In the season 7 finale of Yes, We Are Open, Al is in Oakville, Ontario visiting Tyler and Jordie Schwartz from Retrofestive, a unique pop culture and Christmas store.
In the season 7 finale of Yes, We Are Open, Al is in Oakville, Ontario visiting Tyler and Jordie Schwartz from Retrofestive, a unique pop culture and Christmas store.
Tyler started selling Christmas Story leg lamps back in 2007. When that went well, he added Christmas Vacation moose mugs. Now Retrofestive is Canada’s top shop for old-school fun! Learn how he did it and about his journey along the way.
You can learn more about Retrofestive at retrofestive.ca.
Credits:
Allan: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, I'm Al Grego, and this is the season 7 finale of the Yes We Are Open podcast.
I'm back in Ontario for this last episode, headed west from Toronto along the Queen Elizabeth Way to Oakville. With a population of approximately 213, 000, Oakville is a vibrant town located on the shores of Lake Ontario between Toronto and Hamilton. Known for its charming downtown core, Oakville offers a blend of urban sophistication and small town charm.
The town boasts a thriving arts and cultural scene. Meanwhile, thanks to its proximity to major highways and the GO Transit system, it also provides an attractive option for commuters. Seeking a quieter lifestyle outside the bustle of Toronto. Oakville is also renowned for its high quality of life, with excellent schools, diverse recreational opportunities, and beautiful green spaces.
It's the home of Glen Abbey Golf Club, a world famous golf course which has hosted numerous Canadian Open Championships.
Oakville's economy is buoyed by such industries as technology, automotive, and pharmaceuticals. Drawing many [00:01:00] professionals and their families to make their home. It's consistently ranked among the top places to live in Canada, and for five years in a row, Oakville ranked in the top 20 best locations to invest in Canada, according to Site Selection Magazine.
Right now I'm driving along North Service Road East, parallel to the QEW. I turn north on Invicta Drive for a couple of blocks, and to my left is the location of this week's story, Retrofestive.
From the outside, Retrofestive may not look like much. Just a storefront and the end unit of an industrial park. But as soon as I open that door, industrial is replaced by Magical. That's Jordie, one of the owners. Tyler is her husband. We find Tyler in the back warehouse.
Tyler: Is that F. O. T. M. Al Grego?
Allan: It is.
Tyler: This is my wife, Jordie.
Jordie: Hi, nice to meet you.
Allan: Hi, nice to meet you too. This place just goes on forever.
Tyler: Yeah, yeah, we got a lot of stuff, that's for sure.
Allan: F. O. T. M. is an acronym for Friend of [00:02:00] Toronto Mike.
It's a bit of a long story, but Tyler and I met last year at a Toronto Mike live podcast event, hence the F. O. T. M. At the event, Tyler was giving away moose mugs from the movie Christmas Vacation. The You know, the ones they were using to drink eggnog. We got to talking. I found out he was a Moneris merchant and so here we are. Anyway, back to this podcast. Tyler takes me for a quick tour of his store.
Tyler: We just kind of are almost done flipping it for Christmas. When it's not Christmas, it's everything. Pop culture, not necessarily Christmassy. Just every movie, TV show, T shirts, mugs, you name it.
Allan: The storefront is many different rooms with shelves stocked with all sorts of retro toys, games, and candy.
Many with a Christmas theme, but not all. From retro toys and games like Evil Knievel's Stunt Cycle, or the original Pogo Ball, or Care Bears and Pound Puppies, to more current collectibles like Funko Pops of all genres, anime collectibles, [00:03:00] and action figures. But yes, most of what I see is Christmas related, with walls and walls of Christmas ornaments. Advent calendars, nativity sets, and tabletop decor from every imaginable pop culture genre. If they don't have it, it probably doesn't exist. But let Tyler know anyway, he might be able to make it happen. After our tour, Tyler and Jordie lead me into their office where we set up for their interview.
Tyler: Hi, my name is Tyler Schwartz, also known as Ty the Christmas Guy, and I'm the owner here at Retrofestive Pop Culture and Christmas Store.
