Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Good morning, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the Mac city morning show. I am your host Elliot Pierre, and we're going to start the show off the same way we start every show off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. And the fact that you spend with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, Tanner and with the intro
Speaker 4 00:00:28 Hey everybody, Keith Simpson here from neural Toyota. Uh, just quick chat about, uh, the wonderful community we live in here. As you guys know, we support the El Behrens. We've joined the drive-in movie theater. We're involved in the marathon here in Fort McMurray and make sure we're taking care of the kids and all the local businesses, all the local charities and all the local foundations guys. That's what makes this community such an amazing place to live.
Speaker 0 00:00:54 Okay. And we're back, almost jumped the gun on that one. I'm not gonna lie Towner. Wouldn't be the first time. Wouldn't be the first time. So big shout out to neural Toyota, Keith Nehmer fat, all the boys and girls down at neuralgia for being the title sponsor to the show. We do appreciate it. It keeps the lights on. So very much, very much big. Thank you to you guys now on that note, as you know, I do not introduce my guests because they can do a better job at that than myself. So can you please tell everybody at home who you are and what you're about?
Speaker 6 00:01:19 Hi. So my name is Kayla. I am a resident of Fort McMurray and I am the owner of simply that boutique,
Speaker 0 00:01:27 Simply that boutique tell me what simply that boutique is about.
Speaker 6 00:01:31 Yeah, so simply that boutique, we are an online clothing store and we have women's and children's clothing. Um, and we are simply that boutique because we are basically an elevated casual, so it's the type of clothes you can just put on and feel put together without not a lot of effort. Oh,
Speaker 0 00:01:46 Okay, cool. I was just going to ask you, like, what, what does boutique mean? But you kind of just nail that one.
Speaker 6 00:01:54 Yeah. So we're not, we're not a big chain store. You can come online, can shop, we have, um, a select number of products kind of cater to, um, individuals. If you have questions about our products or looking for a suggestion about what you want, we're a two-person team. So we can cater and be very more of an intimate experience for clothing shopping.
Speaker 0 00:02:14 Okay. So this is 100% online though.
Speaker 6 00:02:16 It is currently a hundred percent online. Yes.
Speaker 0 00:02:19 Interesting. Okay. So as far as your inventory, where's the inventory. Is this something that like, you guys have selected certain inventory and it sits elsewhere? Or do you have in locally in town? Like how does that all work?
Speaker 6 00:02:30 So our inventory is based in Fort McMurray, so we run out of my home. Um, but we are looking to try to get out of our house cause we just want to be able to serve everybody better. Um, we are local, so we offer delivery and pick up Everything gets shipped to us. So we are a local.
Speaker 0 00:02:48 That's awesome. Hey, listen, you're local. If you're here, Period, I've had this discussion with like, there's a difference between artisans and like local businesses there, there just are. And like I've had some discussions with artisans in regards to like, oh, well your, your shirt didn't get made here. This, that, and the other. And I'm like, you're painting come from here.
Speaker 6 00:03:07 Fair enough. Right. Like
Speaker 0 00:03:08 The per the raw materials that you got that you created, whatever you made, maybe like a sweater or a painting like that came from somewhere else.
Speaker 6 00:03:15 Yeah. No, this is not me. So I'm the closed once that
Speaker 0 00:03:20 Yeah, if you're here and you're paying rent or a mortgage and taxes, you're
Speaker 6 00:03:24 Local a hundred percent. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:03:26 Okay. So how did you, well, first off, how long has this been? This, this has been operational for,
Speaker 6 00:03:31 So we have been, um, an organization or a business where we want to call us since October of 20, 20.
Speaker 0 00:03:39 Oh, wow. Okay.
Speaker 6 00:03:40 I've really great prime time to, you know, starting things was really prime time. So we actually used to be operate from a different name, but we actually changed over to simply that boutique this winter. Um, so we're actually, I guess you would call us a subsidiary of our other organization, um, Northern dance apparel. And we started the boutique because we really want to get all of our businesses into a storefront And we thought we're just providing an opportunity for everybody to access our products would get us into a storefront.
Speaker 0 00:04:13 Okay. Interesting. All right. So now you're two years into the game you're dealing. Did you always start off with women's and children's clothing or did it kind of organically grow into that?
