General Retail News

[ars]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

In the (not-so) ‘Olden-days’, people would drive to the mall and load up their car with two-weeks-worth of goods. Or, go to SEARS and buy all those furnishings that hey ‘needed’ to redecorate a room. It was one trip, for lots of things.

Now, we order one, or two, items from Amazon, then another from Best Buy. The next day, we find that ‘perfect’ lamp, on Wayfair, so we order that. A few days pass, and the first truck arrives, but it only has one of the Amazon items, because the other is back-ordered – but it will be delivered separately, later. Two days hence, the Wayfair lamp is delivered by a fellow in a mini-van. Oh, and the same day, the Best Buy item arrives – phew, we have been waiting for that.

How much more pollution are we creating by NOT driving to the mall, or department store, ourselves? When every item needs to be separately delivered, there is a huge increase in road-load and pollution – even if Purolator uses propane-powered trucks. A good portion of the traffic on my suburban crescent is now delivery vehicles.

The young folks are crying about how their elders are ruining the environment, because they each have a car, and drive to the Costco to load up on ‘stuff. Of course, the young seem to be blind about what they are doing.

Not disagreeing with the general sentiment of your post, but in terms of pollution caused by delivery vehicles, we're probably at net negative emissions compared to pre-online/covid shopping for a few reasons:

1. These trucks were already on the road before online shopping became prevalent, with less cars on the road it means less pollution overall

2. Delivery vehicles have become more environmentally friendly over the years and may actually be cleaner than many cars on the road

3. Delivery vehicles, including Intelcom vehicles, are usually filled to the brim with packages and the gap between each stop is usually very short. The amount of gas used to get from one house to the next is likely much less than it would be if an individual from each house were to get in their car and drive to the store

Where online shopping probably is worse for the environment is due to returns, a lot of returned items end up in the trash and eventually in landfills.

Here's a good read regarding the subject: https://eco-age.com/resources/online...n-environment/

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

In the (not-so) ‘Olden-days’, people would drive to the mall and load up their car with two-weeks-worth of goods. Or, go to SEARS and buy all those furnishings that hey ‘needed’ to redecorate a room. It was one trip, for lots of things.

Now, we order one, or two, items from Amazon, then another from Best Buy. The next day, we find that ‘perfect’ lamp, on Wayfair, so we order that. A few days pass, and the first truck arrives, but it only has one of the Amazon items, because the other is back-ordered – but it will be delivered separately, later. Two days hence, the Wayfair lamp is delivered by a fellow in a mini-van. Oh, and the same day, the Best Buy item arrives – phew, we have been waiting for that.

How much more pollution are we creating by NOT driving to the mall, or department store, ourselves? When every item needs to be separately delivered, there is a huge increase in road-load and pollution – even if Purolator uses propane-powered trucks. A good portion of the traffic on my suburban crescent is now delivery vehicles.

The young folks are crying about how their elders are ruining the environment, because they each have a car, and drive to the Costco to load up on ‘stuff. Of course, the young seem to be blind about what they are doing.

I have some recollection of the “old days” and I don’t recall a lot of one stop shopping. People would hit up multiple malls and multiple stand alone stores, often driving around for hours.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by ars

Not disagreeing with the general sentiment of your post, but in terms of pollution caused by delivery vehicles, we're probably at net negative emissions compared to pre-online/covid shopping for a few reasons:

1. These trucks were already on the road before online shopping became prevalent, with less cars on the road it means less pollution overall

On this one, the difference is that there are a lot more delivery trucks on the road. The problem is that with one-day delivery, you loose a lot of the logistical advantages of shipping to a store or waiting until you have a critical mass of items before shipping. The trucks end up making dedicated trips, and far more of them, so the environmental footprint is bigger. It's the last mile that contributes the bulk of the emissions.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I'm personally not a fan of online shopping. I try to avoid it as much as possible. But the reality is, online shopping is a big part of our present and future

I am not a big fan of online shopping either. I barely every did it before and especially tried to avoid giants like Amazon.

But the pandemic has forced my hand, as there is stuff that I occasionally need that I simply can't go out and buy in person right now.

I will definitely go back to buying most everything in person when we get back to normal, but obviously the big players, if you look at their investments, are banking on a lot of the online shopping habits sticking in the long term.

