Many friends and longtime customers stopped by to wish Sylvia Brezinski well on Saturday, her last full business day for Sylvia’s Fashions and Accessories.
She has occupied the storefront on Coteau Avenue, across from the Co-op food store since 1994, as she got into the business after taking a10-month entrepreneurial course through Manpower.
Part of the course required her to do some research, such as on the best location for her business. Once she saw the location on Coteau, she sat in the parking lot of the food store and watched the flow of traffic before finally deciding this would be the best place to locate her store.
Sylvia had previously worked for 10 years at People’s Jewellers in the mall until they abruptly closed their doors, throwing her out of work, and before that she had worked as a secretary and an accountant.
“It started as a low-key small place, and I soon found out that didn’t work as well as I wanted it to, so I expanded and got larger,” she said, noting about four years later she expanded over into the second storefront space as she brought in more clothes.
Sylvia said she has seen changes in clothing style over the years, and in the types of ladies fashions that people wanted.
For a while, she had gowns, such as for the mother of the bride, but that eventually phased out, and for about six years or so she had grad dresses in her lineup.
Besides Weyburn, she had clientele who travelled far to come to her store, from all over Saskatchewan and Alberta, including from Calgary and surrounding area.
Over the years as she went to buying shows for new clothing lines, she got to know fairly well what her customers wanted year-to-year, plus she learned a lot about how to display clothes, using her front windows to help draw people in.
At the end of her 23 years in business, she was asked what her feelings were about her venture.
“If I had to do it all again, I would do it exactly the same way. I’ve enjoyed it a lot,” she said, noting she made to give personalized service.
“Ten years was all I was going to do, but I was having too good a time to quit,” she added.
The part she will miss the most will be the people she met over the years.
While Saturday was her last regular full day, she will be in the store for a few more days to sell the racks and store fixtures, plus any of the clothing she still has left before finally closing her doors.
