Downtown businesses seeing a bump in sales as federal office workers return

While many federal workers may be grumbling about long commutes and packed parking garages in the wake of the government's decision to mandate its employees back to the office three days a week, some downtown businesses are celebrating the bustling sidewalks, long coffee lines and return of lunch rushes.

"It was definitely a noticeable uptick as soon as Sept. 9 hit," said Manhattan Coffee Company owner Craig MacLeod of the return, which began on the second Monday of the month.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is pretty bumping now.- Craig MacLeod, Manhatten Coffee Company

In May, the federal government announced workers would return to the office three days a week, up from two. Executives must now be in the office at least four days a week.

Just a month after that mandate kicked in, MacLeod said business is up 30 to 40 per cent the first three days of the week.

"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is pretty bumping now," he said.

McLeod started the coffee shop nine months before the COVID-19 pandemic and it's been a tough slog even since, he said. 

"The federal workers were the first to be mandated away and the last ones to come back," he said.

Complaints about parking and traffic

Not all of his customers are happy to be back, MacLeod admitted. 

"What you hear is a lot of grumbling about the traffic, grumbling about transport," he said.

Next door to MacLeod's coffee shop on Laurier Avenue W., Hair Junkie co-owner Liz Ogilvie is also a little frustrated by the bumper-to-bumper traffic.

"It does affect the parking for our clients," she said.

Ogilvie's business didn't take a huge hit when office workers vacated downtown.

"It is nice to see people walking around, but ultimately we didn't necessarily rely on that kind of traffic returning back to downtown in order to keep our business going," she said. 

Over on Elgin Street, stylist Kyle Saldanha at Hair Games Salon is happy to have more people out and about.

"I've definitely seen a lot more walk-ins," Saldanha said. "What I've heard from some of the clients too is that because they're at the office more nowadays, they're more inclined to come and get their hair done during the day — on their lunch break or after work instead of making time on their weekends and stuff."

According to manager Alejandra Diaz, the lunch counter is busy again at Gooney's Arepas and Sandwich Works on Albert Street.

"Definitely an increase, especially between Tuesday and Thursday, lunch hour has been madness," she said. "That's very good news for us."

It's been nice to welcome back old customers, said Diaz, even if they're not all happy to be there. 

"I'll say overall people are happy to have a regular routine again, see old co-workers and stuff," she said. "Three out of five are very happy to come back."

Some positive changes

The return of public servants has been good news on Sparks Street, too.

"The announcement was a positive boost for our membership and we've certainly seen an increase in foot traffic since that's happened," said Kevin McHale, executive director of the Sparks Street Business Improvement Area (BIA) and Mall Authority Board.

However, McHale still worries too many downtown office buildings are sitting partially empty.

"Each building owner and manager has to figure out how they're going to maximize the properties," he noted.

But according to McHale, there is some encouraging progress.

"In the last year or so we've seen running groups and bike clubs starting to use Sparks as a base or a place to stop by and grab a coffee and relax as your meeting point, which is just fabulous," he said. "We didn't used to see that 10 years ago."