Canadian Retail Thread

[Policy Wonk]

Originally Posted by West_aust

only advantage i can see is that they have pretty much everything in stock, as opposed to many stores who carry only a limited number of items or variations and the rest will be ordered if you want them to.

I guess that would be true, MyMacDealer and Westworld never have ANYTHING in stock.

[CCF]

We are getting the country's largest TIm Hortons!

Vacancy In Downtown Set To Be Filled
May 16, 2007

A brand new three storey structure will soon be built on the grounds of the old Army and Navy site.

The brand new Broad Street Crossing will be under construction almost immediately and should be up and open for business by late fall.

Regina Downtown BID Executive Director Tracy Fahlman says the 5.5. million dollar building will be home to Canada's largest Tim Horton's and to the regional office of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

In addition, 89 new parking stalls will be created. Fahlman adds its should create close to 100 new jobs in the area.

Cory Kolt Reporting

http://www.cjme.com/index.php?p=ntne..._story&id=8471

[West_aust]

Ashley Furniture Homestore now opened in Laval (First store in Quebec)

Une première au Québec!…
Le concept Meubles Ashley
Homestore s’installe à Laval
C’est une nouvelle qui a de quoi ravir les
amateurs et les consommateurs d’ameublement
que nous sommes tous: Meubles
Ashley Homestore fait son apparition
au Québec et commence en s’installant…
à Laval!
C’est que le concept de Meubles Ashley
Homestore est tout à fait original. Adapté aux
demandes des consommateurs, celui-ci fait
un vrai malheur chez nos voisins du Sud…
et fait le vrai bonheur de tous!: en effet, déjà
300 Ashley Homestore y sont implantés! Une
évolution exponentielle qui traduit bien à quel
point ce que propose ce «super-marchand»
(il est également manufacturier) de meubles
est attrayant.
«Les meubles, l’ameublement et les accessoires
sont présentés en magasin par style,
explique Benoît Desmarteau, co-propriétaire
avec la famille Marchand de Meubles
Ashley Homestore à Laval. Que vous soyez
plutôt du style traditionnel, rustique, contemporain
(«zone-urbaine») ou transitionnel, vous
pouvez admirer d’emblée ce que donnent différents
agencements pour chacun des styles.»
De même, Meubles Ashley Homestore propose
différentes pièces d’une maison, comme
s’il s’agissait de la vôtre. Ainsi, d’un coup
d’oeil, il est possible de saisir l’ambiance que
pourrait installer l’ameublement particulier
d’une pièce dans votre résidence: croyeznous,
c’est inspirant! En plus d’un choix
exceptionnel de mobilier, Meubles Ashley
Homestore présente une «zone-sommeil» où
l’on est assuré de trouver matelas et confort!…
Et un choix impressionnant d’accessoires
variés, dont beaucoup d’exclusivités qui permettront
à votre intérieur de souligner avec
distinction toute la richesse de votre personnalité
et de votre bon goût!
Des «petits plus» qui
font toute la différence
Les conseils d’une équipe de designers d’intérieur
à votre service; une «zone-enfants»,
avec consoles PlayStation et amphithéâtrecinéma;
une «zone-café», etc… Ce ne sont
là que quelques-uns de ces «petits plus» qui
font que l’expérience de magasinage chez
Meubles Ashley Homestore est différente,
relaxante… impressionnante!
Notez que Meubles Ashley présente l’une des
plus grandes surfaces de meubles au
Québec. Nous somme habitués à ce que ce
soit des investisseurs de la métropole qui
viennent en région ouvrir des grandes surfaces…
ce qui est particulièrement intéressant
de ce côté-là c’est que la famille
Marchand, co-propriétaire avec M. Desmarteau
de Meubles Ashley Homestore Laval,
elle, réside en l’Abitibi!
Meubles Ashley Homestore saura combler
les attentes de tous les types de consommateurs.
Dès que l’on passe la porte de
Meubles Ashley Homestore… la différence
saute aux yeux! Effet de surprise garanti…
Laissez-vous donc surprendre: c’est à voir!
Meubles Ashley
3615, aut. 440 Ouest

http://www.acceslaurentides.com/imgs...bitation_7.pdf

[malek]

Ashley Homestore, ca sonne alabama pour une certaine raison.

[neilson]

Originally Posted by malek

Ashley Homestore, ca sonne alabama pour une certaine raison.

Yep. We got locations in our 4 biggest cities, including Mobile(which has a strong French influence too).

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by neilson

Yep. We got locations in our 4 biggest cities, including Mobile(which has a strong French influence too).

Mobile had a "strong French influence" about 300 years ago. Nothing about it is even remotely "French."

[neilson]

Originally Posted by furrycanuck

Mobile had a "strong French influence" about 300 years ago. Nothing about it is even remotely "French."

I beg to differ. It's no Montgomery(which represents the very best in the State of Alabama), Birmingham(which represents the very best of a city/metro in reinvention, or Huntsville(which represents the future), but Mobile is perhaps the most culturally important city in the state of Alabama of the 4 largest Metros.

[SSLL]

Speaking of Urban Outfitters, there's a second one opening on Queen St. West in Toronto

[SpongeG]

went down this evening - it was really nice - never seen the store so busy

New $50-million Holt Renfrew set to open its doors

Store will double its space and feature a spa, valet parking and concierge services
Bruce Constantineau, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, May 31, 2007
Holt Renfrew unveils its $50-million investment to Vancouver shoppers today -- a spiffy new downtown store that reflects the upscale retailer's bullish view on future sales.

With double the space of the old store (137,000 square feet) and new features like a spa, concierge services and valet parking, Holt Renfrew president Caryn Lerner said the new store takes the Vancouver shopping experience to a whole new level.

"This shows our confidence in the Vancouver market and how we feel about Canada in general," she said in an interview. "Our business in Vancouver has experienced double-digit growth for the past three years.

" . . . Now we can add a lot of new vendors we weren't able to show before and really expand the depth and breadth of preferred brands."

The store will feature the first Shu Uemura cosmetics counter in Canada and launch a new Chanel area, something it didn't have space for in the past.

Even though Tiffany & Co. opened a new Vancouver store late last year, Holt Renfrew will keep its Tiffany section -- expanding the area by more than 50 per cent to about 1,300 square feet.

Lerner said the new Vancouver store will be the second biggest in the 10-store Holt Renfrew chain, just slightly smaller than the 145,000-square-foot store on Bloor Street in Toronto.

She noted it's the first new Holt Renfrew store opening since the Yorkdale store in Toronto opened about 10 years ago.

Holt Renfrew, a private company, doesn't report annual revenues but they are estimated to be in the $500-million range.

Vancouver retail consultant David Gray said the new Holt Renfrew store will help rejuvenate Pacific Centre, which faces stiff competition from growing streetfront retail areas along the Robson and Granville corridors.

He said Holt Renfrew had tremendous sales in its old Vancouver store but feels it may have to expand its market appeal slightly to generate similar per-square-foot sales in double the space.

"It's a pretty gutsy move, considering the population of Vancouver," Gray said. "They might have to move a bit from being an exclusive store to one that appeals a bit more to middle-market consumers. It doesn't have to be a major rebranding, just a subtle approach."

Lerner feels Holt Renfrew already appeals to more than just the wealthiest of consumers.

"We carry a lot of contemporary brands, denim brands, fashion and costume jewelry -- brands like Burberry London that are not at designer or luxury price points," she said.

While many high-end Vancouver retailers operate streetfront stores in districts like south Granville, Robson and the Burrard/Alberni area, Lerner said Holt Renfrew didn't hesitate to make a major new investment in a Vancouver mall location. The store first opened in Pacific Centre in 1975.

"I think we have the best of both worlds," Lerner said. "You can enter from the mall or you can enter from Dunsmuir or Granville streets."

She said merchandise in the Vancouver store will likely feature more casual and contemporary attire than other Holt Renfrew stores but stressed the desire for designer brands is similar all across Canada.

