Development Surge Along Vancouver’s Kingsway Could Spark Retail Renewal [Feature]

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July 12, 2023

Streetside at The Windsor, one of the newest mixed-use residential and commercial buildings on Kingsway. (Image: Evan Duggan)

For more than 110 years the current version of Kingsway has linked Vancouver to New Westminster through South Burnaby, serving as one of the longest and busiest thoroughfares in the Lower Mainland.

The route was used for centuries prior by local First Nations, before the road was officially paved and opened in its current form in 1913, according to this feature in the Burnaby Beacon.

Kingsway is too lengthy and varied to identify it as a single commercial and retail hub, but it has been evolving and developing in sections to varying degrees over the decades. Most of the development has been in the Metrotown area of Burnaby where a towering centre of new homes and national and international commerce has erupted in and around the Metropolis shopping centre in recent years.

Kingsway at the 2400 Court Motel (Image: Evan Duggan)

Today, Kingsway also has strong commercial sections in areas like Joyce-Collingwood on the eastern Vancouver flank of the artery, and in the Fraser Street node where celebrated restaurant Savio Volpe and others have emerged.

Developers are now turning their attention to another particular stretch of Kingsway, roughly located in the two-kilometre section between Victoria Drive and Rupert Street — and particularly in Norquay Village. With various mixed-use developments either recently completed, under construction or staged for future development, hundreds of new residents are starting to arrive in the neighbourhood, potentially triggering a retail and commercial renewal to provide all the goods and services the newcomers will need and want.

The Rupert-to-Victoria stretch continues to host various popular family restaurants serving up Vietnamese, Chinese and South Asian cuisines. Small accountants, lawyers, and car repair shops generally round out the commercial offerings in aging buildings.

It’s possible this section of Kingsway will someday rival the vibrant live-shop districts of Main Street, Victoria Drive or even Commercial Drive. Stakeholders and experts say it has the potential, but will ultimately redevelop in its own unique way reflecting its thoroughfare character, existing infrastructure, culture and history.

Developers keen on bringing more housing to the area

A development sign with a rendering of Chard Development’s Earl condo project on Earles St. near Kingsway. (Image: Evan Duggan)

Vancouver-based Chard Development is now pre-selling a two-building, 131-unit condo project that will include a mix of one- to three-bedroom condos and townhomes on Earles St. just off Kingsway.

The building, called Earl, is part of a transitional zone in the Norquay Village Neighbourhood Centre Plan, said Mackenzie Biggar, vice-president, development with Chard. The plan permits larger towers on Kingsway and then cascades down to four-level buildings, townhomes, triplexes and duplexes in the surrounding neighbourhood that has been mostly single-family homes until now, wedged between Kingsway and the 29th Ave. SkyTrain station.

The community plan says it aims to revitalize this part of “Kingsway to expand the variety of local shops and services, accommodate higher density housing, and support social interaction in a vibrant and interesting place that neighbourhood residents can walk to.”

Earl is one of several similar projects under way in the vicinity that will bring many more families to the area. There’s already a rich sense of community in the area, Biggar told Retail Insider in an interview. “It has excellent connectivity through the Kingsway artery and the SkyTrain. It is a well-established neighbourhood… that’s moving towards its next iteration.”

Higher density developments are giving people the chance to either stay in their neighborhood, return to their neighborhood, or join the neighborhood, Biggar said.

Area provides value and opportunity for retail tenants and buyers

The Windsor, on Kingsway (Image: Evan Duggan)

The Windsor is a completed mixed-use condo tower in the area with several strata retail units on the street level. The project emerged on Kingsway across from the 2400 Court, a familiar landmark and motel with a colourful past and uncertain future. (If you watch any amount of TV or movies, you’ve probably seen the motel).

Retail Insider recently visited the area noting “coming soon” signage at The Windsor for a dental clinic, medical office, beauty salon and noodle shop.

That building is just up the street from another mixed-use condo tower at Nanaimo Street that includes a Shoppers Drug Market, RBC branch, Subway and a private liquor store. A relatively new T&T Supermarket is located just west at Gladstone St. and Kingsway.

“Kingsway has always been, quite frankly, a bit of a highway,” said Martin Moriarty, senior vice-president investments, with Marcus & Millichap in Vancouver. “It doesn’t always lend itself perfectly towards a dynamic… streetscape.”

But it has plenty of potential, added Moriarty, whose firm has several retail listings along Kingsway. Demand for retail space to lease or buy is strong in this stretch of the route, and continues to provide value compared to more vibrant East Van commercial streets like Commercial Drive, Main Street and parts of Fraser Street, Moriarty said.

The neighbourhood would benefit from the arrival of coffee shops, additional grocers and gathering places including pubs or larger restaurants that complement the already-strong mix of popular family-run restaurants in the area.

