Toronto Dollar

Monday, October 15, 2007

Ithaca Downtown Dollars

By a series of happy misfortunes I ended up staying in Auburn NY, and the innocent suggestion to make a short trip down the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake slipped through my lips like ....

Aim for the "Commons"; it took me 30 minutes to navigate the streets, swinging from one side of two to the other like a 1957 yo-yo. Once we passed the pedestrian mall, it took us a good ten minutes to navigate the one-way streets and find a parking spot, the multi-storey parking garage being occupied by a back hoe and a jack-hammer.

Two nice young men in green sweatshirts, manning an information booth, sent me off to the visitors centre where I could enquire about Downtown Dollars.



The visitor centre is on a North-South street just west of the pedestrian mall. You can't miss it. Tall white columns mark the entrance.

Inside, two delightfully cheerful young ladies answer enquiries about Ithaca whatnots. It seems that this is the place to purchase the equivalent of Toronto Dollars, but they are not Ithaca Hours. They are "Downtown Dollars" and I purchased $50 worth in tens and fives.

At the time the certificates are issued, the serial numbers are recorded in a ledger with pins to align the holes in the Gift Certificate sheets, ...




... after which the Gift certificates are torn off and counted out to the happy tourist


Do participating stores display any sort of sign that they accept Downtown Dollars? "They are supposed to", sheepishly.

They don't. But you can always ask and have the store cashier wander over to the manager to check if "we accept something called Downtown Dollars".
Just like Toronto, eh?


I had a good time wandering the core; there are a couple of streets populated with student-budget eateries offering a wide variety of foods.

I would return and spend a whole day there, but my budget wouldn't allow it.
Too many excellent "rare and used books" stores. In one I was overwhelmed by their stock on Winston S Churchill, and just took a photo of one of their shelves so that I could contrast it at leisure against my own collection when I returned home.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Serendipity

Jupiter had an eye infection; I took him to the vet and a week later wrote a thank-you note and had it in my hand when I returned to Latitude 44 in The Junction.

Yes, I had a map of the Nile to be mounted in a manner that I could jot notes with an erasable marker.

Of course I lay down the envelope, then the map, and MaryAnn turned over the envelope thinking it was their inbound mail left lying on the counter.

Bug surprise to her to see "Dr. Paul Walker" on the face of the envelope. Gasp! "Our VET!" or words to that effect.

Seems that Latitude 44 used to be sited quite close to where the Mississauga Animal Hospital now is, and MaryAnn has been a client; much respect for the Mississauga Animal Hospital.

Sigh.

I feel such a part of a community!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Another Toronto day, another Toronto Dollar, ...

So back I went to the Junction this mid-morning.

There's Good news and Bad news:

Dropped my frame work off at Latitude 44; they seemed nice. They accept T$, and charge only half what the other store (that didn't get around to doing the work) said, and they (Latitude 44) said it'd be ready in an hour.
Which it was.

The Bad news is that while I was waiting, I dropped by The Other Chris(TM) at the BIA and purchased $T40, treated myself to an excellent flavoured cappuccino at Agora (they also have the absolutely cleanest washrooms in the city), and sauntered down to Pandemonium, where the nice man took about $T50 off me TWICE, because on my way out the store he noticed I'd bought math books, and in showing me the window display airily dismissed two shelves of World War 1 history books (say no more, squire).

Well, the point is that by the time I got back to Latitude 44 I had to pay $T5 and $cdn5, rather than $T10, which sort-of defeated the whole idea of paying for the framing in T$.


Moral of the story: When you are doing business with nice merchants who accept T$, you can never have too many T$. Be warned!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Weird situation

The store shall remain nameless, because I don't want to embarrass anyone yet, but they had agreed to take $T, so I drove out there mid-week to get something fixed.
"No problem; it'll be ready tomorrow".
"Friday will do" I said. "Emmachisit"
Turns out to be $T20, or $cdn15. So much for supporting T$ and treating them at par.

Well, I couldn't make it Friday, so I drove out there today, Saturday. Gas, parking fees etc. What I do to support T$!

Wasn't ready.
Hadn't even been started.
I wanted it back, but no thanks - not the broken glass.
I'll buy a sheet of glass on Brown's Line (more gas etc) and do it myself.
Scratch that business, in a manner of speaking.

But beyond that, how do you feel about businesses placing a surcharge on the use of T$. It's their business, so they can do what they want, right?

But a surcharge hardly seems to in the true spirit of the thing .....

Monday, September 10, 2007

Junction Arts Festival, September 8-9, 2007
http://www.junctionartsfest.com/2007/
Leon Emmet of Hairy Tarantula was kind enough to accept my irascible self as a means to promote T$ during this two-day event. I attended Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Highlights

I spoke with dozens of people, store merchants, stall holders and consumers about the merits of T$ as a means of supporting the local community.
I made new contacts with local consumers and received an invitation to bring T$ to the Kensington Market.
I ended up with $T225 less than when I started. Of this I sold $T120 that I can recall, and most of the rest I spent locally or gave to people to spend locally.
I laughed a lot and had a lot of fun.
Again, I feel that a Street Fest is a difficult place to exchange dollars; it is a great venue to discuss T$ with passers by.

Hours

I was on the street from 11;00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Saturday, and from 11:30 a.m. to about 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Maryan took over the stall on Sunday afternoon.

