Suited for adventure

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This article was published 07/01/2023 (620 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Much was made of the negative impact COVID-19 had on the airline, hospitality and entertainment industries, only it didn’t do those who sell bathing suits for a living any big favours, either.

“In a world devoid of travel, swimwear sales have taken a dive of unprecedented depth,” began an article that appeared in Vogue magazine in March 2021. The writer went on to detail how sales of swimsuits and such dipped by 25 per cent during the first nine months of the pandemic, which wasn’t exactly news to Donna Anderson and Phil Marriott, the married couple behind Peepers, one of Winnipeg’s longest-running swimwear shops.

“Early on, we were completely shut down as the demand was zero, zilch,” Marriott said, seated at a table across from Anderson, in the lower level of the converted two-story home at 866 Corydon Ave., that houses the 42-year-old biz on the ground floor.

Anderson rolls her eyes at the memory, recalling how, at the time, friends and family implored them to pivot — “That was the word of the day, right?” she said with a wink — by offering an online component, something they had never previously considered. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to work, she explained over and over, as their store model had always been to let customers try things on in person at a leisurely pace, until they were fully satisfied with their selection.

“It’s like I said when we bought Peepers 10 years ago: it’s a good, little business to have as long as Manitobans are travelling, and then all of that happened,” Marriott pipes in.

“Thankfully, things are almost back to normal (here he leans over to knock his fist against a wooden shelf) and even though nobody’s getting rich off this or anything like that, it does support us, and has provided us with a nice lifestyle.”

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Anderson was largely a stay-at-home mom when her two children were growing up. She returned to the workforce following a divorce. Despite enjoying her duties as an event coordinator, in the back of her mind she longed to be her own boss.

One morning in the fall of 2013 she attended a meeting at a downtown office, where she was greeted by an employee’s pooch. That cinched it. As the “mother” of two pugs, Lily and Brody, she thought how wonderful it would be to bring her furry friends with her to work every morning, and that running a place of her own would enable her to do just that.

A day or two later she typed “Winnipeg businesses for sale” into a search engine. Up floated Peepers Swimwear, which founding owner Karen Pescitelli established on Stafford Street, in 1981. Anderson didn’t know a whit about bathing suits, other than how to slip into one, but she arranged to visit Lauree Wareham, who joined Pescitelli at Peepers in 1984, and succeeded her as owner in 2005.

During their tête-à-tête, Wareham presented Anderson with the shop’s annual financial records. Anderson wasn’t sure how to interpret what she was staring at, so she turned to Marriott, who was employed by the North West Company as a marketing director, and whom she was dating at the time, to see if he could make sense of things.

The father of three grown children chuckles, mentioning his initial reaction was, OK, somebody has made a mistake. He had been in the “retail game” long enough to know that January is the worst month to conduct business, owing to consumers suffering a collective, financial hangover from holiday spending. So as he was poking through Peepers’ books, he couldn’t understand how January sales there far outpaced what was being rung through the cash register, the other 11 months of the year.

“Now I get it,” said Marriott, who subsequently told Anderson if she was looking for a business partner, he was definitely interested. “If it’s an especially cold winter, or snowy like it was last year, everybody wants to get out of Dodge. And what do lots of people go shopping for first? A new bathing suit.”

Still unsure whether they’d made the right decision, Anderson and Marriott, who took over in April 2014, agreed to a one-year lease at the store’s former premises. Months later, she was walking the dogs through the neighbourhood after work (true to her word, she appointed Lily and Brody as co-ambassadors on Day 1) when she spotted a “for rent” sign in the window of what had once been a Corydon Avenue dress shop.

Parking had always been a concern on Stafford, particularly during rush hour, as was storage space, so Marriott, who was still at his other job, wasn’t overly surprised when he received a text from Anderson reading, “Guess what? We’re moving.”

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A store doesn’t remain successful for 42 years without repeat customers, but in the case of an operation such as Peepers, “repeat” is a bit of a broad term.

“I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody told me they haven’t bought a new bathing suit in five or six years,” Anderson said. “We definitely have some regulars who come in annually ahead of heading to the cottage for the summer, but even last week a woman said she bought her last bathing suit here in 2012 — before we were even owners — and felt like it was time for a new one.”

If, like that person, you haven’t dropped by since Anderson and Marriott appeared on the scene, you’ll likely notice a few changes. For starters, suits are sorted by style — one-pieces with the one-pieces, tankinis with the tankinis, in sizes 2 to 24 — versus brand, the way things used to be. That means if a person is interested in a swim skirt, for example, they don’t have to poke through a rack of “cheeky, little thongs” to find what they’re after, Anderson said.

They have also started carrying a limited selection of men’s suits, including a line made by Canadian manufacturer Saxx, whose designs have made waves by incorporating an inner pouch to keep, err, everything in place.

Past that, although the hours of operation are listed on the front door, they’re more a suggestion than a rule. Many is the time Anderson has stayed late to accommodate people who are having trouble choosing between this or that, or to wait for a person driving in from Kenora or Dauphin. Get this: she has even fielded calls from desperate travellers who, on their way to the airport, suddenly realized they’d forgotten to pack a swimsuit. The two of them live five minutes away, she said, so if she has to double back once in a while, “it’s no big deal.”

Given their advertising budget is next to nothing (“OK, it actually is nothing,” Marriott deadpans), they say it’s always rewarding to hear a person announce they were sent there by a sister, friend or co-worker who had a positive experience. What warms their hearts even more, mind you, is when somebody pops in and is visibly nervous about trying on suits, then leaves an hour or two later with a smile on their face and a bag under their arm.

“I’ve had ladies come in who say they want to cover ‘everything,’ to which I joke, ‘Dear, you can’t wear a turtleneck to the beach,’” Anderson said. “But once they start trying stuff on, and get into the mindset that they’ll be frolicking in the surf in a matter of days, their body language changes.”

She adds that while a person must be physically comfortable in a suit, being comfortable in their head is doubly important. When somebody gives her a hug on the way out, and thanks her for making things easier, well, it’s hard to put a price on that, she said.

Anderson and Marriott mutually agree that perhaps the best thing about the job — besides the return of an annual, weeklong sales conference in Miami they missed out on the past three summers — is how almost everybody coming through the door has a story to tell.

“Some are going on their first winter getaway or the trip of a lifetime,” Anderson said, reaching over to help Brody out of his doggie bed. “We’re travellers, too, and love to chat about stuff like that. Or our kids. Or our dogs. It isn’t a fast exchange around here, you can be sure of that.”

— David Sanderson writes about Winnipeg-centric restaurants and businesses

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca