TRAVEL & TOURISM DIRECTORY The shopping experience comes first at ANBL If, as the adage goes, the customer is always right, then he or she is also increasingly discerning and informed. That’s something ANBL understands implicitly with every bottle or can it sells to customers across the province. These days, offering exciting shopping opportunities is key. Not only does ANBL offer product diversity and great value, it also strives to provide unique shopping experiences. Three of these truly unique experiences include the Craft Beer Room in Fredericton, the Depot in Salisbury, and the recently opened EXPÉRIENCE by ANBL in Moncton. EXPÉRIENCE by ANBL How do you DEPOT? Craft Beer Room Leah Anderson, Manager of the Situated a little outside of Moncton (TCH Head west on the Trans-Canada EXPÉRIENCE by ANBL boutique, says 2, Exit 433), is ANBL’s Depot store. This Highway, and you may find yourself at she, for one, is “beyond excited. This store also beckons consumers with its own the Craft Beer Room, located in a historic is New Brunswick’s first specialty store set of unique experiences. “The Depot is property in downtown Fredericton. It for wine, spirits, and beer. We wanted a unique concept,” says Store Manager boasts the largest craft beer selection in to create something unique, accessible Cheryl Black. “It is the only store of its the province—more than 200 brands. and fun for everyone—from beginner kind in Atlantic Canada. We like to say Bianca Brophy is the key buyer to connoisseur.” This new boutique is that Depot is the Costco of our industry. for the store and she carefully selects located in a brand new development in It isn’t like shopping at your local ANBL every item carried. “The portfolio is a Moncton’s downtown core, at 55 Queen store. We have products that are available hybrid of local brews, fringe products, Street. at your regular stores for the same prices, seasonal selections, one-time buys, rare The store will carry new and trendy but our difference is that the more you buy, allocations and core specialty products,” items customers often see online. the more you save.” Brophy says. “There’s also a growler bar These might include older vintages, In fact, a buy-up discount at the store with a fresh line-up each week, where rare selections and highly sought-after is offered on all purchases of wine, you can sample what’s on tap. We know products from specialized producers. spirits, and coolers, with savings starting that the craft beer industry continues What really makes the difference, on a purchase of three products. “When to grow and evolve. Customers are though, is the personal touch. “The team you purchase three-to-five items, you’re constantly looking for what’s new—a has extensive knowledge of the products going to save three per cent on the total new brewery, a new style, a new format. we carry,” Anderson says. “They curate purchase,” Black says. “When you We look at local beers and beers from the whole experience for our customers.” purchase six-to 11 items, you’re going to around the Atlantic Provinces. But save 10 per cent. And when you purchase we also have craft beers from all over 12 or more, you’re saving 15 per cent. The Canada and the world.” best part of this is that customers can mix With such diverse shopping and match. You don’t have to buy multiples experiences available, ANBL is taking of the same product. You can buy a case of the old adage one step further: If the your favourite wine, but you can also buy customer is always right, the discerning 12 totally different products and you’re ones will always come back—and ANBL still going to save 15 per cent. That’s really will be ready and willing to help them our key message: How do you depot?” have the best experience possible. Leah Anderson Cheryl Black Bianca Brophy 26 | JULY/AUGUST 2019 TRAVEL & TOURISM DIRECTORY The Moncton miracle strikes again Moncton has a habit of regularly saturating its status as the entertainment hub of the Maritimes. Fortunately for visitors and Avenir Centre residents, alike, it’s one habit that’s hard to break. Especially this summer. “We have a reputation for hosting top-flight world-class entertainment, arts and cultural events,” Mayor Dawn Arnold says. “It’s part of who we are as a city. There’s also an economic dimension: The more interesting happenings we welcome, the more people come to see what we’re offering. Word spreads and Meanwhile, the sixth Congrès mondial acadien comes to business expands. We get a virtuous cycle going on.” Moncton between August 16 and 23. Its Extrême frontière Consider, for example, the Avenir Centre, the city’s new