Chapter 19: Shopping on the West Coast

Bringing goods to the isolated western coast of Vancouver Island was sometimes a challenge. In the early days, when the sea was the only link with the outside world, “boat days” were eagerly anticipated. The steamships supplied local stores and filled individual orders. When their whistles sounded coming into Ucluelet Harbour, people swarmed to the wharf.

As kids, we tried to save up money from our allowances or part-​time jobs in case we got a chance to go to Port Alberni, or even to the larger cities of Victoria or Vancouver. Trips out of town on the Maquinna or Uchuck were exciting because of both the destination and the on-board wares. Some of us chose comics and candy. Others went for healthier fare. There were no fresh tomatoes available in Ucluelet back then; Frank Hillier said that when he had his first tomato and lettuce sandwich aboard the Uchuck, he couldn’t believe it. They were twenty-​five cents a sandwich and he blew most of his cash there and then.

Most residents rarely visited the city, but it was always exciting when things from the city came to us. Ann Matterson recalled: “It was so trying to wait for items you wanted to come on the boat from Victoria and the village had a feeling of a birthday party when the mail came on the boat.”¹

All sorts of items, including large quantities of groceries, could be ordered from Victoria stores or Woodward’s in Vancouver. In the late 1940s, Woodward’s and Overwaitea opened stores in Port Alberni. Orders were phoned or mailed in, and sent out on the next boat, no shipping charge. What you didn’t want you just sent back. Orders could be picked up at the dock, or delivered by Murray Payne, who drove a truck for Imperial Oil.

Buying shoes sight unseen was a bit of a gamble. For Woodward’s orders, our mothers would trace our feet onto brown paper, and send it off with a request for dressy shoes, school shoes or running shoes. Some results were better than others. When a pair of green suede slip-on shoes with little leather bows arrived for me, I fell instantly in love—so much so that I crammed my feet into them like Cinderella’s stepsister, insisting they fit perfectly. I suffered some terrible blisters.

There was also catalogue shopping, with ordered items delivered by boat. Many a local child pored over the Sears and Eaton’s catalogues, circling coveted items. The Sears Wish Book was aptly named.

Serving locals who needed cash for their shopping needs, the first Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was conveniently located on Peninsula Road, close to Main Street hill. Ann Branscombe

In later years, Noni Godfrey ran a Sears outlet in the building that was once Phil Thornton’s hardware store. The addition to that building housed popular restaurants like Blueberries and the Blue Room, and is now a Mexican restaurant called Papi’s Cantina.

Madden’s General Store

One of Ucluelet’s first stores, Lee’s General Store, was built by Edwin “Ned” Lee around 1904. From its inception, the store was the social centre of the community. Vince Madden, nephew of Ned Lee’s wife, bought the store just before World War II, renaming it Madden’s General Store. With all the air force personnel stationed in Ucluelet during the war, Madden’s business boomed.

Lee’s General Store (later Madden’s General Store, now the Crow’s Nest) was the hub of the community. D’Arcy Thompson

In the late ’40s, Don Hillier started working at the store. In true general store style, staff served customers from behind the counters. In the late 1950s, the layout became more of a self-​serve setup, but the personal touch remained. Don became a partner in the business in 1959, and the two men created V.J. Madden and Company Ltd. Don bought Vince out in 1964 and ran the business with his wife, Betty.

As documented in Chapter 7, Don Hillier, along with several others, died in a tragic accident in 1969. Betty Hillier was left with five children and the store. She learned to do the bookkeeping, and Margaret Thompson, in what she later described as a big learning curve, took over as manager. Margaret had started working at Madden’s in 1953, at the age of eighteen. She mastered the intricacies of purchasing and pricing and went on from there. Margaret bought the store from Betty in 1972.

Margaret and long-​time employee Ethel Hillier (wife of Don’s uncle Pete) served customers from behind Ned’s substantial counter. Hardware was on the left, and the butcher shop was at the back of the store. Margaret later said, “I could cut a mean porkchop and make hamburger with the best of them,” but she closed the butcher shop in 1975. “When it came to packing sides of beef around, I just thought enough was enough.”²

During his stint working at Madden’s as a teenager, Dennis Craig was directed to paint the outside trim on the storefront. “To reach the outer edge of the false front, I tied a rope around the chimney and the other end around my waist. I would then fill the brush with paint and swing out on the rope and slap paint on the trim as I swung by. Got her done.”³

Madden’s closed as a general store after some eighty-​four years of business, when Margaret sold the store to Jan Draeseke in 1988. Margaret felt sad, recognizing the closure as the end of an era, but she was ready for a break, having gone seventeen years without a holiday.

Jan renamed the store the Crow’s Nest. Her business, previously owned and operated by Gwen Lattimer, was originally a stationery supply store in Davison Plaza. After Jan bought Madden’s, she eventually expanded the store to incorporate the area that once housed the post office. Merchandise now includes souvenirs, clothing, books and artwork, but the character of Madden’s General Store has been lovingly maintained. Wares sit on the shelves built by Ned Lee, and Jan and staff serve customers from behind the original wooden counter.

