Work on rue Saint-Vallier Ouest: around forty merchants have requested financial assistance

To date, around forty merchants affected by the major work on Saint-Vallier Street West, in the Saint-Sauveur district, have applied for financial assistance of $7,500 offered by the City of Quebec.

Since the beginning of August, rue Saint-Vallier Ouest has become a huge road construction site which increases the challenges for merchants in the heart of the work.

A little less than a month after the start of the work, around thirty merchants had submitted an application for financial assistance of $7,500 offered by the City of Quebec. Since then, around ten traders have been added to the list.

This is particularly the case for the Jardin Vitrum Hortis boutique which, like many other merchants, has noted a drop in traffic.

“It’s definitely harder for people in cars. It’s more complicated, the number of parking spaces has really decreased,” underlines Andréanne Girard, co-owner of the store.

She also adds that a drop often occurs in the fall. M^me Girard is adapting to the situation, in particular by offering free delivery once a week to keep its customers as much as possible. She and her partner believe that it is an effort to make, but that the result will be there.

“It’s a blow to give, but in the end, it will be worth it,” she continues.

Jonathan Marcoux, co-owner of the Franky Johnny sandwich shop, believes it’s a difficult blow, but a little less than he would have thought. Nevertheless, he plans to submit his application for financial assistance to obtain the $7,500.

“It’s not as bad as we thought, but it’s certain that it affects sales, it seems like a battlefield ahead,” he lets fall.

He said he was disappointed with the City’s display. Customers sometimes seem to wonder if the business is open or not.

“It’s not as clear as they said it was going to be, it was supposed to be interactive. There, it’s a poster on the side of the street,” he laments.

Increased efforts

For its part, the SDC Saint-Sauveur continues to increase its efforts to support merchants. An awareness campaign has been launched, publications are made regularly on social networks and two free parking lots are available on both sides of the construction site.

A crowdfunding campaign was started on the La Ruche platform, but it was unfortunately a failure.

“It was abandoned, but it gave us visibility,” says the general director of the SDC, Nadia Reghai Gagnon.

Out of a goal of $8,000, a little over $2,000 was raised.

For now, the efforts of the SDC Saint-Sauveur are focused on setting up a series of competitions with the collaboration of merchants.