“There is interest (in the area) from national (brands) but they tend to lend themselves towards uses like grocery, banks, drugstores, fitness, quick service food providers and other uses like pet stores, accountants and real estate offices,” Moriarty said.

The Norquay section of Kingsway is less likely to attract national fashion retailers who are more focused on shopping centres, and Vancouver’s suburban shopping nodes. “This will be hard to change in the short term and will require longer term planning and vision,” Moriarty said.

Moriarty raised Vancouver’s Olympic Village as an example of a pathway to commercial growth that could happen in the Norquay part of Kingsway — although he emphasized the infrastructure and locations are differently configured.

Olympic Village was initially dominated by residential development and although it brought thousands of new residents to the edge of False Creek, it took a while for the commercial amenities to catch up. Now, it’s a popular, regional destination that includes brew pubs, coffee shops, restaurants, a community centre and other shops and services and public outdoor spaces.

“It’s become a place for people to meet,” Moriarty said. Kingsway could get there, but will need to first experience an architectural renewal with more pedestrian-friendly access and gathering places, he added.

New mixed-use development could provide first step

Site clearing is under way at the site of Frame, a mixed-use development with 12 retail/commercial units by Peterson at Kingsway and Earles St. (Image: Evan Duggan)

A new project by Peterson could represent a helpful step.

The local developer is in the early stages of building Frame. It’s a two-tower condo project set atop street-level retail at the intersection of Kingsway and Earles, just up the street from Chard’s Development and across the street from Purdy’s Chocolates factory (earmarked to one day become a public plaza).

Frame will include 217 1, 2 and 3 bedroom concrete homes and 12 retail or commercial units that are now for sale.Four of them have sold so far, said Mark Boden, vice-president, asset management with Peterson.

Individual units available range from 567 sq.ft. to 2,100 sq. ft. The spaces were designed in a wide array of sizes to provide more of the diverse mix of retail Kingsway is known for, Boden said in written responses to Retail Insider. The company’s marketing brochure depicts a coffee shop and a grocer in the renderings, but the uses will ultimately be determined by the buyers. Construction at the site has just begun with completion expected in late 2025, Boden said.

“Those who know and love Kingsway have for years appreciated the eclectic mixture of culture, cuisine, and community reflected in the vibrant commercial culture of the corridor,” Boden said. “Frame is at the centre of the City of Vancouver’s Norquay Village Neighbourhood Centre Plan, bringing not only new strata retail space but also a significant number of new residents to the neighbourhood.”

“Once we started talking more about Kingsway in the office, it emerged that everyone here has their favourite secret restaurant or shop,” Boden said. “There is, of course, tons of potential to further expand the offering of housing and retail spaces.”

Boden said the neighbourhood will eventually see more residential development and places to gather. “Over time, we will start to see more pedestrian and bike-friendly pathways forming to continue to support multi-modal connectivity; throw in an under ten-minute walk to SkyTrain, and it’s a pretty special spot indeed.”

Exploring the State of Canadian Retail: Consumer Trends and Challenges [Podcast]

By

Retail Insider

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July 12, 2023

Dundas Square next to Toronto Eaton Centre in June 2023. Photo: Lee Rivett

Craig and Lee dive into the current state of the Canadian retail industry, discussing recent consumer trends and challenges. They explore topics such as the impact of inflation, consumer spending habits, strengths in lower-cost regions, the struggle of small businesses, the shift between online and in-store retail, and the inventory and supply chain issues faced by retailers.

The Weekly podcast part of the The Retail Insider Podcast Network by Retail Insider Canada and is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Retail Insider content discussed this episode:

Transcript

Announcer 0:00
This is a Retail Insider PodCast. You’re listening to “The Weekly”.

Lee Rivett 0:08
Welcome to this week’s episode of “The Weekly” by Retail Insider. I’m Lee Rivett. And I’m joined with the owner and publisher of Retail Insider Media, Craig Patterson, to discuss this week’s most read articles on retail-insider.com. So thanks for joining me, Craig.

Craig Patterson 0:22
Hello, everyone.

Lee Rivett 0:23
Now, Craig, you were invited to delve into the Canadian retail landscape and present some of the key points to business group in mid June. Now, I looked through the presentation and the key discussion points were perfect for sharing. So I wanted to do that during this podcast. But before we do, could you give a little bit of context to our listeners on the presentation itself and the group that you’re sharing with?

Craig Patterson 0:43
So I recently did a talk for the Sports Industry Credit Association about the Canadian retail industry. It was a little bit of a ‘State of the Union’. And so what I’m going to do is just go through a little bit of that here, because I think that it’s an interesting conversation. Some of this won’t be news to people, but at the same time, it’s a bit of a summary of where the consumer is, and where I think retail is going in the Canadian market at the moment as well as even beyond so we can dive into this right now here.