Speaker 6 00:04:25 It's always been women's and children's um, I think just, it started with my own personal experience, not being able to find the type of clothes I liked locally, um, and that for my child as well. So it was sort of a, okay, well, let's find what we can, let's see what we can see. And then we just went from there.
Speaker 0 00:04:44 Okay. Now I'm just going to ask, cause you got two fellows here. Why aren't you, uh, servicing the mail industry?
Speaker 6 00:04:53 Really good question. Yeah. My husband actually asked me all the time. He was like, are you going to bring in clothes for me? You're going to like, where's my stuff. Um, to be honest, there's not a lot of interest. I mean, if I'm wrong, if I'm wrong, I'm happy to be wrong. And I'd love to do that. But to have our very fashionable folks in town and are very work orientated fashion in town,
Speaker 5 00:05:16 You have one male sitting in front of you that would absolutely love to spend money at a boutique for nice clothes.
Speaker 0 00:05:24 Yeah. Although I wear the same exact episode every day for this show when I'm not here, I do like to,
Speaker 5 00:05:30 And the range of jackets I've seen you bring in that are ridiculously multi cost is yeah. You would buy multiple jackets all the time.
Speaker 0 00:05:44 A hundred percent. A hundred percent.
Speaker 6 00:05:45 Yeah. I mean, that's it, that's true. I mean, there's only one guy and I try really hard to, to not do something that somebody else in town is already doing. That's just, it's not really cool. Um, and we do have a couple of boutiques in town that do cater to some high fashion, uh, males in town. Oh,
Speaker 0 00:06:03 Interesting.
Speaker 6 00:06:04 So, I mean, they've already got their jam. I don't want to repeat what they're doing. Fair enough.
Speaker 0 00:06:08 So,
Speaker 6 00:06:08 You know, they can, they do their thing and we'll let them do their thing and we'll do our thing.
Speaker 0 00:06:12 So now with your store being online and you being here and a resource, do people like call in and do you help like walk them through if they need that or have you, does people just see it online or what's that process like
Speaker 6 00:06:26 So far, most people connect with us on social media. Um, mostly it's usually on sizing. People see something we posted and they say, Hey, how does this one fit? Um, or this is what I've experienced with this product in the past. Is this one the same? Or I'm an ABC size? Which one should I get?
Speaker 0 00:06:43 Right.
Speaker 6 00:06:44 And that's what we love to do. So I, I personally love shopping for people. So I'm very happy to tell you all the things you should buy.
Speaker 0 00:06:52 Well, that's the cool part. I think like a lot of the stuff that you order online unfortunately, is just basically that you order it and you're reading the description and that's all you get. But now that you have, that's why I was asking like, what's the human interaction. So that's cool.
Speaker 6 00:07:08 Yeah. And we're hoping to, with like with restrictions coming, lifting and whatnot, hoping to access more local events too, that we can actually get out into the community and people can see our stuff right. To see our team so they can feel the fabric, feel the products, eat the product, try it on. And that definitely helps you.
Speaker 0 00:07:25 Yeah. No doubt. Now, in regards to your product and how your outsourcing it, like where do you find it from? Do you guys like find certain brands and distributors that you'd like to work with or is it kind of like, oh yeah, this is kind of our core that we get it from here. How does that all, how do you source clothing?
Speaker 6 00:07:45 So we have a couple of brands that we really know and love that we know people in Fort McMurray love. So we always go to them, but we're always looking to for different brands because Ashton changes, styles change. Um, we do have some that some people have recommended to us that we've brought in. Uh, but we're always, we're always searching. We're not complacent with our, with what we're bringing in. Um, sometimes things, people don't like what we have, so we change it
Speaker 0 00:08:10 Up. No doubt.
Speaker 6 00:08:11 So yeah, we're always looking
Speaker 0 00:08:13 Okay. Now in regards to getting your message out there, because it's an online platform, is there a certain social media platform that we feel works better and that you kind of focus on or are you kind of on all of them?
Speaker 6 00:08:25 Uh, so we're definitely on Facebook. We're definitely on Instagram. I will admit that I am very slow to get on to anything else. I don't consider myself to be an old person, but the ever changing social media definitely could makes me feel my age. I don't consider myself an old person. Um, yeah, we're, we're trying to get out there.
