One local business owner thinks the key to running a successful business in downtown Prince George is being a woman.
Annette Savage has owned many businesses in the heart of the city and currently runs the Butler's Market that has opened to the public every weekend for the last six years.
"Think about all the successful businesses run by women in downtown Prince George," Savage said.
At the Butler's Market, collectors gather to sell and purchase unique treasures in the long narrow building located at 1156 Fourth Avenue, a stone's thrown away from the Ramada hotel. Savage believes location to be crucial and credits her ongoing success to not only her local treasure hunters but those tourists exploring the downtown markets every weekend.
Over the years, Savage has owned a lingerie shop, a bed and breakfast, and several retro clothing stores and a vintage shop in downtown Vancouver before she returned to Prince George where she had an antique store and other retro clothing stores.
"I've invented and created seven businesses and sold six," Savage said, who recently sold half of the Butler's Market, reducing her square footage from 8,000 to 4,000, making it a more manageable space. Ultimately, Savage would like to be a vendor, selling the rest of her business to someone willing to take it on and keep it going.
At 67 years old, Savage has muscular arms from all the heavy lifting she does as part of the job of running the Butler's Market, and would like the load to be a little lighter in her semi-retirement years so she can travel, visit family and take it easier than she has for most of her life. The market sees vendors in individual rooms, where they can lock away their treasures during the week and open the doors to customers on the weekends. It's an ideal situation where vendors don't have to schlep their wares back and forth from home.
For Savage, businesses like hers have always been based around the people she encounters, she said.
People from all over the world have stepped into her domain, some returning often, others passing through Prince George making sure to stop on their annual trips up north or west.
People who find treasures at the Butler's Market often follow up with Savage to let her know what's to become of their finds. A classic retro chair was turned into a commode for an elderly patron that wanted some character infused into something so unattractively functional. The purchaser of the chair sent before and after photos, to show off the newly-purposed item.
Having been located downtown Prince George for decades, Savage has gotten to know the street people very well and often leaves little treats on the tray her mascot, the butler statue, holds in welcome at the entrance of the market. Those people at risk downtown know to keep a look out for what might find its way into the hands of the butler on Fourth and are respectful of Savage's business.
There was a time when things weren't so safe when she owned her vintage store in Vancouver about 15 years ago. A man came in to browse and it seemed he found something he liked because he returned just before Savage closed the doors for the day. Savage was happy, thinking she would soon make a sale.
The tables were turned when the man rushed behind her and held her at knife point, demanding her cash.
"How did I get in this position and this is going to hurt," Savage said were her first thoughts at the shocking turn of events.
To humanize herself, she immediately told her attacker she was a mother of five and a grandmother of two. She hoped that information would inspire a little empathy, but when she spoke he lifted the butcher knife from her tummy to her throat and she quickly decided that was so much worse because he was shaking, which indicated to her that he was desperate and needed a fix.
"He was cussing and yelling and this went on for a while and I told him I didn't have any cash but I had some really good yogurt," Savage said, with a straight face. "I wanted to feed him sugar because I knew that's what he needed and I used to buy this beautiful yogurt that was like melted ice cream with fruit at the bottom. I told him that I knew he might not care about my life but I cared about his and I had no money to give him knowing that he would go out and could overdose that night and I wasn't going to be part of that. I told him all I had was food. So I showed him compassion and showed him I cared for his life. I told him to come and sit in the office with me and I told him to just try the yogurt."
Savage sat with her assailant while he ate her delicious yogurt.
"I'm so glad that I never bought that diet shit, that yogurt saved my life," Savage said, able to laugh about it now.
After he ate and calmed down a bit, he took a cigarette butt out of his pocket. He reached for her precious lighter, a recent Paris souvenir. She told the man she was allergic to smoke and he had to take it outside. In the meantime, she scooped up the lighter so he wouldn't take it and they argued about him taking the knife with him when he left.
"I told him to go to hospital and ask them to put him on the methadone treatment program - I did whatever I could to help him," Savage added.
She also purposely spooked him, telling him that her husband's ashes were in the store and she felt that he had protected her.
"I figured he might have been scared of that spirit," Savage said.
As the man went outside for his cigarette, Savage reached to light the cigarette with her keepsake lighter but not before she let him know that her dad had died of lung and throat cancer because he smoked cigarettes.
"And that just freaked him out and he yelled that he didn't want to hear about any more dead people," Savage smiled at the recollection. "And he was running down the street."
She never did open the store at night after that.
Three or four days later, her attacker came back to tell her she had really helped him and he had gone to the hospital, gotten into the treatment program and he had big plans to turn his life around. She never saw him again but he left a big impression on her life.
"I'll never forget it," Savage said.
She does things a bit smarter now, knowing the unexpected could happen again.
Savage has always donated to the New Hope Society, a drop-in centre for sex trade workers, and other organizations that care for those vulnerable people on the street. She's mindful of what she gives to the homeless, not wanting to contribute to anyone's addictions.
"They call me mum on the street, that's how I'm known," she said with a smile.
