Runners outside Alex and Lily s Salisbury location, which opened a few weeks ago. Image: Facebook.
An entrepreneur and well-known Atlantic Canadian runner is hoping his new shoe store will bring some new life into the scarcely populated Brunswick Square shopping mall in uptown Saint John.
Alex Coffin will be opening Alex and Lily’s Shoe Shoppe on the first level of Brunswick Square, in the former Running Room location, on February 1. This will be Alex and Lily’s third location, joining its original store in Sussex and another in Salisbury that opened just a few weeks ago.
Coffin, a top marathon runner who has won Marathon by the Sea seven times, opened the store in Sussex two years ago when he saw a need for not just a place to get running shoes, but shoes in general in the town. He has experience running a business, having previously operated a similar shop, Alex Coffin’s Fitness Shop, which had locations in Saint John and Rothesay.