The Soul-Sucking Canada Thread

[MolsonExport]

People buying clothing at discount stores are the worst for holding up lines. It seems like every second object doesn't scan, or is missing a tag and/or product code. Giant Tiger, Walmart are prime examples.

[CivicBlues]

Yeah! fuck poor people and their penchant for shopping at discount big box stores. Can't they just go down to the nearest specialty boutique in some bourgeois yuppie neighborhood during off hours like the rest of us?

[MolsonExport]

[stevanford1]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

People buying clothing at discount stores are the worst for holding up lines. It seems like every second object doesn't scan, or is missing a tag and/or product code. Giant Tiger, Walmart are prime examples.

Even worse is Winners. When the PA isn't screaming CASHIER NUMBER 5 PLEASE some tag is beeping loudly.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

soul sucking is mostly about horrible banality, i.e., everything looks exactly the same and there is no sense of place. A visual metastasizing cancer on the landscape. Things are way out of balance. Take London for example. The city keeps permitting developers to build more and more retail (despite traditional bricks-and-mortar sales shrinking by 1% per year, year over year, for 15 years, due to online shopping, and that's before COVID)....what gets built is the same cookie-cutter smartcentres and the same discount hotels with the same architectural plans, so that every highway intersection and commercial road looks exactly the same while older malls and strip plazas are dying on the vine (due to the unhappy combination of never-ending retail buildup on the periphery despite declining retail sales). The city swells much larger than it has to, and half the people are driving 1/3 of their waking hours, with ever larger pickup trucks and vans to fill up their purchases on an ever more distant fringe of retail. This is not economically sustainable. It is terrible for the environment. It is extraordinarily ugly. And it means that 90% of London is really only accessible by vehicle. A city built for cars and prickup trucks, not for people.

Maybe most people don't care. I think it is a terrible state of affairs.

I certainly agree with you on many of the points {although why you think this is unique to London I will never understand} but what about the examples I used? How exactly do you make a automotive centre or gas station pedestrian friendly? How would you suggest they build them when their raison d'etre is to serve people with cars? Did you buy your car thru Amazon or did you go to a dealer like the other 99.9%? Would you rather have heavy industry in Old South or on the periphery of the city away from residential areas?

Some businesses shouldn't {or even can't} be pedestrian friendly and by your definition "soul sucking". Remember these businesses that cannot be pedestrian friendly have to be built somewhere and I would FAR rather have them in the outer suburbs than blighting our pre-war inner city or downtown. Edmonton tried that route with truly disastrous results.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

When there is one checkout lane, you are guaranteed to have an old bag in front of you that (A) has a lot of questions for the clerk, or (B) needs to price match a billion things, or (C) has a bunch of stuff that lacks price tags, or (D) disputes the price tags as being inconsistent with the shelf price signage.

Zellers was the worst for this. Slowest lines known to man. In the rare instance there was only one person ahead of you in the line and one of those things above didn't happen, then they'd sign up for a credit card and delay you by 10 minutes.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

Yeah! fuck poor people and their penchant for shopping at discount big box stores. Can't they just go down to the nearest specialty boutique in some bourgeois yuppie neighborhood during off hours like the rest of us?

Hilarious that you make such accusations when the complaints are firsthand accounts. Clearly we have all shopped at these shitty places so spare us your pearl clutching ad hominem and strawman attacks.

[stevanford1]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Hilarious that you make such accusations when the complaints are firsthand accounts. Clearly we have all shopped at these shitty places so spare us your pearl clutching ad hominem and strawman attacks.

Agreed, are we not allowed to criticize a place because there is a chance that poor people shop there? Anyway, on the soul-sucking side, here are some images of Vaughan industrial parks .

[CivicBlues]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Hilarious that you make such accusations when the complaints are firsthand accounts. Clearly we have all shopped at these shitty places so spare us your pearl clutching ad hominem and strawman attacks.

I wasn't being facetious

[stevanford1]

The East York Town Centre is soul-sucking

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Yeah, I was wrong.

Dollarama is part of Rossy. Or at least was.

«Oui papa! L’entrepôt est rempli à craquer! Le plus grand choix de stores verticaux et vénitiens que nous fabriquons sur place dans n’importe quelle grandeur pendant que vous attendez!» hurlait Stephen Shiller en agitant sans cesse son bras droit.

«Aidez-nous à écraser la compétition et vous serez les gagnants», lui répond son père David avant que les deux enfants lui lancent le célèbre «Oui papa!».