Speaker 0 00:08:45 Instagram and Facebook are your two big platforms that you're on. Then
Speaker 6 00:08:50 That's where we're most active.
Speaker 0 00:08:51 Which one do you think is, uh, bears more for you?
Speaker 6 00:08:56 I think Facebook, Facebook tends to be a much more mom orientated social media platform, just because there's usually so much information. That's not, um, you know, like programmed and you can always go into your, have all your mom groups.
Speaker 0 00:09:11 That's right. Okay. Now, do you find most of your sale? I have to assume the majority of your sales come performing, right. That's a pretty good assumption, but have you got orders from other places?
Speaker 6 00:09:22 We have actually had quite a bit of people from Calgary really? Which is really interesting because nobody from our team is in Calgary. We don't know if we just like struggled down there, but shout out to Calgary.
Speaker 0 00:09:35 There you go. Cause it's online. It could be anywhere.
Speaker 6 00:09:38 Could be anywhere. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:09:39 Oh, very interesting. That's cool. That's what I like about this like online world that we live in right now, although you're a local company and that's cool. Fort McMurray raw, you still have the opportunity to market and sell your products globally.
Speaker 6 00:09:53 Yeah, it's great. Because ultimately it means we bring back more to Fort McMurray. So I mean, Hey, whoever wants to support us, we'll, we'll take the support here.
Speaker 0 00:10:02 There we go. So what about clothing? Like you explained, you wanted to find clothes that like spoke for you and that you wanted for your child. So that was like the initial step, but how did you then get into the industry of clothing? Like I think a lot of people think exactly like you, but they don't start their own clothing company.
Speaker 6 00:10:22 Yeah. Um, a lot of trial and error. Um, we definitely have a few products that have been sitting forever. Um, but I'm very much a person. I just, I messaged a lot of websites. I'm on the line. A lot of people will be like, Hey, I'm this person, this is what we want to do. Can you help us out? And um, I definitely think it helped that we started during a time when people were not spending money, who vendors were very much like, sure. You want to buy it for absolutely. Here you go. Um, yeah. It's that was, we just, just put feelers out and said, Hey
Speaker 0 00:10:54 Yeah, cool. Well, listen, Tanner just hit me with a, here's a little phone shake. That means he's ready with his segment. It's called the Mac city minute. But before we get into the segment and I wish you nothing but good luck. We got to give a big shout out to Napa. Napa is a sponsor for this segment. So if you guys don't know who Napa is, please go check out their site. They're an awesome indigenous group here in Fort McMurray that helps promote that message. And they have a trade show coming up and they have a event also coming up. That's virtual and in person. So go check out NABA and thank you now, but for sponsoring the Mac CD minute on that note, Tanner hit her with the Mexican minute.
Speaker 5 00:11:32 Alrighty. Question number one. What is your favorite thing about bringing your sense of style to Fort McMurray?
Speaker 6 00:11:42 Then I get to do it.
Speaker 5 00:11:44 Question number two. What is the most interesting piece of clothing you've seen come through your shop?
Speaker 6 00:11:53 I would definitely say one of our printed hoodies.
Speaker 5 00:11:58 Question number three. What is your favorite historical style trend?
Speaker 6 00:12:05 Oh, that's a tricky one. I have to say, honestly, I think the fifties 50 style dresses. Those are my, those are my favorite. Okay.
Speaker 5 00:12:14 Question number four. What is your go-to brand when you need an outfit for going out?
Speaker 6 00:12:21 My go-to brand is probably a cam cam jeans KK.
Speaker 5 00:12:27 And your final question. What is one thing about Fort McMurray's fashion industry that would surprise the average person?
Speaker 6 00:12:35 The average person? I would say that we actually have quite a bit of high fashion in town.
Speaker 5 00:12:41 And those have been your five questions
Speaker 0 00:12:43 I know in Tanner is asking your favorite fashion trend. I know what his favorite fashion trend is. Fanny pack
Speaker 5 00:12:51 Greggy sweater.
Speaker 0 00:12:52 Oh yeah. That's that's baggy sweater. Is that even that's just, is that a fad or,
Speaker 5 00:12:57 I mean, at one point in my growing up, it was, I just kept it.
Speaker 6 00:13:03 Yeah. I'd say you're probably back in luck. Cause the nineties are coming back. Flare jeans.