They're probably right.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by phil235

On this one, the difference is that there are a lot more delivery trucks on the road. The problem is that with one-day delivery, you loose a lot of the logistical advantages of shipping to a store or waiting until you have a critical mass of items before shipping. The trucks end up making dedicated trips, and far more of them, so the environmental footprint is bigger. It's the last mile that contributes the bulk of the emissions.

I am not sure that is how it works. One day delivery is usually only available for items in stock at a local warehouse. Items are put in a full truck with other deliveries for that day. I guess if it was a small business using fedex it would create an individual trip to the local fedex location, but after that it is full trucks and planes.

The waste of one day shipping is the extra packaging (which you would not get if you drove to your local Home Depot to buy a single item you needed right away).

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I'm personally not a fan of online shopping. I try to avoid it as much as possible. But the reality is, online shopping is a big part of our present and future and it's a good thing that we're aggressively gunning for more and more distribution centres, and those happen to be on highways, outside the core where trucks can avoid rush-hour traffic.

Campus type distribution centres like Barrhaven and what's proposed off the 417 and Hunt Club is at least conducive to proper bus service. North Gore and Carlsbad, not so much.

Shopping to me as an activity bores me and I"m one to get in and get out asap...but if I have to shop I prefer a main street shopping experience. The article above is a damning indictment of the banality of the retail experience and how it has been a race to the bottom over the years.

[passwordisnt123]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

[B]Welcome to store-free Ottawa — the giant warehouse with home delivery

...We are putting colossal buildings in our outer reaches — the places young families have moved to flee urban atrocity...

It really shows how much the Ottawa Citizen hates this city and those who live in it (at least the non-suburbanites). They continue to employ somebody like Kelley Egan writing something that bad and that dumb and it doesn't get taken out by any editor at any point in the process.

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by passwordisnt123

It really shows how much the Ottawa Citizen hates this city and those who live in it (at least the non-suburbanites). They continue to employ somebody like Kelley Egan writing something that bad and that dumb and it doesn't get taken out by any editor at any point in the process.

The purpose of the 'bad and dumb' article was probably to generate discussion on the topic, which it has certainly done right here on this forum.

[rocketphish]

From lawyers to landlords, Ottawa entrepreneurs continue to rush into increasingly crowded cannabis retail market
With more than 100 cannabis shops either operating or poised to open, business owners are looking further outside Ottawa's core to 'underserved' markets

By: Caroline Phillips, OBJ
Published: May 6, 2021 1:14pm EDT

Former Ottawa business lawyer Koby Smutylo was one of many entrepreneurs prepared for that auspicious day on Oct. 17, 2018, when it became legal to sell recreational marijuana in Canada.

Highly knowledgeable and experienced in the budding industry, he raised millions of dollars through investors. He began leasing downtown storefronts, hiring staff – only to have his plans for his cannabis startup, Ouid, stubbed out when the Ontario government changed the rules. It temporarily capped the number of stores that could open and introduced a controversial lottery system that saw licenses awarded to 25 outlets across the province.

Ouid wasn’t one of them. But it was far from the end of the rollercoaster ride for Smutylo, his partners and countless other retail entrepreneurs keen to jump into the emerging sector.

The province announced it was removing its temporary cap in late 2019, which meant Ouid was able to get its government-issued license last year and begin the process of launching its first cannabis dispensary that's expected to open in June.

They're poised to enter an increasingly crowded market, where cannabis dispensaries in some neighbourhoods are becoming as common as coffee shops.

As of late April, there were 642 authorized cannabis retail stores open in Ontario, according to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). That works out to more than four stores for every 100,000 people living in the province.

In Ottawa, there are more than 100 cannabis shops that are either open, in the process of opening or in the public notice stage.


https://agco.maps.arcgis.com/apps/we...26333f1de8d370

Ouid (pronounced "weed") is positioning itself as a "lifestyle" brand that specializes in herbal smoking blends that can be added to cannabis to lower the intensity of cannabis or be smoked on their own. It sees its target market as soccer moms and hockey dads.

“A lot of women enjoy cannabis but don’t necessarily want to get ‘couch lock,’” said Smutylo, referring to strains that make you so high you can’t get off the couch afterwards. “Maybe you want to feel more relaxed but still be functional.”

The company is less interested now in doing business in the downtown district; it’s catering to the suburbs. Its nearly 2,700-square-foot flagship store is opening at 34 Highbury Park Dr. in Barrhaven. The address is in a plaza managed and co-owned by commercial real estate and property management company Huntington Property Group. Huntington partner Derek Noble, who’s on the board of BGC Ottawa and co-chairs the largest single-day third-party fundraiser for CHEO, called Ski For Kids, is also one of the business partners of Ouid.

