As per the rumour months ago about U-Haul purchasing Costco's current Stavanger Drive building....a U-Haul employee told me that was indeed true. The building was purchased months ago with the intent to turn it into a U-Haul mega facility. They will use some of the parking lot for storage units as well as divide much of the interior up for the same purpose as well as truck storage inside and out. They will sell propane. I'm not sure about the gas pumps. The Kenmount Road facility will also remain.

Yeah, that’s totally gonna keep shoppers coming to Stavanger Drive for sure. Good gawd.

I would of liked a store of some sort but I'm glad the building won't be sitting empty. Remains to be seen how much Costco leaving will affect the other retailers as I wonder how many people coming into the area for Costco made trips to the other stores (Dominion, Walmart, etc). I can see the restaurants and the hotel feeling it.

Yes, it's great to have the Costco building in use and not having another Target scenario. With that said, it's not the kind of draw to the area that a retailer would be. The area will become a local shopping area instead of a destination. Best Buy, Old Navy and Michael's will be the only retailers in the area that are not duplicated somewhere else in the city.

If Best Buy ever moves I think Stavanger will be "dead" from how it was. Though not necessarily a bad thing for people in the East End who just want a normal non-crazy shopping area.

Though I wonder if they would open a second store instead of moving. Not sure if we have the population for two.

I'm an East Ender and I'm ok with it being a normal shopping area tbh. As long as the buildings are full and they have the stores I usually shop at. I don't think Best Buy is going anywhere. There was a Futureshop and Best Buy at one point so maybe they would open a second location. I would imagine it would depend on how well the current store is doing. I'd like another Michaels so the current one isn't as busy lol.

I think Best Buys days are numbered as a chain to be honest. I wouldn’t be surprised to see go the way of Futureshop. Everything that they had has now lost its market and has gone. CD’s, DVD’s, laptops, desktop computers, digital Cameras. Most people who go there for tv’s just browse and then usually go to Costco to purchase. They have become just and oversized cell phone store.

I got my last 3 televisions at Best Buy haha

I also wonder how the chain is doing tbh. Last time we were in there their music section had almost nothing left. They said they were waiting for a shipment but we weren't convinced.

I wonder how they do with TV and appliance sales. The loss of Sears should have helped them in that department, also with Costco moving it may help them as well. Also, people are still buying computers and I'm sure they do well with cell phone and tablet sales. They sell musical instruments too, not many left in the city doing that.

Most modern (renovated) Best Buys consist of displays provided by manufacturers. The stores are paid for the space for these displays and they're sometimes staffed with 'specialty employees' (Google, Microsoft, Apple sections at Best Buy). The East End Best Buy is in a terrible location with difficult access. I wouldn't be surprised to see it move.

https://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/...d-in-best-buy/

Ron.

Not the best quality photos but stores are starting to go up in Paradise Plaza:


https://i.imgur.com/yhfNP4xh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/txxrlWxh.jpg

Has there been any rumours as to what's being built in the old Halloween Store/Christmas Warehouse location on Kenmount?

I think the Habitat for Humanity Re-store is moving there.

Had a quick glance at the render on the sign posted and from what I can tell it looks like it will be multiple stores in there.

Anybody know where the new skywalk will connect to in the mall? You can see now that they are building escalators going down to what appears to be the back of Lawtons???

Do you mean the skywalk that will connect the mall to the new parking garage? If so, that one was installed weeks ago, in the same location as the old one that they removed.

Actually it’s in a new location, it’s going to come out where Olsen Europe was

Yeah I think people are conflating where the skywalk literally attaches to the mall vs the route you take after you leave it.

It looks like the skywalk itself is pretty much in the identical location it's just a different route then after. From what I can gather you basically take escalators down and then go through a corridor that is further up closer to Lawtons than the old way.

You can get an idea with this render:

http://www.marcogroup.ca/wp-content/...g-1200x692.jpg

Yes you will now enter where the Olsen store was.

Kearney’s is now located where the stairs for the pedway/skywalk had been.

The Body shop is taking in the space where Kearney’s was, going back to Avalon Dental.

In the food court they have an overhang built next to the escalators, on the opposite side from the elevator. They are either expanding the food court or digging under a&w and subway for something. There used to be washrooms in this area. I suspect they are putting something there because of the way they have dug down at the corner of the food court where Booster Juice used to be.

At first I thought there were moving the entrance to the food court...anybody have any info?

