Canadian Retail Thread

[SpongeG]

I like London Drugs, they bring in a lot of very random items at times, such as last week one store had a bunch of Tommy Hilfiger shoes.

In the history I read about them, decades ago the owner wanted to stand out from the other drug stores in Vancouver and started to sell Camera equipment which is why there is an electronics dept today.

They have some items I buy often and I wait for them to go on sale such as Dr Brommers Soaps or Marvis toothpaste hard to beat $6.99 for Marvis.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by casper

London Drugs is a weird place. It is a drug store, that has a small food section and sells computers and home entertainment. The food section is very eclectic. There is this cake they import from Germany and Italian coffee that I get there from time to time.

To round out the mix from time to time it will have completely random stuff, a few overpriced pieces of furniture from China, sometimes a rack of winter coats. One time I went into the one in Victoria and it had kayaks.

London Drugs had those banana ducks during the summer that were all the rage on social media.

I would describe them as a bit of Canadian Tire, a bit of Best Buy, a bit of Shoppers Drug Mart, and a bit of the corner store all in one. Some of them even have an Autoplan kiosk (selling ICBC auto insurance).

I don’t go very often as there isn’t one within walking distance (while I have multiple other pharmacies nearby), but I like taking a walk around them whenever I’m at Lougheed Mall.

[theman23]

They tend to carry a lot of stupid shit that no one would ever visit to buy from them and also price match, so sometimes you can pick up stuff from them thats on sale elsewhere if you're feeling lazy. Aside from that, I really dont see the appeal of shopping there. Basically if the guy who founded Biway decided to take on Walmart, you would have London Drugs.

[casper]

Originally Posted by theman23

They tend to carry a lot of stupid shit that no one would ever visit to buy from them and also price match, so sometimes you can pick up stuff from them thats on sale elsewhere if you're feeling lazy. Aside from that, I really dont see the appeal of shopping there. Basically if the guy who founded Biway decided to take on Walmart, you would have London Drugs.

I don't think Biway ever came west. Today we do have a small town general store in the west called Field's. Field's has an interesting history in that use to be part of the Hudson Bay Company. I don't know exactly when they split off. They closed most of their urban stores and now if you want a plaid flannel shirt you have to drive out into the country. In Ontario I think Giant Tiger is similar.

Growing up in Vancouver as a young kid my parents would typically shop at Woodward's, the Bay, and Fields and Safeway or Stong's for groceries. London Drugs would we where you go to get Camera film developed.

Amazing how most of those are have merged. Woodwards's was taken over the Bay. Field's retreated to the country. Stong's shrunk from covering the lower mainland to two stores.

Safeway became part of Sobeys and now lost its way. It use to have a have a great bakery and now they bake very little, mostly they just defrost stuff baked somewhere else. Tim's went through the same transition.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by theman23

They tend to carry a lot of stupid shit that no one would ever visit to buy from them and also price match, so sometimes you can pick up stuff from them thats on sale elsewhere if you're feeling lazy. Aside from that, I really dont see the appeal of shopping there. Basically if the guy who founded Biway decided to take on Walmart, you would have London Drugs.

Funny, I find them super convenient (I have one near work and home). They have post offices, ICBC insurance (online now anyway), better photo printing than Costco because you don't need to order in bulk, they do passport photos and even marriage licenses. They have a good pharmacy of course.

Best deals, maybe not, but they have good sales and when they put stuff on clearance it's a great price. I didn't buy my OLED TV from them, but they did have the same model price matched to Best Buy and Costco.

They are decent local corporate citizens, so that counts for something.

[casper]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Funny, I find them super convenient (I have one near work and home). They have post offices, ICBC insurance (online now anyway), better photo printing than Costco because you don't need to order in bulk, they do passport photos and even marriage licenses. They have a good pharmacy of course.

Best deals, maybe not, but they have good sales and when they put stuff on clearance it's a great price. I didn't buy my OLED TV from them, but they did have the same model price matched to Best Buy and Costco.

They are decent local corporate citizens, so that counts for something.