The new Vancouver store will add 161 employees, bringing its total workforce to 512.

Lerner said Holt Renfrew recently upgraded its Bloor Street and Montreal stores and plans to expand or renovate every other store in Canada over the next three to four years.

"We've enjoyed a strong retail climate at all Holt's stores across the country," she said. "Certainly the West is outpacing the East and by all forecasts, will continue to do so. The long term prognosis is good and I think we're at a really ideal time now."

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...d-23ba517b9a0f

New Holt Renfrew store bathed in luxurious light
By Chantal Eustace, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, May 25, 2007
Gary Balaski steps over some newly-laid tiles, his designer suit out of place amongst the drilling and pounding of the surrounding construction site.

He points to the atrium overhead where triangles of light illuminate the new Holt Renfrew department store - due to open on May 31.

"It's wonderful isn't it?" says Balaski, the store's general manager, just weeks before the unveiling. "It's very open, bright and airy."

And it's big. Very, very big. At more than 137,000 square feet, the store - relocated and completely remade - has doubled in size.

"This store is a beautiful structure," says Balaski, listing off what he describes as haute couture elements like imported tile and custom cabinetry. It will also have a concierge service, valet parking and personal shopping rooms, he says.

On the top level, a rooftop restaurant is set to open in September, while the bottom level will house a fully-equipped, 6,000-square-foot spa and salon.

Holt Renfrew needed to grow, he says, since the old store just wasn't big enough to keep up with the Vancouver shopper's demands for luxury items: "People were leaving here to go somewhere else to buy those things that we couldn't supply."

And while all of this new space will be filled with things to buy, it will also be full of things to look at and explore.

From a design perspective, the space is world class, says New York designer Mark Janson, who spent 22 months working on the project.

"It's the project of a lifetime," says Janson. "It's fantastic."

The exterior, located at the corner of Dunsmuir and Granville Streets, boasts 10,000 square feet of Richmond-created, custom-designed glass by Nathan Allan. This convex glass, described as "pillowed," uses geometric patterns for a three-dimensional look - it's more akin to an art installation than a window treatment.

More than 58,000 square feet of Greek marble coats the floors, interspersed with tumbled stone from Indonesia, Italian tile and wood plank or reclaimed timber. A stone mosaic covers much of the ground floor's cosmetics area.

In creating the look and feel of the new store, the design team drew inspiration from around the world, Janson says.

"When we set out to do this project we were thinking about Vancouver, but we were also thinking about Tokyo, Paris and New York," Janson says. "The store is designed to meet or exceed the work done in any of those places."

The store's most unique feature is something intangible, he says, pointing out the use of light as a key design feature. Overhead, the massive glass atrium - familiar to locals who frequented the mall food court that used to inhabit the space - allows natural light to pour through. The effect is diffused by a white grid of triangles. The centre of the store is open, cut away by three "rotated ellipses," something that will help shoppers to see from floor to floor.

"What's very unique for a store this size is that it utilizes all this daylight. We have daylight from the facade and also from the big skylight in the centre," Janson says. "We wanted that light to travel as deep into the interior of the store and into as many spaces as possible."

The store has eight entry points, he notes, all of which needed to be worked into the design. People had to know where they were and had to get around the store easily, he says. The open plan facilitates this, he says: "All of that openness is about ease and comfort and navigation and all of those good things."

Every little detail, from the fabrics on the furniture to tiles or layout came under the designer's scrutiny, says Janson, adding everything had to be just right. Paintings, sculptures and installations of intricate tile and glass can be found throughout the entire store.

"We wanted an inspiring and dramatic space," says Janson. "It's all about being uplifting and optimistic and inspiring."

At the main entrance, a 20-foot by 30-foot light display by Vancouver-based Bocci illuminates shoppers. Light designer Omer Arbel, who launched Bocci just over a year ago, says it took four people about five weeks to create the 111-piece, cast-glass installation. The effect is powerful, he says, describing the individual lights as resembling small candles, encased in spheres of water.

"It's kind of like a phenomenological little moment," Arbel says, describing the first time you see the lights. "You just kind of understand it emotionally. Do you know what I mean?"

Being part of the new Holt's is a big deal for the little company he launched just over a year ago, he says, since it is an opportunity to display Bocci's work in a public space in his hometown.

"Most of our installations occur in Los Angeles, New York and London or Hong Kong," Arbel says. "We're delighted because this is our home turf."

Brand-focused shoppers will find their way around easily, since labels like Ralph Lauren and Gucci have their own spaces within the shop - little hives of their own that face out to the main space. These are differentiated by completely unique and distinct looks, right down to the flooring or colour schemes.

The top floor will have a walkway connecting the store to the Pacific Centre mall. The space is big enough for parties or displays. The women's clothing area, including an expanded area for new designers, is bright and colourful. A beehive of steel will house designer denims.

Unique design elements were key to the new store's look and feel, says Holt Renfrew's president, Caryn Lerner.

"We wanted to create more of a residential feel and less of a department-store type of environment," says Lerner.

It's a new approach to a retail environment, she says, one that she's confident people will respond to well.

"I'm so jazzed. I can't tell you," says Lerner. "It's a huge jump forward for the entire company."

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...e3d15e&k=15767

[SSLL]

From: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...y/robNews/home
______________

Best Buy's two-step begins to click
MARINA STRAUSS
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
June 5, 2007 at 4:19 AM EDT
TORONTO — When U.S. electronics giant Best Buy Co. Inc. [BBY-N] snapped up Future Shop in 2001, critics took shots at its decision to run with both retail banners in Canada as being an unnecessary expense.

But Best Buy has proven the naysayers wrong. The two-name strategy has worked, giving consumers yet another place to shop, company executives say. Over the past six years, the retailer has managed to almost double its market share to more than 30 per cent from 17 per cent of the domestic electronics market, they said yesterday.

In fact, the approach has worked so well that the U.S. parent is now copying the two-banner model in other countries that it is entering, said Bob Willett, chief executive officer of Best Buy International.

"It increases the choice to the consumer," Mr. Willett said after a presentation to the Retail Council of Canada annual conference. "There are whole segments of different behaviour and different customers in Canada. They don't all want the same thing. They don't all want to shop in the same boring environment."

Critics had warned that keeping two store chains would force the company to run different marketing and buying programs for the two banners, piling on costs and reducing acquisition savings.

But Mr. Willett said that the extra work has been worth it. The company has found ways to leverage its massive purchasing and distribution capabilities while still tailoring its products and services to diverse customer needs, he said. Meanwhile, Best Buy Canada's sales have soared to almost $5-billion, from $2-billion six years ago.

"You can't be all things to all men," Mr. Willett asserted.

Best Buy will soon be following a similar two-banner path in other countries it is entering or plans to enter, including Mexico, Turkey and Britain. It already has gone that route in China, where it acquired Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Co. about 18 months ago and is keeping that banner along with the Best Buy name.

And when Best Buy went about developing its business in China, it tapped into its Canadian team and expertise for help, he said.

Kevin Layden, president of the Canadian division, said the Future Shop chain has kept itself distinct from Best Buy in a number of ways. Future Shop has commissioned sales staff, more high-end goods and a larger immigrant shopper following.

Future Shop's commissioned sales people tend to have more dealings with customers, discussing various options available in the converging electronics world, he said. "It's very similar to the cultures they come from and their background," he said.

Future Shop also tends to attract more technically savvy consumers who want to talk about the latest gadgets and get advice on mixing and matching merchandise, he said. Best Buy customers "want a ready-made solution"-- the stores attract more women with self-serve displays and wider aisles.

The marrying of the two types of customers -- and chains -- in one company has helped achieve a market share percentage in the "low 30s" while other retailers have difficulty getting to 20 or 25 per cent share, he said.

