Canadian Retail Thread

[trebor204]

Originally Posted by cslusarc

Retail-Insider reports: Tokyo Smoke Closing 29 Stores Amid Creditor Protection Restructuring

This was inevitable. Too many cannabis stores. Most cannabis stores near me seem to be about 2000 sq feet in a strip mall or power centre environment. I don't know how my local Delta 9 store is profitable. It is sparsely merchandised for an approximately 2000 sq foot store.

Is cannabis low or high margin product?

I was in Polo Park Mall (Winnipeg), and Tokyo Smoke was opening soon.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by jonny24

I've been smoking close to daily since I was about 17. I agree with most of what you said except this one:

I get far too self conscious to be able to enjoy myself, to the point where if I don't smoke, I pretty much write off having sex that night (unless I'm also drunk enough to overcome the self consciousness, but that comes with its own sexual side effects). ...

Ever played "drinking and driving" Mario Kart? You have to start and finish a beer during the race, but you can't drink and drive at the same time, have to put the controller down to drink.

My experience was specifically gummies, and indica was better "performance". Haven't smoked a joint in years. I'm not a fan of lungs clogging with smoke if I can avoid it

Man, you need to be less tough on yourself and just go with the flow (easier said than done).

I haven't played intoxicated driving Mario Kart but sounds kinda fun for a party

On the topic of vaping my closest cousin is trying to quit cigarettes but so far has just replaced it with vaping. I'm sure she's not the only one
There's far too many vape shops in southern Ontario.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by casper

Pattison Food Group is not going to be overly helpful in bringing down prices. It is main full service banner Save-On-Foods is expensive. Its discount banner Buy-Low is equally expensive. It also have a number of speciality high-end banners that are also expensive.

We need someone that is a true discounter. That is not the Pattison Food Group.

I know of Save On, but have never been. Hadn't heard of Buy Low. Why are they expensive if those are the names? Are they at least classy inside? Both names are tacky and are trying to convey the discount message. No Frills, Food Basics and Price Chopper are tacky and actually have discount prices.

I was at Eataly on Bloor a few weeks ago for a work function. For the couple years before that I actually assumed Eataly was a middle tier restaurant that served comfort Italian food and nothing fancy. The name sounds tacky to me. Turns out it's far from it.

[casper]

Originally Posted by megadude

I know of Save On, but have never been. Hadn't heard of Buy Low. Why are they expensive if those are the names? Are they at least classy inside? Both names are tacky and are trying to convey the discount message. No Frills, Food Basics and Price Chopper are tacky and actually have discount prices.

I was at Eataly on Bloor a few weeks ago for a work function. For the couple years before that I actually assumed Eataly was a middle tier restaurant that served comfort Italian food and nothing fancy. The name sounds tacky to me. Turns out it's far from it.

We need to step back. Jimmy Pattison is the self made billionaire of BC. He is new money. Started as a used car sales man and then owned the dealership. He has perfected the art of acquiring related but business business over several decades. He owns the radio stations that run the advertising. He owns SunRype who makes the apple juice they sell. He owns the fishing licenses, processing plants and canneries etc. He owns Oceans that does cranberries. Over time he purchased a number of grocery banners in BC. They recently merged all the back-end operations and like Sobeys and Loblaws have several consumer facing brands. So that group has Quality Foods (on the Island), Urban Fair (upscale downtown), Choices (upscale organic), Meinhart (upscale butcher), Buy Low (mid-market), Save-On-Foods (mid-market). I don't think they have a discount brand. The Buy Low stores tend to be smaller and more common in smaller markets a little cheaper but not deeply discounted.

The Save-On-Foods stores are quite nice inside, full service deli, instore bakery etc. At some point they started to run computer models that figured out how to optimize pricing. These stores are generally unionized and pay fairly good salaries. When they were founded they were lower cost but over time they repositioned I guess.

The old money is H Y Louie Company. They own IGA (west of the Rockies), Fresh St Market (similar to Whole Foods), and London Drugs.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by megadude

I know of Save On, but have never been. Hadn't heard of Buy Low. Why are they expensive if those are the names? Are they at least classy inside? Both names are tacky and are trying to convey the discount message. No Frills, Food Basics and Price Chopper are tacky and actually have discount prices.

I was at Eataly on Bloor a few weeks ago for a work function. For the couple years before that I actually assumed Eataly was a middle tier restaurant that served comfort Italian food and nothing fancy. The name sounds tacky to me. Turns out it's far from it.

Buy Low Foods, at least the one I have been to are very sad inside and look pretty awful. They make a no frills look fancy. The one I have been to in Surrey is only if i really need one item and want to be quick.Its usually pretty dead and a single item won't add up too bad cause its very pricey.

[SpongeG]

Royalmount in Montreal opens in 2 days.

