Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - The Trap and Gill is closing the doors for good

curves2000 · 05-29-2019, 01:55 AM

There is a lot that is going on in the food, restaurant and bar business in Calgary/ Alberta in 2019. A ton of factors and some of them are directly related to all the different levels of government, others have to do with the economy and others have to do with changing tastes.

I have never been to this establishment but in the article they did a good job of highlighting a bunch of the challenges they faced and they seem very real.

Other factors outside of the obvious factors like the usual $15 wage and carbon taxes etc is that now a lot of businesses need to be ON THEIR GAME when it comes to consumer spending. The days when everybody in Calgary was making bank and people were throwing down the bucks for overpriced highballs that contained almost no booze, beer being served with zero head on the top and with a side of attitude from the waitress who expected massive tips are done.

Far too many places with awful food, terrible prices and value and a very poor understanding on the operations side of the business have closed. Not all of it was the NDP's $15 wage and some other excuses fault. Plenty of places have thrived and continue to be in business after 30, 40+ years. Those places GET IT and know the business.

Poor municipal policy is also affecting small, independent chains and its getting harder and harder for them to do business. Every dam suburb looks the same and a HUGE portions of the commercial real estate is owned by the major commercial landlords who have leases and clauses thicker than an old phone booth. All they want is the same thing over and over for business so that they can pay their rent.

A very close friend of mine approached a national commercial landlord for an AMAZING concept down in the south in the food service side that would have been amazing in Calgary. He pretty much got laughed out of the office because that wasn't what they wanted in that spot and wanted the security of the rent payments, ironically him and his family own several franchise locations of a major pizza chain. He brought it up and they went from laughing to salivating at the the thought of them being there but that isn't what the area needed. In some ways its kinda sad because Calgary doesn't have that vibrancy and that differentiation compared to even SMALL cities, we are only getting worse.

Just my thoughts and sorry about the long post! Good luck to the owners of the Trap and Gill in whatever else they do!

05-29-2019, 01:55 AM	#35
curves2000 First Line Centre Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Calgary, Canada Exp:	There is a lot that is going on in the food, restaurant and bar business in Calgary/ Alberta in 2019. A ton of factors and some of them are directly related to all the different levels of government, others have to do with the economy and others have to do with changing tastes. I have never been to this establishment but in the article they did a good job of highlighting a bunch of the challenges they faced and they seem very real. Other factors outside of the obvious factors like the usual $15 wage and carbon taxes etc is that now a lot of businesses need to be ON THEIR GAME when it comes to consumer spending. The days when everybody in Calgary was making bank and people were throwing down the bucks for overpriced highballs that contained almost no booze, beer being served with zero head on the top and with a side of attitude from the waitress who expected massive tips are done. Far too many places with awful food, terrible prices and value and a very poor understanding on the operations side of the business have closed. Not all of it was the NDP's $15 wage and some other excuses fault. Plenty of places have thrived and continue to be in business after 30, 40+ years. Those places GET IT and know the business. Poor municipal policy is also affecting small, independent chains and its getting harder and harder for them to do business. Every dam suburb looks the same and a HUGE portions of the commercial real estate is owned by the major commercial landlords who have leases and clauses thicker than an old phone booth. All they want is the same thing over and over for business so that they can pay their rent. A very close friend of mine approached a national commercial landlord for an AMAZING concept down in the south in the food service side that would have been amazing in Calgary. He pretty much got laughed out of the office because that wasn't what they wanted in that spot and wanted the security of the rent payments, ironically him and his family own several franchise locations of a major pizza chain. He brought it up and they went from laughing to salivating at the the thought of them being there but that isn't what the area needed. In some ways its kinda sad because Calgary doesn't have that vibrancy and that differentiation compared to even SMALL cities, we are only getting worse. Just my thoughts and sorry about the long post! Good luck to the owners of the Trap and Gill in whatever else they do!