General Retail News

[c_speed3108]

Rideau Centre announced they have picked up Imaginaire, Canada's largest hobby shop as a tenant.

https://imaginaire.com/

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

Rideau Centre announced they have picked up Imaginaire, Canada's largest hobby shop as a tenant.

https://imaginaire.com/

This like a Wallacks or Omer DeSerres type retailer?

[SL123]

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

Rideau Centre announced they have picked up Imaginaire, Canada's largest hobby shop as a tenant.

https://imaginaire.com/

Its gonna be next to the Simons! Its been advertised for a few month on theirs wall

[phil235]

Originally Posted by SL123

Its gonna be next to the Simons! Its been advertised for a few month on theirs wall

I was wondering what that was when I was through there and saw all of the new stuff coming in on that floor. It looks like quite a big space.

[eltodesukane]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

This like a Wallacks or Omer DeSerres type retailer?

Looks more like a Mind Games, which is already there.

[OTSkyline]

Loblaw's to invest $2B this year to open 38 new stores and renovate 600.
https://canadiangrocer.com/loblaw-in...-600-locations

Well, here's to hoping that Ottawa gets some of these new locations; specifically Centretown West, Lebreton, Little Italy...

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

Loblaw's to invest $2B this year to open 38 new stores and renovate 600.
https://canadiangrocer.com/loblaw-in...-600-locations

Well, here's to hoping that Ottawa gets some of these new locations; specifically Centretown West, Lebreton, Little Italy...

F*#k Loblaws. The very last thing I want is for more Loblaws market saturation forcing more people to pay more money to line more pockets. Aldi and Lidl or bust.

[OTSkyline]

Well then prepared to be disappointed. Last I heard Aldi and Lidl were not doing that great (or at least meeting the plans they set out for their US expansions), so I believe a Canadian expansion is permanently on hold.

In other retail news; Quebec Retailer Imaginaire entering Ontario with 20,000sq ft 2-level downtown Ottawa Store
https://retail-insider.com/retail-in...ore-interview/

Good news for the Rideau Centre. The mall had quite a few empty shops lately, will be nice to see more and more of them filled up (and with unique to Ottawa retailers too).

[Harley613]

The American and Canadian grocery retail markets are extremely different, no way Aldi and/or Lidl would say 'Hey, it's not working great in the US, therefore it wouldn't work great in Canada.' The US has dozens of regional players and ample competition in most markets. Canada has three dominant major grocery players + Costco/Walmart/Dollarama filling in the gaps. Canada is a dream market for an Aldi/Lidl, and they should strike while the iron's hot. The vast majority of Canadians would switch to a new chain just to stick it to the big three at this point, even if the new chain was only slightly cheaper.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Harley613

The American and Canadian grocery retail markets are extremely different, no way Aldi and/or Lidl would say 'Hey, it's not working great in the US, therefore it wouldn't work great in Canada.' The US has dozens of regional players and ample competition in most markets. Canada has three dominant major grocery players + Costco/Walmart/Dollarama filling in the gaps. Canada is a dream market for an Aldi/Lidl, and they should strike while the iron's hot. The vast majority of Canadians would switch to a new chain just to stick it to the big three at this point, even if the new chain was only slightly cheaper.

The Canadian grocery market is very difficult to enter. Everything has to be in French so you can't just order more of whatever you're ordering in the US. Canada has cartels core grocery items like milk, eggs and poultry. Canada has a number of regulatory barriers for various food items (e.g. tomato juice has to be squeezed from tomatoes, it can't be reconstituted from paste).

[OTSkyline]

Originally Posted by Harley613

The American and Canadian grocery retail markets are extremely different, no way Aldi and/or Lidl would say 'Hey, it's not working great in the US, therefore it wouldn't work great in Canada.' The US has dozens of regional players and ample competition in most markets. Canada has three dominant major grocery players + Costco/Walmart/Dollarama filling in the gaps. Canada is a dream market for an Aldi/Lidl, and they should strike while the iron's hot. The vast majority of Canadians would switch to a new chain just to stick it to the big three at this point, even if the new chain was only slightly cheaper.

As someone who works in the retail & grocery industry, it's much more complicated than that. Especially considering the vast area Canada covers and the need for multiple distribution centres and lots of trucking. They can service a lot more stores & population in the US than they can in Canada. Couple that with the regulations and expensive labour, the discount grocery industry isn't as lucrative as one would think. Capital required to start is huge, which creates a barrier to entry.

