In honor of small business week, Swift Current Online has chosen to focus on a couple of local treasures beginning with everyone's favorite local toy store.
Back in 2009, Garry Koebel and his wife began looking at business ideas after being in the financial services industry for the past 20 years. Koebel says he had the entrepreneurial bug after growing up with his family who had a small business while he was growing up.
At the time Koebel and his wife had two-year-old twins and noticed that there wasn't a large variety of children's toy items in the city. They both then spent a year and a half touring many independent stores across western Canada and finally put together a business plan which eventually resulted in the opening of Sputtergotch in 2011.
Koebel details what he believes his business brings to the city.
"Variety of play things particularly for young kids, we currently deal with over 140 different vendors and suppliers. So we try and bring unique things in. We have a lot of emphasis on creativity, making things and doing things as opposed to kids being online or on a video screen."
Over the years, Koebel says their product mix has changed and this is largely due to customer input. Several years ago he says they were receiving more and more requests for board games and card games and they now stock 1,500 titles and these items have become a larger part of the product mix.
According to Koebel, a business isn't a business without customers and they have been very fortunate to have great support from the community. He details as an example that during COVID their doors were closed for over three months and they continued to receive great support from the community through their online operations.
Koebel says that it's a reciprocal relationship. He adds that they do as much as they can to support the community including being involved with over 115 different organizations this year in terms of providing donations for fundraisers. He believes it's important to shine a light on small local businesses that comprise a substantial proportion of commerce in a vast majority of communities and says that small business people in the community are also huge supporters of local non-profit organizations and charities.
With lots of competition from big box stores, it's important to shine a light on how important and vital small local businesses are for the success of the community going forward, according to Koebel.
Another local gem, Urban Ground recently celebrated its 15th anniversary.
Owner, Kaitlin Thomson provides some background on the origins of the establishment.
"Fifteen years ago coffee culture wasn't as prevalent as it is now. There wasn't really anywhere in town to get specialty coffee. So I had just finished up my university degree and was working in town and trying to figure out what I was going to do and it was actually my mom who had always wanted a coffee shop in Swift Current. So she suggested it and it just seemed like Swift Current was ready for a coffee shop at that time."
Since 2007 local residents have been able to go to Urban Ground to grab a specialty coffee, freshly made in-store baked goods, or a variety of breakfast and lunch items.
Thomson says that the city has a very unique and vibrant downtown community and they are grateful to be a part of that. She also adds that the past 15 years would not have been possible without the support of her great staff, family, friends, and dedicated and loyal customers.
According to Thomson, it's challenging to be a small business with a number of extra costs and work going into being an independent business. However, she believes these businesses add to the community. Throughout the pandemic, she says there were a lot of challenges for independent businesses specifically, yet it was also during this time that she believes people began to think more about how they want to spend their money and the need to support local which she says is a silver lining.
"It's hard to believe that's been 15 years and I am grateful for the support for the community," says Thomson.