Downtown Nanaimo Secrets of Success

 McLEAN'S SPECIALTY FOODS

Chances are if you are a lover of fine foods you are already well acquainted with McLean’s Specialty Foods, located at 426 Fitzwilliam Street. Open the screen door and step into a by-gone era where customer was king. Eric McLean, co-owner with his wife Sandy, came out from behind the counter to sit with us and talk about the long standing success of McLean’s Specialty Foods in the heart of the Old City Quarter in downtown Nanaimo.

DNBIA: How long have you been in business?
Eric: April 6th marked our 21th anniversary of business.

DNBIA: How many employees do you have?
Eric: We have three fulltime employees and three part-time; our chef Peter Connelly, Sandro, Kix, Kirsten, and Laura, plus Christy who is off on maternity leave. We hire seasonal help at Christmas.

DNBIA: Can you give us a short description of your business?
Eric: We are Vancouver Island’s Premier Cheese Shop and Specialty Foods Store, offering a unique, always-changing selection of fresh and imported delicacies and specialty food products, as well as between 120 and 150 varieties of cheese from around the world.

DNBIA: McLean’s Specialty Foods is well known in Nanaimo, tell us something about you personally that you think most people wouldn’t know.
Eric: When I was 16 my R&B band The Boots opened for the Yardbirds and the Kinks during a tour of Scotland. We also opened for the band that later changed their name to Ten Years After.

DNBIA: That is quite the leap. How do you get from being an R&B musician to being the proprietor of McLean’s Specialty Foods in Nanaimo?
Eric: At 16 I quit my job working as a grommet counter for Chrysler in Scotland and I began touring with The Sabres, one of the top groups in Scotland. Well, by 20 I was burned out and broke so I decided to settle down!

Fast forward to 1980, when I emigrated and came directly to B.C. where I joined Cadbury Schweppes as an Account Executive, and that is where I got much of my knowledge of marketing and promotions.

Eventually I met Sandy, a Victoria girl, and we were living in Vancouver but she missed the Island, so we would visit an old Scottish chum, Peter Connelly, who co-owned Marshall and Jeffries, a cooking store on Fitzwilliam Street here in Nanaimo. We hated getting on that last ferry on the weekend to go back to the mainland, so one Sunday afternoon as we were walking down to catch the ferry, we saw a house for sale on Wentworth Street and without even thinking about it much, we put in an offer. By the time we got home that night, we found out that we were the proud owners of house in Nanaimo, and we hadn’t sold the one in Vancouver yet!

After we moved over, I needed a job, and I started acting as a broker for companies including National Cheese. Having spent more than 10 years in the food business in BC, I had already established good relations with Thrifty Foods and other key people in the food business here.

DNBIA: Tell us how McLean’s got started.
Eric: Remember, at that time there was no Food Channel. Hardly anyone knew what balsamic vinegar was and here I was trying to convince grocery stores to sell good quality Italian pasta, extra virgin olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano. I was the first in town to sell San Pellegrino, now it’s everywhere. Also I strongly believed that a town of Nanaimo’s growing size needed a good cheese shop.

Our friends, Peter and Merv used to do cooking classes at their shop Marshall and Jeffries, and from there I realized that there were people who were interested in a variety of quality products, but at that time, there was no place to get them in Nanaimo. Grocery stores certainly weren’t carrying them. This gave us a clientele before we even started. The rest was word of mouth. The support we got from other local businesses back then was amazing. Mladen Zorkin took out ads promoting us. He was our landlord and one of our biggest supporters.

DNBIA: What are your hours of operation?
Eric: We are open every day of the week! Monday to Friday 9:30 to 5:30 pm, Saturday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday noon to 4:00 pm.

DNBIA: What are you best known for and why?
Eric: Well in January it is our Haggis Extravaganza. Early on I realised I needed a draw for January, a traditionally slow month in retail, and we built up one of our best months around Robbie Burns Day. We had three seatings here for our Haggis lunch on Robbie Burn’s Day this year. The other thing we are best known for is our extensive specialty cheese selection and through our Haggis Extravaganza we sold a huge 50 pound block of Scottish Cheddar.

DNBIA: What geographic region do you serve?
Eric: We sell all over Vancouver Island. A large part of that has to do with advertising in Eat Magazine. People from Victoria tell us they come to Nanaimo to get products they haven’t been able to source elsewhere. Of course, Nanaimo itself isn’t a big enough market for each ethnic group to have their own shop, so we carry products from all over the world.

We also have a surprising number of longtime customers from the Lower Mainland as well as regular boaters from all over Canada and the US who come to see us each year to stock up when they’re in town.

DNBIA: Why did you open your business downtown?
Eric: Simple, it was what the customer wanted. We thought about moving so we did a customer survey and they didn’t think we should move into a mall. Besides, I knew that you wouldn’t get the McLean’s experience in a mall – it’s too sterile. We get customers from all over the Island from Victoria to Port Hardy, as well as Gabriola, Denman, Hornby etc, so locating our store in the Old City Quarter makes sense. Customers no longer have to go to Victoria or Vancouver to get their special treats. We have become a destination shop.

Nanaimo has been good to us. I have been involved with the downtown revitalization for years, serving on various boards, including the Downtown Nanaimo Partnership and now the DNBIA. As well I cofounded the Old City Quarter Association, of which I am currently president. We recognize the importance of regional and provincial BIAs because they support the independent guy. Big box stores suck all the retail out of the centre of towns. Downtowns are the only places left with any character. To use a metaphor, downtown is the beating heart of the community – if the heart isn’t beating the rest of the body dies. People think the challenges we are facing with the local economy are unique to Nanaimo but large corporations are causing the same problems the world over.

DNBIA: Why should a customer choose your business?
Eric: We have built our clientele and our store around having a higher quality of product, strong product knowledge, and educating our customers. Our customers know that they are getting the best.
We try to get to know what our customers like, and try to have fun in the process.

DNBIA: What keeps your customers coming back?
Eric: Taste. When I opened the store I filled the store with stuff I liked. I did this because if you believe in something yourself you can honestly recommend it, which makes it easier to sell. This builds trust, which is the key ingredient to our relationships with our customers.

DNBIA: What advice would you give to someone starting a new business?
Eric: Do your homework. Study your chosen market to determine if there is need for your product or service. Identify your target customers and treat them like your survival depends on it, because it does.
I tell all our staff, I sign the pay cheque but the customer pays it, always remember that. If you don’t have any customers, you may as well stay home.

DNBIA: During this interview you have stopped to greet every single customer who has come into the store. It’s obvious you care about them.
Eric: I think it is really important to acknowledge customers as they walk through the door. They want to know you are interested in them. We try to learn the person’s name; we try to learn what they like. We have to be competitive and we have to have an edge. When customers feel that we know and remember them and what they want, that sets us apart from other stores. When people feel they are being attended to and appreciated they feel good. This concept of selling has been lost over the years. It really is about trust and respect.

DNBIA: What about your business makes you the most proud?
Eric: For twenty-one years, every single day that I have been here, a half dozen or more people have walked through those doors and said, “Wow, this is fantastic. It’s so unique”. If you’re looking for encouragement or reinforcement that you are doing something right – that’s it. It’s what keeps me in business.