A thoughtful little note is written on the badly fractured display window of Mode Suzan at 1647 Bayview Ave north of Fleming Cres. It informs the store’s retail neighbors that the taped-up window is not the result of vandalism. It was, says the note, an accident. And yes, one can see near the bottom of the window where something very large like a careless teenage bottom engaged in horseplay or maybe an ornery loaded platform cart smashed into the store by mistake. Retailers care about whether there’s a vandal about. Other things, they somehow manage. A footnote to this story is that Mode Suzan occupies a shop with an elegant 1930s rounded window of the type that once graced most of the shops on Bayview. Over the years, many have been purposely replaced during cheap renovations, but a few remain. They are expensive to repair. The Source Menswear at 1567 Bayview repaired such a window four years ago and had it restored to the original rounded style
