[hollywoodnorth]

Business in Vancouver December 18-24, 2007; issue 947

At Large: Peter Ladner

Concerns over Canadian Tire store largely unfounded

Canadian Tire’s second-try application for a large-scale super-green retail store and four smaller retail stores, including Best Buy and Mark’s Work Wearhouse, on Southwest Marine Drive may seem perfectly reasonable to a business person. But it seized up Vancouver City Council for three nights due to a barrage of public reaction, mostly negative.

A lot of the negativity was from people who see this store as a precursor to Wal-Mart, which owns the adjacent property. That’s evident from the complete lack of protest and almost unanimous council approval of a comparable Canadian Tire store in a comparable former industrial area on the Grandview Highway.

Since no one could come out and say they opposed Canadian Tire’s application in the name of Wal-Mart, a storm of other objections was raised.Given that Canadian Tire had bought the property in good faith, under an existing policy of allowing big box stores on that location, the company’s $20 million investment in the development had to be respected if we want to be providing any certainty for companies investing in our city. So what arguments would be strong enough to override that concern?

•“The neighbourhood doesn’t want it.” This became the headline in the media based on presentations from anti-corporate activists from other neighbourhoods, but it doesn’t reflect the facts. A survey by Canadian Tire asking people in the immediate area if they would support a new Canadian Tire store and other retail on the site got a 77% vote in support, 9% against. Of the local businesses surveyed, 78% were in favour, 7% against.

•“It will kill small independent neighbourhood stores in local shopping areas.” The biggest retail impact from the Canadian Tire complex would be from clothing sales at Mark’s Work Wearhouse. (The only significant hardware merchandiser in the area is Canadian Tire’s existing small-format store a few blocks away, due to be closed.) An independent retail study concluded that a proposed 100,000-square-foot expansion at Oakridge Mall would be the biggest loser, so city staff recommended that clothing sales be curtailed at the Canadian Tire complex, mainly to protect Oakridge. Council turned this down.

“There is no expected impact on neighbourhood shopping areas, which generally support clothing stores that attract a different clientele,” the city staff reported. The exception was a faltering Field’s store on Fraser Street, but its possible closure “should not have a significant impact on the marketing appeal of the Fraser Street shopping area.”

•“It will increase greenhouse gas emissions from increased car traffic created by this auto-dependent format.”

This is a legitimate concern but is easily misunderstood in today’s passion about climate change. “Big-box store” evokes acres of parking at the edge of town, miles from downtown. Opponents played to this ugly image by citing “10,000 additional car trips a day” and speculating on resultant GHG emissions.

That’s the biggest estimate for the busiest day of the week, Saturday, and includes trips both ways. The actual number of cars is half that: 5,000 max. That compares to 3,770 cars driving past the store every hour on a Saturday.

Then you have to ask how many of these trips were “new” – the shopper wasn’t already driving by, or would have never left home if not for these new stores. Hardly any, I would predict. And how far would those shoppers have driven if they didn’t come to this store? If the new store is closer than the alternate destination, then these trips are reducing GHG emissions.

Because this store is on four bus routes, within three blocks of a new SkyTrain station, on a bike route and will offer home delivery service, its allowed parking footprint is less than half that of a typical suburban mall.

All in all, it’s easy to generate hysteria about increased GHG emissions based on unexamined suburban big-box stereotype thinking. But it doesn’t always make sense.