Huntington also happens to lease to Superette, one of the first cannabis stores to open in Ottawa, in Wellington Village. After seeing how well it was doing, Noble wanted into the lucrative market.

He was introduced to Smutylo, through mutual friend Jeff Parkes of Taggart Realty, and the rest is business history.

“It’s funny how, sometimes, the stars align,” said Smutylo. “Sometimes things do work out the way they should.”

Smutylo describes Ouid’s business approach as more cautious than in 2018, when it was pushing a lot of financial risk onto its investors with its goal of opening 11 stores right out of the gate.

“With the way we’re doing it now, it really is a more traditional way for growing a good, sustainable business.”

The plan is to open two more Ouid stores by the end of the year; one in Kanata and another in Stittsville.

“We’re going to see how they go and scale accordingly,” said Smutylo, who said they’ve identified a total of five possible locations.

Since February, the AGCO, which regulates the cannabis industry, has been increasing the pace of cannabis store authorizations from 20 to 30 each week. Smutylo’s not complaining.

“Are there too many coffee shops or yoga studios or nail salons? I mean, it’s a free market. How do you define 'too many?'” he questioned. “Is it that they’re not viable businesses or is it that they’re causing a social problem?

“Cannabis has grown increasingly popular. People use it for various reasons, to sleep, for illness, to entertain, for relaxation. What’s great is that people who’ve been using it for decades and have faced criminal consequences now at least have an open and safe way of using it.”

If all of the pending stores in Ottawa do launch as planned, there will be twice as many cannabis retail stores in Ottawa as there are LCBO and The Beer Store outlets combined, noted leading cannabis lawyer Trina Fraser, a partner at Brazeau Seller Law.

The stores’ presence in the downtown area hasn’t reached saturation point yet, she believes, “but we’re getting there.”

“Right now, location selection becomes very critical. It’s about trying to find those little pockets and areas that are still underserved,” she says.

Downtown retailers do have an advantage of attracting customers from Gatineau, where restrictions on products are greater and the legal age to buy cannabis products is 21, compared to 19 in Ontario, she pointed out.

Fraser thinks the cannabis market will keep growing and evolving in Ottawa as societal attitudes and stigma toward cannabis continue to relax.

“It really has been about trying to make the whole process of purchasing cannabis accessible, normalized and comfortable. Not surreptitious. People’s experiences prior to 2018 were about going into illegal dispensaries that popped up and shut down, popped up and shut down.

“Now, the market is starting to mature,” said Fraser, who says companies are finding ways to distinguish themselves from their competition.

Superette is in the process of opening its third location in Toronto and its second location in Ottawa, in upscale Glebe near the corner of Bank Street and Fifth Avenue. The cannabis industry is just getting started, believes company co-founder and CEO Mimi Lam.

“We are still in the very early days,” said Lam, who’s “not super worried” about the presence of three other cannabis retail stores in the Glebe.

If there are too many cannabis shops in certain neighbourhoods, she said, the market will correct itself.

“It will grow up. It will normalize. It will shake out. There will be companies that ultimately don’t succeed and fail. There will be stores that won’t open. There will be companies and stores that open everywhere.

“That’s kind of normal, to be honest.”

Lam believes the public is really noticing the rise of cannabis dispensaries in Ottawa because the storefronts have such a conspicuous presence compared to, say, new developments in the tech industry.

“You recognize that growth but it’s not as in your face, like store after store after store. You turn around and there’s another cannabis store,” she says.

As for the Glebe, the businesswoman said her main focus is to become a good business neighbour and to make a positive impact. As a former resident of the Glebe – she used to live in an apartment above Wild Oat Bakery – she has a fondness for the neighbourhood.

“I do believe Superette will continue to stand out, even with so many different stores, because we have a team that is extremely knowledgeable and ready and willing to help any customer that walks through the door.”

There’s still the awkward situation, however, of private retailers having to buy their cannabis from the government-run Ontario Cannabis Store, the only legal online retailer of recreational cannabis in Ontario. Meanwhile, consumers have the choice of buying from private retailers or the OCS. As well, retailers have to operate under rigid restrictions, including limits on how they can advertise their products and services.

“Is the industry perfect? I wouldn’t say so,” says Lam, who believes private retailers are the best option for consumers. “There’s a tangible interface that you have with a budtender who can support you with your buying decisions. Ultimately, the customers need to feel empowered in their decisions, especially with a product like cannabis. You don’t get that (experience) online.”

