The Big Box Capital Of Canada!

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

I wouldn’t take that as a solid rule at all. Orillia has one in Ontario with only 50,000 people. I think that one works though as it’s the closest Costco to cottage country which has an absolutely massive summer population.

Hamilton has 2 meanwhile with nearly 600,000 people, and one of them only opened a couple years ago. There is another one in Burlington as well which is actually closer than the two in Hamilton for a lot of locations in the city though. So I guess 3 Costco’s for a metro area of 800,000.

The Orillia location is busy even in the Winter but I'm pretty sure it's because half of Barrie shops at it. The Barrie location has an insane amount of traffic at a very busy interchange with huge power centres whereas the Orillia location is on a road that isn't busy at all and is out of the way.

One city that I'm surprised that still doesn't have a Costco is Thunder Bay.

[niwell]

^That's very surprising! My wife and I went to a Costco in Kauai earlier this year on our honeymoon and the entire island only has a bit more than half the population of the Thunder Bay catchment area. Tourism obviously plays a part but probably not as much at a place like Costco.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I voted Okotoks on principle.

Normally, in any SSP poll of the form "Which city has the top/best/greatest/largest/awesomest XYZ in Canada?", I'll automatically cast my vote for Maple Creek.

It's not on that list, so I didn't vote.

(Okotoks's cool, but really, if you've paid attention, Maple Creek is the new Okotoks.)

[lio45]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Costco is betting long on Edmonton. Wooty woot!

Woot!

(You just knew I was going to point out Costco's interest in Edmonton specifically is likely due to ease of bringing imported goods cheaply and in high volumes, right...?)

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

No but rather that grocery {like Costco} stores have been.

That's probably true but until Costco they tended to only sell food. Now Costco, Walmart, etc. sell just about everything you could imagine buying which make them what most of us consider to be big box stores.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by Loco101

The Orillia location is busy even in the Winter but I'm pretty sure it's because half of Barrie shops at it. The Barrie location has an insane amount of traffic at a very busy interchange with huge power centres whereas the Orillia location is on a road that isn't busy at all and is out of the way.

One city that I'm surprised that still doesn't have a Costco is Thunder Bay.

Probably because it's hard to supply the store in an efficient manner. Where is the nearest Costco distribution center (I believe they call them depots) to Thunder Bay? If it's like 8 or 10 hours away that's probably why Thunder Bay doesn't have a Costco.

[Marshal]

Apologies if someone has already mentioned these.

My take on big box retail includes the large amorphous developments like the South Edmonton Commons (if that's what its called). A terrible invention. For its size, Kamloops stands out (the whole area around Summit Dr. and HWY 1).

Vancouver, of course has plenty big box developments, but the only two I can think of that are like the above are the mess north of Laugheed Hwy and west of the Pitt River Bridge (Fremont Village), and the disaster still being built at Morgan Crossing (South Surrey/White Rock). The last fails at its initial selling concept of organizing retail and residential around walkable intimate streets. They built two of these. The problem is that they are separated by a considerable distance; a space filled with a chaos of big box, medium box, parking and winding unreadable parking access roads. The model itself resulted in roughly two 2-3 block lengths of a kind of traditional street lined with large typical retail units, with acres of parking behind. It is piecemeal at best and at worst it is a blended clusterfuck of scales uses and design efforts which do not add up to anything approaching a coherent urbanity - not for the pedestrian, but not even for the automobile.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by niwell

^That's very surprising! My wife and I went to a Costco in Kauai earlier this year on our honeymoon and the entire island only has a bit more than half the population of the Thunder Bay catchment area. Tourism obviously plays a part but probably not as much at a place like Costco.

I honeymooned there in September as well!

My understanding is Costco is very popular with tourists in Hawaii as it’s a good way to save some $$ in a very high cost of living area. Hawaiian grocery stores are shockingly expensive so Costco is a good idea for people on vacation compared to if they were vacationing in, say, Arizona. I know we did as much of our shopping there as possible when we were there. Gas, food, etc. Everyone I talked to before going mentioned to do shopping at Costco too as it was cheaper.

Kauai also has a large mall and significant amount of shopping really for a small island. It’s probably 60-70% driven by tourism, If not more considering how much poverty there is on the island. It ain’t Honolulu.

[theman23]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

I honeymooned there in September as well!

My understanding is Costco is very popular with tourists in Hawaii as it’s a good way to save some $$ in a very high cost of living area. Hawaiian grocery stores are shockingly expensive so Costco is a good idea for people on vacation compared to if they were vacationing in, say, Arizona. I know we did as much of our shopping there as possible when we were there. Gas, food, etc. Everyone I talked to before going mentioned to do shopping at Costco too as it was cheaper.

