You’re planning a weekend road trip. Maybe it’s somewhere you go every summer, or maybe it’s a whole new Nova Scotian adventure you’re inspired to take because of the COVID-19 travel restrictions. This province has countless popular tourist destinations that are usually packed to the brim with come-from-aways. But they won’t come this year, so […]
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Local shopping, small business & consumer news
Posted inNews + Opinion
Salons and barber shops booked up for weeks after re-opening
Starting on May 27, Marvin Upshaw was bombarded with phone calls. The owner and head barber at Ascension Barbershop began taking bookings as soon as Premier McNeil and Dr. Strang announced the re-opening, scheduling appointments starting June 5. “Our clients have been nothing but supportive, always contacting us saying, ‘Book me in ahead, I’m waiting […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Contact-free, locally made greeting cards for any occasion
The pandemic has prevented a lot of things, but it hasn’t stopped time from moving forward. People are still celebrating marriages, birthdays, anniversaries, and welcoming new life into the world. Handmade cards are one of the most sincere and affordable ways to let someone know you’re thinking of them—and one Dartmouth shop has been making […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bedford Highway getting a beer garden this month
Tucked away under the rail bridge, the former Chinatown restaurant location on the Bedford Highway is a prime space that has somehow sat empty for more than three years. But later this month, a new beer garden called Birch & Anchor will open its doors to the public for the first time, taking over the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Last Word says goodbye
For more than 20 years, The Last Word Bookstore on Windsor Street has provided stocked shelves for newcomers, north-enders, and bibliophiles alike. “Lots of students, lots of regulars. they’d sort of just come in, plop down and they’d be there for eight hours,” says Nate Crawford, who used to work at the store about 10 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
New take-out joints open despite challenges COVID brings
Opening a new restaurant is never easy, and the public health order that shut down dining rooms isn’t making that any better. But even in the time of COVID, local food entrepreneurs are still starting businesses. These vendors have been limited to operating solely online, getting their goods to customers via either curbside pickup or […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Friday, March 27 COVID-19 in NS news update
Key points as of March 27, 8pm 17 new cases for a total of 90 COVID-19 cases in Nova Scotia None are connected to the St. Patrick’s Day Party in Lake Echo, but… …there was potential exposure at an Antigonish hockey tournament Restaurants will be able to deliver booze Remote learning may be coming for […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Now’s the time to look out for small business in Halifax
A s coronavirus spreads across Canada, shutting down local businesses and national companies in its wake, Canadians are being forced into their homes and out of public places like restaurants and bars. Hundreds if not thousands of small businesses and their employees are now struggling to make ends meet as their income is slashed. “It’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Obsolete no longer
After ten years on Agricola Street, Obsolete Records was booted from its ramshackle storefront last fall in the most anticlimactic way possible. “Someone was parking out back, and drove into some support beam,” says Obsolete owner Ian Fraser. “And the building’s owner decided to just tear it all down.” The news wasn’t a total surprise: […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The royal flush
If you’ve recently been on Halifax Kijiji you may have seen this odd listing: “Gold imported toilets 4 left!!!” The popular ad, which was recently removed from the website, displayed a white-and-gold, floral-patterned throne—a far cry from the stark white pots us lowly peasants are wont to piss in. Each toilet, according to the seller, […]
Posted inLifestyle
How to win at auctions, both online and irl
Nova Scotia may not attract attention from high-end auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s, but local firm Crowther & Brayley runs good auctions in hockey arenas (the next is March 21). And the world of online auctions is accessible from your phone. But just because any amateur can make a bid, doesn’t mean there aren’t […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Coming clean about cosmetics with Toxic Beauty
Filmmaker Phyllis Ellis hopes to send you scrambling to the shower to search out labels on your soap and shampoo. After all, her eye-opening documentary Toxic Beauty (trailer below; streaming now on CBC Gem) not only follows the class-action suit against Johnson & Johnson—and the company’s cancer-linked baby powder—but Ellis also uncovers an unregulated amalgam […]