Speaker 5 00:13:08 Oh no, not even jeans, no track pants. Baggy sweater. Black hat. Yeah. That is my go-to. That is my peanut butter and jelly of outfits.
Speaker 0 00:13:18 That's funny. I'll come
Speaker 6 00:13:20 Back.
Speaker 0 00:13:20 So in regards to these clothing and trends, you were just saying for Marie has like a surprisingly like a high-end fashion. Like what do you mean by that?
Speaker 6 00:13:32 I think most people, when they think Fort McMurray, we get the stereotype of the oil sands and like, you know, we had a lot of stereotypes about what moms do, but there's quite a bit of working professionals in town that have nothing to do with the oil industry. Correct. And we do have boutiques in town that do specialize in that. And that's kind of why we don't do that because again, that's what they're doing. We're letting them do their thing.
Speaker 5 00:13:54 So you remember Colt luxury
Speaker 0 00:13:56 KA luxury. Yeah. That was a Liam's uh, it still exists online.
Speaker 5 00:14:01 That's high fashion. That
Speaker 0 00:14:02 Is high fashion. Scarves, scarves pocket handkerchiefs pocket squares. Yeah. You make some amazing bags. He makes some, I've got a few called luxury things. Yeah. Yeah, there is high-end but I, the reason I ask, I know as Tanner says, I got some jackets, but I, I feel you're right. Even people in Fort McMurray don't know about those local options.
Speaker 6 00:14:25 Yeah. There's lots like we have and I definitely, I love that's what we do. I definitely think people need to, we have, we are five or six, like women's boutiques in town that I hope people know about. And I'm just repeating information. They already know. But we do have lots of local, some online, some have store friends, teaks in town that I think everyone should go check out because the more we support local, the more we more boutiques we're going to come, the more options are going to
Speaker 0 00:14:50 Come. That's right. I know about none of them. I know about none of them. I know none of these ladies boutiques I'm fully unaware of, but I do see postings every once in a while. I'm like, Hey, listen, it obviously exists. And I knew, I know growing up here, back in the day, there wasn't that many options. So the fact that like you just said, there's more than one step in the right direction.
Speaker 6 00:15:12 Yeah. People are. I think people are getting a little fed up about options, not being available, that people are venturing out. People are starting to spread the love and realize how awesome MacMurray is.
Speaker 0 00:15:23 Well, I think the cool part about what you do is actually the customer service component, because I know I try not to because like when you order stuff online, you never know. So if there's somebody that you can actually talk to and even better yet, if it's somebody that is local, that has the material in front of them and they can talk and you've tried it on, you've worn it. You've spoken to other people. That's not always the case. When you speak to like a customer service representative in whatever country they may be in. You know? So I think that's a really cool aspect of what you do.
Speaker 6 00:15:53 Yeah. We love that part. We love interacting with people in our community and even if it's in Calgary, but we do love speaking with the people here. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:16:00 Now you said that this all stem from a dancing organization what's that about?
Speaker 6 00:16:05 Yeah. So, so in the height of the, uh, of the pandemic, um, I was kind of lots of what to do in our local dance store in town had shut down. And so, um, my own dance teacher in town, so I decided, well, we need a dance store in town. Right. So kind of picked up the charge. Okay. Um, so yeah, so we also want a dance store in town. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:16:26 What's that called?
Speaker 6 00:16:27 So it's called Northern dance apparel and we do operate online as well. But we do have the option. You can come in and actually try stuff on Dance, shoe languages, a whole other ballgame.
Speaker 0 00:16:38 I talk about this cause I was just going to ask you, like, I don't know what dance apparel would be in regards to, like, you got so many, so many different types of dance, so many genres. So like, what does that mean? I like, I've been to tons of recitals and they always have these costumes on. I never really thought about it until right now. Like, oh yeah, you probably have to buy that from somewhere. So what is dance apparel consists of?
Speaker 6 00:17:00 Yeah. So dance apparel is your tap shoes, your ballet shoes, your dad's shoes, your tights, your body suits, your shorts, your all the extra things that come with those. So we leave the costumes of the studios, but we deal with all of the stuff you wear to class.
Speaker 0 00:17:15 Okay. Now, when you say you leave it to the studios, explain that component to me, studios by their own costumes,
Speaker 6 00:17:21 Studios will buy the costumes.
