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Riley Park: Abbies Sports Shop goes to bat for customers

Main Street institution now has third owner in 65-year history
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If you play baseball for Little Mountain Little League, chances are you bought your first glove at Abbies Sport Shop.

If you found a lost Frisbee, Abbies is where youd take it and where the owner would come for it.

If youre Steve Quinn, Abbies is the business he hopes to one day run with his children.

Steve Quinn, a lifelong Vancouverite, is the third owner since the store was founded in 1948 at a location near Main Street and 13th Avenue, 20 blocks north of its current location near 32nd Avenue. He bought Abbies in December for a little over $100,000 and said he envisions the business as one that will stay in his family. His eight-year-old son Jack already has his eyes on the future, said Quinn.

Not only do I get to watch my kids grow but Im going to see neighbourhood kids grow from here, he said, waving his hand two feet off the ground, and up.

Quinn took over a business with deep community ties, ones that see Abbies on Little League jerseys and as flagship sponsor of sports tournaments and festivals. The store has a history of finding work for the young athletes who once came in with their parents for their first soccer cleats, football, ping pong paddle or baseball bat.

Isaac Greer, 15, applied for summer work at Abbies. I bought my first baseball glove here, said the Little Leaguer who represented Canada at the 2010 World Series in Williamsport, Pa. He came in to talk to Quinn as another teenage employee restrung a tennis racquet.

Quinn knows the worth of Abbies and intends to preserve its reputation for good customer service built on six decades worth of positive word-of-mouth.

Customers tell him they shop at Abbies because, he said and repeats what theyve told him in the five months hes been owner: Were here because our friends have shopped here for years, our son is just getting into baseball and we were going to go somewhere else, but they said go to Abbies.

Michelle Wilson, a retired professional disc golf player, dropped by Abbies on a weekday afternoon because the store had exactly what she needed: her own Frisbee.

Wilson left her disc, a yellow Leopard driver, in Coquitlam at the Mundy Park disc golf course nearly two months ago, she said. Shed completely written it off as lost for good.

Weve got this unwritten disc golf karma rule, she said. You write your name on the back of a Frisbee and if someone finds it, it will come back to you.

Before her disc was found, she bought a replacement at Abbies.

The store is located a few fairway lengths from the Queen Elizabeth disc golf course and Abbies can display up to 476 discs, reputedly the largest collection in Western Canada. Quinn also added a starter kit for players new to the sport.

Theyve got pretty much everything that youll need, said Wilson, who typically carries 13 different discs during a round. Well want to come in for a certain colour, certain weight or specialization.

And players like Wilson know they can even come in and find what was lost.

Its a community service, she said, which his awesome.

mstewart@vancourier.com

Twitter.com/MHStewart