Jordie: My name is Jordie Schwartz, I'm the co owner of Retrofestive Pop Culture and Christmas Store.
Allan: When did Retrofestive open?
Tyler: When we opened, it was probably 2008. I think that's maybe 17 years ago.
It wasn't like you see today. We actually started in our apartment. We started small. We brought in the first leg lamps from the movie A Christmas story that were ever Shipped from Canada. And it all started really when I went looking for a leg lamp. I was a fan of the movie and no one was selling them in this country.
And the U S wasn't shipping [00:04:00] into Canada because they're so big and they were very costly to ship. And I got to know the guy selling them in the States. And he said, Hey, if you want to be a Canadian distributor, you can do that. And that's kind of where it all began.
Allan: What's your background in business? Like what, what made you think you could start this?
Tyler: I kind of was doing it as a side hustle. My background is in marketing and communications. And at that time I was head of events at Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan. Actually, I had just really started there and I had this opportunity at the same time. To go into business selling leg lamps and other Christmas items. And you know what? I took a leap with the encouragement of my wife and we went into the leg lamp business.
Allan: So the leg lamp was your first sku?
Tyler: It was my first sku, uh, of many. And then from there we kind of branched out into Christmas vacation merchandise and Christmas vacation moose mugs. We were the first people to approach Warner Brothers and ask for a license.
No one had ever licensed anything, a Christmas story before. And actually I [00:05:00] partnered with the gentleman in the States who was selling the leg lamps. He had connections with the people at Warner brothers because you know, they were licensing for the leg lamps. And so together we started making moose mugs from Christmas vacation in China, importing them into North America.
And man, it was booming back then. This is probably 2009, 2010. And certainly In the USA, they sold hundreds of thousands of moose mugs and we had the Canadian market, tens of thousands of moose mugs every Christmas.
Allan: When Tyler came to you and said, I think we can start a business selling leg lamps, what was your reaction?
Jordie: Well, I have to say, I was pretty excited about the idea of it. We both were huge fans of the movie and we realized what an untapped market it was. And we knew that there were a lot of people like us that maybe wanted a leg limp, so we were young at the time.
We didn't worry too much. You know, we. I was working as a singing waitress in Niagara Falls.
Allan: Really?
Jordie: Yes. Uh, right. Yeah. That was about, yeah, I was working [00:06:00] in, yeah. And I was Remington's. Yep. Remington's of Montana. And I was still in university.
Allan: Well, I mean, what were you singing? What was your specialty? Were you doing Adele?
Jordie: Yeah, no.
Tyler: There was no Adele back then.
Jordie: No, that's true.
Allan: That was pre Adele.
Jordie: That was pre Adele. Yeah. We would sing lots of upbeat and romantic songs for our customers who were visiting Niagara Falls for the first time. And we would serve them their dinner while they were, while they were eating.
Tyler: And I
Jordie: and last come along. I was not planning on singing today.
Allan: Wow. That's that's great. Amazing. So was that what you wanted? You were kind of hoping that like a career in music or something?
Jordie: No, I've always wanted to have a career in education.
Allan: Okay.
Jordie: Yeah,
Allan: the singing was just kind of a,
Jordie: it was. Yeah, it's been a part of my life for a long time.
Allan: So, leg lamps, it's just a weird thing to start a business on just leg lamps. I mean,
Tyler: Well, and I mean, that was, that was the thing. It was really a lark. It was a foot in the door and we never said, Hey, this is [00:07:00] going to be our business, just selling leg lamps. It was really meant to be like, Oh, it's Christmas 2008 I think it was. And we said, let's sell them this Christmas. But the response was so great. So immediate that. We said, well, guess we got to double our efforts for next year. And then we, you know, our customers said, well, can you sell other Christmas movie stuff? And for a while, like a couple of years, we were kind of the Christmas movie merchandise people.