— caroline@obj.ca

https://www.obj.ca/article/local/law...owded-cannabis

[rocketphish]

These stores are popping up like weeds!

Sorry, somebody had to say it

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

These stores are popping up like weeds!

Sorry, somebody had to say it

They are popping up everywhere alright, yet I don't see instant ghettos being formed around them. Imagine that... It's almost like the pot buying citizens of Ontario are generally responsible mature adults.

[rocketphish]

'Staying true to our customers': Giant Tiger still a ferocious retail force at age 60

By: David Sali, OBJ
Published: May 11, 2021 4:22pm EDT



It might not be the youngest cat in the retail jungle, but Ottawa’s iconic discount department store chain still has plenty of roar as it enters its seventh decade in business.

Sixty years ago this month ​– on May 3, 1961 ​– a former travelling salesman named Gordon Reid opened the first Giant Tiger store on George Street in the ByWard Market.

The location remains in operation to this day, fitting for a company that’s never forgotten where it came from even as it has grown into a nationwide force with 259 stores, more than 10,000 employees and $2 billion in annual sales.

“It’s really a testament to staying true to our customers and staying connected with the communities in which we serve those customers,” Paul Wood, a longtime company executive who was promoted to president and CEO last fall, said recently when asked to explain how the chain has managed to keep thriving in an increasingly competitive retail landscape.

“Longevity comes from staying abreast of what the customer needs and providing them something in an environment they enjoy coming back to.”

Indeed, Giant Tiger’s bright yellow signage and familiar feline logo have become a ubiquitous feature of neighbourhoods across the country.

Catering to budget-minded customers, the chain has become famous for offering a wider selection of goods than dollar stores in smaller, more intimate layouts than the big-box chains.

“I think that they’re every bit as smart, sharp, sophisticated in their business strategy as Walmart,” said Ian Lee, an associate professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business who often cites the Ottawa-based chain to his students as an example of how to run a successful discount retail operation.

“Giant Tiger has never lost sight of their core market. I think that they have really been very astute in pursuing and executing on their business strategy.”

Other industry watchers agree, noting the company sits in a sweet spot between competitors.

“They have an interesting price point that is above Dollarama but below Walmart,” retail analyst Bruce Winder said.

The retailer has also managed to outlast many other Canadian discounters that have come and gone, such as Bargain Harold’s and BiWay.

“There used to be a few chains that offered that mid-discount price point, call it $10 and up, and Giant Tiger seems to have a monopoly in that area now,” Winder said.

One of the store’s appeals is its product mix ​– an assortment of groceries, housewares, apparel, beauty, outdoor gear and kids’ toys and games.

“It’s like a mini value department store,” said Lisa Hutcheson, managing partner at Toronto-based consulting firm J.C. Williams Group. “You can sort of get anything there.”

A big part of the reason for the retailer’s longevity, Lee explained, is its strategy of putting stores in small towns, main streets and suburban communities that aren’t well-served by other chains.

“Giant Tiger has been brilliant at going into markets where there’s not a lot of competition because the competition has ignored certain regional markets,” he said. “In neighbourhoods where there are a lot more modest incomes, there are opportunities there. I give them full credit for what they’re doing.”

Targeting those locations plays into the corporate brand, added Hutcheson.

“They’ve always been about community, about family and about saving Canadians money, and I don’t think they’ve ever really deviated from that,” she said.

The retailer has continued to expand during the pandemic, opening its first stores in Chicoutimi, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay last summer while adding a second location in North Bay.

Another batch of openings is slated for the next few months as Giant Tiger continues to move closer to its goal of operating stores from coast to coast.

“We’ve still got some good opportunities to continue to grow, but growing at a measured, selective pace where it makes sense for us and where we believe we can have success,” Wood said, noting the chain still does not have a footprint in British Columbia or Newfoundland and Labrador.

While historically the retailer has been a staple of Canada’s small-town retail strips, the veteran executive said that’s changing.

“In more recent years, we’ve continued to expand into some pretty typical markets,” Wood said. “We’re in the same shopping node as our key competitors. Walmart is within five kilometres of our stores in 90 per cent of our markets.”

As Giant Tiger grows, the new stores will be based on value and opportunity, which could include urban centres, he said.

