When oil prices crashed in the 1980s, a popular bumper sticker in Alberta summed up the lesson residents learned the hard way.

It read: ‘Please, Lord, give us another oil boom and I promise not to piss it away this time.’

In the last 10 years, Alberta has been through three economic downturns, only now hauling itself out of the most recent slump.

Belt-tightening by the Ralph Klein government has everyone watching their pennies. The heady days of extravagant spending by Peter Lougheed through the Heritage Trust Fund are long gone.

But, just because things are not the way they used to be does not mean the economic portrait is a gloomy one.

Alberta’s population is a stable 2.5 million, with a mere 1,300 people leaving the province last year.

Unemployment is 9.2% – the second-lowest in the country – even with deficit reduction tactics by Klein such as cuts to hospitals, school boards and social services, which mean layoffs for teachers, nurses and government employees.

Other workers are settling for rollbacks just to hang onto their jobs.

In spite of all this, retail sales are on the upswing, showing a 4.7% increase last year over 1992, and those figures continue to rise in 1994.

Tough times and the spectre of layoffs has changed not only how people spend their money, but how retailers do business.

Having been burnt once by low oil prices, a recession and high interest rates, consumers are now more careful when opening their wallets, but they are spending, nonetheless.

Brad Wright, of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, says ‘people aren’t willing to go into debt anymore.’

Wright says Alberta consumers have shed their debt in recent years and are not about to acquire more. That leaves them cash-rich, but with much more careful spending habits.

Wright says the retail industry is in the midst of a shaking out and restructuring of many existing stores, continuing growth in the megastore concept and an increase in niche marketing.

The restructuring of Alberta’s retail is most obvious in the area of megastores, which have swept into the province in a big way in recent years.

It began about 10 years ago with grocery stores such as the Real Canadian Superstore and Food for Less. Recently, the concept has shifted away from food to other goods such as hardware, toys and office supplies.

But the formula that works is consistent, no matter what the merchandise – big selection, competitive prices and high volume sales.

In the last year alone, Alberta has seen the arrival of three hardware megastores: Eagle, a subsidiary of an Atlanta-based company, Aikenheads Home Improvement Warehouse and Revvy.

Four of these opened in Edmonton in the last six months.

Jack Timm manages a 140,000-square-foot Eagle Hardware & Garden (Canada) store in north Edmonton.

Timm says the reason behind the boom in hardware is simple.

‘People don’t move the way they did a few years ago,’ he says. ‘Instead of buying or building a new home, more people are staying put and will renovate instead.’

Timm’s store, which opened last fall, was the first of the hardware megastores to launch in Alberta.

He says until Eagle, there were no major players in the market and the move was a logical one for the u.s. company.

Within months, Aikenheads arrived and Revelstoke lumber opened up a superstore of its own.

Fuel market

Timm says he is not worried about the competition from the other big stores, adding rivalry will only fuel the market by generating consumer interest and keeping prices competitive.

The figures for home starts confirm the home improvement trend.

Laurie Scott, of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in Edmonton, says home starts for 1993 in Edmonton are down slightly over 1992, while in Calgary, there was a 6% drop last year.

Scott expects the figures for 1994 to drop again in both cities, adding people are not moving as much, and renovating is an attractive alternative to building a home.

He says the most stable part of any homebuilders’ business is the renovation end.

Futurist Faith Popcorn’s theory of ‘cocooning,’ in which people stay home more, keeps coming up when you look at the successes of the Alberta retail market.

More and more people are spending time at home, and, as a result, spending money on things that belong at home.

From renovations to entertainment and gardening supplies, the list goes on as to what kind of purchases are being made.

United Furniture Warehouse, formerly United Buy and Sell, knows that.

Over the last three years, the b.c.-based company has opened nine stores in Alberta from Grande Prairie to Medicine Hat, featuring name brand products at lower prices.

Merchandise is bought in bulk and sold in a warehouse environment with non-commissioned sales staff.