We brought in Charlie Brown, Christmas trees and home alone, turtle doves and, and all those things that you might remember from the old Christmas movies. You know, and then fast forward a few years later, and then we just started saying, you know, we're not just Christmas pop culture stuff. We're all pop culture stuff and all retro stuff.
And that's kind of where we've grown because at first we were just really focused on Christmas and we were happy to kind of coast through the rest of the year, just planning and leading up for the next year to come. But at some point, you know, probably once we started having kids and things, and once we had employees that we had to [00:08:00] keep on year round.
Then we said, well, we need to make this a year round viable business. And so that's what we did, you know, by having a year round pop culture store, we had customers and orders all year.
Allan: When did you open that?
Tyler: The first year that we had kind of a store here in our warehouse, I think was 2012,
Allan: probably
Tyler: four years in. So I know you talk a lot about challenges that businesses faced. One day we got a knock on the door from the friendly Oakville bylaw inspector because we were first working from our apartment but a couple years later we had moved into a home and we were shipping leg lamps out the door and Canada Post and Canpar pulled up in their trucks every day and we thought that was the greatest thing ever.
Our neighbors apparently did not think so. Somebody called the bylaw inspector and they kindly said, you know what? You can wrap up this season, but you need to figure it out. You need to have a real commercial establishment. So, you know, it was one of those things where that was difficult to hear, but it turned out to be a great thing because, [00:09:00] you know, we got our first little warehouse.
It was in the same building, but it was just a smaller unit. And we gradually grew year after year after year and our clientele grew too. But in those early days, we would have open house stores in our home. I remember one year, Jordie had a party for her friends from university, but we had our open house the next day.
So her friends went home around midnight and I spent all night. Clearing out the furniture and setting up tables and all the merchandise and we would open the front door to our home and invite in our customers who were none the wiser that we were up drinking and partying the night before.
Allan: So a pop up store in your house.
Tyler: Yes, and that's what we would do for a number of years and we still have customers saying, I shopped at your house. And we still got the same house but it's hard to imagine that that's what we did back then.
Our original name was not Retrofestive. Our original name was the Canadian Leg Lamp Company. Now, as you can imagine, that kind of limits you. So we did two or three [00:10:00] years called the Canadian Leg Lamp Company. And then at some point I thought, probably should have thought that one through. So I knew that I wanted to do retro and I knew I wanted to do Christmas. And I liked Retrofestive because it kind of sounded like retrospective.
Allan: Why Oakville?
Jordie: Tyler lived in Oakville when we started dating, but we both grew up in Port Colborne in the Niagara region. So we settled in Oakville when Tyler was working in marketing for a company here in Oakville and I was still in school in Guelph.
So it was a great place to, you know, to live at the time. And we've really just found that the community is so supportive of small businesses. And, you know, we've seen nothing but positive community support the entire time we've been here.
Tyler: Obviously it's a great place to raise a family and it's very central we find. So, you know, when our customers come. From Hamilton, Burlington, Milton, Toronto. Like it really does feel kind of like we're in the middle of the action and it's not too far for anyone to drive. So,
Allan: all right. You mentioned dragon's den. Let's talk about that experience. First of all, do you remember what year was it you were on.
Tyler: The first [00:11:00] time was 2011 and it was one of those things where I honestly, and I think this is probably true for a lot of companies that go on dragon's den. We weren't truly looking for an investment. We were happy to just keep doing our own thing. But. We were looking for, you know, the marketing power of the show. So we went to the auditions and they loved our story.
Jordie: We were just happy to get there because on the way there, our van ran out of gas. So it was a very stressful day getting to Dragon's Den that day. So it really just made it that much more exciting when we finally did arrive. And we're able to, you know, get in there and meet the dragons.
Tyler: And we're still married because I forgot to put gas in the car before the event. And we were running behind and I said, no, we'll, we'll gas up after the show. Uh, don't worry. Let's just get there. And we made it to the Gardner expressway in the van. All I can say is I think the dragons really loved it, but mostly they said, you know, not really for us, but can we buy one from you? And we did sell some.