Parkin’s Shoe Store

Jim Parkin arrived in Ucluelet after enlisting in the RCAF. His grandson Gordon later related: “Grandma said they had a hard time finding it on the map and even then didn’t really know where it was—just a long way from Regina.”⁴

Jim Parkin had trained in harness repair in England, and then shoe repair in the military, and was noted for the quality of his work. The loggers of Ucluelet all agreed that when Jim fixed their workboots, they were better than new.

Jim and Annie Parkin’s stores were a welcome addition to the community. UAHS Archives

Next door to the shoe store was Jim’s wife Annie’s business, the Vogue Style Shop. She imported the latest fashions, including the poodle skirts of the 1950s. Her dress shop was in the former BC Provincial Police station—apropos for her previous career as RCMP matron. The Parkin family lived next to their shops on Peninsula Road. Their house would later be moved back to make room for the construction of Davison Plaza.

Agnes Tugwell and daughter Ruth, circa 1954, in front of the combined bakery and gift shop. UAHS Archives

Jim and Annie Parkin always considered Ucluelet home, even after relocating to Nanaimo because of Jim’s health problems. Then Betty Poole ran the shoe store, and she and her husband, Richard, took over the Vogue shop for their real estate and insurance businesses.

Ruth’s Gift Shop

Ruth’s Gift Shop sat at the top of Main Street. The original building housed a bakery run by Tom and Agnes Tugwell, and their daughter Ruth sold ladies’ wear in a corner of the bakery. In 1949, the Tugwells added onto the building so Ruth could open a gift shop. When the bakery closed in 1958, Ruth took over the whole building. Back in the day, Ruth’s was the go-to place for buying gifts. Husbands went there to purchase a frilly blouse, stockings or nighties for their wives at Christmas and birthdays. We kids went there to buy fancy soaps or ceramic ornaments for our moms for any occasion requiring a gift. I still have the purple-​cow milk jug I bought for my mom. When my brothers broke it in a pillow fight, Mom glued it together and put it back on the mantel.

Wedding showers in town invariably provided the bride-to-be with a stack of boxed embroidered pillowcases and assorted dainty china cups and saucers from Ruth’s. After fifty-​plus years of marriage, I am still using some of those gifts. Going into Ruth’s Gift Shop always felt like an occasion; she gave full attention to your mission and knew your mother’s preferences. Minnie Lee, another kind and lovely presence in the shop, worked there for many years. Margaret Thompson vouched for the store’s customer service. For example, Minnie called her to say she should come in to check out a new shipment of dresses because, “Margaret, one of them is you!” Ruth and Minnie were understanding and discreet when we young teens sidled into the store to buy our first bra or girdle (for our skinny frames) to hold up our nylon stockings.

In 1962, business was thriving and Ruth built a new shop next door, with an apartment in the back. That building later housed various health services. Ruth rented out the storefront below to Brooks’ Pharmacy, and many other businesses took over the space in subsequent years.

Brooks’ Pharmacy not only filled prescriptions but also sold myriad wares, including fine jewellery and beauty supplies. I clearly picture my early-​teen self sitting in school, waiting for class to start, when a fellow student rushed in to call out, “Shirley! Brooks’ have brought in Freckle Cream! Are you going to buy some?”

The original Tugwell’s Bakery and Ruth’s Gift Shop building has housed many businesses over the years, including Gary’s Shoes, the Pincushion sewing supplies, Ray Vose’s electronics repair shop and Ron Coulson’s electrical appliance store. (I can still recall the excitement of buying my first Beatles 45 record there in the mid-​1960s.) In later years, the building was home to the Sandpiper craft co-operative.

Ucluelet Co-Op

Andy Ryttersgaard’s general store, which was bought out by the Co-op, was an ideal spot to watch the annual parades. Margaret Thompson

Andy Ryttersgaard had a general store at the top of Main Street. The attached butcher shop, run by Mr. Holgate, had a separate outside stairway and entry. He advertised it as “One of the Most Modern Butcher Shops on Vancouver Island,” with “all meat kept under refrigeration.” The Ucluelet Consumers Co-operative Association (the Co-op) bought the stores, and the association was incorporated on October 5, 1956. It provided employment for many locals. Anne Gudbranson worked there in the 1960s, when the dress code forbade slacks, and she and other young ladies unloaded the trucks dressed in frocks and crinolines.

The Co-op has gone through many renovations and expansion over the years. It is now supplemented by its gas bar, car wash and corner store near the outskirts of town. The main store remains a community hub where you can multi-​task, catching up on the latest goings-on while doing your weekly (or daily) shop.