Also Little Burgundy is now open at LuLu Lemon Court.

https://i.imgur.com/9vJGlQI_d.jpg?ma...idelity=medium

Haven't seen any renders for the food court entrance but it's likely they are updating it to have the similar look as the other entrances will:

http://www.crombie.ca/sites/default/...&1537718832978


As for the food court no idea what they are doing there. Though it wouldn't surprise me if they tried to eek out some more space for seating.

Mastermind Toys on Hebron Way opened this past weekend. Nice to see that space getting filled. If only something would go into the remainder or the old Target Building.

Seeing on VOCM that JAG Hotel is looking to expand and has purchased several buildings in the area including the building with Gaze Seeds in it. I saw a post in a facebook group that it's going to be a good change for them.

http://vocm.com/news/jag-looking-to-...itys-downtown/

Update: Gaze has posted an update on their website that they will indeed be moving to a new location but looking to stay either downtown or in the centre city area.
https://theseedcompany.ca/blogs/news...n-in-the-works

The new Avalon Mall intersection with Polina Road looks to be a couple weeks away from completion. I also noticed a second intersection wired for traffic lights. The O'Leary entrance near the food court entrance lines up with the new parking garage entrance and the bases for traffic lights have been installed in the four corners. A wise move as I'm sure this will be a busy spot.

Was at the airport last night. The former location that use to be the Relay Newstand is now gonna be a store called Jellybean Harbour.

The intersection is OPEN today. They beat my own estimate of 2 weeks. It must be the night work. :)

Costco's move to Galway delayed, according to company's website

It looks like it will be early 2019 before new store is open

CBC News · Posted: Oct 11, 2018

It looks like Costco will spend another Christmas at its current home in the east end of of St. John's.

The megaretailer will not open the doors on its new store in Galway, the new development on the outskirts of St. John's that is spearheaded by former premier Danny Williams, until February 2019, according to the Costco Wholesale website.

It has been anticipated that the new location would be ready next month.

...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfo...lway-1.4858974

The Wicker Emporium is going out of business and shutting down its last 6 stores including one in St. John's (on White Rose Drive). No surprise - I never saw anyone in there.

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/princ...sing-1.4861929

Nygard has opened a plus store at the village in addition to the store they already had there. Labels is still there although in a smaller space. Saw a permit in another spot for Hakim Optical which I believe would be their first location in the province. Could there still be life in the village lol.

Did anyone participate in Cannabis Emancipation Day? Good, bad experiences? What are the stores like? My curiosity has piqued enough yet to head out there myself. Apparently some of the independently ran stores are running into supply issues. The guy out in PC-SP ran out in less than 24 hours!

Haven't participated yet, I will once the restock/expanded stock happens. I think supplies were low to begin with, but stock at Tweed is okay. I think it's because Canopy Growth is the supplier for all of the marijuana in the province, and also owns Tweed, so priority for product is going to Tweed first, and the other stores after that.

I was down to Tweed last night on Water Street. Options were limited, but seemed there was still good supply of what they had left. Store is very nice inside. They had 5 cash registers I think. Line ups of 10 or so in each line and they moved pretty quick. Only took me 10 minutes or so from when I walked in to when I walked out. There was no line up to get in the store when I arrived, but when I left there was a line of 15-20 to get in. Obviously they are controlling the number of people in the store with someone standing at the entrance.

Overall, a great experience.:yes: :tup::ohyeah

It's great to hear that they have put together a quality outlet. I may venture to the Blackmarsh Dominion later as I am quite curious about the Loblaws setup...

I find it rather interesting that, being the only distributor in NL, Canopy can essentially hold out the smaller/non-associated shops by directing the majority of stock at Tweed (and other preferential) retail locations. With that said, I suppose that is a perfectly acceptable business decision considering they are the NL government's single supplier... :shrug:

Blackmarsh Dominion have it in their little 'smoke' shop at the entrance.

They were handing it out hand over fist a few minutes ago, so they have stock.

So the new building that is being Constructed at GALWAY , other than Costco.... is going to be a Home Sense, Marshall's and Pet Smart.

I say Whoopie Damn Do to all three ! Who gives a damn, nothing new here !

So basically Galway is just going to turn into Stavanger West ? All the same damn stores, over and over again.

I say let's give it some time. There'll be more stores coming on board, there's bound to be some existing ones but hopefully we will see some new ones pop up too. You may very well be right .. but I hope you're wrong. 😊

New logo for the Avalon Mall:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrBJd_wWkAI7lMc.jpg

The term 'Mall' is kind of dated and makes people think of failing Shopping Malls in the US. :) They should have renamed it Avalon Centre.

Ron.

