The Metro Vancouver Retail Thread

[spm2013]

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[Porfiry]

Originally Posted by spm2013

Some other Tesla forum said March 2014 and it will be in Squamish.

There is an official map.
http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger

It looks like the plan to have superchargers located in Squamish, Hope, Kamloops, Revelstoke, and Lake Louise in 2014.

[officedweller]

From BIV:

Overwaitea buys 15 grocery stores from Sobeys

By Glen Korstrom
Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:30pm PST

Overwaitea Food Group (OFG) announced February 13 that it is buying 15 stores from Sobeys Inc., which was forced to sell the locations as part of an agreement with Canada’s Competition Bureau.

The stores are currently branded either Sobeys, Safeway or Thrifty Foods.

...

Jim Pattison Group-owned OFG will convert 14 of its new 15 stores into Save-On-Foods branded grocers. Its other new store will become a Coopers Foods.

...

The stores that OFG bought include three stores currently branded Safeway in Victoria.

Other Safeway-branded stores that OFG bought are in:

•New Westminster;

•Tsawwassen;

•Sidney;

•Duncan;

•Ladysmith;

•Fort McMurray; and

•Port Alberni

New OFG-owned stores that are currently branded Thrifty Foods are in
New Westminster and Nanaimo.

OFG’s two new Sobeys-branded stores are both in Alberta: Canmore and Cochrane.

http://www.biv.com/article/20140213/...es-from-sobeys

[Tetsuo]

Funny how Sobeys was required to sell a store in New West due to monopoly fears after owning a total 4 stores, yet with this purchase overwaitea will own four stores in New West in addition to stores in nearby East Burnaby (HighGate & Marine Market Crossing) whereas Sobeys only have nearby stores further away in Lougheed and Austin. Although I'm sure they'll close one of the uptown/Royal City store. I would bet on the Royal City Safeway (Older and WalMart will eat into it)


In other news several PriceSmart Foods have been rebranded as Save On (Cloverdale, Burnaby, Capilano)

[SpongeG]

which safeway did they buy in new westminster? the mcbride one or the plaza 88 one?

save-on or price smart is opening in the old IGA close to plaza 88 isn't it? and so the sapperton thriftys will become save on?

[spm2013]

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[officedweller]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

which safeway did they buy in new westminster? the mcbride one or the plaza 88 one?

save-on or price smart is opening in the old IGA close to plaza 88 isn't it? and so the sapperton thriftys will become save on?

Retail Insider says:

•Safeway* 610 - 6th Street, New Westminster, BC

(this store was not required by the Competition Bureau to be sold)

and yes, the Sapperton Thrifty's will become SOF.

http://www.retail-insider.com/2014/0...n-western.html

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

Funny how Sobeys was required to sell a store in New West due to monopoly fears after owning a total 4 stores, yet with this purchase overwaitea will own four stores in New West in addition to stores in nearby East Burnaby (HighGate & Marine Market Crossing) whereas Sobeys only have nearby stores further away in Lougheed and Austin. Although I'm sure they'll close one of the uptown/Royal City store. I would bet on the Royal City Safeway (Older and WalMart will eat into it)


In other news several PriceSmart Foods have been rebranded as Save On (Cloverdale, Burnaby, Capilano)

Retail Insider says that Sobery's says that SOF's purchase has received approval from the Competition Bureau. Weird.

Retail Insider has a story on the 11 (!) PriceSmarts that have been rebranded as Save-on-Foods:

http://www.retail-insider.com/2014/0...ve-become.html

Basically, only the "ethnic" PriceSmarts are remaining as PriceSmarts.
I thought that the difference between PriceSmart and SOF was that PriceSmart had a "cheaper" union contract - I wonder how that plays out with the rebranding?

For North Van - I could see either Pemberton or Capilano closing down soon.

[spm2013]

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[officedweller]

Save-on more:

http://www.newwestnewsleader.com/news/245450401.html

New West will also have 2 close-by SOF stores and 4 in total.

However, according to Overwaitea president Darrell Jones, Sobeys offered a Western Canadian package of 15, including seven they weren't ordered to sell, and weren't willing to discuss individual sales. It was take all 15 or none, said Jones.

One of those was the Safeway in Royal City Centre, which is about a block away from the Save-On Foods outlet in Westminster Centre. Jones said the company will wait until it takes the Royal City Centre store over sometime in the next six weeks before making any decisions on the future of either Uptown outlet.

...

Sobeys spokesman Andrew Walker said the package was developed to make it attractive to the purchaser and maximize the value for both the buyer and seller, but he wouldn't get specific on why the Royal City Centre store was included.

...

