A Point Roberts business has had enough with slow sales and is packing up and moving north to the Tsawwassen Mills shopping centre in Delta.
Neil King said he expects the Rubber Duck Museum to be in its new home by the end of summer or fall.
He opened the museum last year as an addition to his Point Roberts shop, Kora’s Corner, which opened three years ago.
Kora’s Corner will remain but the Rubber Duck Museum will be opening north of the border.
“It’s one of a kind and we did not want to get rid of it,” said King.
The rubber duck store will have a broad audience.
“It’s going to do really well, we think, at least, in Canada,” he said.
The little shop displays the history of rubber ducks, starting with the oldest one made in 1911.
“It’s going to sell all different kinds of rubber ducks, all different sizes. If you love it, we’ve probably got a duck of it.”
They had thought about expanding the shop but said Point Roberts is not bouncing back as soon as they thought.
When U.S. President Donald Trump’s anti-Canadian rhetoric began in the new year, along with the talk about tariffs and Canadian shoppers boycotting the U.S., the number of visitors dropped.
Timing worked out well with finding a place in the mall, he said.
King says he noticed the number of shoppers started dwindling around February, with foot traffic down by 40 to 50 percent.
Point Roberts in general is slowing down, he said.
“It’s really sad. A lot of our delivery trucks are not coming as often now. It’s just quiet. It’s slow. It’s just weird overall.”
He compared the effect to that caused by the pandemic in 2020, though the rest of the world isn’t going through the same thing.
“It just kind happened overnight. It’s super fast. There’s no help now,” and everyone is trying to do what they can, he added.
“We’re not blaming anybody. We don’t have any animosity towards anybody or anything especially our Canadian friends. We just can’t wait for this to all be over, basically.”
Former Point Roberts chamber of commerce president Brian Calder said the economy is worsening in the tiny border community next to Tsawwassen.
He said tariff talk and Canadians’ reaction against Trump and his threats to annex Canada, caused another drop in business, about 20 percent, just as the community recovered from the pandemic.
“… the Canadians … got their backs up, and rightly so, and they just refused to come anymore,” Calder said, noting that Canadians form 90 percent of Point Roberts' customer base. “It was strictly an emotional reaction to Trump’s threats.”
It’s worse now than during the 2020 pandemic, he added, because some Canadians did come back later.
“They’re voluntarily not coming,” Calder said, even though they want to support the businesses.
“But they’re just so incensed about Trump threatening Canadian sovereignty, they’re just saying, ‘To hell with you, Mr. Trump.’ “
Business owners there are now using their own savings to try to survive, he added.
Last month, Point to Point Parcel closed in April after being in business for 24 years.
He said Trump’s statements produce no winners.
“He’s decimating his own economy. And getting worse, not better. It’s absolutely devastating as far as I’m concerned because I don’t see a way out,” adding it could be for two years, "before any sense is made of this.
"And we just cannot survive two years. We just cannot."