“We haven’t put a presence yet in downtown Toronto, but we’re in Mississauga, we’re in Brampton, we’re in Etobicoke, we're in Scarborough,” he said. “It’s about finding the right space at the right price where we can access a good number of shoppers, and convenience is part of that.”

Out of the company's 259 stores, about 100 are corporate owned ​– a number the retailer hopes to whittle down.

“Ultimately, we'd like to have our stores locally owned and operated by a franchise owner,” Wood said. “But because of the natural churn of opening new stores and people retiring and selling stores back, we have an inventory of corporate stores that we’re in the process of building out to be franchised.”

Meanwhile, Giant Tiger recently reconfigured its supply chain and e-commerce network. In 2018, the retailer opened a new 56,000-square-metre distribution centre in Johnstown, just east of Brockville on the St. Lawrence River.

The company has focused on bolstering its online presence since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, Wood said.

“The pandemic has really accelerated that pace of change, and we also had to accelerate the road map we were following with respect to our development of e-commerce,” he explained. “We still have a ways to go there.”

Giant Tiger’s line of groceries and other essentials has allowed its brick-and-mortar stores to remain open during the pandemic. But with other items such as clothing off-limits in many jurisdictions, it’s sparked frustration among some customers, Wood conceded.

“That certainly creates a new challenge for our store owners and managers to deal with,” he said. “But the team has been very resilient.”

That could also describe the chain itself. Despite disruptive forces such as e-commerce and the rise of big-box stores, Giant Tiger has remained a nimble cat that’s navigated its way around every obstacle over the past six decades.

“The retail landscape in Canada right now is really competitive, with a bunch of very strong players,” Wood said. “We’re thankful to still have our niche and to be still growing and thriving as a business in that environment.

“Giant Tiger has really weathered, adapted and changed, and that's I believe by sticking true to our values, true to our customers.”

– With additional reporting from the Canadian Press

https://www.obj.ca/article/local/ret...l-force-age-60

[rocketphish]

The amazing journey of Prospero Books comes to an end

James Bagnall, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: May 26, 2021 • 43 minutes ago • 3 minute read

It’s not often that a single retail location can encapsulate the recent history of an industry, but such is the case of 128 Bank St.

For decades, Prospero The Book Company has been a fixture for downtown book lovers, a place to shop for high-quality tomes covering biography, political theory and computer science. The store gave every sign it was self-reliant.

Yet Prospero, which closed its doors this week, has not been independent for decades. Therein lies a strange tale of a book store that kept its cool for so many years while its industry was in tumult.

“Every time I visited Ottawa in recent years, I would walk by the store,” said Dan Mozersky, the Winnipeg native who founded Prospero in 1972. “I was always surprised it was still open.”

This view, he says, was not a reflection of the outlet’s management, which Mozersky considered excellent. “They did good business and it was a great location,” he noted. “But the book business has a lot of macro problems.” This in reference to hyper competition from the likes of heavyweight retailers such as Amazon and Walmart.

In response to a query from this newspaper, Indigo noted: “As part of our normal business practices, we regularly review and optimize our real estate portfolio. We consider many factors when we make these decisions. After 37 wonderful years, Indigo’s only store operating under The Book Company banner is now closed to the public.”

Indigo added that it was shifting its Book Company employees to other locations in the city.

Three years into retirement at age 75, Mozersky recalls building the Prospero chain of four stores: three in Ottawa and one in Montreal.

He sold the group in 1989 to Coles, the chain founded in 1940 by brothers Carl and Jack Cole. Soon after, the industry’s game of musical chairs accelerated. Coles merged in 1995 with SmithBooks (formerly W.H. Smith) to form Chapters Inc., which swiftly became Canada’s largest book retailer.

A blockbuster merger followed in 2001, when upstart Indigo joined forces with Chapters and sold books under the Indigo banner.

Throughout, visitors to Prospero’s location on 128 Bank St. would have been unaware of any of these changes in ownership

“They never identified it as an Indigo store,” Mozersky said. “They deliberately keep it looking like it was an independent store.”

That was smart because it gave the outlet the cachet of independence along with the backing of a large chain.

But even that formula had its limits.

Indigo — which operates nearly 90 superstores and more than 100 smaller outlets under Indigospirit and other banners — suffered escalating financial losses in 2019 and 2020. (The company’s fiscal year ends in March.) Indigo closed seven of its smaller stores last year and eight the year before that, basically pruning its less profitable operations and presaging this week’s developments at Prospero.