[Harley613]

GAHHHHHHHHH. I'm so tired of hearing 'the vast area Canada covers' argument for our high prices and lack of competition. The vast majority of Canadians live in three areas that are smaller than Great Britain all put together and could be serviced by a handful of distribution centres. An Aldi/Lidl wouldn't be offering Canadians choices in Kapuskasing, Fort Nelson and Rankin Inlet (unfortunate, but unavoidable). They would be offering most Canadians Choice, however, just by servicing the lower mainland of BC, the Calgary-Edmonton corridor and the Québec City-Windsor corridor. Most people on the prairies lives along two highways if they want to expand there, and the Maritimes population centres are very compact if they want to serve there as well. The cell phone companies have brainwashed us into thinking this is some enormous country that costs a fortune to service, and therefore we must pay the highest prices in the developed world. It's simply not true. It's a way for the handful of ultra profitable companies that dominate our grocery and telecom sectors to gouge Canadians with easily digestible lies.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Harley613

GAHHHHHHHHH. I'm so tired of hearing 'the vast area Canada covers' argument for our high prices and lack of competition. The vast majority of Canadians live in three areas that are smaller than Great Britain all put together and could be serviced by a handful of distribution centres.

The populations of those little Great Britains are a fraction of the actual Great Britain (or most of Europe, Asia, the coasts of the US, etc.)

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by acottawa

The populations of those little Great Britains are a fraction of the actual Great Britain (or most of Europe, Asia, the coasts of the US, etc.)

There are more than 25 million people in the three areas I mentioned, ALL of which, together, take up less space than Great Britain, an easily serviced market with more people than the Netherlands and Denmark combined.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Harley613

There are more than 25 million people in the three areas I mentioned, ALL of which, together, take up less space than Great Britain, an easily serviced market with more people than the Netherlands and Denmark combined.

If you put a distribution centre in the Netherlands, you have almost 20 million people in a 2 hour drive. You could also serve parts of Belgium and Germany with the same distribution centre.

The most people you would get within a 2 hour drive in Canada would be somewhere around Milton where you would get somewhere around 8 million. In Atlantic Canada it would be less than 2 million, in Alberta it would be a little over 2 million, in Ottawa-Montreal maybe 5 million.

[Harley613]

The Québec City-Windsor corridor alone has a population of well over 20 million people and could be serviced by 3-4 distribution centres to get to your '2 hour drive' metric.

The Calgary-Edmonton corridor has over 3.5 million people, not 'a little over 2 million', and could be served by one of your '2 hour distribution centres'.

The BC lower mainland has just over 3 million people, and could also be served by one.

My point is that companies don't typically come into Canada and try to serve every far flung place. They can be extraordinarily successful by serving only our densest markets. Eg: Costco & Ikea

The lower mainland has a population of just over 3 million people

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Harley613

The Québec City-Windsor corridor alone has a population of well over 20 million people and could be serviced by 3-4 distribution centres to get to your '2 hour drive' metric.

The Calgary-Edmonton corridor has over 3.5 million people, not 'a little over 2 million', and could be served by one of your '2 hour distribution centres'.

The BC lower mainland has just over 3 million people, and could also be served by one.

My point is that companies don't typically come into Canada and try to serve every far flung place. They can be extraordinarily successful by serving only our densest markets. Eg: Costco & Ikea

The lower mainland has a population of just over 3 million people

That's 7 or 8 distribution centres you want to build. Which is hundreds of stores to have economies of scale comparable to existing chains. That basically requires a Target-like approach, and retailers are no doubt gun shy about trying to emulate Target.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by Harley613

The Québec City-Windsor corridor alone has a population of well over 20 million people and could be serviced by 3-4 distribution centres to get to your '2 hour drive' metric.

The Calgary-Edmonton corridor has over 3.5 million people, not 'a little over 2 million', and could be served by one of your '2 hour distribution centres'.

The BC lower mainland has just over 3 million people, and could also be served by one.

Yeah, I'd just add that a distribution centre in Cornwall would have the entire metro areas of Montreal and Ottawa within two hours, plus a bunch of smaller places, all with good road links. That's more like 6.5 million people, which is definitely a sizeable local market for a distribution centre.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by acottawa

That's 7 or 8 distribution centres you want to build. Which is hundreds of stores to have economies of scale comparable to existing chains. That basically requires a Target-like approach, and retailers are no doubt gun shy about trying to emulate Target.

I don't want to build anything. If an Aldi/Lidl type retailer did though, they have several dense markets to dip into in Canada without betting the farm. That's my entire point. The Farm Boy brand is kicking ass in Southern Ontario now after starting out only in Eastern Ontario, for example. The Target failure is a really poor comparison to how a new multi-national grocer could test the Canadian market. That was the last gasp of an outmoded retail model.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Harley613

I don't want to build anything. If an Aldi/Lidl type retailer did though, they have several dense markets to dip into in Canada without betting the farm. That's my entire point. The Farm Boy brand is kicking ass in Southern Ontario now after starting out only in Eastern Ontario, for example. The Target failure is a really poor comparison to how a new multi-national grocer could test the Canadian market. That was the last gasp of an outmoded retail model.

Farm Boy is owned by Sobeys. It also doesn't generally try to compete on price. Aldi and Lidl both compete mainly on price. They have to go to the same suppliers ad the Big 3 use only with purchase volumes a fraction of what the Big 3 can offer. The Big 3 also have their own discount brand that offers many of the same features as Aldi/Lidl.

Also, has it ever occurred to that Aldi and Lidl have looked into this before? Surely they have heard of Canada.