After more than 39 years in business, Dick’s Bargain Barn is closing its doors for good.
Owner Rick Wilson said the store at 62 Holland St. W. will remain open until the end of the month unless all of the stock sells out sooner.
Until then, customers still have a chance to visit the store, known for offering discount deals on everything from from snacks, toys and stationary, to clothing, baby supplies and small electronics, with everything currently marked down 40 per cent.
While residents might be sad to see the long-time business closing, Wilson is looking on the bright side.
“The whole thing ends up at the end being a positive thing. We’re all going to retire and enjoy the rest of our lives,” he said.
Wilson and his father Dick opened the store in September 1984, in the plaza at 300 Holland St. W., before moving to the current location 11 years later in 1995 while looking for more space to expand.
“Things were going very well,” he said. “It’s always been up and down, but for the most part, business was always good.”
The family store managed to make it through the housing market crash and recession of the early 1990s, the 2008 financial crisis and the rise in online shopping, but not without some difficulties, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The last five years, since COVID hit, it’s been very tough. So many people now shopping online, including my wife and myself. They’re just not visiting the stores as much anymore,” Wilson said.
On top of that, he said about 90 per cent of his suppliers have shut down and many of the inventory clear outs have dried up, making it difficult to source discount merchandise.
“Back in the old days, I had everybody and his brother breaking my door down trying to sell me stuff. We always paid our bills and our credit was always good, so we were always able to get merchandise, but now everybody keeps shutting down,” Wilson said. “You talk to anybody, it’s tough doing business — it doesn’t matter what they’re selling.”
Still, none of that was enough to convince him to give up the store, until a sign went up in front of the property in the spring announcing plans to redevelop it into two eight-storey buildings — one with commercial on the ground floor and 112 condos above, and one retirement building with 98 units.
“That’s when we kinda knew that it was time to make some moves,” Wilson said. “I wanted to leave on my own terms, and maximize what I could and go from there.”
While he’s looking forward to heading somewhere warm for the winter, Wilson admits he’ll miss having the chance to chat with regular customers.
“It’s been basically a small family-run business for almost 40 years, so there’s a real bond there with customers and that’s the part I am definitely going to miss — seeing the people,” he said. “I’m so attached to coming to work and being with customers who come in every day. Robyn, she’s like a bartender listening to everybody’s problems.”
In the more than 39 years he’s been commuting to the store from his home in Barrie, Wilson said there was only one day when weather prevented the store from opening, after he woke to find more than a metre of snow in his driveway.
“It was in December so we’re doing Christmas business, but we couldn’t get out of our driveway so we couldn’t come to work. We show up the next day; it didn’t even snow in Bradford,” he said with a laugh.
After almost four decades in town, Wilson has seen plenty of changes.
“When we started there was nothing past our plaza. You had the high school, maybe a gas station and the town has just erupted from there,” he said, noting that at the time the town was still policed by the Ontario Provincial Police, which had a station just north of the store’s old location.
He also recalled there was no Dollarama, Walmart, Sobeys or Zehrs in town, and most of the best shopping was in the downtown.
“It was a thriving metropolis down here. Shoppers Drug Mart used to be in this store. I took over in here and Shoppers opened up at the very end,” he said.
The area attracted some serious competition in 2005 when Giant Tiger opened in the Holland Marsh Square plaza.
“When Giant Tiger opened, I thought I was going out of business for sure, because they’re very similar to what we did. It hit us very hard at first when they opened,” Wilson said.
Dick’s Bargain Barn managed to tough it out though, and even outlasted the Giant Tiger, which closed in 2013.
Beyond the retail environment, Bradford has obviously seen significant residential growth as well.
“The housing explosion around Bradford has just been insane,” Wilson said. “It’s gone from this small little farming community to this big diverse town now.”
While it will wasn’t originally his plan to leave the town he knows so well quite so soon, Wilson is ready for retirement.
“I just want to take some time off and relax and head to Florida where it’s nice and warm, and go from there. I’ll go put some shorts and t-shirt on and enjoy January,” he said with a smile.