• Video Link

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Royalmount in Montreal opens in 2 days.

• Video Link

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...real-1.7312270

Another article about this 'lifestyle' centre. I can't see myself going to this shrine to the world of influencers and 'brands'.

[megadude]

Pattison I only know from the advertising boards on the side of the highway. Also, they are the sponsor name for one of the horse races at Woodbine.

My most disliked grocery store is Sobeys as they charge prices like they're a fancy store, but I have yet to be impressed by a single one yet. They're better looking than a discount store, but behind Longo's and Fortinos and pretty on par with Metro, which I am also not a fan of, but I do like better than Sobeys.

[megadude]

I stopped in Yorkdale in June for the first time in many, many years. It was due to work, otherwise I'd have no interest in stepping foot in there. Saw three people with cardigans slung over their shoulders. They definitely confirmed the cliche.

Anyway, people are people. Everyone is different. I could never see myself buying luxury crap even if someone gave me a billion dollars tomorrow. And I wouldn't want to do it at Yorkdale as that would mean I'd be going into a shitty area surrounding the mall that is totally f'd with traffic.

It's surreal to me the number of fancy malls or food halls and the like opening. It's incomprehensible to me the amount of people who have money to spend like that.

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by megadude

Pattison I only know from the advertising boards on the side of the highway. Also, they are the sponsor name for one of the horse races at Woodbine.

My most disliked grocery store is Sobeys as they charge prices like they're a fancy store, but I have yet to be impressed by a single one yet. They're better looking than a discount store, but behind Longo's and Fortinos and pretty on par with Metro, which I am also not a fan of, but I do like better than Sobeys.

Sobeys' home market is Atlantic Canada. There, for the most part, the larger Sobeys stores are excellent. Elsewhere in Canada, Sobeys stores are average. The refreshed Loblaws stores in Ontario are nice. BTW, Longo's is now owned by Sobeys.

[Acajack]

Sobeys operates mainly under the IGA banner in Quebec, and of the mainstream grocery chains, has IMO the nicest stores here.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by megadude

I stopped in Yorkdale in June for the first time in many, many years. It was due to work, otherwise I'd have no interest in stepping foot in there. Saw three people with cardigans slung over their shoulders. They definitely confirmed the cliche.

Anyway, people are people. Everyone is different. I could never see myself buying luxury crap even if someone gave me a billion dollars tomorrow. And I wouldn't want to do it at Yorkdale as that would mean I'd be going into a shitty area surrounding the mall that is totally f'd with traffic.

It's surreal to me the number of fancy malls or food halls and the like opening. It's incomprehensible to me the amount of people who have money to spend like that.

It's the Toronto lifestyle these days. Many people live in condos with low costs since you don't really have to renovate or do maintenance, no / only one car so no expenses there, etc.

Over time especially the lifestyle gives you lots of cash to spend on things like luxury goods, fancy meals, and big vacations. Especially if you don't have kids.


Sobeys has converted a lot of their stores in Ontario to Farm Boys in the last few years which is a much more successful banner for them as a sort of Canadian Trader Joes. There are still some "normal" Sobeys around, but not too many.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by megadude

Pattison I only know from the advertising boards on the side of the highway. Also, they are the sponsor name for one of the horse races at Woodbine.

My most disliked grocery store is Sobeys as they charge prices like they're a fancy store, but I have yet to be impressed by a single one yet. They're better looking than a discount store, but behind Longo's and Fortinos and pretty on par with Metro, which I am also not a fan of, but I do like better than Sobeys.

Which ones are you going to? The Sobey's in upper Stoney Creek is nicer than the Barton Metro (my usual store) and the Eastgate Fortino's. There isn't much between them, all the same "tier" IMO, but I feel pretty comfortable ranking them Sobeys > Metro > Fortino's in terms of "nice".

I go to that Metro because going into FreshCo, which is closer to my house, makes my skin crawl with how dingy and dirty it is. Plus the other stores at the Centre on Barton make for a conveient trip.

[megadude]

Yeah, while I don’t like Sobeys I do like Longos and Farm Boy. All these stores mentioned are tenants in properties we lend on and I sometimes have to write up some brief profiles on them. Though I did forget Sobeys acquired Longos until you mentioned it.

[megadude]

The Tokyo Smoke in north Barrie recently closed. Wasn’t open all that long. I remember passing it several times on the way to the cottage and I always thought that looks like an old bank branch and that’s gotta be too big for a cannabis store. Well now it’s called Bloom Cannabis. The location is disconnected from the residential and commercial nodes of Barrie. Not sure how it makes sense given that there are cannabis stores in all the closer retail nodes in Barrie.