For me its the cake. I just can't find it anywhere else. Being German it has a much higher flour content than North American cake.

KuchenMeister Lemon Cake
https://www.londondrugs.com/kuchenme.../L3028909.html

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by casper

I don't think Biway ever came west. Today we do have a small town general store in the west called Field's. Field's has an interesting history in that use to be part of the Hudson Bay Company. I don't know exactly when they split off. They closed most of their urban stores and now if you want a plaid flannel shirt you have to drive out into the country. In Ontario I think Giant Tiger is similar.

Growing up in Vancouver as a young kid my parents would typically shop at Woodward's, the Bay, and Fields and Safeway or Stong's for groceries. London Drugs would we where you go to get Camera film developed.

Amazing how most of those are have merged. Woodwards's was taken over the Bay. Field's retreated to the country. Stong's shrunk from covering the lower mainland to two stores.

Safeway became part of Sobeys and now lost its way. It use to have a have a great bakery and now they bake very little, mostly they just defrost stuff baked somewhere else. Tim's went through the same transition.

Many of the small towns in Northern Ontario had Fields stores until about 10 years ago. I remember going to them in Smooth Rock Falls and Kapuskasing.

One small town discount store still in Northern Ontario is The Bargain Shop. We have one in Timmins (in a former Biway location) which I haven't been to in years but smaller places such as Chapleau and Iroquois Falls have them. And many of their stores are branded as Red Apple stores such as the one in Wawa. I noticed those stores under both names as well when travelling in Western Canada and even some in the Atlantic provinces.

And there is Giant Tiger which we have here. It has many locations in Quebec unlike many of the other small town discount stores.

Check this out. This is a former Biway location in Cochrane ON. It closed many years ago but the sign remained until just a couple of years ago.
https://goo.gl/maps/rtWQqKkgTRaGQNai6

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Funny, I find them super convenient (I have one near work and home). They have post offices, ICBC insurance (online now anyway), better photo printing than Costco because you don't need to order in bulk, they do passport photos and even marriage licenses. They have a good pharmacy of course.

Best deals, maybe not, but they have good sales and when they put stuff on clearance it's a great price. I didn't buy my OLED TV from them, but they did have the same model price matched to Best Buy and Costco.

They are decent local corporate citizens, so that counts for something.

I like that they carry a lot of brands that you don't easily find everywhere like Mrs Meyers, Cleancult (soaps & cleaners), Marvis, Jack Black, Dr Bronner, Rebels Refinery, sapadilla, Taylors of Harrogate tea, Ritter Sport, Whittakers Chocolate, a good selection of British candy and chocolate and some Aussie goodies. End-of-season sales are pretty good, i like the plant pots they bring in for the summer and go on sale really cheap in August. 2.99 compared to 24.99 at a place like Garden Works.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by casper

I don't think Biway ever came west. Today we do have a small town general store in the west called Field's.

Biway was a common sight in Winnipeg in the 80s and 90s. It does seem that those types of stores are always changing identities... when I was a kid, it was Biway and Bargain Harolds, and the two were pretty much interchangeable. Today, Giant Tiger rules the roost among discount junior department stores.

Fields has a few locations in small-town Manitoba... it has been a few years since I've been in one, but to me they felt like dramatically shrunken down Zellers stores. Which made sense because HBC owned them, although I'm not sure if that's still the case.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

London Drugs had those banana ducks during the summer that were all the rage on social media.

I would describe them as a bit of Canadian Tire, a bit of Best Buy, a bit of Shoppers Drug Mart, and a bit of the corner store all in one. Some of them even have an Autoplan kiosk (selling ICBC auto insurance).

I don’t go very often as there isn’t one within walking distance (while I have multiple other pharmacies nearby), but I like taking a walk around them whenever I’m at Lougheed Mall.

London Drugs bought McBain Camera a few years ago. They do have a good photo department which compliments McBains. They have Left McBains as a standalone store in Edmonton as well.

The LD Photo processing is quite good. I don't get much done but they have always done a good job on projects I don't send over to McBains.

