Flemings open doors to BDClothing on Blyth's main street

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

Blyth business person Tara Fleming says she and her husband/partner Chad are excited to once again have a commercial presence on the village’s main street. The Flemings’ latest venture, BDClothing, opened its doors to the public on Thursday, Feb. 9 in the space at 404 Queen Street in the heart of the community’s shopping district. 

The new retail store is primarily focused on clothing sales, but will also offer an assortment of other products based on availability. “We want to keep our stock changing. We don’t want to keep the same stuff around,” said Fleming.

BDClothing is a standalone operation, but dovetails with the Flemings’ previously established business - Blyth DC - an online auction company now based out of the couples’ home on Blyth Road. Originally the Flemings’ used the space at 409 Queen Street to operate Blyth DC, but found the physical confines of that storefront put limits on expanding their burgeoning online auction business and forced the couple to relocate, according to Fleming. The move turned out to be prescient ahead of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that saw most retail spaces in Ontario shuttered for months on end. Requiring only minor tweaks to the online auction’s pick-up process, Blyth DC was not otherwise adversely affected by pandemic-related restrictions.

Fleming says zoning limitations prevent the couple from operating a retail space as part of their existing home business and also noted that it can be difficult to successfully auction apparel online. Fleming says this combination contributes to the development of surplus stockpiles of clothing without a direct path to market the merchandise to consumers. When the Flemings learned the space at 404 Queen Street had become available, Tara says they “jumped in” at the opportunity to open a new retail outlet on Blyth’s main street.

Currently the operating hours are listed as Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., and Sundays from 12 p.m. until 4 p.m, but changes are possible and will be communicated through BD Clothing’s Facebook business page, the store’s de facto website for information. Interested shoppers should keep an eye on that same digital space for details on current and upcoming sales, or venture inside the physical space to see what’s new.

Fleming says a grand opening is being planned with Easter weekend as a potential target date, but nothing has yet been confirmed.