The “Kim’s Convenience” of Old Ottawa East

 

Dixie Dairy: A mainstay on Main Street

 

JOHN DANCE

 

JOHN DANCE PHOTO Kebreab Ogbit and his family have successfully run Dixie Dairy on Main Street for 28 years, providing key services for many Old Ottawa East residents and visitors.

In the midst of a fast-changing business world, Dixie Dairy on Main Street carries on with owner Kebreab Ogbit – known as Gabriel to many of us – and his family adapting and providing continuing convenience to the community.

The Ogbit’s work at least 13 hours a day, six days a week – that’s about double what the average government employee puts in each week. And they’ve been putting in those hours for 28 years!

Dixie Dairy has evolved over the years, as products and competitors change. Indeed, Dixie Dairy is one of the few non-chain convenience stores left in Capital Ward, aside from those that specifically serve high-rises such as those on Lees Avenue.   

“Convenience” from Shoppers Drug Marts and many other large stores opening in the evening and on Sundays takes business away from stores like Dixie Dairy. And fast-food franchises like Subway and McDonald’s also draw customers away from convenience stores.

One of the initial adaptations of Dixie Dairy was introducing a video rental centre. During that period, Ogbit even used the basement of the building at 101 Main Street to offer a wide selection of video tapes and then CDs. But within three years of the introduction of Netflix’s streaming services, the video rental business died.

The next adaptation was to renovate the front section of the store to have a small pizza take-out area that Immaculata High School students and others still patronize.

While staples of convenience – like bread, milk, chips and soft drinks – have always been available, other products like lottery tickets have been added. Two years ago, when the Ontario government allowed convenience stores to sell beer and wine, Dixie Dairy took advantage of the opportunity and beer sales have become an important source of revenues. Ogbit provides the beer brands that customers request.

 

History

Dixie Dairy opened for business in 1966, Christopher Ryan wrote in a 2015 “Spacing Ottawa” post. “Looking to aggressively expand, advertisements were run in the Ottawa Journal and Citizen suggesting that for $950 and an undefined pool of operating capital, qualified individuals could run their own Dixie Dairy. The goal was to see at least 40 operate in the region.”

Exactly who led this effort was not stated, but only one other Dixie Dairy was established – in Britannia. As for why the name Dixie Dairy was chosen, that too is a mystery.

A familiar sight outside his Dixie Dairy store on Main Street, Kabreab Ogbit thinks the time is coming when one of his siblings might take over the venerable convenience store frequented by many in Old Ottawa East.

In a 2006 story in The Mainstreeter, Pierre Johnson, former OOECA president and assistant to then-City Councillor Clive Doucet, wrote that the convenience store actually opened in 1959, but it may have had another name at that point. 

Some years ago, Ogbit was visited by grandchildren of the first owners of the store, and he was told that originally there were 17 Dixie Dairy stores, but there is no readily-available internet verification of this. In any event, Ogbit decided to keep the Dixie Dairy name because he “didn’t want to confuse things.”

Initially, Ogbit rented the store, but he subsequently bought the building which now also has an apartment on the second floor and the Mermaid Cat Tattoo Studio in an adjoining part of the building.

Amongst the many challenges in keeping the business going was the reconstruction of Main Street. “It was really bad, really long,“ says Ogbit, as he tells the stories of a 10-metre hole in front of the store, a smashed neon light, and disturbing vibrations of the building.

 

The Ogbit Family

Like the characters in the venerable CBC program “Kim’s Convenience,” the members of the Ogbit family, his wife and two daughters, have all contributed to the store over the years. Ogbit immigrated from Ethiopia to Canada in 1984 and initially lived in Montreal where he graduated from Concordia University with a masters in public administration. His wife became a nurse at the Ottawa Hospital and recently retired. Both of his daughters attended Immaculata and have now completed their post-secondary education.

Initially, Ogbit and his wife lived in the Marquis apartment building at the corner of Main and Lees Avenue but they then moved to Hunt Club where they still live. 

“It’s time to let it go,” says Ogbit.  But he wants Dixie Dairy to continue as a convenience store and says one of his siblings could take it over.