Pop-up store at Moncton city hall upsets some local business owners

An international chain store called Lush has set up a pop-up shop on the front lawn of Monton City Hall just ahead of the holidays and that has some local artisans accusing the city of unfair treatment.

Local artist potter Ginette Arsenault sells her works at the Starving Artist Gallery and Cafe in downtown Moncton.

She says the city’s decision to allow Lush cosmetics to set up a pop-up store on the front lawn of City Hall is unfair to local retailers.

“We are all trying to survive and we are all local and it’s just crushing” said Arsenault.

The shop Lush opened last Thursday and will remain open until Dec. 22, said manager Rebekah van den Hoogen.  She said that Lush is renting the space from the city to test the market to potentially open a local store at a later date.

“I think it is a great way us to drive traffic into the downtown core and I think it is going to bring lots more people down here,” van den Hoogen said.

Lush Cosmetics is headquartered in the United Kingdom, but has a strong presence in shopping malls in Canada and the U.S.

But Starving Artist Gallery and Cafe owner Shane Myers, whose retail store is a block away from City Hall, said the city has no business offering up such a prime piece of real estate to any retailer, let alone a national retailer with no other presence in the province.

“We pay rent and taxes and whole expenses every day of the week and for them to give a large corporation or any corporation the front lawn of City Hall to set up a pop-up shop during the Christmas season I thought was unfair.”

Myers says the city should be doing more to encourage more people to buy local and that another “big box store” is the last thing that Moncton needs.

“Just because it may bring people downtown to that shop it doesn’t mean that they are going to be walking down Main Street in the middle of winter cold and shopping” said Myers.

Arsenault said that she has no problem with Lush setting up shop in the city to possibly test the market, “just take the chance as everyone else is doing right now with local businesses.”

She said the city should not be giving a national chain store an advantage over local retailers.

Meanwhile Lush says they have set opening day sales records at the Moncton pop-up store.

“My fingers are crossed that we will be back to set up a full shop” said van den Hoogen.

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No one with Moncton City Hall was available for comment on Monday.