Quote:
Originally Posted by freeweed
Appreciate and agree with your other comments, btw.
The format/price issue isn't quite so simple, sure - but when everyone wants to shop at "the cheapest" store, it inevitably results in fewer stores. Which makes it damned near impossible to have enough to cover an area within decent walking distance. I can't see Superstore putting 6 s,all locations in a neighbourhood like Royal Oak, when 1 big one makes them far more money alone.
A HUGE problem is that we still zone based on clumping all commercial together in one spot, granted - but I've watched time and again as smaller shops close up, because they just can't compete on price with the larger big boxes. Even when zoning allows otherwise, it's still more cost-effective to have everything in one big warehouse.
And no, I don't have a magic answer, but I do my best to try to support the little guy (little being relative these days) when I can.
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I do all my main grocery shopping at my local store - Family Foods. It's like a small Safeway (same wholesaler) with better meat and extra goodies. That's 70% of my groceries. 15% is T&T, which is big box Asian grocery, but the selection can't be beat. 10%, Co-op, mostly booze
. The rest is split into opportunity/unique items a store might have. Stupidstore still gets a visit once in a while for their dried vegetable mix ion the bulk section. Stupidstore *used* to get 70% of my shopping, with the rest going mostly to Slaveway. But I was poor in those days - I'd put up with the quality and "out of stock" issues of Stupidstore. Now, it ain't worth the frustration, time, and gas to save %10 over what I spend now.
On a general merchandiser level, I have re-discovered The Bay downtown. I used to shop Woolco, Zellers, and (shudder) K-Mart, with only occasional forays into higher end stores. Again, I was poor, and the cloths I was buying were mostly slob-ware anyways. I've been hitting Sears more these days - but it has been downhill lately too, and Walmart just don't cut it for anything outside of basic cloths.
OTOH, the Bay downtown is perfect for me: Today I bought 2 pairs of pants, a set of p-jays, pack-o-socks, a nice shirt, and some gloves. I was out of the store in half an hour. Impossible to do in any of the above stores, or any mall for that matter, especially for the quality of product purchased - nice middle of the road stuff - good for day to day office wear. Lots of selection to pick from, at prices ranging from OMG, expensive (to me) to OMG, that's actually cheap (for what you get). Oh, and while I didn't need help this time, previous visits have yielded friendly staff that is is *gasp* willing to help the customer. This store is really a remaining example of what big retail used to be, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until I was working downtown and started going there after work to buy a few things. If you're in the core, it's worth visiting - this is not your 'burb Bay, picture something with 3X the selection and better service and you'll be thinking along the right lines. Oh, but you'll likely spend %10 more overall for the privilege of civilized shopping.
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