As for the size, I’ve never been in one of those stores here. Just in Denver in 2015 and they were both tiny stores.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by jonny24

Which ones are you going to? The Sobey's in upper Stoney Creek is nicer than the Barton Metro (my usual store) and the Eastgate Fortino's. There isn't much between them, all the same "tier" IMO, but I feel pretty comfortable ranking them Sobeys > Metro > Fortino's in terms of "nice".

I go to that Metro because going into FreshCo, which is closer to my house, makes my skin crawl with how dingy and dirty it is. Plus the other stores at the Centre on Barton make for a conveient trip.

I wonder how dirty Freshco is. It seems like a strategy to make it a bit uglier because they are selling most of the same stuff for often literally half as much as at Metro. It's honestly shocking how much cheaper it is. I shop at Freshco and most of my basket is cheaper than 2019 Metro prices. Meat and Fish sections you can argue aren't as high quality but packaged and frozen food is the exact same stuff.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Royalmount in Montreal opens in 2 days.

• Video Link

That is insane to see a brand new mall opening. And very cringe to see it trying to appeal to high income people or those who overspend.

I have noticed that a number of immigrants seem to like that type of shopping and really show off the "high-end" brand names. I even see it in Timmins where it is VERY out of place.

The Royalmount definitely doesn't seem like a place that appeals to the average Quebecer or Montrealer. It's in the Town of Mount Royal on Royalmount Avenue which is not part of the City of Montreal and I'm betting that it will appeal much more to immigrants which make up a large percentage of nearby residents. My wife thinks it has potential if it advertises itself as a shopping destination for Americans with lower prices on expensive designer names.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by casper

We need to step back. Jimmy Pattison is the self made billionaire of BC. He is new money. Started as a used car sales man and then owned the dealership. He has perfected the art of acquiring related but business business over several decades. He owns the radio stations that run the advertising. He owns SunRype who makes the apple juice they sell. He owns the fishing licenses, processing plants and canneries etc. He owns Oceans that does cranberries. Over time he purchased a number of grocery banners in BC. They recently merged all the back-end operations and like Sobeys and Loblaws have several consumer facing brands. So that group has Quality Foods (on the Island), Urban Fair (upscale downtown), Choices (upscale organic), Meinhart (upscale butcher), Buy Low (mid-market), Save-On-Foods (mid-market). I don't think they have a discount brand. The Buy Low stores tend to be smaller and more common in smaller markets a little cheaper but not deeply discounted.

The Save-On-Foods stores are quite nice inside, full service deli, instore bakery etc. At some point they started to run computer models that figured out how to optimize pricing. These stores are generally unionized and pay fairly good salaries. When they were founded they were lower cost but over time they repositioned I guess.

The old money is H Y Louie Company. They own IGA (west of the Rockies), Fresh St Market (similar to Whole Foods), and London Drugs.

SunRype is now owned by Lassonde based in Rougemont QC.

Pattison owns Ocean Brands not Ocean Spray. Ocean brands is seafood products.

[Kilgore Trout]

Royalmount has a bunch of luxury stores but it will drive traffic through mid-tier brands like Uniqlo, as well as having a lot of trendy local food chains like Tommy Café, Omnivore, etc. They're angling for it to be a lifestyle destination as much as anything. Don't forget it's directly attached to a metro station which will make it an attractive alternative to downtown shopping for many people who don't get around by car. That's an underserved market in Montreal because, unlike Vancouver or Toronto, there is no equivalent to Metrotown or Yorkdale that is as easy to reach by transit as it is by car.

Although Dix-30 now fits that bill with the REM station attached to it, and it's actually now owned by the same developer as Royalmount. So you can see their strategy...

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by jonny24

Which ones are you going to? The Sobey's in upper Stoney Creek is nicer than the Barton Metro (my usual store) and the Eastgate Fortino's. There isn't much between them, all the same "tier" IMO, but I feel pretty comfortable ranking them Sobeys > Metro > Fortino's in terms of "nice".

I go to that Metro because going into FreshCo, which is closer to my house, makes my skin crawl with how dingy and dirty it is. Plus the other stores at the Centre on Barton make for a conveient trip.

My shopping routine is similar to yours. We probably live relatively close to each other.

I'll go to Fortinos when I have enough PC points to make it worthwhile, and I'm due! but I worked at one of the smaller Fortinos stores when I was a teenager, and back then I swore I'd never shop anywhere else (but this is approaching 30 years ago now, and before they became the Loblaws Superstores they are today)

The fact that the Sobeys in Stoney Creek sells alcohol long after the LCBOs close is a factor in me shopping there. Though I don't tend to buy much in the way of produce or groceries.

I'll often make an effort to shop at Food Basics, but it's not at a convenient location for me. I also semi-regularly put in an order at M&M. Cooking as a single person is simpler, but also more complex.