Best Buy Canada thinks it still has room to expand. With 122 Future Shop and 47 Best Buy outlets, it plans about 135 Future Shop stores over the next couple of years, and as many as 100 or 120 Best Buys. It will soon start to test a smaller Best Buy format, which could be an engine of growth for that banner.

*****

Different strokes ...

In Canada, Future Shop and Best Buy have a combined market share of more than 30 per cent, almost double the 17-per-cent share that Future Shop alone had in 2001 when Best Buy Co. arrived, according to the company.

DISTINCTIONS

FUTURE SHOP

commissioned sales staff

more high-end home theatres

attracts more immigrant customers

attracts more tech-savvy customers

BEST BUY

more self-service, no commissioned sales staff

more ready-made electronics packages

attracts more women customers

wider aisles, more interactive displays

[SSLL]

From: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/f...1b71736&k=1167
___________

Best Buy to shrink store size
AIMS TO BROADEN REACH INTO SMALLER COMMUNITIES
Hollie Shaw, Financial Post
Published: Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Best Buy Canada, the biggest seller of electronics in the country, will explore a small-format outlet to extend its brand further into smaller communities.
The owner of the Best Buy and Future Shop chains confirmed yesterday that it will pilot a smaller store under the Best Buy banner, likely in fiscal 2008.
"We have a couple of 20,000 [-square-foot] stores in the real estate pipeline right now," Kevin Layden, president and chief operating officer of Best Buy and Future Shop in Canada, said yesterday at a Retail Council of Canada convention.
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Best Buy locations range in size from 25,000 to 36,000 square feet, while Future Shops average about 26,000.
Future Shop has 122 outlets and Best Buy 47, with a stated target of opening up to 65 stores in Canada. But extending the brand into smaller locations could expand the Best Buy Canada chain to 100 or 120 stores, Mr. Layden said.
Minneapolis-based Best Buy Co. bought Burnaby, B.C.-based Future Shop in 2001. While industry watchers speculated that the U.S. operation would eventually enlarge Future Shop stores and convert them to the Best Buy banner, executives soon saw the benefits of keeping two separate but distinct brands in the market.
Unlike the Best Buy brand, Future Shop has opened smaller stores in regional markets.
"Most brands top out at a 20% to 25% market share [in a given market], even the most successful," said Robert Willett, chief executive of Best Buy International. "With two brands you have that much more opportunity: You can't be all things to all men."
The executives said the chains have distinct personalities that tend to appeal to different sets of consumers. Best Buy has a higher percentage of female consumers and likely appeals more to women because of its wider aisles and self-service model. At Future Shop, customers are approached frequently by sales staff working on commission. At Best Buy, electronics tend to be sold in packages for a household, such as an entire home theatre system, while Future Shop is tailored more to individuals buying a single product, such as a set of speakers.
Future Shop stores also appeal more to new Canadians, Mr. Layden noted.
"There is an interaction between commission sales associates and consumers that appeals to new Canadians.... It feels familiar to them."
Combined, Best Buy and Future Shop have roughly one third of the electronics market in Canada, a vast jump from Future Shop's pre-takeover market share of 17%. Since then, annual sales have grown from $2-billion to almost $5-billion.
Having two distinct banners also appeals to a "customer-centric" philosophy that Best Buy has developed over the past couple of years, one that aims at better customer service and tailoring specific formats and stores to meet customer needs.
Best Buy has used customer research, mystery shoppers and the Geek Squad -- a fleet of employees who troubleshoot in the stores or at a customer's home on such things as computer setup, repair and wireless networking -- to improve service.
"Our industry is moving toward the service model, so when you buy your TV you can connect it with your PC," said Mr. Willett, adding the retailer's aim was "to create a connected world on behalf of the consumer."
Knowing consumer needs is also more important now that personal computers have a life cycle of seven to eight weeks before they are eclipsed by a newer, better model, he said.

[SSLL]

From: http://www.thestar.com/living/article/221422
_____________

Forever 21 set to open first Toronto store
Jun 05, 2007 04:30 AM
Simona Siad
Living Reporter
The hotly anticipated opening of Forever 21, a trendy teen clothing store that has taken the United States by storm, is just over two weeks away.

Scheduled to open on June 23 at Yonge and Dundas Sts. (in a spot formerly inhabited by The Gap), it will be the second Canadian location – the chain opened a store in the West Edmonton Mall in 2002 to test the market.

The chain will offer runway fashion styles, targeted at teenagers, at ridiculously low prices – dresses sell for under $20 (U.S.).

"Forever 21 is the first chain in North America that sees that girls want to look like the runway as much as they want to look like their favourite celebrities," says Faran Krentcil, editor of Fashionista.com, a fashion website based in New York City.

The brainchild of L.A.-based Don Chang and his wife, Forever 21 first opened in 1984. There are currently 335 locations in the U.S., with 70 planned for Canada.

[SpongeG]

how about some restaurant news...

Shore Club the latest addition to restaurant mogul's fleet

DAVID AISENSTAT could have become a little blase by now about opening restaurants like the Shore Club, which quietly began doing business at Granville and Dunsmuir this week. After all, the son of late Hy's chain founder Hy Aisenstat owns or franchises 105 other eateries in Canada and the U.S., and should see their collective 2007 revenue total "just shy of $500 million."

Still, with its huge windows, 14-metre-high ceiling and new Yamaha grand piano, the 275-seat, 12,000-square-foot Shore Club is a distinct step up from any of the 96 Keg restaurants Aisenstat, 50, has accumulated since 1997. That's when his city-based Raleigh Corp. paid Britain's Whitbread brewing conglomerate $48.5 million to repatriate the Keg and Cleaver chain George Tidball founded with a single North Vancouver restaurant in 1971.

As for owning steakhouses in Britain, "If you could get Canadian or U.S. beef, I'd be there in a second," Aisenstat said.

Meanwhile, he's spent $8 million to develop the Shore Club in longtime pal Rob Macdonald's The Hudson complex. Contractors and Boti Interiors principal Elaine Thorsell could have spent $2 million less, Aisenstat said. "But this is a world-class city, so why not have world-class places?"

Just such a place is the kitty-corner 136,000-square-foot Holt Renfrew store, which opened with much hoopla Tuesday.

There was also the matter of trumping his round-the-corner Gotham steakhouse, which parallels the Shore Club's menu and $50-range entrees. Gotham opened in 1999, after Macdonald bought the St. Regis hotel and wanted a high-end eatery on the site of a dilapidated Christian bookstore that came with the deal.

The ever-organized Macdonald invited Aisenstat to advise him over dinner, then reportedly surprised the latter by presenting drawn-up lease documents. "You can't do this to a friend," Aisenstat said he responded, "unless you come up with some of the money."

Today, Gotham "is really, really successful [with] double-digit yearly increases," Aisenstat said. Still, Toronto's Bay-at-Adelaide downtown Keg is his top-volume locale. And the nearby $7-million, 288-seat Ki, which began serving high-end Asian cuisine in 2005, is a model for one he'll open in our town's Shangri-La complex next year.

The restaurant that started it all -- the Calgary Hy's -- closed New Years Eve. It will be replaced next year, said Aisenstat, who believes his late father would eventually have built a joint like the Shore Club. "He was a saloon keeper. And that's really all I aspire to be, too."

- - -

DANIEL FRANKEL's newest restaurant is a 20-seat hole in the wall. In the wall of the Coal Harbour Community Centre, that is. And with a 100-seat patio outside.

Israel-born Frankel, 33, has operated it as The Coal Harbour Cafe since successfully answering his first park board RFP (Request for Proposal) in 2001. Friday, though, it becomes the 1950s-themed Danny's Dogs & Shakes, serving what you'd expect.

Also new and more traditional, his Stanley's Park Bar & Grill will open officially for lunch and dinner June 20, serving Frankel's trademark baked-not-fried pub-style chow. The 60-seat eatery (with patio space for 200) is another remake -- this time of the concession in The Stanley Park Pavilion, which Frankel took over via another park board RFP in 2004.

