Winnipeg Retail

[cheswick]

Weird. I know several people who drive for ride sharing companies locally. None of them expressed to me they felt like slaves or being exploited. I'll have to ask them if them volutarily choosing to do the work makes them feel like they're being exploited. They've always spoken positive about the experience.

[Jammon]

Originally Posted by cheswick

Weird. I know several people who drive for ride sharing companies locally. None of them expressed to me they felt like slaves or being exploited. I'll have to ask them if them volutarily choosing to do the work makes them feel like they're being exploited. They've always spoken positive about the experience.

I'm speaking strictly from a user experience, but I like Uber. It's all I use when I travel. It is more cost effective than a taxi in almost every city I've been to, it's easier to use, the drivers are more friendly and the ride is generally more comfortable and cleaner than those damn Toyota shitboxes that taxi services use that make you feel like you're riding a horse rather than in a car.

I'm all for Uber.

[roccerfeller]

I used Uber over the weekend here, very nice to finally have it in Winnipeg. The app and experience is so much better and faster than other ride shares in the city. The drivers we spoke to said Working with Uber is a much better experience and they have better and more efficient business due to how the app works (they can line up their next customers) unlike other apps

The power of Uber’s API I suppose

[roccerfeller]

Originally Posted by CoryB

And people from India were not "forced" to go and work in the Caribbean. Not all forms of human exploitation look like the African slave trade.

I mean. This is a wee bit of a stretch here. What you’re saying is correct, but the analogy is out of place. Among many things when comparing exploitation and effective slave labour, Uber drivers can make a business out of the platform or at least a side income. The ones I spoke with over the weekend seemed very happy and spoke well of it. Further there is some autonomy in the decision making.

Indians that were exploited and effectively used as slave labour yes, but that doesn’t equate in this context.

I get what you’re saying though, and there is a strong case for exploitation as has been a topic of discussion since Uber became large and global...but Uber drivers can earn a wage that is substantially and contextually different than the effective slave labour and exploitation of Indians throughout the British Empire.

[CoryB]

Uber, indentured servitude and the African slave trade all built business where the owners profit off the work of others working below poverty level wages. Both victims of Uber and indentured servitude enter into arrangement with a certain degree of autonomy in decision making.

The only real difference here is it is easier for Uber victims to get out of the abusive relationship they are in.

My point is more, as a society, we should ALL be opposed to that kind of exploitation. It really doesn't differ all that much from sex work as a career in terms of its exploitation of often naïve and vulnerable people.

--

Any back to retail discussion. My usual "people in the know" tell me that DavidsTea plans to only have discussions with Polo Park and St Vital on those locations possibly remaining open. I have also heard the locks have been changed on the Outlet location and the process of permanently closing out that location has started. Based on what I am hearing, a similar process is likely happening at Grant Park and Kildonan Place. It is possible the locks were changed on all locations before the bankruptcy was publicly announced. The locks are reportedly being changed to secure the inventory that is currently in stores.

[CoryB]

Walmart announced plans to invest $3.5 billion in its Canadian operations. Basically it is working to more tightly integrate online and bricks and mortar, a current weak area for the company. For competitors it doesn't name Canadian Tire, Sobeys or Superstore but instead is focused almost entirely on Amazon. It just goes to show how behind the other players are. Superstore is well positioned in the grocery segment but that's it. And Sobey's is so far behind they are almost on my bankruptcy watch list.

[bomberjet]

My word.. Nobody is being forced to drive for Uber. If you don't like the pay structure, just don't work there. It's plain and simple. That's it. You don't like working retail, you don't. Construction? Same thing. Pizza delivery? most companies pay a per delivery fee to the drivers, who are technically contractors. You don't like it? Don't deliver pizza. (delivering pizza pays decently well if you work fridays and/or saturdays. I did it in college and it paid all my bills easily).

[robertocarlos]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Superstore is well positioned in the grocery segment but that's it. And Sobey's is so far behind they are almost on my bankruptcy watch list.

But for $22 you can buy a nice rib eye steak at Sobey's.