Sorry, but Avalon Centre just sounds ridiculous. It been known as ‘the mall’ for 50 years, pointless to change it now.

Cbc reporting all RONA stores in the province are closing in January. Employees were told this evening in a meeting.

Seen a comment on twitter about there being a rumour of a Lowe's going in Galway.

I guess it's easier than converting all the existing Rona's...especially considering the Topsail Rd and O'Leary Ave stores are pretty old and dated...though am a bit surprised they wouldn't keep and convert the one on White Rose Drive considering it is a newer store...

It wouldn't surprise me. Rumors of lowes in galway have been going around for awhile. Someone else commented that rona employees were unionized and maybe they wanted to get rid of that before converting? Time will tell. End of an era really with the end of what was Chester dawe. And the big regatta day sale in paradise.

Lowe's to close 31 stores across Canada
 

Don't like to see people lose their jobs, but RONA is the worst home improvement store around in my opinion. I've done extensive home improvements over the past 5 years and probably never spent more than $100 at RONA.

It looks as though it's not only NL, Lowe's is closing multiple stores across the country. https://toronto.citynews.ca/2018/11/...stores-canada/

The biggest impact seems to be this province. Six stores here (the only in spot in Atlantic Canada) compared to 9 in both Ontario and Quebec. There have been rumors for a while about Lowes setting up in Galway. Maybe they are consolidating rather than having a bunch of small locations around the region. From the news release though I can't help but wonder if they will build here after all.

My thoughts exactly on Lowes and Galway. If the RONA stores were all underperforming (which they obviously were) then why would they spend the money on building a Lowes here.

A shadow of doubt has been cast over my mind. However, it still may be feasible for Lowe's to set up here. Collectively, all of the Rona locations may have been under-performing. But opening a large supercentre could end up performing very well. That's why you see companies such as Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc. operate supercentres as opposed to a bunch of smaller locations. It's cheaper on the company - one location for shipping, receiving, logistics, management, etc. I would imagine that operating one (newer) building would be cost saving compared to 6-7 smaller locations - which many are old and needing renovations. Supercentres are typically fully stocked and items usually don't run out as quickly and have to be ordered in. I feel this hurt many of the smaller Rona locations. Location itself is also important for performance. The Topsail Rd location was horrible and had basically no parking, I avoided it like the plague. Having a spot next to Costco and other big retailers would definitely create uptick in customers.

I know you'll get many responses that'll relate this to our economic downturn. But I don't really buy that... there's still a lot of development in the region. Residential may be lagging but commercial development seems to be doing well. There's lots of construction going on that need building supplies. I don't work in the sector so I could be off base here. Anecdotally, it seems reasonable to assume such.

Maybe it was just the wording in the news release or the fact that more stores are closing nationwide that kind of planted that seed of doubt.

I live near the east end RONA which is still a pretty new store esp compared to the other ones. Its usually pretty empty although I have heard they still did well with contractors. I have the same shadow of a doubt that you do about the Lowes idea and Galway.

Twenty years ago Chester Dawe was my go to place for lumber, they usually had the best price and there was never an issue getting it delivered. With the arrival of Kent and Home Depot it became easier to get the few things I needed just by picking it off the shelf or from the yard. What I have noticed about the retail side of Rona is that their prices are 20% to 30% more than Kent or HD and their selection was more limited due to the smaller stores.
I agree with previous posters that there is a possibility that the future may result in one large Lowes store ( I vote for Galway) to replace the multiple smaller outlets. I would certainly like to see that in order to keep Kent and HD honest.

Leila Beaudoin is reporting on twitter that Bombay and Bowrings are liquidating and closing their Stavanger stores. Man they're dropping like flies. Its my local shopping area and makes me so sad.

Editted to add that I think this is the entire chain but I'm not sure. Saw it referenced on wikipedia but haven't found a news source. The chain has been in major trouble in recent years.

I don't even understand how those stores existed for this long...

I suppose they are right smack dab in the middle of their target demographic :rolleyes:

Buying lumber at RONA now is a pain compared to Kent (drive-thru) or Home Depot, where you can go in the store, take it off a shelf and pay at the cash.

Also, it's only recently that NL stores existed on Rona's website. You couldn't go online and check local prices and stock, like you can with their competitors.

They never seemed very busy but yeah no surprise really. That's several big losses for the Stavanger area. Costco (although there was a post here about that building being taken over by UHaul), Target (most of that building is still empty), Wicker Emporium (chain going out of business), RONA (its a pretty new building so hopefully someone will take it over), and now Bowrings/Bombay which is 2/3rd of that strip.