Retail vs Downtown Windsor

by Jill Thompson

A Windsor retailer has returned home from Toronto with plans to bring fashion retailing back into downtown.

Sarah De Luca teaches fashion at downtown Windsor’s newest retail store called Full Circle.  De Luca previously owned a store where Phog Lounge currently stands called Two of Us Forward Fashions in the mid-1980s, when many specialty retail shops filled the downtown core.

“Two of Us was way out of it’s time for Windsor and sold cutting edge men’s and women’s clothing, which is why I gave it that name,” De Luca said.
Retail was not De Luca’s first choice for a career. She graduated from the University of Windsor in 1983 with a teaching degree but couldn’t get find a job.   She kept applying to the school board for six years and in the meantime opened  Two of Us.  She eventually landed a job teaching elementary school in Markham, Ont., but decided in 2000 to come back to Windsor to be closer to her family.

Still unable to find a job with the Windsor school board De Luca sought employment across the border.

“I taught in Detroit, right in the hood,” said De Luca.

Wanting to chart her own path,  De Luca decided to go back into retail and do it all in a downtown city.  The new University of Windsors downtown building was another reason she decided to come back.

“Basically I’m creating my own job. I looked around different areas of the city and knew I needed a people walk-in location. I wanted to go to Walkerville but there is a lot of competition and not as much foot traffic,” said De Luca.

Full Circle will stock vintage clothing from the 1920s to the 1960s as well as modern-label used clothing.  It will also carry an assortment of Art Deco furniture and knick-knacks. Co-owner of Phog Frank Incitti said Full Circle is exactly what Windsor needs.

“I think it’s about time because Windsor has been dying for retail downtown and a lot of people are scared to come down here with retail because they don’t want to be the front-runners and that is basically what they’re going to be,” Incitti said.

Incitti also said he hoped the downtown traffic would get used to the new store and shake downtown Windsor’s stigma of the all-business, all-bar routine that has become the basis for why people visit the downtown core.

“They’re going to test the market because the traffic downtown is business during the day,” said Incitti. “During the night it’s clubbing so they’ve got to get people to get used to retail downtown.”

Scott Rhodes is co-owner of Maxine’s Adult Playground on Oullette Avenue. He and his wife Maxine opened their store two years ago.  Rhodes said he is hopeful people will start to invest in downtown retail.

“There seems to enough bars and restaurants but a definite dearth of other modern conveniences like delicatessens, grocery, florists, bakeries and clothing stores,” said Rhodes. “Hopefully if things continue to improve more investors like us will take a chance on this beautiful city.”

Rhodes however does not foresee people going out of their way for a new downtown shop.

“People shop for themselves and that’s the way it is supposed to be. They shop where it is convenient and where they perceive value or some other attraction to cause them to spend their time and money there.”

Full Circle is expected to be opened in time for the holiday shopping season.

Whether or not this will be the start of a trend toward more retail shops opening downtown remains to be seen.