Privatized liquor stores and buskers don’t mix
When asked what the official government policy is on allowing buskers outside Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) stores, spokeswoman Stephanie Choma says they are allowed.
“As long as they don’t cause a safety issue and don’t impede access to people who are entering or exiting are stores, as well as are respectful to our customers, we allow them to provide their entertainment,” she says.
Complaints, she says, are seldom, before adding, “Apparently there is a fairly skilled accordion player who makes his rounds of some of the stores.”
That would be Dan Petrie she is referring to, who is also known as “Dan the Accordion Man.”
It’s Sunday, shortly after noon, and Petrie is playing an accordion outside the liquor store on Quance Street in Regina’s east end.
The elderly man has become a staple outside the store, when he isn’t at his other regular spot — the Normanview liquor store.
“I’m doing it to entertain the people,” he says. “I get lots of compliments, people don’t hear old time music anymore.”
Within a few minutes of playing, a young girl and her mother walk into the store. Moments later they come out, with the girl’s eyes trained on Petrie’s hands. A dollar or two is dropped into Petrie’s case and the two move on.
A quick interaction that makes the day of a child, while also giving a smile — and a bit of money — to a senior on a fixed income.
Petrie has busked for about three years. His reasons are simple enough: he gives people some entertainment, and gets some fresh air and a bit of exercise.
The two stores he goes to are larger and usually have a decent crowd of people going in and out.
And they are public, so he is allowed to play there.
The same can’t be said for the city’s two private liquor stores. Willow Park Wines and Spirits, in Harbour Landing, does not allow anyone to make a profit out front, say its landlord Harvard Developments.
The Sobey’s liquor store in Rochdale didn’t return calls for comment, but buskers and employees say musicians who try and make a buck out front will quickly be shooed away.
With SLGA in the middle of privatizing a number of its stores around the province, some buskers are concerned new owners could mean no more playing out front.
“That does kind of concern me, because what if the majority of the stores turn private? What are the buskers going to do?” says Latrell Redwood, who posted himself up with his guitar after Petrie vacated the spot out front of the Quance liquor store.
Petrie says he would likely just stop playing in public.
Redwood, who started busking when he was younger to make some cash, and still counts it as a major source of his income, says he isn’t sure what he would do.
“I’d probably just go pick a corner downtown or something where people pass by,” he said, noting he would make much less in a few hours work doing that compared to busking.