Moncton’s Off The Wall Eyewear Is Opening A Second Location
MONCTON – Off The Wall Eyewear Emporium, a family-owned optical store that offers quirky eyewear, as well as safety eyewear, repairs, and other services, will soon have a new location at Moncton’s north end.
“Probably with less of my Star Wars stuff [as decoration],” optician and co-owner Steve Charlebois said jokingly. “There’ll always be a hint of Star Wars somewhere in the place, probably in the kids section.”
The new 4,000-square-foot store on 1633 Mountain Rd. will be twice as large as the current store, and it will carry more products and more brands. Charlebois and wife Jen are adding brands like Maui Jim, Juicy Couture, Hugo Boss and others into their collection.
The expansion comes as the current location on 331 Elmwood Drive is set to celebrate its third anniversary on October 23-24, and in the middle of an ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
“What better time to do it than during a pandemic?” said Steve. “Everything’s crazy as it is, so might as well just continue with crazy.”
But really, it’s a strategic business move on their part. Steve says although they are very busy at the Elmwood store, they want to tap into new markets.
“We get a lot of people willing to travel, but there’s also a lot of people who are not willing to travel, who want to stay at the north end,” he said. “The north end has a lot of families and it’s got a lot more people living up that way and who goes shopping up that way. So we just try to accommodate people to come shopping.”
So far, an advertising campaign has been working well to bring people into the store, Steve said. But the Charleboises also hope the second location will make them even better known in the community.
“We still get people in here who are walking in three years later saying, ‘I’ve never heard of you guys’,” Steve said.
Like the Elmwood store, the new location will have repair and lens fitting services, among other things. That’s also where Off The Wall’s central lab will move to because there’s more space.
The Charlebois family has promoted one of the intern opticians to manage one store, and hired another optician for the other store, while Steve will move between both. They also plan to hire more sales staff for the new store.
During the peak of the pandemic lockdown, Off The Wall Eyewear had to close to walk-in customers. Steve offered only one-on-one appointments a few times a week for first responders and some returning customers who needed replacement eyewear immediately. First responders were also given anti-fog spray for free.
But since reopening, they’ve been “so busy” as things return to a little bit more than normal, Steve said. Jen, who previously helped at the business part-time, is now there 40 hours a week or more, and sometimes working until late at night from home.
“So, it’s literally, both of us are now working full time at this,” he said. “I think a lot of it is because we’re pushing into the competition.”
Now with Greater Moncton being under stricter orange phase rules, Steve said it won’t affect plans with the new store.
However, because the number of people in the stores allowed is limited, the couple is asking customers to book online or via phone if they plan to attend the Elmwood store’s anniversary event and the grand opening of the Mountain Rd. location.
“We are regulated health professionals, so it will not affect us. If we go to ‘red’ phase, we will be still open since we are essential service,” Steve said.
The Charlebois family hopes to open the new store to the public by November 7.
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