Forty-eight years ago, Ryan Moisan's grandfather Albert Heller opened his downtown shoe store on 71 Wyndham St. By the end of this month, three generations of retail history will come to a close when the store locks its doors for good.
Heller opened his store in 1971 and retired in 1981. The business was reopened just down the street shortly thereafter by Heller’s son Ross and his son-in-law David Moisan — Ryan’s father.
“It’s funny how my dad got the job from my grandfather,” said Ryan. “Then he married my mom. That’s how we got Heller & Moisan.”
Ryan and his brother Jeff and sister Kathryn literally grew up in the store. He said his family, especially his mother and father Gwen and Dave Moisan, understood the difficult decision Ryan had to make to close the business.
“They have been the biggest support system ever,” said Ryan. “They recognized the signs of things changing and not working how they used to, especially for a brick and mortar store.”
Ryan said the building at 102 Wyndham St. was built in 1890. Previously it has served at another shoe store, a clothing store, a bakery and butcher shop.
“We have all of these antique bottles on display that we found in the basement crawl space. My dad came across them and dug them out,” said Ryan. “We had a lady come in and she said she knows where they are from — that the store was a soda shoppe in the 1930. She would come in for soda every day.”
Plans are underway for BioPed Footcare, a business in the same building that was spun off from the shoe store by Ross Heller and has grown to 75 locations across Canada, to take over the storefront.
BioPed specializes in orthotics and lower-limb care and is currently located in the rear half of the building.
“We always worked in conjunction because we consider each other family,” said Ryan.
Heller & Moisan has continued to serve customers the way Ryan said he was taught by his father and grandfather, relying on repeat business and word of mouth by providing exceptional customer service.
“At a lot of places now, you don’t get that customer service. They throw the shoe at you and walk away and pick up their phone,” said Ryan.
In many cases, Ryan and his staff know repeat customers by name, something he said doesn’t happen as often when dealing with the big chain stores.
“It’s that old-fashioned way of dealing with customers. It seems like it’s died out,” he said. “We have heard this across the board, in similar stores like ours they are just shutting down.”
The store survived decades of competition from malls and discount shoe outlets, but Ryan said the final nail in the coffin came in recent years from competing with online sales.
Even some of the store’s largest wholesale suppliers couldn’t provide it with inventory. Ryan said in some cases the suppliers would sell the same product he wanted to order on its own website at full retail price.
Ryan said it will be difficult to not see his regular clientele but he hopes to see them come through the door before the store closes later this month. He also said it will be hard to say goodbye to his three staff members.
“We have a tight, amazing staff — the best I have ever had,” he said.
Ryan is looking at his options for his own personal next steps, with a few options in the works.
“It was a very difficult decision for me,” he said of the closing. “I think I just really need to make a good change.”
