Winnipeg Retail

[steveosnyder]

Originally Posted by bryanscott

Yes, walkable access to at least one grocery store is crucial. But I'm really not even sure why either of the existing stores/lots can't cut it on their own as a future grocery location (without combining the lots and creating a mega-lot). Why is the giant supermarket the only viable option? Really, how many varieties of toothpaste do people need to choose from? The Main Street Safeway is small (by today's standards), but it's big enough, and contains an amount of variety that most reasonable people need (ie, 50 toothpaste options as opposed to 200). The only rationale I can think of to combine the lots is to provide for a giant parking lot, to which I say no thanks—since we're all walking anyways.

The neighborhood would be better off with one great medium sized store (which after living there for several years I would suggest is all it needs) rather than a great-big shitty suburban megastore with a giant complementary parking lot. Better off fixing up one of the stores and filling the other lot with infill housing.

I think this area would be better off with a higher built:non-built ratio. Build one lot into medium/high density multi-family (it's on a major arterial street), and with the other, subdivide it into multiple smaller lots and get rid of the parking requirement and let it grow organically.

PS. I will miss your great shots of this old monster.

[headhorse]

Tiny Feast is now open in the Exchange (217 McDermot).


from tumblr.com

[steveosnyder]

Originally Posted by headhorse

Tiny Feast is now open in the Exchange (217 McDermot).


from tumblr.com

I just saw this today when I walked by at lunch... I'm going there at 4:30 to have a closer look.

[cllew]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

sobees has a cash and cary on arlington and duffern

Been in there, its mostly case lot sales for the small corner store or restaurant operations. They will do cash sales for the public as does the Loblaws cash and carry on Ellice.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by esquire

Is it really too small? My local Safeway is the one on South Osborne, and it's tiny... it has to be one of the smallest Safeways in the chain. Yet it manages to make a go of it, even with larger alternatives nearby.

Sorry for the lack of clarity, I was trying to say that perhaps the existing customer base is too small to generate the level of profit Safeway wants from the Main St location. Something to keep in mind is that Safeway is unionized so wagers can be well above average.

The other factor is that the Safeway store as it currently is on Main St does little to attract people from outside the immediate community to make purcahses there. In the media residents have said that if the store closes they will go over the McPhillips for their groceries rather than the much closer store at Main and Jefferson. This is the same type of attitude to people that currently drive past Main and Luxton daily. If both the existing Extra Foods and Safeway stores were torn down and replaced by a new store they might be able to expand their customer reach.

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by headhorse

Tiny Feast is now open in the Exchange (217 McDermot).


from tumblr.com

what are they?

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Sorry for the lack of clarity, I was trying to say that perhaps the existing customer base is too small to generate the level of profit Safeway wants from the Main St location. Something to keep in mind is that Safeway is unionized so wagers can be well above average.

The other factor is that the Safeway store as it currently is on Main St does little to attract people from outside the immediate community to make purcahses there. In the media residents have said that if the store closes they will go over the McPhillips for their groceries rather than the much closer store at Main and Jefferson. This is the same type of attitude to people that currently drive past Main and Luxton daily. If both the existing Extra Foods and Safeway stores were torn down and replaced by a new store they might be able to expand their customer reach.

To compete with WalMart, I would think that you need the room to carry the non-grocery items that you can make a decent margin on. A store that only sells low-margin groceries and nothing else is going to get crushed unless (maybe) it has a captive market. To some extent, the captive (elderly, car-less) market does allow stores like that Safeway to keep going but they are not likely to be locations that a potential buyer would want to spend its time acquiring and rebranding.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Andy6

To some extent, the captive (elderly, car-less) market does allow stores like that Safeway to keep going but they are not likely to be locations that a potential buyer would want to spend its time acquiring and rebranding.

In my readings on this topic I have seen comments that the ruling is that for the deal to be approved buyers must be found that will continue to operate those locations as grocery stores.

Another comment I heard from people more removed from the situation is that the south Winnipeg stores might present an opportunity for an Asian grocery store, such as Lucky or T&T, to establish a presence in Winnipeg.

[Riverman]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Another comment I heard from people more removed from the situation is that the south Winnipeg stores might present an opportunity for an Asian grocery store, such as Lucky or T&T, to establish a presence in Winnipeg.

