After more than 70 years, much of it in the same neighbourhood, Greggs Furniture & Upholstery on Government Street near Queens Avenue has decided to close its doors this fall, citing, in part, street disorder in the area.
Owner David Screech’s family has been running Greggs since his wife’s uncle took it over in the early 1960s. The company makes custom-upholstered furniture, with reupholstery as the biggest part of its business and clients including the B.C. Legislature and many of Victoria’s hotels.
“What I’m most proud of is the fact that we have repeat customers who come back time after time after time, who appreciate what we do, who have furniture that we built for them originally reupholstered or to have pieces that we upholstered reupholstered again,” Screech says. “And that’s what kept us going for so long: those loyal, dedicated customers who’ve appreciated what we do.”
And the demand is still there.
“That’s one of the things that breaks my heart,” he says. “We’re a profitable business, and it’s sad to close it down. But it’s just the reality of what we have to do.”
Screech says his business has faced a number of challenges, including a lack of skilled trades and rising property taxes. Plus he’s not getting any younger.
“But definitely the tipping point is the street chaos,” he says. “For the last five or six years, it’s been getting continuously worse, and I just personally don’t want to deal with it anymore.”
Screech thinks the City of Victoria needs to be far more responsive to local businesses.
“They tend to have the attitude that it’s private property and therefore they can’t help,” he says. “And they need to. If the problems are going to be as critical as they are, they need to appoint a liaison officer to the business or some direct contact, someone that we can call when the situation is bad.”
The province has to step in, too, and look at involuntary care, he says.
“We see people daily on the street that lack the ability to look after themselves, and they just shouldn’t be there. It’s cruelty.”
He adds: “I think what upsets me the most is that I’ve worked in this block for 42 years, and all I see is it getting worse, and nothing to give me any encouragement or inclination that it’s going to change for the better.”