The 1911 structure was forlorn, and Frankel says he spent $1.8 million renovating it, especially its Lord Stanley Ballroom, which now has mahogany panelling, a hardwood dance floor, beamed ceiling and crystal chandeliers, and is booked for Saturday weddings and corporate events deep into 2008.

Local business heavies saw the revived pavilion -- with capacity for 700 standing -- when Daniel Hospitality Group marketing-and-events whirlwind Laura Jennifer Leppard got California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and B.C. premier Gordon Campbell to wrap their two-day green-a-thon there recently.

Frankel wants the joint "to become Vancouver's Tavern on The Green," meaning the famed facility in Central Park, New York. That's where his father, George, was raised before moving to Israel, where he owned the Pizza Plaza chain before developing Granville Island's Bridges complex and later Stanley Park's Prospect Point Cafe.

Daniel got his at age 16 by building an ice-cream cart to serve Prospect Point visitors who didn't enter the cafe-gift shop. A summer's work paid for a beat-up Saab car. He bought the place in 2002, with three five-year park board leases covering its 100-seat dining room, 180-seat patio and five take-out concessions..

Another RFP that year saw him build the Coal Harbour Mill Marine Bistro for $750,000. Its decor incorporated "all the old crap" discarded in a Bridges renovation, and $1,000 for a bar from Hastings Street's defunct 1066 operation.

He's still recycling. Stanley's Bar & Grill features salvaged cedar panelling, tabletops sawn from laminated beams, and a brass-panel bar from the old Hotel Vancouver lobby.

En route, he bought his own favourite dining spot, the no-patio Delilah's, and plans at least two more Mill-style operations, one downtown and the other in Kitsilano. He'd buy, not lease, sites "for the right deal."

Meanwhile, marriage to Laura Watt is a victim to booming business. "The wedding has to be in the Pavilion," he said. "But every date is booked way into 2008."

- - -

PERCY von LIPINSKI, the Visa Connection firm's founder-chair, married his fiancee as quickly as possible. Even so, it took "thousands of dollars in phone calls" before gynecologist-obstetrician Olga Murchortova left her native Moscow. A decade later, in Ottawa last week, she passed the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons' standard examinations, and may now practise her old specialty.

Which is surgically turning men into women.

She met the 198-cm-tall von Lipinski, not professionally, but when he arrived in Moscow hoping to become a paid passenger on a MiG-29 flight he'd "loosey-goosey" arranged in Canada. Not notably impressed when her future husband introduced himself, relayed his foiled plans and began to hit on her, Dr. Murchortova decided rather "to show him what a Russian lady can arrange."

"Next day it was done," said von Lipinski, whose wooing of the music lover improved with references to Russian composers she'd never heard of. He also remained in Moscow long enough for her second opinion. After much finagling, she entered Canada, the two were wed, and later had daughter Ava, now four.

That led to another change for von Lipinski, who says his and Calgary-based minority partner Christopher Houston's firm does "in the mid-seven figures" of passport- and visa-related business yearly from offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Seattle and Houston, Texas, with Montreal and Washington, D.C., branches due this year.

Now he's producing a television series but not starring Dr. Murchortova, who has all the right stuff. Its theme, globe-girdling travel, was hatched when devotee-cyclist von Lipinski was laid up for three months after a city bus crushed a leg and hip.

Screen-struck since he shot 8-mm movies in Point Grey secondary's film club, the immobilized von Lipinski learned digital editing techniques so he might better record baby Ava's doings. On his feet again, he added himself as a camera subject on the young family's extensive worldwide trips.

Favourable responses to YouTube airings resulted in a pilot for Get A Visa And Go, which von Lipinski and producer Paul Armstrong screened recently. Now he's raised $100,000 for professional filming in countries like Angola, Croatia, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Tunisia, "where you can have beautiful, low-cost vacations without being worried about being kidnapped or bombed."

Von Lipinski's shtick is to walk up to local folk and start talking. "There's no rules for him," Murchortova said. "Whenever we go somewhere and people say, 'You can't do that,' my background has me say, 'Thank you. Bye-bye.' But he just asks: 'How can we do it in a different way?' He's not afraid of looking kooky."

She should know all about that.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...8-bab5d149f905

[SpongeG]

how about some restaurant news...

Shore Club the latest addition to restaurant mogul's fleet

DAVID AISENSTAT could have become a little blase by now about opening restaurants like the Shore Club, which quietly began doing business at Granville and Dunsmuir this week. After all, the son of late Hy's chain founder Hy Aisenstat owns or franchises 105 other eateries in Canada and the U.S., and should see their collective 2007 revenue total "just shy of $500 million."

Still, with its huge windows, 14-metre-high ceiling and new Yamaha grand piano, the 275-seat, 12,000-square-foot Shore Club is a distinct step up from any of the 96 Keg restaurants Aisenstat, 50, has accumulated since 1997. That's when his city-based Raleigh Corp. paid Britain's Whitbread brewing conglomerate $48.5 million to repatriate the Keg and Cleaver chain George Tidball founded with a single North Vancouver restaurant in 1971.

As for owning steakhouses in Britain, "If you could get Canadian or U.S. beef, I'd be there in a second," Aisenstat said.

Meanwhile, he's spent $8 million to develop the Shore Club in longtime pal Rob Macdonald's The Hudson complex. Contractors and Boti Interiors principal Elaine Thorsell could have spent $2 million less, Aisenstat said. "But this is a world-class city, so why not have world-class places?"

Just such a place is the kitty-corner 136,000-square-foot Holt Renfrew store, which opened with much hoopla Tuesday.

There was also the matter of trumping his round-the-corner Gotham steakhouse, which parallels the Shore Club's menu and $50-range entrees. Gotham opened in 1999, after Macdonald bought the St. Regis hotel and wanted a high-end eatery on the site of a dilapidated Christian bookstore that came with the deal.

The ever-organized Macdonald invited Aisenstat to advise him over dinner, then reportedly surprised the latter by presenting drawn-up lease documents. "You can't do this to a friend," Aisenstat said he responded, "unless you come up with some of the money."

Today, Gotham "is really, really successful [with] double-digit yearly increases," Aisenstat said. Still, Toronto's Bay-at-Adelaide downtown Keg is his top-volume locale. And the nearby $7-million, 288-seat Ki, which began serving high-end Asian cuisine in 2005, is a model for one he'll open in our town's Shangri-La complex next year.

The restaurant that started it all -- the Calgary Hy's -- closed New Years Eve. It will be replaced next year, said Aisenstat, who believes his late father would eventually have built a joint like the Shore Club. "He was a saloon keeper. And that's really all I aspire to be, too."

- - -

DANIEL FRANKEL's newest restaurant is a 20-seat hole in the wall. In the wall of the Coal Harbour Community Centre, that is. And with a 100-seat patio outside.

Israel-born Frankel, 33, has operated it as The Coal Harbour Cafe since successfully answering his first park board RFP (Request for Proposal) in 2001. Friday, though, it becomes the 1950s-themed Danny's Dogs & Shakes, serving what you'd expect.

Also new and more traditional, his Stanley's Park Bar & Grill will open officially for lunch and dinner June 20, serving Frankel's trademark baked-not-fried pub-style chow. The 60-seat eatery (with patio space for 200) is another remake -- this time of the concession in The Stanley Park Pavilion, which Frankel took over via another park board RFP in 2004.

The 1911 structure was forlorn, and Frankel says he spent $1.8 million renovating it, especially its Lord Stanley Ballroom, which now has mahogany panelling, a hardwood dance floor, beamed ceiling and crystal chandeliers, and is booked for Saturday weddings and corporate events deep into 2008.

Local business heavies saw the revived pavilion -- with capacity for 700 standing -- when Daniel Hospitality Group marketing-and-events whirlwind Laura Jennifer Leppard got California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and B.C. premier Gordon Campbell to wrap their two-day green-a-thon there recently.

