E-business trend popular in east end

“We thought, wouldn’t it be really great if people could go to a (internet shopping) site when the kids are in bed? You could sit down with your cup of coffee – or a glass of wine,” she explains with a laugh. “Who wants to be out there dragging kids to stores … (online shopping is) really where everything is going.”

Rob Myers, co-owner of long-time east-end staple Chilly Chiles, agrees that e-business has become a necessary component.

“People who own a store should be on the web,” he explains. “It’s a changing retail world. People expect to be able to go on the web (to find your business; to shop).”

And though Chilly Chiles didn’t begin its existence through online means – “it was around before the Internet was really invented,” jokes Myers – the mail-order-and-storefront business has been using its shopping website as an important retail tool for well over a decade.