Lee Rivett 1:07
Well and to start with, could you give us an overview of how Canadian retail is doing?

Craig Patterson 1:12
It depends who you ask, I mean, some retails doing better than others. Consumers generally – I’ll talk about the consumer generally – is spending less on non necessities. This has been a situation for a little while here, as we’ve seen inflation going up. The cost of housing, the cost of food, the cost of will be the luxury goods going up in price because some people have been saving up or were in the past buy expensive things and are now not doing that. I’ve spoken to people in expensive stores that have said this. We’re seeing a situation where you know, even though retail sales have declined 2.4% in March – this was a statistic that we had – in Canada is outperforming most developed markets. I think Canadians are just stretched more than anything. This is according to a report by Colliers.

Lee Rivett 1:56
And were there any strengths that came out of that report, because a lot of times (especially post COVID) a lot of these retail reports are quite doom and gloom.

Craig Patterson 2:05
What they found though, at the same time, as within Canada, retail sales have been the strongest and regions with a lower cost of living. And that really shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. I mean, you look at say retail sales in a place like Texas where the cost of living is lower. People there have a lot of money, discretionary, I would say income overall on average than most Canadians would, but in markets like Toronto and Vancouver here in Canada, versus say, you know, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary, the recovery has been faster in the places with the lower real estate prices, which are not Vancouver and Toronto, for those for those who know the country obviously. And I knew that real estate prices, were going to come and bite us in the ass for retail, because even though there are rich people in these cities, there’s a lot of people that don’t have a lot of money. And I think that with that discretionary and even just any disposable income drying up, that’s going to impact retail sales on non to set on non essentials. And I think that there is going to be a little bit of a reckoning here in the retail industry just because money is being siphoned off to things like rent and mortgage payments and shopping at Loblaws and getting gouged on food prices. Altogether, this is not a good time for a lot of Canadian consumers. And we get a lot of comments. I’ve said this before in our articles at retail insider, from people that are saying they’re desperate. I mean, I’m blown away. So people are saying that they’re, you know, cutting back on food and are trying intermittent fasting, and they’re not doing it for health. I mean, it is a healthy thing. But it’s out of desperation because they don’t have to pay for food all the time. And I don’t think that’s a good place for people to be in.

Lee Rivett 3:35
How do you think Canadians are dealing with these inflationary pressures? You mentioned like intermittent fasting, but how are people in Canada dealing with it?

Craig Patterson 3:45
Consumers are definitely cutting back. There was a study by EY I thought was really interesting saying that almost the majority of consumers now are saying they’re not brand loyal, and that they’re going to be looking for discounted pricing or looking for the better price, I should say. That’s a huge concern. Because if you think about a lot of brands out there, there, they spent an absolute fortune, trying to get in front of the consumer build loyalty, you know, get known and have people shop at their brands. So because prices are going up and consumers don’t have as much money to spend. That’s going to have an impact on brands. I think was the same study said that 58% of consumers in Canada are trying to save money or economizing they’re cutting back depending what word you want to use. A 73% of consumers plan to repair or repair items over replacing them. It’s good first day sustainability. People aren’t gonna be buying new stuff but you know what the consumer economy is based on people spending more money on buying new things as opposed to repairing them so this is going to have an impact I think on the economy as well. Especially, I don’t know fast fashion.

Lee Rivett 4:48
And you mentioned food purchases….?

Craig Patterson 4:51
Food purchases at grocery stores are down. Like I said some people are interested in fasting at the same time and it’s people will either with more money or they’re just by going out and spending it regardless on experiences. Restaurant spending is up, which is almost counterintuitive, but a lot of people are still going to restaurants to eat. Also experiences – some people are still taking trips to places if they can afford them, or they’re just maybe they can’t afford it, or they’re going somewhere else. But I do know that even with the pandemic, and following that… people are reevaluating reevaluating their priorities or just realizing they want to have maybe have more fun or have experiences. So they’re buying less stuff.

Lee Rivett 5:33
And how are people stretched?

Craig Patterson 5:35
I talked about this a bit before, certainly around the housing costs, whether or not a person owns a home and has a mortgage, or has just bought a new home and probably spent over a million dollars on it. Or is spending money on rent, I saw a report what was it in Toronto, the average one bedroom apartment is over $2,500 a month. In Vancouver, I can’t believe it, it’s over $2,800 which is just mind blowing because the average income in Vancouver is not that high compared to other parts of Canada, even though it’s a very expensive place. But housing costs have certainly stretched consumers. Taxes: Canadian consumers are taxed to you know, higher than Americans were paying taxes left, right and centre, whether or not it’s income taxes are on our alcohol or on our food or restaurants. I mean, we are just tax, tax, tax, tax. That’ll all add up. Stock market gains on wealth if people have anything at all has has been variable over the course of the pandemic and into now. Salaries haven’t met inflation. So people may actually not be able to find jobs. That hasn’t been as big of an issue here. We’ve got pretty decent employment in Canada, but it’s not perfect. With the pandemic, some people are having to pay back some support that they got some businesses are having to pay back some support. There’s been lost savings. And one thing as well, grants that some businesses got it earlier during the pandemic are coming due at the end of this year (of end of 2023). And we’re predicting a catastrophic implosion of smaller businesses in this country. Because of that I’ve spoken to various people, I’ve signed a petition with this Canadian Federation of Independent Business. It’s a bit of an aside, but that’s probably another conversation we should be having here. Because we’re going to see a collapse in small businesses by the end of the year here. A lot of them can’t afford to pay this back. And it’s going to be a tough time.