[casper]

To round things out London Drugs also has a sister company called London Air.

https://londonair.com/

I believe at one point they did also off used aircraft for sale. Perhaps now they just do charters. Anyone in need of a Bombardier Global 6000?

The AgustaWestland AW139 is used to transport passengers to from the private island up the coast.

[esquire]

I always thought it was weird that London Drugs opened up just the one location here in Winnipeg, and nothing more. I do appreciate having them around as I live not too far away, I am not a fan of Rexall or Shoppers Drug Mart but I do enjoy browsing around LD.

[Airboy]

LD is still family owned as well.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by esquire

I always thought it was weird that London Drugs opened up just the one location here in Winnipeg, and nothing more. I do appreciate having them around as I live not too far away, I am not a fan of Rexall or Shoppers Drug Mart but I do enjoy browsing around LD.

I miss LD. It made the experience of shopping for toiletries, vitamins/medicine whatever much better because you could browse the latest selection of TVs and cameras amongst other seemingly random for sale items.

Last time I was in Rexall it felt even more sterile than Shoppers. In America I like pharmacies such as Rite Aid where you could pick up a 12pk of Miller for like $6-7USD

[JHikka]

Competition Bureau to probe grocery pricing
Pete Evans | October 24, 2022

Canada's Competition Bureau says it is launching a study on competition in the grocery industry.

The agency said in a press release Monday that it plans to investigate various issues in the grocery industry, "with the goal of recommending measures that governments can take to help improve competition in the sector."

The bureau functions as perhaps Canada's most prominent consumer watchdog group by investigating anti-competitive practices that serve to push up prices for consumers, including things like deceptive marketing, price-fixing, and even outright fraud.

The bureau says the move isn't in reaction to any specific allegation of wrongdoing, but it comes as consumers grapple with food prices rising at their fastest pace in more than 40 years.

Last week, new data showed that while Canada's inflation rate eased to 6.9 per cent, the prices of food purchased at stores still rose by more than 11 per cent. The price of food has been going up at a faster pace than the overall inflation rate for 10 months in a row now.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/com...cery-1.6627144

[J.OT13]

Thought I read somewhere that grocery chains made record profits, somewhere around 10% over last year. Soo, that's inflation. i.e. inflation is not real, it's all profits.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by casper

I don't think Biway ever came west. Today we do have a small town general store in the west called Field's. Field's has an interesting history in that use to be part of the Hudson Bay Company. I don't know exactly when they split off. They closed most of their urban stores and now if you want a plaid flannel shirt you have to drive out into the country. In Ontario I think Giant Tiger is similar.

Growing up in Vancouver as a young kid my parents would typically shop at Woodward's, the Bay, and Fields and Safeway or Stong's for groceries. London Drugs would we where you go to get Camera film developed.

Amazing how most of those are have merged. Woodwards's was taken over the Bay. Field's retreated to the country. Stong's shrunk from covering the lower mainland to two stores.

Safeway became part of Sobeys and now lost its way. It use to have a have a great bakery and now they bake very little, mostly they just defrost stuff baked somewhere else. Tim's went through the same transition.

Safeway still makes the best bagels in New Westminster. They’re not remotely as good as Montreal bagels, but they’re a lot better than Save-on-Foods. And Real Canadian Superstore bagels these days are s*it.

You don’t see bagel shops in the Vancouver area the way you do in Toronto or Montreal.

[SpongeG]

a store you can find out west is Red Apple. They are in small towns. A few of them used to be Fields Stores I think before they became Red Apple.

This is one in Ft Nelson, BC

warely.io

There is still a Fields in High Level AB

gccans.ca

Across the street from the Fields is the TB!S which you will also find in many small towns.

gccans.ca

[urbandreamer]

I went in the Kenora Red Apple: reminded me of Len's Mills minus the textiles.

Is the Dryden Safeway the only one in Ontario? (I missed the two in TB & in Kenora.)

London Drugs did give off Biway vibes.

There's a Bargain Shop in downtown Elmira.

[Wigs]

Kenora Safeway has a boat dock for all the summer cottagers and those that live on islands in Lake of the Woods.