Jordie: Yeah. I'm pretty sure that Kevin [00:12:00] O'Leary did purchase a leg lamp from us immediately following that episode.
Allan: What's your favorite thing that you sell here?
Jordie: I am a huge Home Alone fan, so I do love the turtle doves from Home Alone. We went to California and actually met the artist who makes them, and he was the artist who made them for the movie Home Alone 2 Lost in New York. So that whole experience, you know, I love the doves, but just the memory of going to meet him was super cool.
Tyler: I mean, I am, I am obviously fond of the Leg Lamp. I am fond of The origin story, but I think I would choose the moose mug and probably because in my head Anyway, it was my idea and it was a huge success
Allan: Which product that you sell are you the most surprised is so popular.
Jordie: Well, that's a toughie
Allan: Do you guys sell the pet rock?
Jordie: Oh, it's a huge seller People love the pet rock. We're sold out right now Yeah, I guess that's pretty surprising but yeah people love the pet rock
Tyler: You know what people love and this is something else that that we have exclusive is [00:13:00] the lifesaver storybooks Do you remember when you were a kid you got it with all the different flavors?
Well, they don't do that in Canada now They don't do that at all. They don't do the lifesaver storybooks, but a few years ago when they were still doing it It was all just the generic Five flavor ones. But what we do every year is we bring in the books from the States and we bring in all the different flavors and we make our own lifesaver storybooks, just the way you remember forming your kids.
So, you know, you get seven different flavors and it's all comes in the book and all that kind of thing. And. And people are, you know, just today I got an email saying, when are you doing that again? Because we're the only place that does it.
Allan: Because I mean, I'm looking over your shoulder and there's a Star Wars Chia pet.
Yeah. Right. And I mean, I'm thinking back to when Chia pets were a thing and a little surprise that they're still being made. Right. But you were able to find these things and give them a second life or at least give them a new market.
Tyler: Yeah. And that's the great thing. And really something we banked on every year that, you know, You know, just like we saw the rainbow bride and the strawberry shortcake, there seems to be a few new things every year that are a throwback to our youth [00:14:00] in the 1980s and 1990s.
I always say the good old days, you know, the better times. And so the trick is going out there and sourcing that stuff and finding it. And yeah, Gia Pets was one of them. They kind of came back to life, I don't know, maybe eight years ago. And now, uh, the biggest thing is that they're licensed styles. Back in the eighties, it was like a cat or a dog or whatever.
But now it's, you know, do you want Grogu or do you want Peewee Herman or Alf or Bob Ross? Bob Ross, yeah.
Allan: Oh, I'm sure that one's a popular one.
Jordie: Bob Ross is amazing.
Allan: Curating this stuff must be a majority of the fun for you.
Tyler: It's my passion. And my wife might say that maybe I buy too much stuff. I find too many great things. Cause it's constantly like, Oh, our customers would love this. So like, how can we not bring in the retro scratch and sniff stickers from the eighties? They've just launched those. And we certainly have to have every cent that they make. So Jordy would say. Hey, maybe 12 cents would do. And I'd say, no, they make 36 cents and they're all the exact ones they had in 1983 or whatever.
Allan: So did you [00:15:00] find the original manufacturer?
Tyler: !Yeah. I mean, we were, we, again, we got lucky. The original manufacturer. Just, uh, maybe two years ago, uh, decided, I guess we should start making these things again.
Jordie: Yeah. I think that Tyler has done an amazing job at curating this collection. There really is nothing quite like Retrofestive, you know, you can find a lot of these items in other stores, but there's nowhere else where you can find. All of it all together in one place. So he's done such a great job.
Allan: What's your favorite part of coming to work?
Jordie: Uh, well, I'm only here some of the time, you know, I spend most of my time at my job and raising our family, but I would have to say, especially, you know, when I'm here on weekends, when it's really busy in the store, just seeing how excited all of the customers are when they come in and. You know, we've had some of the same customers for 15 years. Like Tyler mentioned that we're shopping at our house. So we've seen their children grow up and it really is just such a fun family tradition for people that, that always brings me a lot of joy.