Lee Rivett 7:16
Yeah. Well, and what about the difference in the Canadian retail for Ecommerce (shopping online) or in store (or brick and mortar) retail?

Craig Patterson 7:24
Yeah. In the in the talk that I did, I talked a little bit about online versus in store. I was saying that we’re seeing we saw ecommerce growth absolutely explode during the pandemic, partly out of necessity. I mean, you know, literally, we couldn’t go into a lot of stores that were during the lockdown. So we saw ecommerce growth, growth of the roof it it created some habits that I think people have kept, but it has kind of plateaued or it’s not growing nearly as much as it was during the pandemic. I mean, it was exponential. They say we moved into the future significantly, but we still saw when when lockdowns ended, a lot of people went back into the stores. So that habit of shopping in a physical store is still there, I think it’s here to stay, at least for a lot of categories, say trying on clothing or something, at least for the first time. And people sometimes just want to see stuff. So I mean, at the same time, ecommerce is still growing, Amazon is still doing well, in terms of getting sales in Canada and elsewhere. So, I think that stores are here to stay. And also I was saying in this lecture that physical stores, even if you’ve just got one creates a sense of legitimacy for retailers say that’s doing a lot of sales online. Because I know for myself there was I forget what it was what shape I don’t want to say what the retailer was, but it was something I was shopping on. It was, you know, an online website. And I was like, Oh, they have a store. They’re real! They’re a real retailer. Yeah, they’ve got one store but they’ve got one like they’re not just

Lee Rivett 7:24
Some random, in the ether store…

Craig Patterson 7:52
Virtual world online. So anyways, I you know, maybe I’m just old fashion but that did get my attention for this retailer, even though it was just one store location for this national retailer.

Lee Rivett 9:09
And what about direct to consumer versus wholesale in Canada?

Craig Patterson 9:13
Yeah, did a little bit of a talk about direct to consumer versus wholesale. Brands like Nike and Canada Goose were certainly dropping their wholesale accounts and opening their own stores who have reported on Nike opening lots of stores. Canada Goose is actually doubling down on its retail store expansion plans while pulling back on wholesale. Nike surprised surprised us a little bit recently because it actually reestablished some wholesale agreements with DSW, the footwear retailer as well as Macy’s in the United States. So we may see wholesale coming back a little bit with Nike with certain select retailers, but I’m sure there’s some agreements and rules and all kinds of other stuff. With direct to consumer, I mean, brands like it if they have their own store, to put it simply to control the environment, it’s it’s kind of a brand ecosystem, there’s different margins, you can sometimes make more money in retail. If people are coming into your store. You’ve got staff you you’ve got you can, you know, decorate it, you want the way that you want. We see the same thing with concessions and stores like Holt Renfrew, or otherwise, these brands have stores within a store, but they’re still being run by that brand. So I was in the royal I did a tour of royal mount a few weeks ago at Montreal. And what I thought was really interesting is the team there was saying, Well, we are targeting brands to have stores in our mall, we’re not looking for the multi brand retailers. It’s not that there aren’t any there. But the really, the focus was because of the increased sales growth of individual brands versus multi brand retailers. They said, Well, we see the future success of the centre being with actual brands having stores in here and not having a, I don’t want to throw any retailers under the bus but or not even that but you know, Hudson Bay store or Harry Rosen or something which has different brands in it, instead, they would actually have the brand rather have the brands that are contained within those stores, but have their own stores in that mall. So they’re really smart people, they’re at Royal mount in terms of what they’re doing, they’ve been around the world they’ve thought this through. And I think that’s to me, that was that was a little bit profound to to hear that, you know, it’s all about the brands, it’s not about, you know, a retailer that’s carrying a bunch of brands within it. So but at the same time, some brands are not gonna be able to stand out on their own and open stores. They’re gonna be in multi brand retailers. And that’s totally fine. And I don’t want to see multi brand retailers closed at the same time. I’ve got some favorites, I think we all do. And I we still wish them success. But retail is changing. It always does.