Frankel wants the joint "to become Vancouver's Tavern on The Green," meaning the famed facility in Central Park, New York. That's where his father, George, was raised before moving to Israel, where he owned the Pizza Plaza chain before developing Granville Island's Bridges complex and later Stanley Park's Prospect Point Cafe.

Daniel got his at age 16 by building an ice-cream cart to serve Prospect Point visitors who didn't enter the cafe-gift shop. A summer's work paid for a beat-up Saab car. He bought the place in 2002, with three five-year park board leases covering its 100-seat dining room, 180-seat patio and five take-out concessions..

Another RFP that year saw him build the Coal Harbour Mill Marine Bistro for $750,000. Its decor incorporated "all the old crap" discarded in a Bridges renovation, and $1,000 for a bar from Hastings Street's defunct 1066 operation.

He's still recycling. Stanley's Bar & Grill features salvaged cedar panelling, tabletops sawn from laminated beams, and a brass-panel bar from the old Hotel Vancouver lobby.

En route, he bought his own favourite dining spot, the no-patio Delilah's, and plans at least two more Mill-style operations, one downtown and the other in Kitsilano. He'd buy, not lease, sites "for the right deal."

Meanwhile, marriage to Laura Watt is a victim to booming business. "The wedding has to be in the Pavilion," he said. "But every date is booked way into 2008."

- - -

PERCY von LIPINSKI, the Visa Connection firm's founder-chair, married his fiancee as quickly as possible. Even so, it took "thousands of dollars in phone calls" before gynecologist-obstetrician Olga Murchortova left her native Moscow. A decade later, in Ottawa last week, she passed the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons' standard examinations, and may now practise her old specialty.

Which is surgically turning men into women.

She met the 198-cm-tall von Lipinski, not professionally, but when he arrived in Moscow hoping to become a paid passenger on a MiG-29 flight he'd "loosey-goosey" arranged in Canada. Not notably impressed when her future husband introduced himself, relayed his foiled plans and began to hit on her, Dr. Murchortova decided rather "to show him what a Russian lady can arrange."

"Next day it was done," said von Lipinski, whose wooing of the music lover improved with references to Russian composers she'd never heard of. He also remained in Moscow long enough for her second opinion. After much finagling, she entered Canada, the two were wed, and later had daughter Ava, now four.

That led to another change for von Lipinski, who says his and Calgary-based minority partner Christopher Houston's firm does "in the mid-seven figures" of passport- and visa-related business yearly from offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Seattle and Houston, Texas, with Montreal and Washington, D.C., branches due this year.

Now he's producing a television series but not starring Dr. Murchortova, who has all the right stuff. Its theme, globe-girdling travel, was hatched when devotee-cyclist von Lipinski was laid up for three months after a city bus crushed a leg and hip.

Screen-struck since he shot 8-mm movies in Point Grey secondary's film club, the immobilized von Lipinski learned digital editing techniques so he might better record baby Ava's doings. On his feet again, he added himself as a camera subject on the young family's extensive worldwide trips.

Favourable responses to YouTube airings resulted in a pilot for Get A Visa And Go, which von Lipinski and producer Paul Armstrong screened recently. Now he's raised $100,000 for professional filming in countries like Angola, Croatia, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Tunisia, "where you can have beautiful, low-cost vacations without being worried about being kidnapped or bombed."

Von Lipinski's shtick is to walk up to local folk and start talking. "There's no rules for him," Murchortova said. "Whenever we go somewhere and people say, 'You can't do that,' my background has me say, 'Thank you. Bye-bye.' But he just asks: 'How can we do it in a different way?' He's not afraid of looking kooky."

She should know all about that.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...8-bab5d149f905

[SpongeG]

how about some restaurant news...

Shore Club the latest addition to restaurant mogul's fleet

DAVID AISENSTAT could have become a little blase by now about opening restaurants like the Shore Club, which quietly began doing business at Granville and Dunsmuir this week. After all, the son of late Hy's chain founder Hy Aisenstat owns or franchises 105 other eateries in Canada and the U.S., and should see their collective 2007 revenue total "just shy of $500 million."

Still, with its huge windows, 14-metre-high ceiling and new Yamaha grand piano, the 275-seat, 12,000-square-foot Shore Club is a distinct step up from any of the 96 Keg restaurants Aisenstat, 50, has accumulated since 1997. That's when his city-based Raleigh Corp. paid Britain's Whitbread brewing conglomerate $48.5 million to repatriate the Keg and Cleaver chain George Tidball founded with a single North Vancouver restaurant in 1971.

As for owning steakhouses in Britain, "If you could get Canadian or U.S. beef, I'd be there in a second," Aisenstat said.

Meanwhile, he's spent $8 million to develop the Shore Club in longtime pal Rob Macdonald's The Hudson complex. Contractors and Boti Interiors principal Elaine Thorsell could have spent $2 million less, Aisenstat said. "But this is a world-class city, so why not have world-class places?"

Just such a place is the kitty-corner 136,000-square-foot Holt Renfrew store, which opened with much hoopla Tuesday.

There was also the matter of trumping his round-the-corner Gotham steakhouse, which parallels the Shore Club's menu and $50-range entrees. Gotham opened in 1999, after Macdonald bought the St. Regis hotel and wanted a high-end eatery on the site of a dilapidated Christian bookstore that came with the deal.

The ever-organized Macdonald invited Aisenstat to advise him over dinner, then reportedly surprised the latter by presenting drawn-up lease documents. "You can't do this to a friend," Aisenstat said he responded, "unless you come up with some of the money."

Today, Gotham "is really, really successful [with] double-digit yearly increases," Aisenstat said. Still, Toronto's Bay-at-Adelaide downtown Keg is his top-volume locale. And the nearby $7-million, 288-seat Ki, which began serving high-end Asian cuisine in 2005, is a model for one he'll open in our town's Shangri-La complex next year.

The restaurant that started it all -- the Calgary Hy's -- closed New Years Eve. It will be replaced next year, said Aisenstat, who believes his late father would eventually have built a joint like the Shore Club. "He was a saloon keeper. And that's really all I aspire to be, too."

- - -

DANIEL FRANKEL's newest restaurant is a 20-seat hole in the wall. In the wall of the Coal Harbour Community Centre, that is. And with a 100-seat patio outside.

Israel-born Frankel, 33, has operated it as The Coal Harbour Cafe since successfully answering his first park board RFP (Request for Proposal) in 2001. Friday, though, it becomes the 1950s-themed Danny's Dogs & Shakes, serving what you'd expect.

Also new and more traditional, his Stanley's Park Bar & Grill will open officially for lunch and dinner June 20, serving Frankel's trademark baked-not-fried pub-style chow. The 60-seat eatery (with patio space for 200) is another remake -- this time of the concession in The Stanley Park Pavilion, which Frankel took over via another park board RFP in 2004.

The 1911 structure was forlorn, and Frankel says he spent $1.8 million renovating it, especially its Lord Stanley Ballroom, which now has mahogany panelling, a hardwood dance floor, beamed ceiling and crystal chandeliers, and is booked for Saturday weddings and corporate events deep into 2008.

Local business heavies saw the revived pavilion -- with capacity for 700 standing -- when Daniel Hospitality Group marketing-and-events whirlwind Laura Jennifer Leppard got California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and B.C. premier Gordon Campbell to wrap their two-day green-a-thon there recently.

Frankel wants the joint "to become Vancouver's Tavern on The Green," meaning the famed facility in Central Park, New York. That's where his father, George, was raised before moving to Israel, where he owned the Pizza Plaza chain before developing Granville Island's Bridges complex and later Stanley Park's Prospect Point Cafe.

Daniel got his at age 16 by building an ice-cream cart to serve Prospect Point visitors who didn't enter the cafe-gift shop. A summer's work paid for a beat-up Saab car. He bought the place in 2002, with three five-year park board leases covering its 100-seat dining room, 180-seat patio and five take-out concessions..