Ucluelet Co-op staff posed for opening day in 1960. Teenage employees included (kneeling, left to right) my brother Robbie Baird and Michael Smith, on either side of Mary Kimoto. UAHS Archives

Roy and Murray Payne

The Payne brothers both ran Ucluelet stores. Roy Payne commercial fished for many years, then ran a pool hall and barbershop down by the Lodge, before building a store with living quarters above, on Peninsula Road. (The building now houses the award-​winning Pluvio Restaurant, which took over from the also highly acclaimed Norwoods Restaurant.) Roy’s Clothing and Sporting Goods carried a variety of products. Our fathers could buy fishing licences, a dress shirt with natty co-ordinated tie, rubber boots and shotgun shells, all in a one-​stop shopping experience. Roy later changed his store to Roy’s Gift Shop, where he and wife Agnes sold souvenirs and collectibles, many of them handmade by Roy from resin, local shells and driftwood.

Next door to Roy’s was Murray’s Grocery, built by Roy’s brother Murray Payne in 1971. Murray was also the local Standard Oil agent. Behind the store was the house where Murray, wife Gloria and family lived. Despite having ten children, they always had room for more. It was a fun and welcoming home to hang out in. Murray eventually sold his store to Al Trodden. Riley Varns owned it after that. Roy and Agnes’s son Bill later took over his uncle Murray’s convenience store and ran it for many years, carrying on the Payne family tradition.

What was once Murray’s Grocery now houses the Redd Fish Restoration Stewardship Centre.

Jim’s Corner Store

Jim Forbes brought his wife Irene and children Marlene and Ron to Ucluelet when he was stationed as a cook at the seaplane base during World War II. They remained afterwards, Jim saying he had relocated enough during the war and was ready to stay put. Jim was an experienced chef, having run his own restaurant in Saskatoon. After leaving the forces, Jim ran the cookhouse at Kennedy Lake Division logging camp when it opened, then worked on the logging roads. When he opened Jim’s Corner Store in June 1961, the plan was for Irene and Marlene to run it. Business was so good that Jim quit MacMillan Bloedel to manage the store. Irene later ran both a fabric store and a shoe store. Jim’s Corner Store changed hands over the years, and was run for a time by Dick and Rena Nitsui. It now houses the Westcoast Connect shipping company as well as a physiotherapy office.

The Wreckage

Next to Murray’s stands another Ucluelet landmark, the Wreckage. This iconic building was the vision of Norma Baillie, and was built by Bruce Atkey. Norma was a home-​economics teacher at Ucluelet Secondary School. I developed a passion for sewing under her tutelage in the 1960s. She taught with an eye for precision but was open to our need for artistic expression in our clothing styles. Norma, or Mrs. Baillie, as we called her back then, was always professionally dressed in suits and low heels, with carefully coiffed hair. Later, running the Wreckage, she was free to express her liberated self, and I always loved her funky clothes and long, free-​flowing grey tresses. In the Wreckage, she carried an eclectic assortment, including First Nations art, a wide selection of books, treasures from the sea, and her own woven creations. When Norma had her yearly half-​price book sale, the lineups stretched down Peninsula Road.

It was always a treat to visit Norma in her store, where the cozy wood stove welcomed visitors to stop and chat awhile. Eventually, she moved up to Hot Springs Cove to run her floating store. The store was later towed down to Ucluelet and placed in her backyard.

Other businesses have lived in the Wreckage, including Image West, Playground of the Senses, Gryphon’s Lair, and a flower and gift shop called Compass. The building presently houses Manke Kayak, a canoe and kayak store, museum and workshop.

Davison Plaza

Al Davison and his second wife, Rose (a former commercial fisherwoman), put in Davison Plaza in the 1970s. Many popular businesses have been located there over the years, including Dicey’s Bakery, Miriam Manuel’s Dress Shop (which was later taken over by Karen Severinson), Pat Taron’s camera store, the Place furniture and appliance store, Carol McBrine’s Treasure Chest jewellery store, and the original Crow’s Nest. When the Place relocated, it freed up space in Davison Plaza for the post office to move up the hill from Madden’s General Store, as well as room for a North Island College centre. Over the years, old businesses were replaced by new, including a hairdresser, a laundromat, government offices, the Barkley Café, Signy Cohen’s Reflecting Spirit Gallery, and the Cedar Grill restaurant (once Roman’s).

The Place

When Dave Taron bought out Ron Coulson’s Westway Furniture, which had been located in what was once Phil Thornton’s hardware store on Peninsula, he intended to name the business “the Plaza,” owing to the new location in Davison Plaza. However, the co-owner’s penmanship was unclear on the paperwork, so it became “the Place.” Dave and family members built a large complex called West Ucluelet Mall on the corner of Peninsula and Norah, and Dave relocated the Place there, next to the Gray Whale Deli, owned by his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Brian and Kathleen Congdon.

When Dave and his beloved business partner, mother-in-law Ada Dougan (whom he referred to as “the boss”), closed the store in 2020, Dave had sold furniture, appliances and electronics for forty-​three years.

Gone are the days of waiting for steamships to arrive with packages and parcels. Thankfully, we have no big-​box stores here in town, but a paved highway connects us to unlimited shopping choices. For even greater convenience, there is the internet. But shopping locally supports our friends and neighbours, creating connections in this town we love to call home.