SASKATOON -- Burnett’s Key Shop, a staple business of downtown Saskatoon, is in the process of moving to the northwest part of the city, on Airport Drive.

“It's quite difficult,” said Marc Toews, who owns part of the business with David Goertzen. They say the building was sold to new owners who had different plans for it.

“At some point you realize you're going to have to move along,” said Toews.

In some shape or form, Toews says the business had been in the downtown core since 1936.

It stood on Third Avenue since 1967 and was on First Avenue before that.

“It was Simmons Key Shop, and then it changed to Burnetts in 1951,” he said. “And so we were there all that time. We survived that move, I'm hoping we survive another.”

Brent Penner, executive director of the Downtown Saskatoon Business Improvement District, says there’s a different feel when a longstanding business leaves a community.

“It's pretty impressive that any business can continue to operate, decades long or more than 50 years,” he said. “I think that's incredible.”

“That's a place where we go get keys cut for for our office, it was a block away from our office. If I needed a key for the house, for me it was easy to walk to, so no doubt about it, that was the go-to place for me.”

Toews and Goertzen say they’ve heard some disappointment from customers because of the convenience of their downtown location, but say that having a parking lot where customers won’t have to pay will make up for that.

Longtime customer Greg Clemence, a property and facility manager, thinks they’ll be just fine in their new location.

“There's very few places in town you really want to, off the top of your head, just go to,” he said. “They've been the real go-to people for for a long time, as far as I'm concerned.”

“I think everybody's gonna be a little sad a little nostalgic, but at the end of the day I think it's going to be better for them and better for the business. As much as it was a nice place to go into, that was a tired old building so it was good for them to move on.”

The business may be moving spots, and they say foot traffic may drop a little bit, but Toews says the profession of locksmith will be around the for a long time.

“A key is still the most effective way to lock a door,” he said.

“You can have all the new locks and all the new equipment, push button, bluetooth, what have you. If a door doesn't close and latch properly, it doesn't matter what lock is on it. You need to get somebody that can make that latch properly.”