On top of the acquisitions, Jones said Save-On will open a store in the Columbia Square mall formerly occupied by IGA Marketplace. Jones likes that location because all parking is above ground.

WRT the sale of the Royal City Centre location.... because Wal-Mart will be opening in the mall??

Info on Wal-Mart's Urban 90 (90,000 sq ft) format (which includes groceries):

http://www.instoretrends.com/index.p...center-toront/

[SpongeG]

oh right i forget the safeway at that mall place...

price-smart foods in fort st john has been rebranded as save-on-foods

[connect2source]

Aritzia now open in the Village extension at Park Royal ( South ) means more empty spaces on the north side now. Trattoria, opening soon, just to the right.

Excuse the poor quality photo.

Photo By : connect2source

[spm2013]

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[officedweller]

Drove past the former PriceSmart at Capilano (across from Capilano Mall - and the signs have already been changed to Save-on-Foods.

[Tetsuo]

^They spent all Friday getting them up rather quickly. I wonder how the insides is going to look.

[spm2013]

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[Pinion]

I'm always shocked at how many grocery stores such a small area can support. That'll make five Save Ons within 10km of me now, nevermind the other stores.

I wonder if this means they have development plans for the one a few blocks to the west?

[Tetsuo]

Overweitea and even sometimes HY Louie's IGA are talked about as takeover targets, first time hearing of London Drugs or even Best Buy Canada

Large B.C. retailers are potential U.S. acquisition targets
Wal-Mart and Target could seek leases or buy local companies outright, say analysts

Retail analysts believe large B.C.-based retailers are acquisition targets for large U.S. retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, which seek to expand by opening urban locations.

The 78-store London Drugs chain and Best Buy Canada, which operates 149 Future Shop and 79 Best Buy stores, are two of the Metro Vancouver-based retailers rumoured to be acquisition targets.

...

But London Drugs CEO Wynne Powell rejected the idea that his company would sell to a larger player. "We're part of a 112-year-old family company that does not wish to sell," said Powell. "We're going to remain an independent, family-owned Canadian company."

Powell said London Drugs is doing well on its own thanks in large part to a doubling of online sales after a substantial investment in e-commerce capacity.

Burnaby-based Best Buy Canada could be a more likely retailer to either be swallowed whole or to sell a bundle of its leases.

Its U.S. parent, Best Buy Co. (NYSE:BBY), is struggling with shrinking margins, profit and revenue while the Canadian subsidiary, which operates Future Shop and Best Buy stores, announced January 30 that it's laying off 950 employees.

"Best Buy is struggling a lot more than London Drugs is, so it might be prudent as a real estate play for Wal-Mart to buy its leases and enter downtown Vancouver that way," said Craig Patterson, who operates the Retail Insider retail analysis website.

"If Wal-Mart were to buy London Drugs, they would probably want to keep the London Drugs name and introduce their own private label products, which I would argue are stronger than what London Drugs currently has."

http://www.biv.com/article/20140217/...sition-targets

A bit off topic, Retail Insider has a new layout. Dislike the fact that they are shoving Fashion Anthropologist down our throats, Angela Krewenchuk's articles are ridden with narcissism. Do a ctrl+f:"I" and count how many times it pops up

[Retail-Insider]

A bit off topic, Retail Insider has a new layout. Dislike the fact that they are shoving Fashion Anthropologist down our throats, Angela Krewenchuk's articles are ridden with narcissism. Do a ctrl+f:"I" and count how many times it pops up

We'll do our best to separate the two websites - we know that readers of the two sites will often be different. Please feel free to bookmark 'Retail Insider' and not read the other site if you so choose. We don't plan on changing Retail Insider's content on its main page. Thank you for the feedback.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Pinion

I'm always shocked at how many grocery stores such a small area can support. That'll make five Save Ons within 10km of me now, nevermind the other stores.

I wonder if this means they have development plans for the one a few blocks to the west?

I think Pemberton Plaza is ripe for redevelopment (whoever the owner is).

[wrenegade]

Originally Posted by spm2013

I guess they'll start renos on the north side soon.. Heard the one about London Drugs moving to the south side and a grocery moving into the North mall?

My understanding is that Extra Foods will move into London Drugs' current space as well as take the old Bread Garden space and use it as a direct entrance from the parking lot.

London Drugs will then move immediately east, eliminating the Mall entry between Bread Garden and RBC and replacing a number of stores at the west end of the north mall. I imagine London Drugs would then get an outside entry (the current mall entry) as well as exposure in the mall.

Also, I believe there will be parking added to the roof of the current London Drugs building, and likely access down into what will be a new Extra Foods.