Vendors say shuttered Saskatoon store owes them thousands

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Vendors say they are out thousands of dollars after a shop in Saskatoon’s Lawson Heights Mall closed abruptly last month.

Balanced and Badass Reiki and Pranic Healing owner, Elaine Geni, told CTV News the closure of Prairie + Pine came after a year of delayed payments to vendors.

“I never got any money. I was told that she would drop off a cheque for me at the end of December. That cheque never came. Also, anytime I requested an e-transfer, she would say ‘Yeah, I'll send it later today.’ Later today never came,” Geni said.

Geni said she paid a flat monthly rate for shelf space at the store focused on selling products created by Saskatchewan makers. Vendors were given access to store's inventory system, and Geni saw her products selling.

She said during 2021, the store's first year of operation, she was paid regularly. However, she said 2022 was a different story with no payments coming.

“I had not been paid for any of my products sold all of 2022. What for me individually, it's just over $3,500,” she said.

Prairie + Pine announced its closure on social media on March 28.

"It has taken a few days to process a lot of emotions, but felt it was time to formally announce our closure," a Facebook post said.

"We cannot even begin to thank everyone for the support these past two years. From having an amazing lineup of vendors to community support, to our own personal circle, each and every one of you played a vital role," the post said.

Commenting was disabled on the post.

CTV News' request for an interview Prairie + Pine's owner Rhian Bogdan went unanswered.

An attorney who a vendor said is representing Bogdan also did not return CTV News' request for an interview or comment.

Geni estimates there are 80 or 85 vendors impacted by the closure. She said when pressed for payment, Bogdan would promise to send an e-transfer and then later in the day claim her e-transfer limit had been reached.

According to Geni, although she never personally experienced it, other vendors told her they were paid by cheques which subsequently would bounce.

Nichole Berezowski, who runs Zen Gems + Yoga said she was also owed about two months' worth of sales.

“There’s an Instagram chat of about 40 of us vendors, all of us are out money. If we’re all out $1,000 do the math. And there’s many of us that are out far more than that.”

Berezowski said she was able to get some money and her inventory back before the store closed.

“There’s never been remorse, an apology, an explanation. Nothing.”

She said the vendors really liked the store operator, Rhian Bogdan.

“I think you know, she had the best intentions going forward with this model, but we suspected that maybe there were some concerns,” Berezowski said. “We always really believed that her intentions were really good.”

Yet, Berezowski said she and other vendors found some of Bogdan's social media activity questionable in light of their unpaid bills.

“In the midst of all these struggles we would see her renovating her yard. More recently there was a [post] about going on vacation and asking for recommendations. It kind of makes you wonder if your business is failing and you owe people money, why are we in the position to do renovations and go on vacation?”

Geni said that the amount of money she is out could be closer to $5,000

“It was discovered at some point in 2022, that not all products were being properly allocated towards the right vendor or being tracked properly. So there were things that I had sent up for sale that had sold but then weren't showing up in my sales portal. So there was some significant discrepancies as well with our actual sales,” Geni said.

“They were sold. The money went somewhere. But it didn't flow back to the vendors," Geni said.

She also said that some of the vendors were considering a small claims court action.

“It's frustrating for all of us to be out these funds. And, frankly, the probability of any of us seeing any of these funds is small," Geni said.