The Saturday before Mother's Day was a busy one for the owners of Brick & Mortar Living on Sixth Street, and they closed shop feeling good about the day.
But that good feeling came to an end when they got a middle-of-the-night phone call from their alarm company saying the police were at their business. A vandal had smashed a city sign into their large storefront window.
"We are working so hard to create a new New West, a new city and to have these hoodlums or whatever they are, drunk, running around, behaving badly and making it difficult; it's kind of like one step forward, two steps back," said Jennifer Pistone, who helps her daughters Julia Dewhurst and Emma Nash with the business.
The incident made for an exhausting Mother's Day for the ladies, who were at the shop from 2 to 5 a.m. waiting for the broken window to be temporarily boarded up.
They opened the next day - an hour late - and tried to stay positive despite the costly headache.
For Pistone, the episode has made her look around the downtown business district and notice that other shops have been hit as well.
"I see that Money Mart has a smashed window. I was told that at the bank today that the postal services place - that they had smashed windows," Pistone said. "Once you started talking about it, I'm thinking, 'Is this a bloody epidemic?'"
The incident means one more cost for small businesses, like Brick & Mortar, that already struggle to make ends meet and to compete against larger stores.
"As far as cash, we don't have a lot. People say, 'Oh yes, the store is doing great,' but I mean there's debt, there's so many expenses involved," Pistone said.
Kendra Johnston, executive director of the Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Area, said they aren't getting more calls than usual about vandalism.
"There are occasionally cases of vandalism, unfortunately, but from our communications we have not seen an increase," she said.
Still, she suggested that business owners are diligent, have insurance and lock up properly.
"Most people I've talked to that have been vandalized over the years, as long as they feel prepared, they just sort of see it as sort of a usual part of doing business unfortunately," she said.
Johnston acknowledged what a costly inconvenience it is for small business owners.
"It really sucks for Brick & Mortar, those gorgeous big windows," she said. "It can be really tough, for sure."