Lee Rivett 11:36
And what about the inventory and supply chain issues that we’re seeing during the pandemic, now that we’re kind of more post-pandemic, if you were.

Craig Patterson 11:44
in a certain I think certain categories of retail, I don’t know from from bicycles and sporting goods, a few other areas, there was an increase in demand, like I don’t know, you couldn’t get a bike to ride around in during parts of the pandemic, because everybody bought them because they’re all wanting to ride around. Now there’s too many. So mountains of inventory, I think was a headline I saw on the news. Now retailers are having to deal with that. So what that means is right, you know, sometimes things go on sale, say a bike, you might get a better price now. So you’ll be able to actually find one on top of that. But I think that with that too much supply and discounting, it’s going to be a little bit of an issue here. You know, the supply chain? Well, you know, that’s being attempted to be dealt with. I mean, Canada’s a big country, it’s low density, it’s got a large geography, we’re contained to a few major cities for the most part. But at the same time, the Port of Vancouver had a very low ranking and its efficiency. And that’s a concern, because a lot of products for retailers come into the Port of Vancouver, if they’re coming in from Asia and other parts of the world. So hopefully that can be dealt with because we need as many as much in the way of efficiencies as we can in the retail industry here in Canada, just given the cost of doing business. It’s expensive to do business here. Like I said, it’s a big country with a low population density. We’ve got incomes versus expenses going up. Getting stuff to consumers is critical in and it’s also critical to be able to do it in a costly fashion, whether or not it’s a physical store or shopping or shipping online. So, you know, inventory is something which is having to be dealt with. And I think that that’s been quite a challenge as well.

Lee Rivett 13:19
Well, it sounds like it was great presentation. And thanks for going through the key points. When I was looking at the actual presentation itself, it sounded amazing to share with our listeners. So again, thank you for going through it and talk to you next week.

Craig Patterson 13:31
Thank you so much, Lee, and thank you so much everyone for listening. I’ll be doing some more talks out there. I do a little bit of public speaking and both the retail industry and otherwise even perhaps cities in urban planning. Reach out if you ever need anything like I’m having fun doing it. So thank you so much everyone for listening. Take care and bye for now.

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Primaris REIT Set to Acquire Conestoga Mall in Waterloo Ontario [Interview]

By

Mario Toneguzzi

-

July 12, 2023

Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust is bullish on the Canadian retail market and shopping centres across the country.

Recently, the company announced it was going to acquire the Conestoga Mall in Waterloo, Ontario from Ivanhoé Cambridge, for aggregate consideration of $270 million, to be satisfied by a combination of cash and equity.

“This landmark transaction is the culmination of months of collaboration with Ivanhoé Cambridge, and further validates and demonstrates support for Primaris’ platform, strategy and value proposition,” said Alex Avery, Chief Executive Officer of Primaris.

“Since the inception of Primaris REIT, we have been very clear about the significant opportunity to acquire additional market leading Canadian shopping centres. Primaris is uniquely positioned as a potential buyer, with institutional scale as the third largest owner-operator of enclosed shopping centres in Canada with proforma assets of approximately $3.5 billion, a very well capitalized balance sheet, a differentiated financial model and a mandate for growth.”

Avery said the mall itself made the asset an attractive one for Primaris.

“It is a top 15 mall in Canada on a sales per square foot basis. It has all the features that you really look for in a great shopping centre. It’s got a large piece of land of about 50 acres,” he said. “There’s a light rail station immediately adjacent to it. Sales per square foot are strong. It’s got marquis tenants like the Apple store, lululemon, Aritzia and Sephora.

“And we think that like the rest of our portfolio there is still a significant NOI (Net Operating Income) recovery opportunity at the property. Our portfolio, I mean (everyone), had a challenging time over the last few years – arguably since about 2015. The mall sector in Canada and elsewhere have faced a lot of headwinds and over that period including the pandemic net operating incomes of the properties have generally declined and in many cases quite significantly.

“It’s only been in the last year and a half that you’re really seeing the fundamentals for the mall business turning back up and they are very strong. We delivered over 10 per cent same property NOI growth last year and in 2021 and the first quarter of 2023 was 9.8 per cent. We’re seeing strong demand from retailers. The business is doing really well but we’re coming off of a very low bottom. So we see continued runway and as we looked at (Conestoga Mall) and compared it to the rest of our portfolio we saw a complementary NOI growth opportunity.”

Avery said Primaris is a mall business and it is specially equipped with a fully vertically integrated management platform that is focused on enclosed shopping centres.

“I’m sure in the fullness of time there will be a great intensification opportunity there. It’s a strong growing market with great demographics. There’s a light rail mass transit stop on the site,” he said. “At some point, I’m sure there will be opportunity to add additional uses or pursue some sort of redevelopment.

“But for the foreseeable future the real focus is continuing to drive NOI higher on the property.”