Kauai also has a large mall and significant amount of shopping really for a small island. It’s probably 60-70% driven by tourism, If not more considering how much poverty there is on the island. It ain’t Honolulu.

That and American cities just seem to support more of these big box stores. Pretty much every city of around 100K gets a Costco, and if you've got 10K you're getting a Walmart. In Canada, getting to 10K gets you a coming soon sign for a Home Hardware.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by niwell

^That's very surprising! My wife and I went to a Costco in Kauai earlier this year on our honeymoon

I guess honeymoon activities have changed since I got married

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

I guess honeymoon activities have changed since I got married

We were last in Kauai about 7 years ago, I don't think it was there then. Maui (Kahului) had one, though. Cheap booze is another touristy reason.

[Innsertnamehere]

I believe there are actually more Costco’s per capita in Canada than the US.

[stevanford1]

Wow, Toronto only has four! Edmonton Costco's must have much fanfare!

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by stevanford1

Wow, Toronto only has four! Edmonton Costco's must have much fanfare!

Woot woot. Alberta leads the way again in a key indicator of life.

[SignalHillHiker]

RE: Costco... Just for badness, I want to participate in the faux flexing.

Edmonton may have lots, but we have Canada's largest. They moved there (Galway, West End) from their former location (Stavanger, East End) last spring.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/largest-...hn-s-1.1280121

It's also one of the busiest.

And, one anecdotal oddity - stocking for our market is apparently difficult because shoppers have such homogeneous tastes - "we sell 500,000 of something or none of it."

[Marty_Mcfly]

Costco is stupid busy here at all times, and now it's in an inconvenient location (for me) so I try to avoid it as much as possible. Galway is about to become ugly ass stupid big box location #4 for us, which is probably 2 too many given our population.

It's the biggest in Canada, until they build the next new location. That's usually how these things go.

[Doug]

A few comments about Costco:
-the average Costco shopper skews towards those with high incomes and advanced degrees: https://snapshot.numerator.com/retailer/costco
-the first Costco in Canada was in Burnaby, the second in Edmonton: https://www.cbc.ca/archives/the-dawn...nada-1.5328668
-I can’t find a source, but I remember Edmonton being the first Canadian city with two Costco’s. The first one at 149th and Yellowhead opened in 1985, the second on 99th St in the South opened in 1988. Both of those locations are closed as Costco opened larger stores nearby
-the Calgary region will soon have 7 locations: South, NE, NW, Rockyview, Okotoks, East Hills, Anderson & Ring Road (opening soon)
-the first Calgary location opened at Deerfoot and Glenmore in 1987. That location expanded in 1990. It moved to an even larger location nearby in 2003. The second Calgary location opened in the NE in 1991. It expanded in 2000
-perhaps Costco does so well in Alberta due to it being in the market for so long, and the high average incomes. It also seems to do really well in BC, where it has also been in the market for a long time

[MolsonExport]

I hate big box barf.

But I shop at Costco two to three times per month. Hey, like everyone else, I am stretching my paycheck to take care of my family. Costco offers the same or better quality for lower prices (which is known as a "more for less" value proposition). Which is a more attractive value proposition to me than what Walfart ("less for less") or Stupidstore ("same for less" offers).

Why more for more? Quality. Costco avoids bargain/discount brands. Its Kirkland Signature house line of products meets or beats the better national brands.

The tradeoff? Very busy stores, and having to drop $500 for groceries (and having to store bulk quantities).

I am thus quite a fan of Costco, despite the hassle.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

RE: Costco... Just for badness, I want to participate in the faux flexing.

Edmonton may have lots, but we have Canada's largest. They moved there (Galway, West End) from their former location (Stavanger, East End) last spring.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/largest-...hn-s-1.1280121

It's also one of the busiest.

And, one anecdotal oddity - stocking for our market is apparently difficult because shoppers have such homogeneous tastes - "we sell 500,000 of something or none of it."

Do they sell Seal-flipper Pie?

I like Costco in Quebec, because they stock a lot of great Quebec foods...alas most are hard to come by in Presbyterianly-boring Ontario.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

Woot woot. Alberta leads the way again in a key indicator of life.

Definitely woot-worthy. The Alberta advantage strikes again! Well, Ontario can console itself that it has more artisanal olive oil emporiums per capita. We may even outrank Alberta in the gourmet cupcake dept. Woot Woot!