The pandemic brought its own twists. Net losses for the nine months ended December climbed to $18 million after company revenues slipped nearly 10 per cent. However, the components of that sales decline were all over the map.

Revenues booked by the superstores fell 35 per cent to $352 million, while Indigo’s smaller stores saw revenues tumble 43 per cent to $57 million. However, online sales more than doubled to $279 million. The upshot: more pressure on bricks and mortar operations.

Longer-term, the superstores in the Indigo chain have been helped disproportionately by the company’s shift towards selling home and fashion accessories and other non-book merchandise. Indeed, revenues from non-print products topped 40 per cent of the firm’s total during the first nine months of fiscal 2001. (Indigo will report full-year results next week.)

From his vantage point in Toronto, Mozersky can view developments with deep perspective. He recalls that Indigo founder Heather Reisman hired him in 1996 as one of that company’s founding executives. He left in 2000 to pursue a number of other book publishing ventures, but he found it “somewhat ironic” that Indigo wound up closing his flagship Prospero outlet.

Nevertheless, he acknowledged it was a pretty good run.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...omes-to-an-end

[J.OT13]

My partner and I use to meet on the corner of Bank and Slater everyday before leaving for home, so I'm quite familiar with the book store. There was no attempt to hide the fact that it was part of the Indigo chain, but the Prospero sign was prominently displayed.

I did buy a few books there over the years. I try as much as possible to avoid the Amazon's and Walmart's of the world and only buy local or at least from a more reputable company with a retail store front (Indigo/Chapters, Costco). It will be sad to see it gone when we return to the office.

[phil235]

This is actually a pretty big deal. That store was really well-frequented by downtown workers, and occupies a pretty key intersection. Between this, and Moores (which has to be on life support in the current situation), those are two of the last significant retail presences on downtown Bank, and two major corners with vacancies.

[rocketphish]

After almost six decades, McArthur Lanes closes for good

Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Jun 10, 2021 • 27 minutes ago • 4 minute read



Ottawa has lost a long-time and beloved institution with the announcement that, after almost six decades in business, the property on which McArthur Lanes is located has been sold.

The news was posted on the bowling alley’s Facebook page on Wednesday, noting that, “with the sale of the property, McArthur Lanes has ceased all activities. It has been a privilege to serve you all and hope that like us, you will cherish memories spanning several decades and several generations of bowling at McArthur.”

Adjacent Louis Pizza, meanwhile, will not be affected. It owns its building and will remain open.

The 32-lane bowling alley officially opened on Sept. 21, 1962, in a ceremony that featured bowling pros Joe D’Orazio and Maurice Boyer and recently retired Montreal Canadiens star Maurice “Rocket” Richard, whose numerous titles after hanging up his skates included that of vice-president of National Bowling Centres, Ltd., McArthur’s initial owner.

(From 1968 until its announced sale this week, McArthur was owned by Montreal-based Laurentian Lanes, which was founded by former Habs’ general manager and Montreal Forum president Irving Grundman.)

The facility boasted such amenities as a restaurant, pro-shop, wall-to-wall carpeting, air conditioning, “lavish” rest rooms and a nursery. Over the years, its split of five- and 10-pin lanes flipped: from 24 five-pin and eight 10-pin alleys to the opposite. The bowling centre also featured prominently in newspaper bowling columns, including the Ottawa Journal’s Along the Lanes, penned by Stan King. In the 1970s, bowling matches at McArthur were televised on local cablevision stations.

On Thursday, a steady stream of bowlers trickled in and out of the McArthur Avenue property, emptying their lockers of equipment.

David Rapoport, who played twice a week at McArthur, where he bowled 10-pin for close to 40 years after moving to Ottawa from Montreal, gathered up his shoes and a pair of bowling balls.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “It looks like my bowling days are over for now. I’m hoping somebody will take the initiative to open somewhere else.”

Rapoport says the closure has left Ottawa without a 10-pin facility, and he’s not interested in five-pin bowling. “That’s like mini-putt to golf,” he said. “I grew up as a kid as a 10-pin bowler.”

“Bowling,” he added, “is a fall-to-spring thing for most of us, and, for those of us who stick around for the winter, it makes it a lot easier to get through. It gives us something to look forward to.

“And now my wife’s wondering what she’s going to do with me in the wintertime because she’ll have me on her hands even more often.”

For 10-pin bowlers, the closest bowling centres in the area now are Quille-O-Drome/Galaxie Bowling in Aylmer, where eight of 24 lanes are dedicated to 10-pin, and Anik Bowling Hall in Hull, where a dozen lanes feature 10-pin.