The Primaris portfolio includes 11.5 million square feet, effectively all retail, with a small office and industrial component. That includes 90 per cent being enclosed malls.

“Conestoga was identified early in the process of evaluating potential acquisition targets for a number of notable characteristics, including its leading market position, strong sales performance, mass rapid transit connection and its attractive location within a growing market,” said Patrick Sullivan, President and Chief Operating Officer.

“Our team is very excited to add Conestoga Mall to our property portfolio, with significant income growth potential consistent with the growth we see ahead for our existing assets. With new and exciting retailers unique in the market including Apple, Lululemon and Nespresso, Conestoga Mall is amongst the top 15 most productive malls in Canada and will be highly accretive to Primaris’ overall portfolio quality.”

Conestoga Mall is the leading regional enclosed shopping centre in the high growth market of Kitchener-Waterloo, immediately adjacent to Conestoga station, on the 19-station ION light rail mass rapid transit system. The 585,000 square foot mall (excluding Zehrs) is located on 49.8 acres of land. It has 94.4 per cent in-place occupancy and a $46 million redevelopment was completed in 2018.

Large format tenants include HBC, Galaxy Cinema, Sport Chek, Indigo and H&M, and shadow-anchored by Zehrs with direct access to the mall and unique commercial retail unit (CRU) tenants to the region include Apple, Lululemon, Nespresso, with other notable CRU tenants including Aritzia, Sephora, Aerie, Old Navy and RW & Co.

Primaris said opportunities to increase operating income at Conestoga Mall include:

Lease up of approximately 58,000 square feet of vacant or temporary tenanted space to strong tenants at market rents;
the conversion of tenants on preferred rent deals to standard market leases; and
Leveraging its scalable management platform to deploy its cost management strategy.

“We are very bullish on the opportunity in enclosed shopping centres in Canada,” said Avery. “There’s been very limited new construction over the last 20 years and 30 years. The population keeps growing and while NOI production has fallen off substantially from levels where it was at five or six years ago, retailers have now reached a level of understanding of new omnichannel growth. They’re committed to the bricks and mortar store being the anchor of a successful omnichannel strategy.

“So we’re seeing strong demand from retailers to expand, new retailers entering the market and the consumer has been doing well. We’ve got a very substantial opportunity to capture NOI. Even if retail sales stagnate for a while we still see a long runway even in that scenario.”

Lightspeed Rolls Out Unified Payments, Unlocking Value for Merchants

By

Mario Toneguzzi

-

July 12, 2023

Lightspeed Commerce, a global one-stop commerce platform for merchants, has launched a Unified Payments and POS offering, reducing complexity for retailers by streamlining support, simplifying bookkeeping and providing deeper insights through reporting.

JD St-Martin, President at Lightspeed, said the company is making an important step towards building its leading commerce platform by unifying its software offering with its payments offering.

“This approach will allow us to unlock a ton of value for our customers,” he said.

“The world has changed and digital adoption and technology have played a part in that change. Looking to the future and what we’ve seen in the context of the pandemic and its aftermath, we truly believe that technology can be the opportunity to level the playing field between small and medium-sized businesses and big box retail or restaurant chains.”

“At Lightspeed, our vision is to build a commerce platform that powers all the technology and financial service needs of our customers and in that context unlock all the benefits that this vision provides, we need to build our solutions as one unit, really one platform working in symbiosis together.”

With the payments industry evolving so rapidly, Lightspeed’s unified platform reduces complexity for customers by streamlining support, simplifying bookkeeping and providing deeper insights through reporting.

Lightspeed is investing in features that will help merchants scale their business, save them time, and give them peace of mind, providing performance-boosting Insights, Tap to Pay on Apple, next day, built-in tipping and easier reconciliation.

This also means merchants will have streamlined bookkeeping and support. No more multiple bills and multiple numbers to call for help. They benefit from streamlined operations and white glove support with their POS, hardware and payments needs covered under one roof.

Hassle-free reporting saves merchants time and reduces manual errors. Now, they will have one integrated reporting sheet in their hands, saving them hours of reconciliation per week. It’ll also reduce the risk of errors, giving them more precise reporting and staff less manual tasks to complete.

Ultimately, unified Payments & POS means more time for merchants to concentrate on their customers, which improves their experience too.

St-Martin said it’s a seamless experience that feeds off each other and eliminates friction points for retailers and their customers.

“Time is money and it has a huge impact at the end of the day. It’s ultimately putting more money back in our customers’ pocket,” he said. “To carry on in that direction and to continue to unlock more value for our customers, the next step in that journey is to now offer both solutions combined as one offering.”