Another RFP that year saw him build the Coal Harbour Mill Marine Bistro for $750,000. Its decor incorporated "all the old crap" discarded in a Bridges renovation, and $1,000 for a bar from Hastings Street's defunct 1066 operation.

He's still recycling. Stanley's Bar & Grill features salvaged cedar panelling, tabletops sawn from laminated beams, and a brass-panel bar from the old Hotel Vancouver lobby.

En route, he bought his own favourite dining spot, the no-patio Delilah's, and plans at least two more Mill-style operations, one downtown and the other in Kitsilano. He'd buy, not lease, sites "for the right deal."

Meanwhile, marriage to Laura Watt is a victim to booming business. "The wedding has to be in the Pavilion," he said. "But every date is booked way into 2008."

- - -

PERCY von LIPINSKI, the Visa Connection firm's founder-chair, married his fiancee as quickly as possible. Even so, it took "thousands of dollars in phone calls" before gynecologist-obstetrician Olga Murchortova left her native Moscow. A decade later, in Ottawa last week, she passed the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons' standard examinations, and may now practise her old specialty.

Which is surgically turning men into women.

She met the 198-cm-tall von Lipinski, not professionally, but when he arrived in Moscow hoping to become a paid passenger on a MiG-29 flight he'd "loosey-goosey" arranged in Canada. Not notably impressed when her future husband introduced himself, relayed his foiled plans and began to hit on her, Dr. Murchortova decided rather "to show him what a Russian lady can arrange."

"Next day it was done," said von Lipinski, whose wooing of the music lover improved with references to Russian composers she'd never heard of. He also remained in Moscow long enough for her second opinion. After much finagling, she entered Canada, the two were wed, and later had daughter Ava, now four.

That led to another change for von Lipinski, who says his and Calgary-based minority partner Christopher Houston's firm does "in the mid-seven figures" of passport- and visa-related business yearly from offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Seattle and Houston, Texas, with Montreal and Washington, D.C., branches due this year.

Now he's producing a television series but not starring Dr. Murchortova, who has all the right stuff. Its theme, globe-girdling travel, was hatched when devotee-cyclist von Lipinski was laid up for three months after a city bus crushed a leg and hip.

Screen-struck since he shot 8-mm movies in Point Grey secondary's film club, the immobilized von Lipinski learned digital editing techniques so he might better record baby Ava's doings. On his feet again, he added himself as a camera subject on the young family's extensive worldwide trips.

Favourable responses to YouTube airings resulted in a pilot for Get A Visa And Go, which von Lipinski and producer Paul Armstrong screened recently. Now he's raised $100,000 for professional filming in countries like Angola, Croatia, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Tunisia, "where you can have beautiful, low-cost vacations without being worried about being kidnapped or bombed."

Von Lipinski's shtick is to walk up to local folk and start talking. "There's no rules for him," Murchortova said. "Whenever we go somewhere and people say, 'You can't do that,' my background has me say, 'Thank you. Bye-bye.' But he just asks: 'How can we do it in a different way?' He's not afraid of looking kooky."

She should know all about that.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...8-bab5d149f905

[204]

Vancouver's Yaletown neighborhood is a browsing bonanza for tourists
By Eric Noland
Los Angeles Daily News
Salt Lake Tribune


VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Every time Vancouver throws a big party, its Yaletown neighborhood gets a little better.

This was a gritty industrial district when the city prepared to host a world's fair two decades ago, and the cleanup for Expo 86 sparked a redevelopment frenzy. Now cafes, bars, boutique shops and other businesses have taken root in the old brick warehouses, while residents and office workers occupy high-rent towers nearby.

The next bash is the Winter Olympic Games, to be held in Vancouver (and up the coast at the Whistler ski resort) in 2010. Yaletown is a construction zone once more, this time to make it easier to get here. A massive pit bisects the area, as work proceeds on a Canada Line extension. The light rail will zip from the airport to the city center in a little over 20 minutes, and there will be a station right in the middle of this most intriguing of Vancouver's neighborhoods.

When visitors alight here, they will find -- as today's tourists do -- a two-block stretch of two parallel streets, Hamilton and Mainland, where the old warehouses cluster together. Heritage status spared them the wrecking ball when the construction flurry occurred in the mid-1980s, and now they huddle in a thicket of modern, glass-and-steel buildings, some of which resemble stacked ice-cube trays. The warehouse loading docks have been converted into leafy terraces, where shoppers stroll and restaurant and bar patrons congregate when the weather cooperates.

But there is nothing particularly novel about that. Former industrial districts have been similarly transformed in cities all across the continent.

What sets Yaletown apart is its personality. The neighborhood -- directly south of the downtown core, spilling down to the banks of False Creek -- is often described as eclectic. It certainly is that. But a more fitting adjective might be eccentric.

"There's a real independent spirit in Yaletown," said Daniel Craig, general manager of the Opus Hotel, a stylish and playful boutique property (and the only hotel here). "A lot of chain stores have opened here and not done well."

There is no particular theme or thread running through the businesses that have succeeded. On a stroll down the sidewalk you'll find, in order, a shop selling bath products, a shoe store, a French bakery, a florist, a home furnishings store and a yoga studio. One door might open on Coastal Peoples, a fine-arts gallery with museum-quality indigenous crafts. A few steps on, you might find something entirely whimsical, such as Inhabit, with its midcentury home items and retro children's toys.

It's clear Yaletown's businesses exist primarily for the people living nearby, rather than for tourists, but its diverse offerings present a browsing bonanza for leisure travelers. Also, to its credit, this area hasn't gotten too cute. Trash dumpsters are still stored at the edge of the loading docks, and heavy-duty trucks often rumble past, because the docks are still the best place to deliver merchandise.

As for culinary offerings, fine-dining restaurants coexist easily with casual oyster bars and pubs in Yaletown.

At the top end is the Blue Water Cafe, arguably one of the finest restaurants in the Pacific Northwest. It has a sushi bar on one side of the room, a bustling open kitchen and raw bar on the other. The fusion can be found at the tables in between.

Dinner here was fantastic. Local sablefish (black cod to the rest of us) was prepared in an Asian fashion, caramelized with soy and sake and served with pea shoots. Lingcod was accompanied by pureed cauliflower, red beets and divine potato gnocchi. Arctic char was dressed up with chanterelle mushrooms and creamed pearl onions. And all of these fish filets were perfectly cooked, the chefs getting them off the fire before the slightest hint of dryness could set in.

Elixir, at the Opus Hotel, was another commendable restaurant, with impeccable service and such Far North-themed entrees as spice-crusted venison, served with a cranberry and parsnip dressing. Here, as at Blue Water, we opted for wines from British Columbia's Okanagan Valley and were not disappointed.

The casual side of Yaletown dining, meanwhile, is exemplified by Rodney's Oyster House, which feels as if it were lifted from a ramshackle waterfront and deposited here in the midst of this hip neighborhood.

It is white clapboard, with block-letter advertisement signs out front, a porthole in the door, fishing net draped on the walls and Sinatra on the stereo. We deferred to the judgment of the swaggering young shucker behind the bar and soon exulted in a platter of four British Columbia oyster varieties, including Euro Flats -- French oyster seed grown off Thetis Island.

Yaletown itself has a kind of European flavor to it. Within a one-square-block loop from the front door of the Opus are seven gourmet coffee establishments -- including our favorite, Boulangerie La Parisienne.

As for slaking a different kind of thirst, Yaletown has Taylorwood Wines, a shop with an extensive selection of British Columbia bottlings. A complimentary tasting was being conducted during our visit -- value-priced reds and whites that might be suitable for a wedding reception. The proprietor was also helpful in suggesting something we could take back to our hotel room, a crisp Jackson-Triggs sauvignon blanc from the Okanagan Valley.

Local libations of another sort are a hit at Yaletown Brewing Co. We found seven microbrews on its chalkboard menu, including Yippee IPA and Red Truck Ale -- the latter named for the 1946 Dodge delivery truck that was parked outside.

