Town’s TV payoff
Tatamagouche’s businesses reap rewards after debut of The Week the Women Went
It pays to send most of the women in a rural Nova Scotia community away for a week.
Business is booming in Tatamagouche after the village of about 700 made its debut on CBC’s The Week the Women Went, some local entrepreneurs are reporting.
“Calls started coming in while we were still watching the show, and the telephone has been ringing and the emails have been coming in ever since,” said Jimmie LeFresne, whose Train Station Inn is featured in the television series that started an eight-week run on CBC on Wednesday.
Mr. LeFresne, who is also the Colchester County councillor for the area, has operated his train-themed inn in the heart of the village for decades and said he cannot remember fielding so many inquiries about vacancies in January.
He said he is bracing for what he expects to be his busiest season when he opens for business later this year.
Buzz about the show is also affecting operations at the Village Florist, just down the road from the Train Station Inn.
Business owner Annette Hunziker said she has fielded a flood of telephone calls and emails since the show started its weekly run.
“You cannot buy publicity like this. The village and the entire Sunrise Trail area are going to benefit in a big way,” said the florist, who admitted she was initially reluctant to participate in the project.
It turns out both the Train Station Inn and the Village Florist had to put a little more on the line than they expected, since participation in the television series, produced by Paperny Films, resulted in the loss of all female staff during a week in September while production was underway.
Experienced female staffers at both businesses were suddenly replaced with inexperienced local males, a significant business concern even if the situation made for good television.
“We lost all 22 women staff at a busy time of year,” Mr. LeFresne said. “We had to run the inn with all these men who did not know how to even make a bed.”
Ms. Hunziker lost her female staffers and left the business in the hands of her husband, Chuck, a retired bush pilot, when she took off for a week along with 167 of her female neighbours.
She said Friday she is impressed with the high quality of the cinematography of the series and has already experienced a direct benefit of publicity from the series. Membership in the private Fables lounge she is opening in the basement of her Main Street business has already mushroomed from an expected 100 to 350, guaranteeing a successful opening.
“The production uses wonderful aerial footage and shots of the village, which shows a community and countryside that looks like a wonderful place to live and to visit,” said Ms. Hunziker.
A crew of about 80 directors, producers, camera operators and support staff from Paperny Films basically took over the village to produce the current edition of The Week the Women Went. Four-member crews followed featured families 16 hours a day during production.
Source: The Halifax Herald Limited (Bill Power)