St-Martin said Lightspeed customers are already using the platform and seeing much success:

Fairways Golf Group in Ohio experienced a cost reduction of 60% compared to their previous processor and Lightspeed has also allowed the company to offer a fast and contactless transactions at all their golf, retail and restaurant facilities;
Nicetys in Oakville, Ontario has seen the platform as a way to eliminate errors and long lineups at the till so they can focus on providing an amazing customer experience on the floor;
Silo and Crate Brewery in London, UK, saw a 10% increase in revenue by adopting Lightspeed Payments and have reduced the overall transaction time in their busiest moments by 15 seconds per transaction. Bookkeeping and accounting has become a breeze because it’s shaved off three hours per week on the reporting side;
South Bark Dog Wash in San Diego witnessed increased tipping by 11% as customers began tipping on normal retail purchases and not just grooming services.

“Our customers are business owners who wear multiple hats. Any tangible efficiency gains that we can provide them has a direct impact on their bottom line,” said St-Martin.

“From a quality and technology perspective this is a game changer. We want to equip our merchants with ultimately the same tools that big box retail and large hospitality chains benefit from but here at a fraction of the cost. So unifying payments with software is allowing us today to do just that – to really offer a new, unique experience for our customers and offer unique features that would not be possible if each of these solutions siloed from one another.”

Lightspeed initiated a pilot for Unified Payments in late March and is now implementing a phased rollout to its North American customers. Longer term, Lightspeed plans to roll this out around the world.

Lightspeed is:

Offering highly competitive processing rates. It says it beats the competitor’s rates 70%of the time*
Providing free payment terminals for each merchants’ registers
Providing contract buyouts to help cover early termination fees from an existing processor
Providing free on-site installation to minimize disruption to merchants’ business

St-Martin said that Lightspeed will continue to support businesses with the company’s ongoing product development as it grows its offerings.

For more information on Lightspeed Commerce, visit: https://www.lightspeedhq.com/

*Comparison in each case based solely on processing rates of the prior provider of the potential customer from January 2021 to February 2023 in the United States and Canada. Comparisons were performed internally and are limited to certain products offered by Lightspeed and its affiliates and where comparison data is available. Rates can vary depending on the individual circumstances of a customer, geography and a variety of other factors, and past rates may not be indicative of future rates offered.

*****

*Partner content. To work with Retail Insider, email craig@retail-insider.com

Hudson’s Bay to Close Store in Burlington ON, will Relocate Zellers Shop-in-Store [Exclusive]

By

Craig Patterson

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July 11, 2023

Hudson’s Bay will be shutting its store at the Burlington Centre in Burlington, Ontario, next year, and its Zellers shop-in-store will relocate to the Hudson’s Bay store at the Bramalea City Centre as a result. Hudson’s Bay says that having two department stores in the relatively small city of Burlington is no longer necessary, and that a Zellers pop-up will also be opening in the Hudson’s Bay store at Burlington’s Mapleview Centre this summer to serve the community as well.

The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) provided information and an exclusive quote for this article, noting that its two Hudson’s Bay stores in Burlington are a short distance apart. Burlington has about 200,000 residents.

“HBC continually looks at opportunities to optimize its real estate portfolio. Given the proximity of Burlington Centre just 3.5 kms to Mapleview Shopping Centre, Hudson’s Bay has made the decision to close its Burlington Centre location in June 2024.”

The statement went on to say, “While these decisions are difficult they are the right ones for our business, reflecting market changes and our vision for the future. We are committed to treating every associate with respect and fairness through this process, and transfer opportunities will be explored where feasible.”

The Zellers shop-in-store within the Hudson’s Bay location at Burlington Centre will relocate to the Hudson’s Bay store at Bramalea City Centre, according to the retailer. The new Bramalea Zellers location is scheduled to open in September of this year.

This summer, as well, a Zellers pop-up will open within the Hudson’s Bay store at Burlington’s Mapleview Centre. HBC relaunched the Zellers brand with 25 locations inside of Hudson’s Bay stores in March of this year. Prior to 2012, Zellers was a major discount retailer in Canada with over 200 standalone stores across the country.

Burlington Centre’s Hudson’s Bay store spans about 145,000 square feet over two floors. The store has operated in the mall since 1991 when HBC took over a space vacated by Sears Canada which had operated in the mall for decades. Burlington Centre opened in 1968 with anchors including Simpsons-Sears, Dominion, Robinson’s and Famous Players Theatres.

Hudson’s Bay Burlington Centre. Photo: Google Images

Hudson’s Bay Burlington Centre. Photo: Vivek Surendran via Google Images

The RioCan owned/operated shopping centre now spans about 720,000 square feet over two levels with about 130 retail tenants. The loss of Hudson’s Bay, contained on a separately leased pad at Burlington Centre, means the loss of the mall’s last large-format department store anchor. Other anchors at Burlington Centre include Goodlife Fitness, Winners, HomeSense, Indigo, Sport Chek, Old Navy and grocer Dinninger’s. In 2018 Retail Insider reported that the enclosed shopping centre would see a $60-million overhaul that included a rebranding of its former name ‘Burlington Mall’.