Speaker 0 00:17:23 Okay.
Speaker 6 00:17:23 Yeah. So if you registered at ABC dance studio, they're going to say, this is the song we're going to pick this as your red sparkly up that you get today. And this is what we're going to wear for a recital or competition. So they deal with all that stuff. We don't, we don't, we didn't, we don't touch that.
Speaker 0 00:17:38 All the stuff like the day-to-day wear is what they would get from you. And there's not the, the one store, there was a storefront that doesn't exist anymore. It
Speaker 6 00:17:47 Doesn't exist anymore. Oh,
Speaker 0 00:17:49 Wow. Interesting.
Speaker 6 00:17:50 Kind of a sad day for her to, yeah,
Speaker 0 00:17:52 No doubt because there used to be only one dance studio here. When I was growing up, it was called Taylor dance. That's when my sister used to perform in and that was it, Taylor dance. But since I started doing this show, there's a bunch of different studios here. And even like, uh, back in the day, Irish dance used to be a big thing here, but there was only one Irish. And now there's a bunch of different Irish dance teachers. Like dance has really exploded in this community. I'm shocked to hear that there isn't like a location that would facilitate for that. Well, there is there's you,
Speaker 6 00:18:27 There is. We're trying to get back into a storefront. So hopefully with, you know, the world's shifting back to normal again, can hopefully fill that void.
Speaker 0 00:18:36 Now, in regards to that, I know that there was, there were studios that still kept going to did online courses and stuff. Did I have to assume you still had some people coming in that, Hey, listen, I'm doing tap shoes.
Speaker 6 00:18:48 We had very, very minuscule like options. Um, we did have people come in. Um, there was a couple of organizations in town that did some orders with us that kinda kept the lights on. Um, yeah, there was definitely some, you know, I felt bad too. There's some studios that got the go-ahead to do their recitals and then restrictions came in and it was like, oh, mountain, their minds
Speaker 0 00:19:11 Pump fake.
Speaker 6 00:19:12 Enjoy your brand new shoes. You don't get to use
Speaker 0 00:19:14 That's right. Well, hope. Hopefully everything goes back to somewhat normal where people are coming out again and dancing and
Speaker 6 00:19:22 I sure hope so. Cause like you said, our communities, their dance communities, huge. So everyone needs to get back on stage.
Speaker 0 00:19:27 Great. Cool. Well, listen, Tanner gave me the watch tap. That means we are at the end of our 20 minutes. Unfortunately.
Speaker 6 00:19:34 I told
Speaker 0 00:19:35 You, so listen, I want to thank you very much for coming in. Really do appreciate it. Anytime you want to come back again, please let us know. We'd love to have you back to promote anything you got going on or any new lines of service or maybe if you're you're out there at like a trade show or something you can say, Hey, come visit me at this trade show. So please come back again. I'll
Speaker 6 00:19:54 Do cool.
Speaker 0 00:19:55 All right. Anyways, Fort McMurray. Oh wait, wait, wait man. I totally forgot. There's a shameless shout out or plug. You got to shameless shout out or plug at the end of the episode. So you got the lights, the camera, the mic have fun.
Speaker 6 00:20:08 Ah, yeah. So we're like you said, the trade show. We are, we're going to be at the trade show at Mac island at the end of April as well, a ton of other local businesses. So I hope everyone comes out.
Speaker 0 00:20:18 There we go. That was good. A shameless shout out or plug. Do you know what date in April? That is
Speaker 6 00:20:22 The 28th. 29th.
Speaker 0 00:20:25 Okay. And I'm assuming this is that my calendar
Speaker 6 00:20:29 Is put on by the chamber of commerce.
Speaker 0 00:20:30 Okay. There we go. See, I did not know that. So now I'll definitely show up. All right. For McMurry wood, Buffalo, the rest of the world. Thank you so much for tuning in big shout out to our sponsors today. Title sponsor, neurol Toyota and a Napa for sponsoring the Mac city minute. Totally appreciate it. Thank you very everybody at home. I hope you're having a great day and we'll see you tomorrow, please.
Speaker 7 00:20:54 Uh, Dalio Wade. And
Speaker 8 00:20:56 Another morning show later by us.
Speaker 10 00:21:11 Talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
