اخبار العرب-كندا 24: الأحد 3 مارس 2024 08:43 صباحاً
The Riff's monkey spent time in shops across Newfoundland. (Submitted by Debbie Pickett)
Did you know Riff's department stores were once all about monkey business?
No, seriously.
In the 1970s, owners used a small capuchin monkey to draw in customers.
Photos that recently resurfaced in the Facebook group Picturesque Fogo Island show the tiny monkey hanging out under clothing racks inside the island's Riff's store, which is still open today and where Debbie Pickett works.
Pickett was just a teenager in 1973.
"What I can remember is going to Riff's with my dad and feeding the monkey. It was in a cage but … you could take it out and put it on a leash and walk with it," Pickett told CBC News.
"It was fine. He was fine. Feed it and it would walk with you. I used to go up with bananas. He would take it from your hand."
Marshall Oake was the shop's manager, starting in 1968.
He remembers in 1972 being asked to cover off a few shifts at the Carmanville location, just south of Fogo Island on mainland Newfoundland.
"Sometime during that winter, that's the winter of '73, I'm not sure of the date, this monkey came on," Oake said.
"Mr. Riff brought the monkey in and would carry him around to different branches."
The monkey was a hit for community kids who would bring bananas to feed it. (Submitted by Debbie Pickett)
James Riff opened his first store in Windsor — now Grand Falls-Windsor — in the mid-1940s. His business was so successful 20 locations remain across rural Newfoundland and Labrador today.
Oake said the monkey, who he believes might have been named Alf — others remember him being named Bimbo — caused quite the stir.
There was no handler; instead, store managers were responsible for the care and transportation to the next location.
Oake lived in an apartment above the Fogo location making him practically the monkey's roommate for a brief period. He said the monkey wasn't a bad neighbour — but he still wasn't a fan of the promotion.
Story continues
"I had it there in the store for three days and it was dirtiest bloody thing you'd ever see in your life. You had to clean the cage in the night and feed it," he said, adding the monkey would urinate all over the store.
Riff's has 20 locations throughout rural Newfoundland and Labrador. (Google Maps)
After a short stay it was time to move on. Oake was tasked with getting the monkey to Twillingate.
But that posed a problem. The sea ice was thick, and the ferry wasn't running, so people were using the sea ice to walk across to the other side.
Oake said he called the manager of the Twillingate location who told him he wanted Oake to make the walk.
Oake declined and said he'd let the monkey loose and for the other manager to call from other side to lure him over or make the walk himself.
Listen to the full interview with CBC Radio's Weekend AM:
"He got some young man. He walked across the harbour and took the cage from me and carried it back to the manager of Twillingate," he said.
Ada Vineham worked at the Twillingate Riff's from 1969 until 2017. She, too, has first-hand memories of the monkey promotion.
"I was almost too afraid to go near it because we always thought the monkey had lice," she said.
But the kids of the communities were fascinated by the animal.
Vineham said it wasn't the only animal promotion Riff's drummed up.
"There was a raccoon promotion at one point, too," she said. "I don't think we had the raccoon at the store. But I do remember the raccoon was at a store. It might have been just Grand Falls."
As for the fate of the monkey, it's unclear right now.
CBC News has asked Riff's head office in Montreal for comment but didn't received a response by publication.
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