Why
the heck is the store named Elfsar? What does it mean?
It’s actually one of the top questions I get
asked here at the store. ELFSAR first and foremost, is an
incorporated (or limited) company.
The name itself does not really mean anything and can really be considered a
made up word. Although it’s only natural that we Humans have an insatiable
need to have a meaning for everything in our lives. Please allow me to
explain how we arrived at the name “ELFSAR” and where it comes
from.
There are two things.
First, it’s synonym for the names of all parties involved. Some of my
investors wanted to remain anonymous and so therefore we created a name that
allowed us to register for both a business license and domain name with ease
and incorporate the initials of all the people who put up the money so to
speak.
Here is a hint on 2 of them, the ‘E’ is for Ethan (me) and the ‘S’ is for my
partner (both in life and business) Sareina. Second, and this is kind of silly and soooo
totally "Geek" but for me, ELFSAR actually comes from my past
experience playing Video Games. Back in the day, I was a pretty avid video
game player. I still sneak away to play games today, but not nearly as much
as I used to be able to. Now I may be showing my age a tiny bit, but the
old games I used to play only allowed 3 letters to be used ‘_ _ _’
to rank your high score. I (along with a few closest friends) was
a large fan of a game called 'Gauntlet' where 4 players ( A
Barbarian, Valkyrie, Wizard & Elf) could all play at the same time on the
same screen. (Yes, although it is commonplace now, it was a big deal back
then) I always seemed to end up being the speedy Elf (not sure why) and
every time I was called upon to enter my 3 digits to rank my high score, I,
for better lack of an imagination, used “ELF”. For no known
reason other than habit, I continued to use the name
for every game I played.
On the flip side, my
partner to be, Sareina (An old-school master of Mrs. Pac-Man) in her youth,
coincidentally used her initials “SAR” to rank her 3
digit high score. Fast-forward a bit to a time when video games became a
little more complex and actually allowed you to use more than 3 digits.
Sareina and I used to play adventure games together and it became only
natural that we would combine both our 3 digits and the player name
“ELFSAR” was born. In
fact, it became so commonly used for a multiple joint projects that we
worked together on that we really just got used to using the created
word/name.
The Vancouver Store and all of this madness began in
the fall of 1999. Happy Harbor Comics & Toys or known as HH Edmonton first
began as a Wholesale other know as a Direct Sales Outlet before moving into
and opening up it's own retail locations both in Jasper and then later
(2005) back in Edmonton. I was a customer of such a service while I was
living in Edmonton, before falling in love with the City of Vancouver and
finally making the move to Hollywood North in 2001.
In 2002 my partner Sareina and I
decided to open our own location in the heart of Downtown Vancouver and
provide the same service as I grew accustomed to at HH. After about a year
of searching for a suitable location in May of 2003, with the help of both
Jay and Shawna from HH, Elfsar Collection Ltd. was launched. Thru combining
our orders with HH. Our 2 small locations all of a sudden became a much
larger one.
Why did we not use the name Happy Harbor
Vancouver? Well to be honest, it was really an ownership issue. Jay is a
great guy and deserves a lot of credit as he helped me out big time by
taking huge risks and responsibility and accountability that really in
retrospect could have put him under if things went south here in Vancouver.
(Fortunately it didn’t). But by me
operating as “Happy Harbor Vancouver” in name but not owning the rights to
that name was not a very good idea if we wanted to branch off into something
else in the future. A name change at a later date would be disastrous as I
believe part of having a successful business is creating your own identity
and developing a reputation. I was not comfortable not owning my own. Plus,
we were very different stores when the Vancouver location opened.
ELFSAR was at the time half a Pop Culture store and half a Modern
Art Gallery.
I know I just heard you think "Huh? What did
you just say?"
When
Elfsar first launched we opened it as an
experiment to see if Low Brow Art and High Brow Art could co-exist. And it
did, for about a year and a half before construction started on a new
Shoppers Drugmart which moved in the same building right above us. This
caused a lot of obstacles for us to maintain and operate a modern art
gallery, let alone a retail business. Unfortunately, the Gallery had to
shut down as it became to difficult and restrictive to show the abstract
work from the New New Painters. I do miss the Gallery but our rent was
going up I had to expand the comic and toy business to pay the bills.
Myself, being a lover of Trade paperbacks decided to expand our library and
have been working hard to develop an impressive collection of books each and
every month. Jay from HH and I feed off each other energies
and really like what the other is doing. I need a good kick in the ass
sometimes and I like to think that we inspire each other to think outside
the box. Both Elfsar and HH have a partnership that makes both our
locations stronger and both our reputations are growing. We both
believe in doing more than just selling you your comics. We run numerous
events, creator signings & are very vocal about about our industry.
Although we are both
individually owned, both Happy Harbor and Elfsar believe in doing what we
can to help strengthen the comic community. Custom ordering is what our
locations were built on. In Vancouver, File Customer Saver Discounts
started at 20% off all ordered comics as a special limited grand opening
promotion and our customers liked it so much that we decided early on to
still offer it today. We continue to offer big discounts on merchandise
(toys, t-shirts, posters, miniatures and more). Come and see us for
exclusive one on one customer service that will be unmatched ANYWHERE.
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