[bomberjet]

I never buy the meat full price at Sobey's. But on the sales you can get a nice ribeye for $10-$12. I find Sobey's meat quality better than the other stores. Although I try to shop at the butcher on Nairn most of the time anyways.

[esquire]

When uber first began, it was sold as a way to make money on the side. It's a bit like being a newspaper carrier... definitely not ideal if you rely on it for 100% of your income, but a fine little side gig if you have the time. I'm assuming people who are full time uber drivers probably don't have a ton of better options available, so there's that issue to consider too. Should it really be eliminated because some drivers want to go all in on it?

[Glenn99]

The old Part Source on Pembina is under construction. Heard Dollartree was moving in.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

I never buy the meat full price at Sobey's. But on the sales you can get a nice ribeye for $10-$12. I find Sobey's meat quality better than the other stores. Although I try to shop at the butcher on Nairn most of the time anyways.

Sobeys/Safeway doesn't use local suppliers, so their meat is about the same freshness as Walmart but 1.5x the price.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

Sobeys/Safeway doesn't use local suppliers, so their meat is about the same freshness as Walmart but 1.5x the price.

Doesn't beef all basically come from the same handful of Alberta slaughterhouses anyway? I filled my freezer with meat from a local butcher back in April and they gave it to me in cardboard boxes marked Cargill.

Unless someone was specifically advertising locally raised/slaughtered meat, I would assume it comes from the same places that Walmart/Superstore/whoever get theirs from.

[cllew]

Originally Posted by esquire

Doesn't beef all basically come from the same handful of Alberta slaughterhouses anyway? I filled my freezer with meat from a local butcher back in April and they gave it to me in cardboard boxes marked Cargill.

Unless someone was specifically advertising locally raised/slaughtered meat, I would assume it comes from the same places that Walmart/Superstore/whoever get theirs from.

There is a plant in the St. Boniface industrial park on DeBates St. that does case ready meat packaging for the various retailers in western Canada. I have no idea where their sides of beef come from.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by esquire

Doesn't beef all basically come from the same handful of Alberta slaughterhouses anyway? I filled my freezer with meat from a local butcher back in April and they gave it to me in cardboard boxes marked Cargill.

Unless someone was specifically advertising locally raised/slaughtered meat, I would assume it comes from the same places that Walmart/Superstore/whoever get theirs from.

There are a lot of abattoirs in the Southeast, Central Plains and Parkland that supply grocers in Manitoba. Most Co-Ops source local beef and pork as an example. It's often cheaper too.

Kind of sad that a butcher is selling mass produced meat from another province.

I bought my first black angus from a farm/butcher a few years ago and have not left that bandwagon. Costs about $7 per pound, if you've got an upright freezer that can hold a couple hundred pounds of meat it's a great deal.

[tedtim]

I used to buy one of the small meat packs from Cantors. Plenty of meat for 1 person with not a lot of freezer space.
Tried a pack from Millers Meat this year. A bit pricier, but I thought the meat was better.

[CoryB]

Going to be a record setting year for retail closures at this point.

Swimco has filed today. Locations in Polo Park and St Vital Centre.

--

My sources "in the know" tell me DavidsTea is only entering into go-forward discussions locally with Polo Park and St Vital meaning barring something last minute KP, Grant Park and Outlets will be closed permanently.

[DavefromSt.Vital]

DavidsTea only reopening at Polo Park:

https://globalnews.ca/news/7234442/d...ens-18-stores/

[trebor204]

Originally Posted by Glenn99

The old Part Source on Pembina is under construction. Heard Dollartree was moving in.

Yep, The Dollar Tree signage is up.

[laumag]

Originally Posted by trebor204

Yep, The Dollar Tree signage is up.

Speaking of new things, does anyone know what is happening at the empty Bay Home Store across from Polo Park. I was driving down St. James Street this afternoon and noticed a scaffold up against the front of the building with a construction fence surrounding it. The Towers Realty sign was still there. I checked their web site and there was a link to Colliers under the ad for the building. When I followed the link, the page no longer existed. Perhaps the building has been leased/sold? Anyone have any information?