we all valued people and atmosphere.” With that in mind their company motto has always been “safety, service & reliability.” Continue reading “The Sky’s The Limit”→
Show of hands readers. How many of you have met the new owner of the flower shop in Port McNeill called Flora Borealis ? Good for you if you have. If you haven’t, take a few moments out of your day and go introduce yourself to Tracey Little. Tracey kindly took time out of her day on January 19th to chat with me about her new business.
K: I love the name of your store. How did you come up with the name?
T: I’m obsessed by the northern lights so it was the first name I came up with – everyone liked it.
K: How long have you been on the North Island?
T: Just over a year.
K: Do you have previous entrepreneurial experience?
T: My first business was selling my own crafts, sewing and jewelry. I’m selling a few prototype necklaces in the store right now. I worked for a florist in Grade 12 and the year after I graduated. And I got my first wild flower book at about 7 or 8-years-old. I know the botanical names of many flowers. Continue reading “Bloom Where You’re Planted “→
This is Port McNeill 