Allan: Up next from one SKU to 10, 000, [00:16:00] Tyler and Jordie have done a great job of growing Retrofestive into a thriving business with all that growth, there must've been. Some growing pains or were they, let's find out.
You're listening to, yes, we are Open. Tyler and Jordy Schwartz started their retro empire selling leg lamps from the movie, a Christmas story 17 years ago. Today they run Canada's top shop for old school. Fun. As with any business, there are bound to be struggles along the way, and Retrofestive is no different. Let's have a listen.
What's been the greatest struggle for retro?
Tyler: You know, honestly, I struggle on a day to day basis, and maybe it's partly my fault, but I find that I'm a jack of all trades. I do a little bit of everything around here, the marketing, the digital media, the online website, and all that kind of thing.
And the secret is that I don't know what I'm doing. Okay? So I've been doing this for 15 years, and it's 15 years by the seat of my pants. And really what I wanted to say to your listeners is [00:17:00] If you are out there and you are in the business of helping small businesses with digital marketing, social media, please call me because I can use some help.
What I found over the years, honestly, Al, is that, you know, I've contacted agencies, small agencies. And often they take your money and they don't really give you what you hoped for. And so much of the time, because I've been burned and in some ways, big and small, I just say, I'm going to do it myself. But I know that, you know, especially if you look at our website, it's pretty good, but I think it could be better.
It could be way better. If you look at our social media, you know, we do it really hit and miss. Some weeks we're particularly inspired and we do some great social media, the Instagram, Facebook, that kind of thing. But other times we're too busy working in the business and we don't really have anyone to do it.
And several times I've brought people on board to do it and I'm just not really happy with what they produce. I haven't found the perfect people to help us grow at an [00:18:00] affordable rate. You know what I mean? Like you've got, Maybe people that are just coming out of school who will work for, you know, minimum wage, but they don't quite have what it takes.
And you've got larger agencies who want lots of money and kind of under deliver. But I've always felt, you know, for a long time now that there's this middle ground and maybe I'm just can't find the right people, but if you're out there listening and you think you might be able to help me, give me a call.
Allan: I mean, I could totally see. A mall kiosk or, you know, a Retrofestive store in malls, right? Like I know malls are kind of shutting down and stuff, so I get it. That why you wouldn't make that leap, but it seems perfect for that kind of thing.
Tyler: Well, in fact, we have done a couple of mall kiosks over the years, I guess it was before the pandemic, we did it two or three times and each time was a learning experience.
I mean, when you start expanding to malls, it's difficult to do. It's difficult to find good help. And I think, you know, that You, that might be an ongoing theme of what we're talking about today is finding the [00:19:00] people that can help you, especially when you're kind of seasonal. When we opened up our mall stores, we did one in Burlington, one in Mississauga and one in London, Ontario.
And if you can't find the right people, what happens is you, you usually sign the contract in the summertime. You start buying all the inventory, and then typically the last thing you do is go out to find people to staff it. And it's really stomach churning when the right people don't walk through the door.
You know, we signed a contract to have a mall store at the White Oaks Mall in London, Ontario. I think it was something like $10,000 in rent that we guaranteed them. We moved all of our inventory there, we hired people, and you know what? The guy who was managing it flaked out two weeks into the season.
Well, it was two weeks into our season here in Oakville and it was the day before the store was supposed to open because he was going to commute from Oakville and, you know, we said, are you sure you want to do this? Uh, you know, are you really sure? And then once we spent a couple of weeks going back and forth, he said, ah, [00:20:00] you know, I changed my mind.
I don't think I want to do this. We were going hot and heavy here in the warehouse, shipping orders and running our store here. And all of a sudden our guy drops out for the London mall store. And you know what we did? We just said, we're not opening. We don't have time to find someone else. It's too stressful.
I thought I was going to have a heart attack because I had invested all this money in the merchandise and in, in the rent. And so I just told them all, we'll still pay the rent, but we're not going to open our store. I'm not really sure what the contract said, but they did make some reference to the fact that they could sue us if they wanted to.