Over the years, McArthur has been witness to countless triumphs and defeats both small and large. On his 50th birthday on Oct. 4, 1967, for example, Frank Cedar bowled an almost-perfect five-pin game, rolling 11 consecutive strikes before his final ball, the 12th, left a single corner pin standing, giving him a final score of 448.

According to his son, Frank Jr., the entire room fell silent after Cedar’s fifth or sixth strike as bowlers on the other 31 lanes stopped playing to watch. Cedar missed out on the $450 prize that McArthur offered to anyone bowling a perfect game (about $3,500 today) as well as an unspecified sum from Brunswick Canada, but he was given a diamond ring and other consolation prizes.

“It was certainly a highlight of his life,” Frank Jr. said Thursday.

The bowling alley has also been immortalized in film, serving as a location for the 2019 Hallmark picture Christmas Jars.

Natalia Raymond said McArthur Lanes was the first public place she remembered being in as a youngster. Her father, Roger Sarazin, was manager of the lanes and owned the pro shop. Shortly after his death in 2009, the Tuesday night men’s league was renamed in his honour.

“Bowling was his life,” Raymond recalled. “He loved everything about it. He bowled 13 perfect games, many of them at McArthur Lanes.”

In the 1990s, Sarazin, a southpaw, was among the city’s top 10 bowlers, an especially remarkable feat, Raymond said, as he had polio as a child and, with one leg considerably shorter than the other, bowled while wearing a brace. He also mentored numerous bowlers in Ottawa.

Raymond said she hoped to acquire the wall plaques from McArthur bearing her dad’s name.

Nearby resident Kristina Daye bowled in a league at McArthur on Wednesday nights a few years ago. “It was a great place to come to, and I’m sad it’s not going to be here anymore. It was a great way for people to get exercise and also just to get out and socialize and just have a wholesome friendly night out.

“It harks back to a different time, when things were a little less hurried, a little less frenetic, when people were more interested in seeing each other face-to-face than over a computer screen.”

Although not a bowler himself, Mike Belajac, a cashier at McArthur for about three years in the late 1990s, similarly noted that not only would Ottawa’s 10-pin bowlers lose their only Ottawa venue, but they also risked losing an important social aspect of their lives.

“It’s a sad loss for the competitive bowlers, but it was also always very, very social. It was a gathering place, not unlike a curling club. You’d have a couple pints, bowl your three games and hang out with all your best pals. It was a hangout.”

While the future of the property hasn’t been officially declared, a number of people said they’d heard that the nearby Green Fresh Supermarket would be moving there. When contacted by phone Thursday, a person at the grocery store said her employer had indicated it wasn’t time to announce anything yet.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...loses-for-good

[rocketphish]

"While the future of the property hasn’t been officially declared, a number of people said they’d heard that the nearby Green Fresh Supermarket would be moving there. When contacted by phone Thursday, a person at the grocery store said her employer had indicated it wasn’t time to announce anything yet."

Green Fresh Supermarket will indeed need somewhere to go once the redevelopment of the Eastview Plaza starts.

[J.OT13]

For a few months as a kid, my entire family (4 generations) went bowling once a month or so. I think it was called the Aladdin at the time, though I may be mixing it up with another bowling alley I've been to.

Very sad to see it go. I regret never going in my adult life. Every time we stop for Louis' Pizza, I tell my partner we should go bowling there soon. Never actually did it.

But anyway, I find some solace in the fact Green Fresh Supermarket will be taking over the space. It will at least remain in the hands of a local business. Maybe they'll move back once the Eastview Plaza redevelopment is complete, at which point no doubt it will be torn down for more residential.

[rocketphish]

Facing prolonged post-pandemic recovery, Sala San Marco converting portion of Little Italy event space into food store
'It’s going to be a long time before people want to get into a room with 300 other people'

By: Caroline Phillips, OBJ
Published: Jun 11, 2021 10:41am EDT

Ottawa banquet hall Sala San Marco is bidding goodbye to big fat weddings as it transforms a significant chunk of its space into an authentic Italian food market that's scheduled to open by the end of the summer in Little Italy.

Mercato Zacconi will specialize in prepared foods and meal kits. Owner Tony Zacconi says it will also sell everything one might expect from a high-end food emporium, including a wide variety of cheeses, butcher and deli meats, seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, bakery products and desserts, wood-fired pizza and focaccia, homemade pasta and a vast assortment of wine, along with beer. As well, it will carry flowers and gift baskets.