space will bring to the downtown area various performances 8,800-seat event centre. Opened to the public less than a year and pavilions inspired by poets, creators, and other builders of ago, it has already become an anchor of the downtown area, Acadie. Festival Acadie Rock will also be featured prominently. routinely attracting sports and music fans (and their spending Rounding out the season will be the 2019 edition of dollars) in droves. Touchdown Atlantic on August 25 at the Stade Croix-Bleue This summer (August 16-18), Cirque du Soleil brings to the Medavie Stadium, pitting the Toronto Argonauts against the Centre CRYSTAL, a one-of-a-kind production blending circus arts Montréal Alouettes in the first CFL regular season game down and ice-skating. Rock groups Def Leppard and Nickelback will east since 2013. The game is being presented by The Atlantic also take up temporary residence at the venue in July and August. Schooners. Then, there’s this year’s major show—always an economic All of which, Mayor Arnold says, “demonstrates how our driver—at the Magnetic Hill concert site. Multiple album- vibrant arts, culture and entertainment sector is alive and well selling country music star Luke Bryan will perform on August and almost compulsively forms a major piece of our city’s 10. Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, Kelsea Ballerini, economic story.” and the group, Sons of Daughters, will join him in the line-up. And that’s no habit any city wants to shake. Experience Décou vrez Moncton Photo • Daniel St Louis • Daniel St Photo experiencemoncton.ca 28 | JULY/AUGUST 2019 All the comforts of home Judy Sparkes-Giannou, the peripatetic managing director of Comfort Inn Airport Hotel in St. John’s, NL, considers her family-owned enterprise an island of good, old-fashioned hospitality in an industry that is lamentably afloat in what she calls “a sea of sameness”. Forget all that stuff—from the familiar chintz and case goods to the wooden smiles carved into the faces of bored desk staff—that makes one hotel look and feel like every other these days. “If you run a place like this,” she says simply, “it only and always comes down to one thing: Do you give a hoot?” It’s fair to say that she does. In fact, she and her brothers, Bruce Left to Right: Steve Sparkes, Judy Giannou Sparkes and Bruce Sparkes and Steve Sparkes, have been running Clayton Hospitality— the family firm that owns and manages the Comfort Inn in St. John’s, Comfort Inn Gander and a Quality Inn in Clarenville— Comfort Inn, alone, boasts 144 rooms, meeting facilities for for decades. They came by their dedication to customer service 200, a full-service restaurant, a fitness centre, on-premises honestly. parking, and an airport shuttle service. “Our dad, the original Clayton, started all of us in the hotel But Judy is firm: “I make sure that I am in every day and that industry,” Judy says. “He used to say that this business is made I speak to everybody I see—staff, guests, suppliers. If you are up of a million little things. Our relationship with the customer a customer, chances are you will see me at some point during is intimate. We have such respect for people who choose to your stay.” spend their money and come and stay with us. And this attitude Having said that, she laughs, she’s so busy that many who extends to our staff, some of which have been with us for many know her might faint if she ever answered the phone on the first years. This is our value proposition.” ring. That’s not to say the job is a piece of cake. The St. John’s Oh well, such is the satisfying price of giving a hoot. ATLANTICBUSINESSMAGAZINE.COM | 29 TRAVEL & TOURISM DIRECTORY Counting your lucky stars There’s something comforting in knowing that you’re the only game in town or, in fact, for 400 kilometres around—something about being in the right place, at the right time, with the right products. Just ask Gilles Cyr, Marketing Manager of the Grey Rock Casino, which officially opened for business on the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation in northern New Brunswick four years ago. “Our location is one of our best, distinguishing features,” he says. “Besides us, you’d have to go to Moncton or Montreal Gaming may be the magnet, but there are other draws as well. or Bangor, Maine. I think that gives us a bit of an edge.” The Fiddlehead Café is open seven days a week, as is the well- In fact, situated at the turnoff of the Trans-Canada Highway reviewed Valley View Restaurant (which has become locally to Edmundston, Grey Rock bills itself as “a modern, state- famous for its hearty steaks) and the casino, itself.