Anyway, we got away with that. And it was a learning lesson. It was like, you gotta be sure. So after that, we did do a couple of mall stores, but they were closer to home, you know, within 10 minutes or 20 minutes of driving. So if somebody did drop out, we would be able to step in and do it. So.
Allan: But right now you don't have a mall store?
Tyler: We don't, um, since our last store was in 2019, and then we know what happened in 2020. Malls are precarious at the best of times, and they do [00:21:00] get busy for the holiday season. And I'm always tempted to do it, but so far we haven't done it.
Jordie: I would say one of the biggest challenges is competing. With huge corporations and big business, like Amazon, we try so hard to have competitive pricing and, you know, I can tell you firsthand that we offer better customer service than really any company I've ever dealt with. And, you know, it's just so hard because really a lot of times what it comes down to for customers is price point. And there are just times when we cannot compete and also like having something delivered to your door that day or the very next day, as much as we try. You know, we're not quite there yet. And we do have really fast shipping, but it's really tricky to compete with big business. That's for sure.
Allan: How were you affected by inflation?
Tyler: Greatly affected by inflation, really, you know, everything that we sell keeps going up in price and a lot of it comes in from the states too. So you're affected by the exchange rate and the high rates of shipping costs and all that kind of thing. So, you know, little by little, we try so hard to keep our prices down because [00:22:00] we know that that's what our customers want. And we know that Amazon is always just a click away. But, you know, sometimes you just got to raise the prices. And luckily our customers have been following us and it hasn't been too bad.
Our pandemic story is the opposite of many. We had so much sales. We had to turn our website off. We were. Not prepared for it with the product, with the employees, with the size of our warehouse, the demand was massive. We were one of the only ones besides Amazon who ran out of everything. You know, we, we were the only guy standing, it felt like anyway.
And, uh, people were turning to us, especially at Christmas time. Our typical Christmas season is stressful because we go zero to 90 in the case of two weeks. All of a sudden people decide they need what we're selling. But when there is a pandemic, it's that tenfold. And there were some stressful days. I just remember thinking like, stop it because you know, my computer dings every time we get an order, which, you know, in most years, that's pretty good, but [00:23:00] it was like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, and we're like, turn it off.
We didn't want to under deliver. So. There were days when we said, okay, it's three o'clock. We're turning off the orders. Now, if you wish to order from Retrofestive, come back tomorrow at 9 AM. Have you ever heard of anybody doing that? Never, but we had to.
Jordie: Customer experience is so important to Retrofestive and, you know, not being able to fulfill orders in a timely way. We didn't want to do that.
Tyler: My brother and my sister in law were helping us out like anybody that we could find to help us pick and pack orders. It was really an interesting time. And especially because all around us, you see people really struggling. Business is really struggling and we were struggling, but kind of the opposite.
Allan: Coming up after the break, we find out what the future holds for Retrofestive.
Welcome back to yes. We were open despite all the challenges faced by Tyler and Jordie to grow retro festival, keeping a quality client experience and competitive price. They've persevered. And as of this interview, they're now gearing up for their 17th holiday season. [00:24:00] So what are their plans for the future? Let's find out.
What would you say is your future outlook?
Tyler: Well, you know, our future outlook, I think is to stay the course, to be honest. I think a lot of companies have growth strategies and aggressive ideas. At this point in my life, we're focused on raising three young boys. And my mantra constantly is keep the wheels on the track and keep on going.
You know, I do have ideas about where this could go, but for the time being, while we're kind of Also distracted by our family and trying to have that work life balance. We're good with what we've got now. And if we can keep going down that road and keeping the customer we've got and bringing more people, then I think we're happy.
Jordie: Well, Tyler's always on the quest for the next best thing. So I'm always hopeful that he will continue to find the coolest, newest things, but. Yeah, I think that we're both in agreement, you know, given the time of our lives right now. And our team members have been with us for many years and we're kind of all in [00:25:00] the same place.
