It started out as a few carloads of shopping women and has exploded into a bus adventure that left about 1,000 shoppers on a waiting list for a seat on the Women on Wheels tour.
In 2006, Renate Selinger of Montmartre, Sask., initiated the inaugural rural Saskatchewan Christmas shopping tour by suggesting that a group of women visit several area towns to support local retailers. Armed with their purses, the ladies travelled by car and van to do their Christmas shopping.
By 2009, a chartered bus was ordered for the daylong trip from Regina to Montmartre, Kipling and Carlyle’s scenic Dickens Village Festival. Volunteers in Montmartre made pink and green scarves for the women, which is now an annual tradition.
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This year’s tour attracted 110 women housed on two busses.
“We even had a woman come from Calgary to meet up with her friend in Regina to come out to our rural towns to shop,” said organizer Jolene Dusyk.
The women are treated to specials, draws and additional customer service, which sometimes includes cheesecake, photos with Santa or live music.
“We could get in a car and make a day of going around to a few towns on our own,” said participant Jody Snitzler of Regina. “But we said that it’s not the same because on the WOW tour, they have the welcome treats and the draws and those are all something you wouldn’t find in the city.”
The tour offers other extras, including the bus being held up by bandits, a perogy pit stop along Highway 48 and this year, a mini concert by Blake Berglund, Saskatchewan Country Music’s rising star award winner.
“Picking up a poor stranded motorist with a flat tire turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip when he provided us with terrific entertainment to Kipling,” said Cleone Chant of Regina Beach, Sask.
Chant cited unique shops that included Montmartre’s JoJo Beads jewelry studio and Wawota’s Front Porch Interiors Furniture.
“I’ve never had any store employee stand on the front step and wave goodbye as I drove away, so that was a real treat,” she said.
“I really believe that small-town Saskatchewan can teach the big boys a lot about how to treat ladies with charge cards,” Chant said.
“Some people think there’s not much in their communities, but there’s lots to see and show and offer, and people want to see our unique little stores and hear our stories about local singers, local designers and local characters,” Dusyk said.
