Archive News from Digital Main Street

Kingston’s UNDR for Men isn’t used to the quiet. Underwear stores ask a certain level of energy, or rather, this one does.

During Pride it fills up with patrons and Father’s day and holidays draw unique clientele. But all those would-be celebrations have passed quietly, and it feels weird, says Cindy Baker.

Trendsetter Hair Clinic’s wait-list of names for people wanting a haircut just keeps growing and growing – but only at the top.

This past February, a month before the pandemic shuttered businesses across the country, Jaime Armstrong got a request from a potential client in Ottawa.

On March 11, 2019, a fire in downtown Kincardine cut through West Shore Clothing and Surf Shop.

The blaze was contained from spreading to the other century-old buildings on the main street but the damage would echo outwards, forcing the decade and a half old epicentre of Kincardine’s surf scene to rebuild.

After months of being stuck at home during the pandemic focusing on the essentials, one of the first things people wanted to do when businesses entered phase three was something for themselves.

Northumberland County was always in the plans for Olena Hankivsky and Giorgi Kvekveskiri.

But when COVID-19 came up and pushed the couple to move back from Melbourne to Port Hope, a few years earlier than anticipated, Northumberland became the plan.

When COVID-19 forced family-run clothing store Towne Emporium in Kingsville to shut its doors for two months, Kristen Proctor, saw it as an opportunity.

McGee’s Landing was supposed to be Sharon Richard's retirement plan, a simple gift shop in the old part of downtown Stoney Creek where she could transition from the years of teaching entrepreneurship and working with small businesses to running something of her own.

For the first four years in business, Hamilton’s The Haberdashery lived online.

“I would do trade shows and pop-ups but I really only had Facebook, Instagram and Etsy,” says Holly Johnston, founder of the vintage shop-meets-tanning salon and makeup studio. But that changed this past winter when she opened her first physical location on Concession Street in Hamilton.

Sharon Hunter has always been drawn to Disney. In grade eight, she wrote a speech about Walt Disney, about the world he created and the symbolism of the creator himself – the idea that one person with dreams could make a difference in so many other lives. Disney’s world was her safe place as she grappled with childhood trauma. And it was Disney World she escaped to with her family after finding out her husband had cancer with a five percent chance of survival.