You know, most have children, young children as well. So we're just happy to keep going as we are and just hope that everybody can have that. Perfect work life balance.
Allan: All right, I'll start with you on this last question. Looking at what you both have built over the last 17 years, how do you feel?
Jordie: I feel really proud of Retrofestive. I think it's such a fun, unique Canadian experience, and I'm just so grateful that we've been able to keep it going for so long. And I'm so proud of Tyler because he really is the Chief Cheermeister. He's really, he's really kept us going. So
Allan: I love that reference!
Tyler: In so many ways. It feels like it was so long ago when we started. And in some ways it feels like it's, you know, yesterday, but I think, you know, looking back all in all the most positive thing that's come from it. Are the countless families who come in here and look us in the eye and say, you are our Christmas tradition.
We watch the movies, we listen to the music and we go to Retrofestive. And for some people, maybe they're in a [00:26:00] different province and shopping online, but for the locals, it's coming to our store with their family. And you know, we're at the point now where we've seen these kids grow up. They come in every year.
And I, you know, I've kind of got goosebumps just saying it, but for a guy who grew up loving Christmas, it is so cool. To know that we are part of people's Christmases and that they look forward to coming and seeing us every year. There's nothing like it.
Allan: Thank you so much for your time.
Tyler: Thank you.
Jordie: Thank you.
Allan: Is Retrofestive open?
All: Yes, we are open.
Allan: Perfect.
That's the story of Retrofestive.
Nostalgia is a powerful drug. That's an adage attributed to many different people, and depending on how they finish the adage, it could lead to a negative sentiment or a positive one. The older I get, the more I lean to the positive. I like having a memory triggered when I see, hear, feel, taste, or smell something that takes me back. Walking through Retrofestive, I'm flooded with that feeling. It's like a warm, happy hug.
Now, if you want to take a more cold, hard view on the subject, you [00:27:00] could say that nostalgia is big business because, well, it is.
According to the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. Nostalgia is a multi billion dollar business expected to grow to 500 billion by 2030.
Now, Tyler and Jordy probably didn't have those numbers in mind when they decided to sell leg lamps. They just wanted to share their own nostalgia. Well, sharing has paid off, and I think they're well positioned for the future. Oh, and by the way, I took the family to Retrofestive this past weekend, and they loved it.
I think we may have found a new Christmas tradition.
Yes, We Were Open is a Moneris podcast production. I'd like to thank Jordie and Tyler for taking the time to share their story. You can learn more about Retrofestive at Retrofestive.ca. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn @Retrofestive.
Please support this podcast by writing us a review on Apple Podcasts or rate us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a Canadian small business owner or know of one with an interesting story of perseverance to tell, I'd love to help [00:28:00] tell it. You can contact me at podcast@moneris.com.
And that does it for another season. That was so much fun. I hope you enjoyed it. As always, I'd like to thank everyone on Moneris' Marcom team for their help and support in putting this season together. There are too many to name, so please check the show notes for their names.
I'd also like to thank the amazing merchants who welcomed me into their place of business and allowed me to tell their stories this season: the Real Escape Canada, Scout Coffee and Community, Spice Circle, Door World, Shooters Family Golf Center and Restaurant, AVO Game Room, Generate cakes and Retrofestive. Please support them by supporting their business.
Production on season eight will begin in the spring. So expect a whole new season of small Canadian businesses and their stories by April of 2025. And keep your ears on this feed. I'll post updates to season eight approaches.
And finally, I'd like to thank you, the listener for listening, subscribing, and spreading the word. Your support has once again helped this podcast win an award. The 2024 branded podcast of the year [00:29:00] from the Quill Podcast Awards. And we've earned a handful of other nominations from the People's Choice Awards and the Canadian Podcast Awards. So a huge thank you to all of our listeners. Without you, this would not be possible.
So for the final time this year, On behalf of all of us at Moneris, sincerely, thank you for listening to the Yes, We Were Open podcast.
I'm Al Grego.
See you in Season 8.