‘It’s Going To Kill Me’: Store Owner Says Bylaw Targeting Noisy Students Will Ruin Business
HALIFAX-When it comes to a proposed bylaw that would limit his store’s hours, the owner of Triple A Convenience and Pizzeria doesn’t mince words.
“It’s going to kill us. I know so. It’s going to kill me,” a worried John Amyoony told Huddle in a recent interview. “The business will have to change a lot. All the customers who came here, they will go somewhere else.”
The bylaw, which passed its first reading at Halifax Regional Council on September 29, will force corner stores in established residential zones to close by 11 p.m. It doesn’t affect stores in commercial areas.
The bylaw stems from noise complaints made in certain areas of the city where residents claim customers of late-night stores are being loud and disruptive. However, many Haligonians have expressed their frustration at what they feel is an unfair and misguided law.
In an email to Huddle, Councillor Waye Mason defended the bylaw, saying it will only force five corner stores to reduce hours.
“This proposal only applies to 20 or so stores in all of Halifax: they are all in residential zones and only five will need to change their hours,” wrote Mason.
“It does not apply to corner stores in commercial zones, which is most of them, literally 99 percent of them. This is meaningless in terms of being able to get a pizza late at night, or go to a pharmacy.”
Mason seemed to indicate that the stores selling late-night pizza and other menu items were encouraging disruptive behaviour.
“I am convinced that selling pizza at 3 a.m. on Preston [Street] and Jubilee [Road] is not what the corner store zone was intended for, and I don’t think that is fair to the residents who live there, including students, who ALSO have complained to me about the noise keeping them from sleeping on school nights.
“The fact that police have to come a couple of times a year due to fights, noise, and the street being blocked by [hundreds] of people standing around is also a part of it.”
But Amyoony says the pizza is an important part of his business model. He claims it has become harder and harder for small corner stores to compete with major chains like Sobeys and Walmart.
Amyoony and his two brothers started Triple A in 1977 and used to have 12 locations. Now, he is down to just the one, on Jubilee Road.
“You can’t live on snacks anymore; it’s a dimes and nickels business,” said Amyoony. “When we buy from our wholesaler, we pay more than what you pay when you go shopping at the grocery store.”
“[The big companies] killed us and that’s why we went into the food business.”
It’s no secret that a lot of students live on, and frequent, Jubilee Road. That’s why Triple A is open until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and until 1 a.m. every other night of the week.
If the new bylaw is approved at a future council meeting, it will force Triple A to lose 18 hours a week. Amyoony says those are very valuable hours. He claims 70 percent of his business comes after 11 p.m.
“Our business in the daytime is nothing; it’s nothing. If I was busy, I wouldn’t be able to talk to you right now,” said Amyoony. “Convenience stores are trying to survive. [We’re open late in the evenings] because we need the hours.”
The small business owner explained that being open late is the way corner stores can compete with bigger companies. Having convenient hours is one of the reasons people use the term “convenience store.”
“It’s our job as a convenience store to provide this [service],” he said. “We’re not a store where people come and spend a lot of money shopping. It’s a convenience store; it’s convenient by the hours and it’s convenient with what we have.”
Decades after opening, Triple A is still a family-run business. Amyoony’s wife and son help out at the shop, along with seven employees on the payroll. Amyoony says he works 16-hour days not because he wants to, but because he must.
“I put a lot of hours in, from morning until closing to survive. If they cut my hours, I don’t know how [I will survive],” he said. “I’d love to sit at home and put my feet up and hire people to run my business but this business doesn’t work like that. You have to put your own labour.”
Amyoony says a lot of people also don’t understand how expensive it can be to run a small business these days. In the summertime, his power bill alone is $1,980.
The store owner also addressed allegations that his young customers are loud and disruptive late at night. He admits they can be loud at times, but Triple A has tried to discourage loitering over the last two years.
“Sometimes they’re loud but we don’t have anything outside. We used to have benches but we took them out a couple years ago,” he said.
Mason told Huddle the second reading of the proposed corner store bylaw will likely come back to council on October 18.
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].