Sala San Marco’s 8,000-square-foot banquet room is currently under renovations. The area has been partitioned, with the larger space near the front to be turned into a 5,000-square-foot retail store that carries Italian foods and products. The existing chandeliers and crown moulding will remain intact.

“It’s going to be the nicest grocery store in town,” said Zacconi during an interview at Sala San Marco Event & Conference Centre, located at 215 Preston St.

The new signage has yet to be installed but the front entrance continues to be flanked by the building’s signature pair of Venetian winged lion statues.

It's no secret Little Italy has a supermarket shortage. Plans are in the works to include a full-sized grocery store in Arnon Corp.’s proposed mixed-use high-rise development in Little Italy, closer to Dow’s Lake. No word yet on which food retailer it might be.

Zacconi says he isn’t worried about potential competition. He believes his mercato – which means market in Italian – will offer a high quality of food and service that’s just not available in Ottawa right now. He also wants the grocery shopping experience to go from mundane to marvelous.

“I’m really, really excited about the new store,” said Zacconi, whose inspiration was Eataly, a wildly popular global chain of large Italian food halls. For those unfamiliar with that brand, think Italian Farm Boy. “I think Ottawa is missing something like this.”

Customers will be allowed to sip vino while they shop. There will even be cup holders on the shopping carts. The store plans to hold cooking classes and product demonstrations. Meracto Zacconi will carry its own private label specialty products. It will also be importing foods from Italy and getting its hands on hard-to-find brands and products.

The floor plans include a designated seating area for shoppers who want to grab a casual bite to eat. There will also be a separate café and outdoor patio area.

Zacconi, who’s aiming for an opening date of Aug. 17, says he’s hiring 61 new people. Veteran retail manager Tim Picotte, formerly with Walmart and Canadian Tire, has joined on as his general manager.

The store will also be stocked with some household staples and will offer some lower price options, recognizing that Little Italy is a mixed-income neighbourhood.

Zacconi, who is also vice-chair of the Preston Street BIA, said he wants to see more retail success stories in Little Italy. He looks to Preston Hardware as a shining example.

Sala San Marco was started 34 years ago by Zacconi’s parents, Joe and Gina. It was bought by Zacconi in 2009, although his parents and his uncle continue to own the roughly 20,000-square-foot building. Zacconi started working at the family business when he was 11, as a busboy.

Sala San Marco will remain an event and meeting space. It can accommodate 100 to 200 people in its reduced-sized main banquet room. Prior to the pandemic, Zacconi launched the more modern Amadeo room, named after his son, for groups of 50 to 60 people.

“I had noticed that the size of weddings and parties had been going down,” said Zacconi. “The days of 400, 500 people are gone.”

In many ways, the family business is coming full circle. Zacconi’s grandparents used to run Zacconi Confectionary, at 32 Bell St., just a little east of Sala San Marco.

Zacconi says it’s the pandemic that’s led him back into the grocery business. Let’s face it, the special events industry has seen less action these days than a wallflower at the prom.

Sala San Marco tried waiting it out in the early days of COVID but, by September, Zacconi decided to hire Shore Tanner & Associates to do a study through its market research division, to determine whether his idea for a gourmet Italian food store in the neighbourhood would be profitable. The study determined that it would be.

The way the businessman sees it, he could watch Sala San Marco lose money, for who knows how long, or he could make a “huge” investment to ensure the business stays afloat. He thinks that the two businesses will complement one another.

He also believes it will take years for the special events industry to return to normal, if it even does.

“I think it’s going to be a long time before people want to get into a room with 300 other people,” he said, adding that the video conferencing platforms that became the norm during COVID could permanently reduce the need for certain in-person events.

As restaurants prepare to welcome customers back to their outdoor patios, starting today, the banquet halls will remain “last on the list” of businesses to reopen, he said. “Restaurants will bounce right back. We won’t.

“It think it’s a good direction for our family to go,” he said of Mercato Zacconi. “You’re always going to need a grocery store. People got to eat.”

https://www.obj.ca/article/local/ret...end-food-store

[J.OT13]

This is great news. The Arnon project won't be built for another few years, so this meets the need for food services immediately. Even with the Arnon project, having them split between north and south of the Queensway provides a good distribution.

So far, it seems Arnon will have a Farm Boy based on the hints they dropped, so unfortunately neither will be full service as far as I can tell.