Quote:
Originally Posted by Simplicity
The grocery business is exceptionally low margin. As a consequence of that, they're low risk. Grocery stores don't make bets on where people are going to be - they take their chances where people already are. For instance, in newer subdivisions, they wait until there's a certain critical mass before they start to build because they need customers from day one. They don't build and hope that the area fills out - they wait for the area to fill out and then they build.
Downtown is no different. Until you've got residents well established, there isn't going to be a grocer betting on population growth.
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But isn't this demand already in place? In recent years, the only successful part of the Downtown Bay was its grocery store. There was clearly a market ready, willing, and able to shop for groceries downtown. Has this demand disappeared? Why couldn't a grocery store (connected to the walkway system) take over where the Bay/Zellers grocery store left off? Between residents already connected to (or nearby) the walkway system and 9-5 workers shopping on their lunch or after work there is demand already in place. New residential downtown (Glasshouse, Skycity, or whatever) would only add to the existing demand.
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