History of my Surfco Locations in West Edmonton Mall from 1999-2017

On June 1, 2017, I wrote this post dedicated to Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley.  I posted it to my surfco swimwear Facebook page.  and it is still there today, pinned to the top.  First thing in the morning of June 2, 2017, Jeff Sheckter and 10 mall security and tenant coordinators came in and demanded that I remove it.  When i sid "No" and i refused, they turned the lights out on the store, demanded i leave. escorted me out and changed the locks to my store.  They then boxed it all up, and kept over a million dollars worth of my merchandise and store fixtures.  To this date, i have not received even a phone call from them.  In November of 2018, I located some of my ladies merchandise being sold in their own Waterpark swimsuit store called the beach hut"





Store #1- Eaton Centre 1998 (7 months)




Store #2- 1999 West Edmonton Mall June 1, 1999



you can read more in detail about this lawsuit on my blog page


American eagle wanted my space so they could open their Aerie store, so i had to move to store #4

Store #5
i was in this location from 2006 until April 30, 2014 when West Edmonton Mall decided they were going to increase my rent from $30,000 per month that I couldn't even afford to $45,000 per month.   Colony menswear was going through the same issue around the corner from me and also chose to leave West Edmonton Mall. Their space sat vacant until Oksana Dresses took it after they abandoned their expensive renovation in that I ended up taking in store #7.  My space sat vacant for 11 months and then Telus took it.

North Face- moved
Smart Set-closed
Express-closed and now Suzy Shier
FCUK closed-became desigual- now Ecco
Cedar Shoes closed- now Aldo
Surfco stolen- now Telus
Olsen Europe closed ( they again TOLD me it was because of the lease)-now Birks
Canadian Diamond- did a midnight move
Ethos bridal closed- now Divine Bridal They wanted to charge them $25,000 to be down in the wing even after Target closed and there was no anchor store down there!!!

Nine West closed
Tommy Bahama closed - now Society
BCBG- closed

  


























After I refused to sign a lease for $45,000 per month in April of 2014, they gave my space that I spent $500,000 to build  and my custom made counter to Swimco!  They tried to steal my racking system but we already removed the back half of the store way before the last day

  
Swimco moves in to my space below





















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Store #6
November 27,  2014, I moved back into West Edmonton Mall into the corner space below the lake (Alexis)




map below Oct 10, 2018
Cotton Ginny is now Frank & Oak
La Vie en Rose is now-Aveda
Banx Women-is now Jersey City
Rocky Mountain Christmas- is now Charm Diamond
Nouveau- is now Motherhood Maternity
Naturalizer Shoes-Gone
Bianca Nygard-Gone

I was in the Alexis corner space, after them. They did a midnight move. Droneology took the space after me, and they did a midnight move. Now it's got a store called Coco
Eddie Bauer-moved now urbanology
Glow gone- now Bell
As Seen on TV gone- now No Excuses
Club Monaco downsized now 6 stores (if they could afford the lease, they would never do that)

the before (how I was given the space) and after photo to show how amazing i made the store look.  I spent my own money doing the renovation that I had to walk away from less than 7 months after being so bored with virtually no walk by traffic. I was pretty much just serving time in a prison stuck there from 10 am until 9pm everyday. 

nobody shopping- daytime

nobody shopping- nighttime

created an online website through shopify and did all the photographing of the product while bored at work 11 hours a day

moving downstairs

November 27, 2014- June 11, 2015
=6 months 15 days
or 196 days of time served

1373 square feet ( downsized from 2346 square feet in my previous space)
approximately paying $22,500 per month in rent

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Store #7
So this is the next location I was offered by West Edmonton MALL
Lower level in front of the Sea Lions
It was a beautiful space.
2318 square feet
previous tenant-Oksana's Bridal. They spent I would guess $600,000-$900,000 building this space.  It was stunning. New Tile, New granite trimmed walls, new storefront.  They had such little traffic that they asked to be moved to a better location, down where all the other dress shops were located.

Regis Salon- Closed

Bolero Leather- Moved now vacant

Ascension Closed- Shaving Place- now Kurves Brow Bar

Surfco-Became Bon Voyage-then King Tut in half and vacant other half

FS Skate closed- then Millennium- then Men are from Mars- now Bon Voyage

Oro Gold Closed- now Icing

My expensive portable racking system custom designed, that West Edmonton Mall couldn't wait to get their hands on.  They already tried to steal it from me back in April of 2014 when they tried to demand I leave it behind for the next tenant , that I found out through Shaw Cable that it was Swimco!!  We managed to get it out in 2014, however weren't so lucky in 2017.