[stevanford1]

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2375...7i13312!8i6656

Fine dining no?
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dr...!4d-80.5523694

[stevanford1]

Are Drumbo and Drummondville twin cities? Is Drumheller another one? Triplets?

[ssiguy]

MolsonExport...........I asked you several questions in my last post could you answer them as to how exactly you would make some businesses "non- soul-sucking"?

[MolsonExport]

soul sucking sept iles: https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.21090...7i13312!8i6656

[stevanford1]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

soul sucking sept iles: https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.21090...7i13312!8i6656

My god that place is bad.

Inspiring complex:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.20946...7i13312!8i6656

Sept Isles church and autoshop:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.20843...7i13312!8i6656

Shits Carelton:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.20497...7i13312!8i6656

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

MolsonExport...........I asked you several questions in my last post could you answer them as to how exactly you would make some businesses "non- soul-sucking"?

1) try not to have every building the exact same design (i know it is more efficient, etc., but for every chain outlet to look the exact same is soul sucking)
2) if at all possible, try to work the building into the fabric of the city. No fake ranch-style or stucco yukko in Ontario and Quebec, please.
3) Human scale. Gigantic parking lots along 8 lane boulevards, with buildings spread out over miles instead of meters....is not human scale.
4) Do the signs need to be so big and obnoxious? Take Shoppers Dog Fart and Canadian Tire. Their signs are so huge, and the logos, so ugly.
5) there are other colours in the rainbow than grey. In fact grey is not in the rainbow, so why does everything need to be cobalt grey, which when the weather sucks for 8 months of the year, exacerbates the soul suckingness.

Gas stations will always be quite utilitarian, but some are worse looking than others (I always found Ultramar to be insanely soul-sucking, given the same and that screaming eagle). Banks used to be housed in glorious edifices and now they are housed in banal suburban office park-style buildings (worsened when the CIBC logo is displayed). The race to the bottom is soul sucking.

My point being: there is always a way to make things fit better into their surroundings, even if it means a greater cost.

[stevanford1]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

1) try not to have every building the exact same design (i know it is more efficient, etc., but for every chain outlet to look the exact same is soul sucking)
2) if at all possible, try to work the building into the fabric of the city. No fake ranch-style or stucco yukko in Ontario and Quebec, please.
3) Human scale. Gigantic parking lots along 8 lane boulevards, with buildings spread out over miles instead of meters....is not human scale.
4) Do the signs need to be so big and obnoxious? Take Shoppers Dog Fart and Canadian Tire. Their signs are so huge, and the logos, so ugly.
5) there are other colours in the rainbow than grey. In fact grey is not in the rainbow, so why does everything need to be cobalt grey, which when the weather sucks for 8 months of the year, exacerbates the soul suckingness.

Gas stations will always be quite utilitarian, but some are worse looking than others (I always found Ultramar to be insanely soul-sucking, given the same and that screaming eagle). Banks used to be housed in glorious edifices and now they are housed in banal suburban office park-style buildings (worsened when the CIBC logo is displayed). The race to the bottom is soul sucking.

My point being: there is always a way to make things fit better into their surroundings, even if it means a greater cost.

America is worse in that respect. When you are in Illinois, you can see the signs for McDonald's in Colorado!

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by stevanford1

My god that place is bad.

Inspiring complex:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.20946...7i13312!8i6656

Sept Isles church and autoshop:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.20843...7i13312!8i6656

Shits Carelton:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.20497...7i13312!8i6656

that hotel is just wretched,

[Razor]

Speaking of chain stores,I was in Dollarama one time. I wanted to feel rich!..Actually, I only had like 3 items. I lucked out, and picked the line with only 2 ladies in front of me. Timing is everything! Anyways, it looked like she only had a few items in her cart herself, but unbeknown to me, this lady with only 4 items also had like 4 kids , so she basically secured her spot in line while her kids went out in all directions to bring back more items, dump them In her cart, and then all headed back to the aisles to grab more. These little goblins were still doing it while she was unloading at the cash. Sucked the soul right out of me!

re: Zellers.There was a nervous shifty guy in of me in line, who accidently dropped his wallet, and out on the floor fell maybe a half to a dozen green government looking cards.All the same type. I can't remember the colour exactly, but they were definitely either provincial or federal. Could of been Health cards..Anyways, he quickly scooped them up, paid for his stuff and left. This was roughly the time when Zellers closed down for good. To this day, I regret not offering to help picking them up to see, because we all pay for this shit when people forge ID's tor getting other family in the country, etc...Anyways OT, carry on..Back to more soul sucking!