The Opus Hotel has tapped deeply into the sensibilities of Yaletown. It is a tasteful, stylish place popular with the Hollywood crowd -- a stay here was included in the Oscar presenters' goodie bag three years running -- yet is the rare boutique hotel that doesn't have a trace of attitude. Staffers are unfailingly friendly and helpful.

Like the neighborhood, the Opus breaks a few bounds of convention. In some rooms, the bathroom sink is positioned along an exterior picture window (don't worry, there is a translucent privacy blind, and having the sunlight in there is a nice touch). In another, the head of a bed might be situated in a corner, with walls of glass on both sides, providing city views in the deep of the night.

But the real fun of Opus is in the way the rooms are designed and appointed, said to be like the apartment of a cool friend who tossed you the keys before he went out of town. The walls in one room might be a startling red; in another, pea green. You might find a book of Shakespeare's sonnets on the nightstand (as we did), or a contemporary jazz CD in the stereo.

The wall between our bed and the bathroom had a big window in it, screened with mini-blinds. This allows natural light in, if so desired. Other nice touches were a deep soaking tub and bath products by L'Occitane en Provence. But the best feature of the room was a window that looked onto the rooftop garden of the building across the street, and also framed Yaletown's skyline of residential high-rises.

When it's sunny, and especially on weekends, residents of those towers spill onto the streets and inevitably down to the edge of the water.

False Creek, which demarks the southern edge of downtown Vancouver, was once the grimy domain of factories and sawmills. Now it's a playground.

The Seawall Promenade runs along the water's edge all the way out to Stanley Park on the west side of the city, and the daily parade might include people out for an unhurried stroll, dog-walkers, moms pushing baby carriages, bicyclists and in-line skaters.

David Lam Park, at the foot of Yaletown and along the creek's shore, might teem simultaneously with two or three soccer games, a couple of tennis matches, an invasion force of toddlers on the playground equipment and several Frisbees in flight.

A short distance away, at the end of Davie Street, is an Aquabus pier. No visit to Vancouver would be complete without a ride on one of these tiny water taxis, which are painted in a rainbow of colors and distinctly resemble bathtub toys.

The ferries are a convenient way to hop from Yaletown to Granville Island, another Vancouver treasure. Its central feature is a vast public market in a high-ceilinged barn, and it's open every day.

On the way over, our Aquabus glided past colorfully painted houseboats moored along the shore of the island (which is really a peninsula). This stirred a fantasy of what it might be like to live in such digs on the water. But one thing is certain: If you resided here, the components of dinner would often be procured at that market.

The various stands displayed beautiful produce (including plump strawberries stacked into little pyramids), loaves of pesto green-olive bread, Digby scallops, duck breasts, Canadian maple cheddar cheese and freshly made butternut squash ravioli.

None of that really works for a traveler staying in a hotel, but other stands sell local jams and jellies, and of course plenty of smoked salmon. There is also prepared food for sale, much of it reflecting the influences of Vancouver's vibrant Asian populations.

Like Yaletown, Granville Island doesn't have a just-for-tourists feel to it. There is an art school here, a shop in which wooden boats are built, and a cobbler -- yes, custom-made shoes, if you're a tricky one to fit.

The art presence is strong, too. Galleries exhibit ceramics, art glass and woodwork, and several small theaters present stage productions (we were disappointed that TheatreSports, with its acclaimed improv, was dark on the nights of our visit).

The retail offerings are first-rate, too: Pacific Northwest cookbooks at Barbara-Jo Books to Cooks; unique wrapping paper, office products and journals at Paper-Ya; handmade furniture at Northwest Bungalow (just the thing for the houseboat!).

Back on the Yaletown shore, we found ourselves repeatedly drawn to the seawall and its walkway. It bends this way and that, following the contours of the creek, through parks, past boat moorages, under the Burrard Bridge with its two stately towers, and along the driftwood-strewn sands of Sunset Beach.

The route is punctuated with several public art installations, including one wind-activated sculpture of great seabirds.

It could be a symbol for Yaletown itself, a neighborhood that has strongly, confidently taken flight -- well before the guests arrive for Vancouver's next big party.

[SpongeG]

Retail sales
It's all about the customer

As a shopper, you pride yourself on being your own person. You're discriminating, you buy only what you and your family need. You are an individual.

Guess again. You fall into a category. You're actually a type.

If you shop at Canada's largest retail grocery chain — any of the stores owned by Loblaw Cos. Ltd — you're one of six different categories of shoppers. The company has given each of them names. Five are female because each of those categories is dominated by women.

The sixth — called Bernard — is the only one with a male name. If you are a Bernard, you tend to want your groceries at a good price, but don't want to spend a lot of time hunting down bargains.

"Bernard is very conscious of his time," Mark Foote, president and chief merchandising officer of Loblaws, told a Toronto retail conference. Bernard is more likely to shop at one of the Loblaws discount stores — like the No Frills brand in Ontario. He represents about 14 per cent of the company's sales.

In the first quarter of 2007, Loblaws reported sales of $6.35 billion. That's up $200 million from the same period a year earlier.


Inspired by Canadian Tire's growth

Foote says the company began developing the consumer profiles in the summer of 2006 as part of its effort to turn around a sagging performance. Foote had spent 30 years at Canadian Tire and oversaw that company's growth to one of Canada's most successful retail chains.

Loblaws is especially keen to appeal to the shopper-type it has identified as Lynne. She's young and stylish but is on a bit of a budget. She wants quality food at a good price. She's critical to the success of the Real Canadian SuperStores that the company hopes to take across the country. The stores are much larger than the traditional Loblaws supermarket and carry a wide variety of non-food merchandise.

So far, the format has fallen short of expectations and expansion plans are on hold. In the meantime, the company is planning to spend $50 million promoting its President's Choice and No Name labels. It is also actively soliciting feedback from its customers.

Dalton Philips, chief operating officer of Loblaws, says the company is offering a small incentive for customers to go online and give their opinions of what's working or what's not.

"The response blows me away," Philips said. "We are getting great information about what the consumer feels about our stores."

Philips said it's clear that a lot of people are very loyal to the Loblaws brands.


Seeking the 'emotionally connected'

And that may be key to the company's fortunes.

"Simply satisfying customers is not enough," John Fleming of The Gallup Organization told the same conference. "It's the starting point and not the end point."

Fleming says Gallup's research suggests there are two types of customers who surveys reveal to be "extremely satisfied:"

People whose satisfaction is based on a rational decision — the service was good, the product is good. People whose satisfaction is based on emotion — love the product, love shopping there.

Fleming says people whose satisfaction is based on emotion are key. Keeping the most emotionally connected customers happy could mean a profit premium of 23 per cent.

Since much of that loyalty is built with face-to-face contact — how the customer and a store's staff interact — more retail chains are paying attention to how they can best foster that environment.

Best Buy — the largest electronics retailer in the United States — moved into Canada in 2001 when it bought the Future Shop chain. Its sales jumped from $2 billion that first year to almost $5 billion last year.

Robert Willett, Best Buy International's chief executive officer, says the chain's success is due to the front-line employee — the people who deal with customers.

"We make them part of a movie," Willett said. "They all play critical roles. They are the lens of the consumer."


Making employees' ideas count

The company actively solicits ideas from its employees.

"Good ideas don't come from the boardroom," Willett said. "They come from the people on the floor, the people who know what's working and what's not working."

It's key to attract and keep employees who are passionate about the field. If they feel they are listened to and have a stake in the company, he said, they will be motivated and that will create a positive experience for the consumer.

It's a philosophy that has worked well at The Running Room, North America's largest chain of specialty running stores. It was founded in Edmonton in 1981 by John Stanton, who took up the sport of running but had difficulty finding decent running shoes and running apparel.