When you think about it you wonder why the heck isn't there a large Asian grocery in the south end already.

[wags_in_the_peg]

Originally Posted by Riverman

When you think about it you wonder why the heck isn't there a large Asian grocery in the south end already.

there is on Pembina, actually a few. one in old office depot at Bishop (i think that is the building) and another further down near Sals

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Riverman

When you think about it you wonder why the heck isn't there a large Asian grocery in the south end already.

With the rapidly growing Chinese and Korean population in that area, it's just a matter of time.

The Vietnamese and Filipino population of the West End/Maples are already well served by a number of specialty grocers, so the South End is really a natural choice for another Lucky supermarket or a T&T store.

[CoryB]

When the intial Seasons of Tuxedo plans came out and a large grocery store was included I did some market anaylsis.

At the time, Whole Foods had not announced their Canadian expansion plans, Sobey's was not buying Safeway, and Loblaws was not buying Shopper's so things have definitely changed significantly. That said, the big three players all had existing locations in the area with the Loblaw's owned Superstore at Grant and Kennaston seeming relatively undersized compared to their newer stores. As Loblaw's also owns T&T it seemed like there was a strong possibility to relocate the Superstore brand to a newly built, large format store in Seasons of Tuxedo with the existing Grant and Kennaston location going through a conversion to T&T. It is also worth noting that T&T is the brand that was speculated to have announced then retracted a plan to open in Polo North or whatever the development on the old arena site is called.

[h0twired]

edit - brain fart

[Danny D Oh]

It is going to be very difficult to find a buyer for those Safeway's. They are all UFCW union shops. Not a huge impediment as many other grocery stores in Canada are union shops, but that particular union has been difficult to deal with, a big part of why Safeway sold in the first place, hard to make money with $20 an hour cashiers. Any independent owner probably would not want to take that on, and bigger chains can't really get involved.

[CoryB]

@Danny - While I am not an expert on labour law I think the UFCW contract is between Safeway Canada and the employees. Much like when Target took over the Zeller's locations they were will be no obligations for a new owner to retain the current staff or the other terms of the current collective agreement. The sale of Safeway to Sobey's is also contingent on finding buyers for these stores. Overall, Safeway has been retreating from markets making it possible that if this sale falls through they might otherwise wind down operations here.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by CoryB

@Danny - While I am not an expert on labour law I think the UFCW contract is between Safeway Canada and the employees. Much like when Target took over the Zeller's locations they were will be no obligations for a new owner to retain the current staff or the other terms of the current collective agreement. The sale of Safeway to Sobey's is also contingent on finding buyers for these stores. Overall, Safeway has been retreating from markets making it possible that if this sale falls through they might otherwise wind down operations here.

Zellers wasn't a union shop, no collective agreement to deal with. They gave notice to the employees, sold off all the merchandise and rebranded the stores.

UFCW workers in those Safeway's have a collective agreement that runs for about one more year, regardless of who owns the store or the brand. Any potential buyer would have to assume that agreement and the UFCW workers. If they want to shed jobs or attempt to break the union, they'll have to follow the proper channels.

Hard to see any Canadian or local buyer being interested. It will be someone out of nowhere or there will be no buyer for the Safeway's as they are, grocery stores.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by esquire

With the rapidly growing Chinese and Korean population in that area, it's just a matter of time.

The Vietnamese and Filipino population of the West End/Maples are already well served by a number of specialty grocers, so the South End is really a natural choice for another Lucky supermarket or a T&T store.

The large Vietnamese and Filipino population of NW Winnipeg is served by a grocer it's called Superstore!

[vid]

Large ethnic groups are served by locally run ethnic grocer stores for considerable lengths of time before the major chains open stores in their areas. Superstore has substantially increased the amount of T&T branded product it carries, anyway. They'll probably just expand the ethnic food selections of existing Superstores in South Winnipeg, like they did here.

[Jeff]

from the polo park Facebook page:

"Polo Park

7 hours ago.


Hey Facebook fans! Exciting news....HUGE store announcement tomorrow! Who do think it will be?"

[Riverman]

With the announcement that Sears is closing its Eaton Centre store, maybe something going in Sears?