Design and Printing Tag

No print job is too small for this Strathcona commercial print shop.

Clubcard. They’ve been around for 30 years, and in Strathcona for six. They’ve faced a global paper shortage, rising rents, four moves, and still show no signs of slowing down. This resilience is palpable when you talk to Mike. So is the delight of owning a business in Vancouver. During our conversation, he spoke so joyfully about everything. From the high-output printers at Clubcard, to the old-style houses in Strathcona (he really loves those), his passion for his business and the community is always front and centre. Have a read and see for yourself.

How did Clubcard come about?

So my business partner and I worked at the courthouse, and we decided we wanted to start a business. Now this was 1994, so it might sound weird, but back then, everybody needed a physically printed resume, and we realized that we could do that for people. So we bought this really fancy laser printer. It was small, but super high-end. We also got a fax machine and a cell phone, and we put up posters that said we printed resumes for a fee. I can’t remember what the price was, but it was really inexpensive. So we would literally go and meet people at a coffee shop. I would sit down and take notes of what they needed for their resume, and Mike would lay it out on our 386 PC computer, and we would create resumes for people. So we charged a fee for the resume setup, but the big thing was printing it on really good paper with a nice laser printer. We would charge for that and also charge to fax, since most people didn’t have internet then. 

In the building we were in, we met one of our neighbours in the elevator, and he asked us what we did. We said graphic design, because we didn’t want to say we just created resumes. He goes “I’m making a movie and I need a book to take to this thing I’m attending in Italy” and we said yes, even though we were completely way over our heads. So we got the job, but we had to take shifts because the computer was so slow. We had to scan all of the images and import them, which took forever, and every time you changed something, this computer would be like, “stop, you’re killing me”. So that was our first job, and we apparently loved misery, so we kept doing it. Then we eventually got into a studio space and started hiring and expanded.

Do you feel like you’re a part of the ecosystem here? 

Yeah, I think I do. We’ve been around for 30 years, six years in Strathcona, and we absolutely love it here. We started off in Yaletown when it was pretty hip, and suddenly everybody and their startup wanted to be there, so the rents went through the roof. Then we moved into our first storefront location on Burrard, and moved two more times until we moved here. It has been really good because Low Tide, the landlord, is great. The neighbourhood is a good mix of residential, light industrial and production, food spots, retail and art galleries. It has a lot of creative outlets, which means we’re around small businesses, artists and entrepreneurs, which fits our business model perfectly.  

In your opinion, what are the advantages of operating in a light industrial mixed-use space: 

Firstly, there’s a monetary advantage to it with a lower tax rate, but more importantly, it means you’re around like-minded businesses. We have a lot of clients that manufacture and make their own goods, and these tend to be the perfect size for us to service because they’re usually looking for smaller runs of printed materials and it’s just a really good fit. A lot of what we do is typically for smaller clients, anything from a single piece of fine art print to around five to ten thousand pieces. We can do larger but the smaller orders is our niche. 

How attractive do you find Strathcona for new investment or a business expansion? 

I think this is a perfect place for anybody to grow. I really do hope there’s some good low-rise-ish mixed use, so that you have that residential that’s so badly needed, plus commercial and light industrial. For example, the building on the next street has residential, commercial and retail, and then in the alley it’s got light industrial. It’s exactly what we need in the area because it brings you people and businesses, and everything fits into the ecosystem here. 

What are some of the challenges that you’ve faced as a business? 

Our biggest challenge since COVID is with the paper supply chain. It’s probably one of the things people don’t think about. We need high-quality paper and it’s specifically made for the type of printing that we do. That means a paper mill has to create it and think that there’s a good enough market for it to choose to keep making our paper instead of something else. When COVID hit, paper mills changed to making packaging for take-out food, items for hygiene, and face masks, so all that worldwide resource for pulp was redirected. A lot of those paper mills haven’t resumed making paper for printing, so we’ve actually lost a lot of the papers we used to have. Sadly, a lot of the Canadian paper mills are gone, and now our paper either comes from the States or Japan. That’s the biggest challenge, that our paper prices have increased easily 50% since COVID, and sometimes more.

What do you think is the economic potential of Strathcona?

 I think in 10 to 20 years, you’ll see this being a really vibrant mixed-use corridor. There’s so much traffic and potential along here. I love the beautiful old houses and don’t want to see them go away, but I also know that there’s got to be more housing. Some of these can only support maybe two families. So, a good mix of high, mid-rise and townhouses with residential over commercial would be really good.

What are your thoughts on municipal policies around zoning?

One of the reasons we moved here was because we learned our lesson from the first time we signed a lease. There were things we didn’t know we couldn’t do in certain places. Luckily, this place was pre-approved for printing and publishing. I think if the City was to put together a much larger blanket list of what is approved for each zone, that could be a lot simpler. It’s really daunting, especially for somebody starting a new business. I mean, I know why they have rules and regulations, it’s for safety. I just think that sometimes the City forgets that we don’t look at the rules, regulations, bylaws and zoning all day long. And if there was a way to explain to somebody, here’s how you would open a business here in this space, that would be a lot simpler. 

What does the future look like for Clubcard?

In the next year, we want to open a studio in Palm Springs. Right now, we just have an office there. We’ve always had a US office and used to have one in San Francisco, but the rent got crazy high so we moved to Palm Springs. It won’t be like this space because it’s a huge investment to get all this equipment and staffing. It’s a big commitment and we don’t want to hire people and say, “oh, sorry. It didn’t work out”. We really want to make sure that we’re doing right by the people that work with us. So we’re imagining a studio that’s similar to the front of our shop here, where you can drop in, see samples, and talk to us about what you want to do. We also just signed a new lease here so we’re planning to stay and just keep growing. We’re always investing in new equipment and expanding what we’re able to offer, especially considering most of our clientele. It’s smaller orders and we want to be able to do those quickly, and produce really high-quality work. 

What would you like to see from the Strathcona BIA? 

You’ve got the security program and all the other programs, so I can’t think of anything in particular. It’s been a really positive experience here. 

Visit Clubcard at 868 E Cordova street Monday to Friday from 8-5pm.

Follow them on Instagram and head over to the website for all your print needs.