The chain has centralized the business of running the stores at head office and has left front-line staff — who are all either active runners or walkers and passionate about fitness — to focus on serving the needs of customers.

"If you empower people with their passion," Stanton said, "it's amazing what they can accomplish.

The chain has grown to 90 stores across Canada and parts of the United States.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/ec...ail-sales.html

[SSLL]

From: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...Story/Business
__________

Pizza Pizza establishes Alberta beachhead
Widens focus from saturated Ontario market to western hot spot with booming population and economy
TAVIA GRANT
June 15, 2007
Canada's pizza wars are heating up. Regional players in the industry are stepping into each others' turf, with Western Canada the most lucrative prize in the country.

Pizza Pizza Ltd. said yesterday it's expanding west to oil-rich Alberta, agreeing to buy Edmonton-based Flying Pizza 73 Inc.

In the other direction, Abbotsford, B.C.-based Panago Pizza Inc. expanded into Ontario this spring, while Richmond, B.C.-based Boston Pizza International Inc. is also marching eastward.

Companies are vying for a slice of Canada's $2.3-billion pizza market, and that means opening new stores and expanding their menu choices to capture consumers' appetite for convenient, fast food.

"I would like to see us national," said Curt Feltner, Pizza Pizza's chief financial officer, in an interview. He sees his company expanding both east and west through acquisitions and organic growth.

Pizza Pizza, which is Ontario's largest pizza chain, and Pizza Pizza Royalty Income Fund are paying $70.3-million for Pizza 73, whose owners worked at Boston Pizza two decades ago. The Alberta-based company, which takes its name from its phone number, will keep its brand.

Western markets continue to be the hot spot in the pizza world because of a booming population and growing economy, and because the market isn't as saturated as in Ontario, Mr. Feltner said.

Analysts agree. Among restaurant trusts, those with a strong presence in the West are most attractive, said Walter Spracklin of RBC Dominion Securities.

"We expect western-based restaurants to continue to outperform their peers in the near future," he said in a note, citing high employment levels, personal disposable income and economic growth.

Boston Pizza, which got its start back in 1964 in Edmonton, when Greek immigrant Gus Agioritis opened "Boston Pizza and Spaghetti House," has about 265 restaurants in Canada. Most are in the West, but it has opened new restaurants across Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario in the past year or two.

As for Pizza Pizza, it sees the West as its main growth area, while Atlantic Canada appears to be the "underperformer" in the country, Mr. Feltner said.

The Alberta market is not without challenges: labour shortages abound in the food services industry, driving wages higher. And the cost of delivering pizzas has risen in recent years, putting pressure on margins.

The move comes as Pizza 73's revenue is booming. Sales at restaurants open more than a year were 26.1 per cent higher in April than a year earlier, on top of a 27.5-per-cent jump in 2006. While Pizza Pizza expects same restaurant sales to keep growing, it won't likely maintain that rapid pace, the company said.

It expects the deal will immediately boost Pizza Pizza's distributable cash and will hold a special meeting of unitholders in late July to approve the transaction.

It will finance the deal through credit facilities and by issuing 2.6 million new subscription receipts for units of the company.

Pizza Pizza first said it plans to expand west in 2005, as part of its initial public offering.

The company, which was founded in Toronto in 1967, operates 532 restaurants, mostly in Ontario and Quebec, which are largely owned and operated by franchises. It's in the midst of repositioning itself as a "restaurant with delivery," rather than strictly a takeout service.

As for Panago, in April the company said it plans to open at least 150 new restaurants in Ontario. About 90 of its restaurants are now in B.C. and more than 50 are in Alberta.

Sharing the pizza pie

We expect western-based restaurants to continue

to outperform their peers in the near future. RBC Dominion Securities analyst Walter Spracklin

Top five chains by sales:

Boston Pizza $513-million

Pizza Pizza$341-million

Pizza Hut$300-million

Domino's$122.8-million

Panago$111.5-million

Source: Kostuch Publications,

all figures U.S. dollars, 2005

Notes from Pizza Pizza's recipe book: Management estimates that the pizza quick-service restaurant (QSR) segment in Canada generated sales in 2004 of about $2.3-billion, with around $1.1-billion made in Ontario.

In 2004, the pizza QSR segment represented 18 per cent of the total QSR segment, based on sales. Most of this segment is served by branded chains, which account for two-thirds of sales.

Over the past 10 years, the number of meal "occasions" in which pizza has been purchased from a QSR has remained relatively stable, while the average cheque per occasion has increased throughout the decade.

Three-quarters of pizza is consumed for dinner and 83 per cent is eaten on a takeout or delivery basis.

[SSLL]

From: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/f...98a720&k=61172
________

Indigo pens next chapter
EXPANSION; TV, film, Web site and 'green' focus all in plan
Hollie Shaw, Financial Post
Published: Friday, June 22, 2007
Indigo Books and Music Inc. is in growth mode, building superstores, launching a completely new retail chain with a "green" theme, and going multimedia with an in-store television station, a documentary film and the launch of a social-networking Web site catering to book lovers.
"We have a big, hairy, audacious goal of where we want to see this business go in the next five years," Heather Reisman, chief executive, told shareholders yesterday at the company's annual general meeting.
"The business is in great shape, and we are ready to start innovating and experimenting for growth."

Ms. Reisman said little about the new retail format other than it will "fill what we see as 'white space' in the consumer channel," and hinting at a concept built around environmental sustainability: "Think green."
She did not give a timeline for store openings.
Since acquiring rival Chapters Inc. six years ago, Ms. Reisman has transformed Canada's biggest book chain from a $48-million loss in fiscal 2002 to a $30-million profit in fiscal 2006, an increase of 18% over the prior year.
She has poured in capital, improving disorderly supply chain and warehouse systems, and increased sales through loyalty programs and incorporating more high-margin gift items, stationery, educational toys and games into the stores.
The retailer's shares hit a five-year high of $17.88 last week on the heels of an announced sale of 1.5-million shares by Gerry Schwartz, Ms. Reisman's husband and chief executive of conglomerate Onex Corp.
Together they owned 18.7-million shares and will now own 17.2-million, lowering their stake to 70% from about 76% .
"We didn't want to sell ... our advisors told us that greater liquidity would help the company," said Ms. Reisman, who has said over the past year that the retailer's recovery has attracted investors and that she would need to enlarge the public float.
Ms. Reisman said the chain plans to open at least six large superstores and six smaller stores in the next 12 to 18 months and will expand some stores in Toronto and Montreal. Indigo has 88 big-box stores across Canada and 158 smaller locations under the Coles banner.
Indigo is also trying to forge stronger ties with consumers by launching a discrete social-networking site for book lovers through its chapters.indigo.ca Web portal in September and an online photo album site to upload and display digital pictures.
Indigo plans to test launch an "Indigo TV" channel at certain stores, featuring author interviews and book-related programming to be broadcast on monitors throughout the outlets. That same month, Indigo will promote a documentary film it commissioned on literacy in Canada and distribute it through YouTube and other online channels.
David Gray, president of Vancouver-based retail consultancy Sixth Line Solutions, cautioned that there is a "lot of hype" right now about both social networking and the green movement.
"Everyone is rushing to do the next Facebook, and people only have so much time.
"But the fact [that Indigo] is trying a number of different things points to an underlying culture of innovation and that's exciting," he said, particularly for a retailer that is trying to be "a purveyor of culture, even though they are still a very mass-oriented Starbucks of books."
Ms. Reisman said the company will begin building and refurbishing the chain's superstores into a format dubbed "Indigo 2.0."
"The basic format that consumers experience today is 10 to 12 years old," she said.
The news comes as Toronto-based Indigo prepares for the release of the final Harry Potter book next month, which guarantees a sales boom.
Ms. Reisman said staging events such as parties leading up to the release means that the business will not have to mimic the steep discounts that some U.S. retailers will have to employ. The discounts drive up sales but could keep profits low.

[waterloowarrior]

'green' big box superstores?