Bill MacIsaac, who manages one of the Edmonton stores, says the chain is doing a booming business and plans are in the works for continued expansion across Western Canada and the Northwest U.S.

A&B Sound, an aggressive company which offers what it claims are the lowest prices for tapes, compact discs ($12) and newly published books, is another b.c.-based company that opened two stores in Alberta last year.

Since August, when the 50,000-sq.-ft. store in downtown Calgary opened, 700,000 people have wandered through four levels of entertainment goods from books and cds to computers and audio equipment. The location is one of the chain’s top performers.

Electronics

Statistics Canada figures show Albertans to be the largest consumers of electronic products in the country.

People in the province own more cd players, personal computers and compact video cameras than anywhere else in the country.

Seventy-eight per cent of the population owns a vcr, and 14% own a compact video camera.

Almost half of Alberta households possess two or more tvs, and 25% have personal computers.

Big screen tvs are a hot item, and Chris Shepherd, manager of the downtown Calgary a&b store, says the reason is because of the long winters and the decrease in price in the last few years.

Shepherd also says people are spending a lot of money on small ticket items such as cds and books, theorizing that those who are worried about money might not drop a bundle on an audio system, but will spend a few dollars on something to play on their existing set.

The a&b store in Edmonton is another success story.

It opened last November, and sales have been so good, plans for a second location are under way.

Dave Ethier, who manages the store, says what he finds most interesting about Alberta consumers is the number of people who come from out of town to buy.

Ethier says 35% of his business comes from outside Edmonton, from people willing to drive an hour or two for a good deal.

Road trips are a way of life on the Prairies. Most Westerners will not hesitate to spend several hours behind the wheel to save a few dollars or have a good time.

In spite of that, cross-border shopping was never an issue. Consumers cannot beat the fact there is no provincial sales tax in Alberta and the poor exchange on the Canadian dollar is little incentive.

As well, Edmonton is almost a day’s drive to the u.s. border, beyond which there are no cities close by. The picture is much the same from Calgary.

Not all the new players on the retail scene are connected with home improvement or entertainment.

Winners is an off-price clothing chain that moved into Edmonton and Calgary late last fall.

Selma Rotman, vice-president of marketing for Winners, says both stores fall into the top five performers of 29 stores across the country.

Plans are in the works for another two stores in Edmonton, and one in Calgary.

Rotman says Winners works in Alberta for a couple of reasons.

She says, first of all, Albertans understand fashion, recognizing the product and value for their money.

Second, she says there is no competition as department stores cannot come close to the year-round off-price marketing of Winners.

Third, Rotman says Winners is part of a growing trend toward ‘power centres,’ shopping centres in suburban areas or on the outskirts of cities that have other big off-price stores.

For example, the Winners in Edmonton is alongside Pacific Linen, Office Depot and Mega Sports, all big stores with a large selection and competitive prices.

While bigger is better seems to be the motif running through the Alberta retail picture, small retailers can also do well.

Wright says smaller niche marketers are doing well located next to major players.

Wright says ‘cocooning’ has spurred a tremendous growth in gardening, adding Hole’s Greenhouse in St. Albert, just north of Edmonton, is a good example of niche marketing.

Hole’s is a family business that has been around since the mid-1960s.

Four years ago, the company made the decision to quit growing vegetables and to concentrate on being the best nursery around.

Destination shopping is what Bill Hole has in mind when asked about the marketing for his one location.

Hole says the nursery has increased the variety of plants it carries and it often tries new varieties from across North America and Europe.

As a result, the business has increased 10% to 20% over the last three years, alot of it going to a younger clientele.

Hole says, before, customers tended to be older, 35 and over, but adds the recent boom in gardening as a hobby has seen a big jump in amateur gardeners under the age of 30.

However, Wright says not everyone in Alberta is doing so well.

He says bankruptcies are bucking the national trend, with a double-digit jump over the last nine months. Deficit reduction plans by the Klein government have people worried about their jobs.

Wright says it is too soon to tell what long-term effect Klein’s policies will have, but he predicts people will continue to spend carefully.