Showing posts with label downtown halifax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label downtown halifax. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

The Coast's Best of Halifax 2017

We make no bones about it, we love being part of the community of Halifax and, in particular, in playing our role as a downtown business.  We also love being in Nova Scotia, our connection with the sea is a strong one!

Practicing optometry in Nova Scotia means that we have to comply with the Standards of Practice for Optometry set by the Nova Scotia College of Optometrists (NSCO).  As such, we have just received a news bulletin from the College which makes it very clear that we cannot participate in any "Best of" award run by media or organisations such as the Chambers of Commerce.

We have only been open for four years and in that short time we have been fortunate to have been nominated for a Chamber of Commerce Best New Business award and several of The Coast's "Best of Halifax" award.  Once again we have been nominated for The Coast's "Best of" awards (although as we placed Gold last year, we were also automatically included).

Having received the above recent communication for the NSCO, we immediately contacted The Coast to ensure that we are withdrawn from their awards.

We are very grateful for everyone who has thought us worthy of their vote and their support since we opened just a few years ago and it is with much regret that we have to withdraw from the contest. 

We never opened Ocean Optometry to win awards though, we opened with the desire to bring the world's finest eyewear made by independent companies to Halifax and to provide excellent optometric care for our patients.  We have done this without relying on promotions, discounts or specials; believing that people appreciate fair and reasonable pricing without gizmos and giveaways.

We wish everyone participating The Coast's Best of Halifax 2017 awards well, we would encourage you to vote for your favourite businesses, venues, places and fine folks. More importantly, we'd encourage you to support the many great local independent business that Halifax has with your custom!


The Coast's Best of Halifax 2017


Best of luck, everyone, and thank you for your ongoing support.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Win what you wish!


One of our hopes when choosing our location was that we would be involved in an active community and this couldn't have turned out to be truer for Downtown Halifax - it's a great location!  There are many lovely local business all around us, offering great services, people with lots of knowledge and expertise and prices which compare well globally.

We obviously try to choose local suppliers when we can, but what we have also found rewarding is that the local businesses have embraced us in Downtown and we have many good folks from the local Downtown business coming in to see us as well.


Downtown Halifax Business CommissionTwo things that have been particularly fun to be involved in is the I Love Local Hfx movement and the Downtown Halifax Business Commission.  Both have proven to be great resources for information, activities and ideas to help establish our business.

The fun thing about having been involved with both of these organisations is that they too believe in the importance of local businesses and can see why they benefit the local economy and community much more than faceless corporations do.  To keep up to date with all of these we'd really recommend that you follow both organisations on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/downtownhalifax/ and http://twitter.com/ILOVELOCALHFX.

One fun activity happening at the moment is the Downtown Halifax's Win What You Wish competition.  This is a great way for the great products and services available within the Downtown community to be showcased virally.  Getting involved couldn't be simpler and you get the opportunity to win things as well!  All you need to do is take a photograph of an item that you'd like from any of the Downtown businesses, share it with the tag #WinWhatYouWish.  As a side benefit, those people who always claim that your "So hard to shop for" will get a sneaky preview as to what you may actually like.

So ... what are you waiting for?  Get out there, get snapping and get sharing it on the internet!  To get some ideas as to what's out there, have a look at www.winwhatyouwish.ca.