oooh, exciting.

I'm basing my guess on the fact that they haven't officially come out and said "yes, this will be an RCSS location"--it's a decent enough store, but I agree with your assessment, it's not exactly something to set your hair on fire for.

In all fairness, Redcliffe described it as a destination store, and GCSS is as much a destination retail store as say Costco or WalMart.

Is Superstore a 24 hrs grocery store like Sobeys? I know a few people that go to Grimsby for the Superstore. Superstore will do really well in Hamilton.

SteelTown, RCSS is what I'd call "hypermarket-lite"--it's an effort by Loblaw to move closer to the Wal-Mart Supercenter concept. It is full-service grocery as well as small appliances, housewares, linens, health and beauty--and most recently, private label clothing under the "joe fresh" brand. They run with price-points lower than whatever the traditional Loblaw format is in a given market (Fortinos in your case, Zehrs in mine) thanks to an agreement with the UFCW that allows them to hire non-grocery employees at a lower wage scale. Not aware of any that operate 24 Hours--Hamilton's Victorian business hours laws would prevent that anyway considering the general merchandise (non-grocery) in the format.

None of the Loblaws formats offer 24hr shopping, at least not in Ontario. However, they probably could if they wanted to, seeing as both Sobey's and The Barn both already operate 24hr here.

The Sobey's at Ancaster is open for 24 hrs which is helpful as I've gone 1am to Sobey's before lol.

I think the Wal-Mart Supercentre at Ancaster just recently started to open 24 hrs as well. So I was wondering if the Superstores is 24 hrs or will it be going 24 hrs as well.

King West Barn is 24-7 along with Upp James Mohawk.

The Barn and A&P in Dundas are both 24hr as well. Why they're both 24hr I don't know. Since The Barn in Dundas switched to 24hr it's been declining. Lineups at the checkouts, subpar produce and now Fortino's is cheaper on a lot of items. I wish they'd cut their hours back to normal and put more into their service, quality and pricing like they used to. It's completely dead after 9 anyway.

Wal*Mart is moving to 24 Hrs at a number of locations--I know Ancaster was initially prevented from doing so by a by-law limiting the types of businesses that can remain open 24/7--that may have changed.

markbarbera is correct--Loblaws has generally not operated 24 Hr stores.

None of the Walmart stores in Canada have gone to year-round 24hr operation. A select group operated round the clock last December, and the Ancaster location was one of them. Walmart has yet to make a final decision on year-round 24hr operations. Should they decide to move ahead with it, the Ancaster store is certain to be among the stores doing so, along with the Upper James store once its renovation to the new format has been completed.

Following the success of 24 hour operations over the month of December, Wal*Mart Canada announced in January that it would move to year-round 24 hour operations at 25 stores across Canada. The Wal*Mart store in my neighborhood is among these, I assure you, as a shift worker I have taken advantage of the convenience more than once. You may not always agree with me, but have some faith that I know what I'm talking about when I post facts/information here.

For confirmation of this story you can follow this link to a Globe & Mail article dated January 7.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl.../lifeMain/home

Stealing a page from the Trolleybus links provided, here is a classic early 80s shot of Eastgate, showing the soon to be former Bay location under it's original lineage.

http://www.trolleybuses.net/ham/htm/..._198409_ss.htm

I stand corrected on the 24-hour Walmart availability. I was not aware that they had started testing the extended hours in stores beyond the Christmas rush.

dang, not much has changed down there.
It kills me seeing the fabulous trolley network we had. Dumb city.

The signs on the buildings have changed--I guess that's about it--the view today would be quite similar.

Losing Robinson's was a shame--it was Hamilton's own, founded and bred here.

Loved the trolley system when I was a kid--would get my dad to stay behind them on Queenston and King so I could watch for sparks.

Canada's government is too busy spending on arctic sovereignty and the northwest passage to invest in commuter transit that makes sense.

For some reason it is more important to ship things through 100 meters of ice than to develop rapid transit in places where people actually live. It will be nice to be in New York for the next few months.

We need to protect our Northern-Sovereignty, you know!
I hear the penguins & polar bears are developping some WMDs? hahahahaha

as for Eastgate, the general area's view hasn't changed much (I see it e-v-e-r-y day ugh) but the main entrance to the Mall certainly has changed! The new angled-glass wall entrance, the new beauty of a transit terminal and the covered walkway up the that gorgeous new entry-way! Those trees to the east of that bus in that pic however (http://www.trolleybuses.net/ham/htm/..._198409_ss.htm) are still just as tall! hahaha That's what happens when you plant trees in new developments! No soil to grow in... sadly :(

yea, I'm impressed with that transit terminal. Only thing I would have done differently is to extend the covered walkway right to the mall doors and use some longer shelter/terminal structure like the ones on McNab downtown instead of a whole pile of those individual bus stops that only hold 5 people.
Other than that, it's great. And I'm sure they'll evaluate, get some feedback and improve on that design for future terminals at Limeridge, McMaster, Centre Mall and elsewhere.