Fitting Rooms- I designed the curtains myself (Made in Canada/ Fabric from Fabricland and Sewing Machine from Sears)

This is my competition La Vie en Rose 

and Rip Curl

Opened on June 18, 2015.  I called the mall on January 19, 2016 when I was so sick it was probably dangerous to the customers that i didn't have.  It was on the day oil hit $26 a barrel

My neighbours, FS Skate had already done a midnight move in November indicating their concerns to me after being in that location for approximately 25 years

Surfco Store #5, #6, #7, and #8

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Store #8

This was the location they offered me.  It was in a prime location right beside quiksilver and 2 doors down from Victoria's Secret on the main mall right next to Brbn St.

Pantorama is now Dyce

Bluenotes is now Bolero

Suzy Shier is now Mountain Wearhouse

Forever Flawless became Matte and Glow and now it's Bubble and Gum

Towns Shoes is closing all their stores in January

Surfco is now Geox

Quicksilver became Spare Parts and now Vitality (changed twice)

La Senza Express is now La Vie en Rose

La Vie en Rose Aqua is now Journeys

Rip Curl is now Bolero

Stockhomme is now Bikini Village

Danier Leather is now Garage

Bebe is now Levi's

Running Room is now NYX

The before and after Aldo space

Walking by Victoria's Secret on a mid Sunday

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Store #9

Fern & Feather Moved-

DKNYclosed

AX Armani Exchange Closed-

Triple Flip Closed-
Surfco became N'espresso that already moved to a Kiosk

Former American Apparel Location Feb 10, 2017- June 2, 2017

when I auctioned these off on eBay in May of 2017, it was a "top story" in the news.  In fact it went viral and got global coverage, and eventually the global coverage caused our local media to run the story much later.  This photo reminds me how the mall came and stole my 3 photos of Britney wearing the outfits and I never saw them again.  I removed the outfits from the West Edmonton Mall store immediately after the auction ended on May 12, 2017.  Less than one month later, on June 2, 2017, Jeff Sheckter and West Edmonton Mall stole my entire store Everything that was in this space. (yes, they even got the mannequins) 

this is how it all began.... on june 1, 2017

This is the post I wrote on June 1, 2017.  It started to go viral and the next morning, mall security came in with Jeff Sheckter and demanded that I remove this post.  When I said no, they removed me from the mall and changed the locks to my store, keeping a million dollars in product and store fixtures.  I received no paperwork from them.  This is illegal.  The police refused to charge them saying it's a civil matter. Sorry, but I didn't know in Canada that West Edmonton Mall is allowed to just steal entire businesses like this. 

the words that cost me everything i own.....

the top banner of my surfco swimwear Facebook page.  My website www.surfco.com will take you to my fb page now since I was also forced to shut down my online website store I had with Shopify

These photos were taken a few days after I was escorted out of my store by mall security.  I refused to give them the keys, and they changed the locks.  I did not receive any paperwork.  I have no clue where any of my merchandise and store fixtures are as of today October 11, 2018

Here we have Swimco showing up again with their packing tape on my stolen merchandise... coincidence?

Welcome to Edmonton Alberta Canada, where we let globalist malls steal small businesses and all of their wealth and we only report news when it's about Britney Spears.  It is clear that the media is 100% controlled or this would be a front page story.  The police work with mall security and refused to charge them with theft.  Trust me, i am not the only one this has happened to in that mall.

then on July 31, 2017, I was finally given a piece of paperwork from them.   They hired a bailiff to come in total up my store.  How is this legal? And they billed me $30,000 per month for June 2017, July 2017, and August 2017. 

  

  

  

On June 2, 2017, West Edmonton Mall STOLE my entire store from me.  By October, it was leased out to N'Espresso who did a full renovation to the space, moved and are now a small kiosk downstairs by brbn st. 

 

on Nov 4, 2017, I went to west edmonton mall and entered their waterpark store called the Beach Hut.  I saw so many of my STOLEN swimsuits being resold in their store. they even had 2 on their front display table.  I took a bunch of photos until i was kicked out of there because the woman knew what I was doing. I dedicated an entire page in my blog to this, proving that these are my swimsuits, AND my hangers! they didn't even take my suits off of the hangers! they just hung them in their own store and covered up my price tags with theirs!!