Noticed this Asian souvenir shop the other day lol, interesting concept

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...e766966115d5e6

could be wrong, but people won't pay for it.

Seems like they are selling chinese goods at high prices.

Basically the supreme opposite of china towns anywhere else.

I like the Asian Snow minimart at mun, seemed like a good place for that type of business with so many asian students.

you were in there?

The Home Hardware store (the old Dominion) on Topsail Rd is moving to the Village in Spring 2015. There's construction on the outside of the upper level where Sears had it's garden centre, so I guess that'll be the lumber yard.

^ That's kinda interesting.

Yeah that's been listed as a tenant at the village mall now for some time. I thought they were just using it for storage for home hardware. There's been major work goin on there lately though. It's good they got something to go in that dead area of the mall.

Interesting. I wonder what might go in the old Home Hardware (Dominion). I would love to see it go back to a supermarket - great spot for a No Frills.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Loblaws/Dominion still hold the lease in that Topsail Rd building and just sublet it to Home Hardware. If that's the case it will probably stay empty and rot away like the Ropewalk Lane and Newfoundland Drive former stores which Loblaws still holds the lease on (I think). They will not let another competing supermarket move in there as long as they still have an active lease.

Oh I know all about what a miserably bad corporate citizen Loblaws can be, best exemplified by the time they wanted to sue the driver of the sports team van in New Brunswick who lost his family in the crash for something like $40k. The media backlash put a stop to that despicable incident. The sit on it and let it rot strategy is one of their better known moves though.

Thing is though, No Frills is part of the dozen or so banners Loblaw operates, so it could happen...

Is this the building that has a Bank of Montreal connected to it?

No, it's to the right of RBC stripmall and at the back of the big parking lot shared with that building ( beer store, New Moon rest, New World Fitness etc) across from Tims/Ches's/Jungle Jim's. Basically at the corner of Burgeo St and Topsail Rd.

Ah, right! For some reason I read "Topsail" as "Torbay" and was thinking about the old Dominion across from McDonald's on NL Dr. Thanks for the clarification.

Noticed today at lunch that Martek were putting a sign up by the old Newfoundland Dr Dominion, stating lease opportunities for 20,000 sg ft. Also said on the sign about 70,000 sg ft at Ropewalk Lane, so I guess the old buildings are on the market now. Be nice to finally see something done with these old buildings.

Haha... speak of the devil!

Here are some photos of things that are going on in the Avalon Mall.
The bathrooms and hall near where the old watch shop and security office was, has been completely renovated and modernized signs etc. I have a feeling that they will eventually renovate inside the mall.

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/...e3&oe=549472BD

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/...86&oe=548F8F0F

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...11a1ed63d9bc61

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...6e4bfb3c1f30f5

Here are a couple of the new stores under construction:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...da0eb1d3b3283a

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...2daba6d52d8b86

Starbucks is almost done:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...728a68812ba36f

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.n...fe23c74f9c278d

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/...a5&oe=549151AC

Another national chain has gone under and is closing its shops across the country. There's no real surprise though that XS Cargo is closing. It's the dumpiest and most up useless store I've ever been in. Here's the news announcement link.

http://business.financialpost.com/20...?__federated=1

Interesting. We drove by there last week and noticed the sign. I was wondering if it was a for real closing sale, or if it was kind of like what Fairweather does in the mall, where they've been "closing" for about 7 years now :haha:

LOL. I noticed that about Fairweather too.

Actually it's not so much the attitude of the folks or location of the folks, but rather it comes down to $$$$. There simply is not enough disposable income here in the area that could sustain even a watered down version of WEM (not yet anyways).

Personally what I think needs to happen with the Avalon Mall is:
A). Ownership Chage
B). Shopping options that reflect what people want or wear.

I liked XS Cargo. For students moving to the city they had some great cheap furniture. To this day I still have a bookshelf, TV stand, coffee and end tables, and a desk from there plus a bunch of other cheap household stuff like hangers and whatnot. It was one of the places I frequently went just to see what they had.

I think stores like this and Hart/Bargain Giant made one critical mistake: trying to compete in primary markets. There's a ton of competition in major cities like St. John's and Halifax, but if they had gone into secondary or tertiary cities and towns, with their prices, they would have done better. The market is smaller but you can capture all of it with less competition. Hart/Bargain Giant went under specifically because they failed to make money on a huge expansion into primary shopping markets like St. John's and stopped focussing on 2nd-3rd tier markets like Grand Falls or Port-aux-Basques where they were #1 or 2 in town.

XS Cargo was in competition with the likes of Winners, Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, Dollarama, Dominion, Staples, Canadian Tire, etc... and you're not going to win that battle.

I remember going to St. John's for a trip before I even moved out there for undergrad and they had their store closing sign up. So your 7 could be spot on. haha