[Leica] Shaver Hobbies closing

[Howard Cummer]

BC Shaver and Hobbies, a downtown retail fixture in Victoria born just over 50 years ago from one boy’s delinquency,

 is for sale with the owner looking to retire.

Having escaped snowy Pender I channelled Chris Crawford (Hi Chris) and went to the store to document it before it’s gone.


<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/2019/Victoria/ShaversHobbyVic2.jpg.html <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/2019/Victoria/ShaversHobbyVic2.jpg.html>>

Garnett Rancier, 55, owner of the shop and its Fort Street building, wants to sell the whole business and its entire inventory: model trains, radio-controlled aircraft, boats and cars, working model rockets, wooden ship models, and hundreds and hundreds of plastic models of all kinds along with all the paints and tools to put them together.

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/2019/Victoria/ShaversHobbyVicGarnett.jpg.html <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/2019/Victoria/ShaversHobbyVicGarnett.jpg.html>>

He said the shop with its combination of shavers and hobby supplies owes its genesis to a Victoria boy who got into some trouble in the 1950s. The father told his son he had to pay for the damage and to sell his electric train set to raise the money. To make the sale happen the father asked his friend, the owner of a local shaver shop, to put the train in the shop window.

It generated so much interest from passersby and customers that the shop owner decided to stock more train sets and the hobby operation took off.

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/2019/Victoria/ShaversHobbyVic3.jpg.html <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/2019/Victoria/ShaversHobbyVic3.jpg.html>>

The original shop began in 1952 on Broad Street and moved twice before Rancier’s father bought it in 1962.

It settled in 1989 at 742 Fort St., where it still resides.


<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/2019/Victoria/ShaversHobbyVic1.jpg.html <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/2019/Victoria/ShaversHobbyVic1.jpg.html>>

Some of the staff have been with the store for decades too and are expert in the extensive inventory.

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/2019/Victoria/ShaversHobbyVicAlvis.jpg.html <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/2019/Victoria/ShaversHobbyVicAlvis.jpg.html>>

Rancier bought the store from his father and said it’s now the oldest hobby shop in Canada.  I got his permission to take some photos and here they are. I want my grandchildren to see what a real hobby shop looks like – because soon such stores will be as scarce as buggy whips.

Look large if you prefer. C&C always welcome.


Howard