Flyer

We printed 400+100 flyers for the event. Leon will use any excess at the BIA office and in his store. I fell behind schedule and did not get as many logos as we had hoped. Nonetheless by Sunday we had on our printed list the following vendors:
· Global Aware Kensington Kensington Market
· Big Daddy’s DVD Shop 3044 Dundas Street West
· Pandemonium Books & Music 2862 Dundas Street West
· Pascal's Baguettes and Bagels 2904 Dundas Street West
· Latitude 44 Gallery, Framing & Decor 2900 Dundas Street West
· ($T not applicable on consignment artwork)
· Hairy Tarantula Games and Comics 2949 Dundas Street West
· (10% off all books bought with $T during festival)
· Agora Mediterranean Market CafĂ© 3015 Dundas Street West
· Panache Art Gallery & Custom Framing 2946 Dundas Street West
· (10% off all purchases made with $T during festival)
· Ian's T-Shirts (at Hairy Tarantula for festival)

Merchants

Thanks to Leon Emmett’s work-in-advance, we had several merchants listed who, we could tell consumers, will accept T$. I spent T$ at Pascal’s and Agora, and plan to spend T$ at Panache this week.

Pascal’s

Saturday morning there was some initial hesitancy on Pascal’s part to accept T$. I countered this by repeated trips buying coffee for stall holders. A coffee/juice/pastry shop is a good target when conversing with residents and consumers.
By Sunday Pascal was keeping two sets of bills in one till, and trying desperately to make changes from his stash of T$; he became frustrated when he couldn’t make $T14 change for my $T20 note. With or without a float, merchants might be told that they can make change in $cdn, to reinforce the view to consumers that T$ are valued at par with $cdn.

Agora

Agora accepted my T$. I made several lunch trips here.

The Food Chain

In a startup location such as this, the immediate (first week) problem seems to be starting the circulation. Eateries, such as Pascal’s and Agora are easy sinks for T$. It is hard to see Pascal making many trips to panache to get his pictures framed using T$, but easy to see staff from panache making several trips to Pascal’s for coffee.
I would support a 100% reimbursement guarantee for eateries as ‘everybody has to eat’, and they provide a sure receptacle for T$. Of course in an area like SLM, some eateries can pass their T$ on to stall holders.
One might locate at most two prime T$ sinks in any location to serve as receptors of T$, and cut a special deal with them.

New merchants

I dropped a flyer at Vesuvio’s because, of course, the manager was busy. We might go back and harvest the manager this week.
I spoke with Wandee, manager of Young Thailand. (I had eaten there last week). She seemed quite receptive, and agreed to meet with us next week.
“Clive” of Global Aware Kensington market quite threw me off my feet by accepting T$ unsolicited. I tracked him down and reimbursed him. He suggested that Kensington Market is ripe for T$, with many aware merchants. Sunday morning he bought his $20 back ad promised to grab his coffees from Pascal’s.
Clive referred me to Petra of “Ten Thousand Villages”. I gave her flyers (Junction & SLM) and my business card and asked her to contact me. www.tenthousandvillages.ca has stores across Canada. My friend Linda Polsson is part of a chain of volunteers who receives, sells a crate of goods once a year in Prince Rupert BC.

Thoughts

We might have contracted with, say, Pascal to purchase an urn of coffee at our stall, giving away free coffee (Pascal isn’t out of pocket because we paid for it) to encourage people to stop by and chat. My limited experience with fests is that people stroll and browse, but won’t stop unless there is something tangible.
I will have laminated a strip of T$ that we can place on the table. I stuck some notes with adhesive tape and of course lost them (tearing) when removing them.
Several consumers baulked at the “Jennifer” notes; these are confusing to consumers, and we ought to rethink them. It is hard enough getting consumers to stop and talk, harder still to have them accept and use “funny money”. The task becomes nigh impossible when they are confronted with a third kind of note. Worse yet; The Jennifer notes are different colours from T$ - the $T10 is blue whereas the $J10 is brown.

Photos

I took photographs of every storefront between Keele & Quebec. We can use that with the BIA list to hand-deliver a brochure to each Dundas Street merchant over the next two weeks.

Monday, September 10, 2007

I returned to the Junction at lunchtime. The BIA was closed, so anyone wanting to purchase T$ was out of luck. I bought back $T160 from Agora and $T100 from Pascal’s. Interetsing. I sent out $225, but those two eateries had retained $T260, and I know that at least one of them made change, so they took in a lot more than I gave out.
Panache appeared closed, so I could not get my picture re-framed.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Goderich Diary

Today I'm heading off to Goderich to take part in a two day workshop spread over two weeks. You'll see full reports elsewhere.
I use a "shopping list" when I'm going on a trip, so that I don't forget to pack my camera, toothbrush, and all that.
I'm taking $T512 with me (a nice number, two raised to the power nine) to exchange with other workshop members. I have a map of Goderich, and have printed out as much information about the workshop as I can. I'll travel by train to Stratford, armed with plenty of books, as usual. Scott Hamilton will collect me (I hope!) and we'll chat as we drive to Goderich.

What I learned

It is easier to give than to exchange.
It's tough to stop people and get them to swap. It's easier to stop them and give. "Would you like $1 off your drink?" Some are interested, but nine times out of ten, if it isn't an instant gift of a coupon, they don't want to know.
I trapped two LOL going into Main Squeeze. "Would you like a dollar off your purchase?". "No, we're just going to get some soup". ???!! "You can get a dollar off just by exchanging five dollars for five dollars". No, sorry. They smile and move in.

Giving can be a mistake
When you hand out $1 or $5 in an unusual currency, people treat it as worthless. They find it hard to believe that it is worth $1.
I feel the same way.
I'll hand out $T1 quite happily, but wouldn't dream of tossing a loonie in a busker's hat, and yet I enjoy the clarinet and the violin.

Giving can be a mistake
I gave $T5 to a handyman who had been busy next door for an hour. He asked what it was, I told him and suggested he refresh himself, on me. He darted back out of The Main Squeeze and grabbed a second $5 from my hand; "Gimme another; I just gave mine to my client.
I was struck dumb. I'm down ten of my dollars; he has made a good impression on his client. The Main Squeeze made $30 off him.