New Shop Will Bring The ‘Goods’ To Uptown Saint John
SAINT JOHN – This year has been a hard one for many small business owners, and it’s been especially hard for Susan Pass.
After overcoming challenges like securing financing, and a fire in the building’s upstairs, by this past March her business, Offline Board Game Cafe, was finally in a good place financially.
“At the beginning of March, I said, ‘everything is going to be ok.’ We were finally on solid footing,” says Pass.
Then Covid-19 happened.
The province went into lockdown to help contain the spread of the virus and businesses like Offline were struggling to survive. In June, the cafe had shut its doors for good.
“I always thought for the first chunk there, ‘I will open it again someday.’ But I think it’s kind of this natural evolution and I am so grateful for having had it, and I still consider it a success and not a failure. We couldn’t have foreseen the fire, water damage, global pandemic. It’s a rough road,” says Pass.
“But I would really encourage anybody to open a board game cafe here when things settle down. There’s so much support and there’s a market for it 100 percent.”
During the lockdown, Pass took a moment to reset and think about what she wanted to do next. The result is a new store she’s opening next month: Goods.
Located at the former home of the boardgame cafe at 98 Prince William Street (a commercial space Pass owns), Goods will be a boutique grocery store and gift shop. Pass will be running the business with her friend and business partner, Danielle MacPherson.
“We’ve joked and said that this shop is everything we wanted to do when we grew up,” says MacPherson.
Goods will carry basic grocery items, things like milk, bread, pasta, juice, produce, the typical things you would look for at a convenience store. The store will also carry specialty products like chocolate and jams from Maritime vendors.
The idea to carry these types of things came from Pass hearing people uptown inquire about where they can get essentials outside the regular nine to five hours.
“I was working at Cask and Kettle after the cafe closed and a lot of people would come in and ask, ‘where is the nearest convenience store? Where is the nearest place to buy a carton of milk?’ There is so much residential development going on in this immediate area as well,” says Pass.
The shop will be open seven days a week.
“We just want to make things convenient,” says Pass.”We’re hesitant to say ‘convenience store’ because we’re not doing lotto and we’re not doing cigarettes.”
Goods’ general merchandise will include new housewares, interior decor, and gifts. They will also sell curated second-hand and vintage items. The store will also have a book exchange.
“If anyone wants to buy books there without redeeming their book bucks, then half of the proceeds will go to an adult literacy program,” says Pass.
Goods will also offer menstrual products for free.
“It will be a take what you need trust system,” says MacPherson. “We always did that with the cafe too.”
As the name implies, Goods will be carrying an eclectic mix of things, and that’s how Pass and MacPherson want it.
“We don’t want to pin ourselves down. I wanted an umbrella to do whatever under,” says Pass.
“It gives us the ability to say ‘yes’ to whatever we want and see fit,” MacPherson adds. “We were trying to think of a name that if three years from now that it’s something different, [the name] can still be ‘Goods.'”
Goods is expected to open in early November. Though it’s been a trying year, Pass is looking forward to her next business adventure.
“It has been a nice distraction because losing the cafe, it’s almost like grieving a family member/ But this morning I was thinking about it, we didn’t lose anybody,” she says.
“If anything, losing something like this gives way for something else to begin, and I really think this is so many things all at once but are going to be so so satisfying.”