If you’ve been to a mall in Quebec in the past few decades, there’s a good chance you’ve come across a Centre du Rasoir store.
In February, many shoppers were disappointed to hear the chain had gone bankrupt. One of the store’s locations, however, is refusing to quit.
The family behind the Centre du Rasoir in Fairview Pointe-Claire is treating the adversity as an opportunity.
“Many people would be discouraged and leave,” said the location’s owner, Leo Singh. “But being an old-timer, I said, ‘I’m gonna stay.'”
Along with his wife, Manuela Moniz, and daughter Sandy, Singh has run the Centre du Rasoir franchise at Fairview for three decades.
Singh says head office had been on the decline for years.
“They didn’t have enough stock to ship, so that became a problem,” he said. “Last year, in October 2022, they ran out of goods completely. That’s where everything started to fall.”
Though it was no fault of their own, the family were constantly apologizing to customers for not having enough products in stock. When Centre du Rasoir went belly-up in February, the Singhs say many asked them if they would retire.
Instead, they saw an opportunity.
“As a family, we’re going to stay open,” said Singh.
They’re creating a new independent store that’s completely theirs called Paradis du Rasoir.
“We have to take some chances in life,” said Moniz.
Singh has established new links with suppliers, and finally the family says they will be able to sell more than just whatever sparse stock the dying parent company could send them.
“We are going to go more into personal care, such as hair dryers, shavers, women’s hairstyling, curlers, hairdressing scissors,” he explained.
“We’ll have lots of freedom to bring in all kinds of stock that we didn’t have the choice to offer our clientele in the past,” said Moniz.
The family said they had received a lot of questions from customers since the bad news came about their parent company.
“We had a lot of phone calls, questions, but it turns out that they’re actually being very supportive of us,” said Sandy Singh.
Multiple customers on site told Global News they were happy the location would continue to operate.
“There is the community of West Island, which has really kept us in business. and we really thank them. We’re going forward and we we will keep our word,” said Leo.
They hope to turn one business’ failure into a thriving mom-and-pop shop.