A retail space formerly occupied by Target was repurposed as part of the overhaul, adding Denninger’s and Indigo as new anchor tenants, as well as a larger relocated space for the mall’s existing Winners store. The Target space had been occupied by Zellers from 1995 until 2012 and prior to that, Robinson’s had operated a department store in that space.

Only a few minutes away by vehicle, Mapleview Centre is considered to be the premium mall in Burlington with retailers such as Apple, Aritzia, Decathlon, Lululemon, Sporting Life, Victoria’s Secret, Zara and other national and global tenants. The 635,000 square foot enclosed shopping centre, boasting higher sales per square foot than Burlington Centre, is anchored by a 129,000 square foot Hudson’s Bay store which is one of the mall’s original tenants. Mapleview opened in 1990 with another HBC-owned department store, Simpsons, which operated there for a short time before HBC discontinued the Simpsons name in 1991.

Inside Hudson’s Bay Burlington Centre, January 2023. Photo: ‘Darcy’ via Google Images

Hudson’s Bay continues to operate other stores in the area. That includes stores at Oakville Place in Oakville and CF Limeridge in Hamilton. A bit further away, Hudson’s Bay has stores in Mississauga at Square One and Erin Mills Town Centre, as well as at CF Sherway Gardens in Toronto. To the West, Hudson’s Bay operates stores in Cambridge at the Cambridge Centre as well as at CF Fairview in Kitchener and Conestoga Mall in Waterloo — another clustering of stores that could possibly see a real estate repositioning by HBC.

Since the start of the pandemic, Hudson’s Bay has shut several of its Canadian stores with two more set to shut this summer. During the pandemic, Hudson’s Bay shut its downtown Winnipeg, downtown Edmonton and downtown Toronto (Bloor/Yonge) stores as well as a unit at Les Jardins Dorval in suburban Montreal. Next month, The Hudson’s Bay store on Banff Avenue in Banff, Alberta, will also shutter permanently.

At the same time, investments are being made into the Zellers brand that is expected to see more Zellers shop-in-stores within Hudson’s Bay locations in Canada, as well as possibly larger standalone Zellers stores in the future. Last month Zellers opened a pop-up store in the basement of the downtown Toronto Queen Street store to test the market before committing to open a permanent location there.

Hudson’s Bay at Burlington Centre was the first location for the ‘new’ Zellers concept in 2021 when Retail Insider first reported on it. Since then, Hudson’s Bay has narrowed-in on the concept which includes having secured its core in-house brand, Anko, which was initially developed for Kmart Australia is now wholesaling globally with various retail partnerships.

The Body Shop Opens Flagship Store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre [Interview/Photos]

By

Mario Toneguzzi

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July 11, 2023

The Body Shop Yorkdale Interior - Exterior 2023-4 — The Body Shop at Yorkdale Shopping Centre (Image: The Body Shop)

Retailer The Body Shop has opened its new Changemaker’s Workshop flagship store at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto.

It’s a continuation of the brand’s nationwide expansion of the concept.

“Our new Workshop locations are proving to be something very special,” said Hilary Lloyd, VP of Brand & Corporate Social Responsibility, The Body Shop North America.

“If activism is the soul of our brand, our retail locations are the heart. This is why we put so much effort into our Chagemaker’s Workshop stores. Our goal was to create a physical space that people truly want to be a part of. Whether learning about our incredible products and testing them through our sink experiences, or engaging in Changemaking through our Act station, a space dedicated to petition signing and advocacy, the Workshop retail experience is different, and people are noticing.

“We like to think of it as a Workshop store. It has an entirely new exterior and interior. The experiences we are providing in the new concept store are also quite a bit elevated.”

Sustainability is a core value for the retailer and it’s reflected in the new concept store.

This is The Body Shop’s sixth Changemaker’s Workshop location in Canada. Other locations are in Vancouver, Oshawa, Calgary, Burnaby, and Edmonton. There are five more stores set to open this year.

“We have an ambitious renovation calendar underway,” explained Lloyd.

“At the moment, all of our stores are renovations.”

The company has 110 locations in Canada with the first store opening in 1980.

“We’re really excited about this new The Body Shop store opening for Toronto and for Canada,” said Lloyd. “The exclusive campaign elements nod to the past as the brand looks to the future and a continued legacy of positively impacting the Toronto community through our products, experiences and advocacy.

“With the store penetration that we have now at 110 stores in top tier malls across the country, we don’t necessarily feel we need to expand our shop footprint. So what we’re really focusing on addressing is elevating the experiences in our existing stores and really investing in those.”

Lloyd said the new concept is designed to give customers an immersive, sensorial product experience, as well as empower Canadians to channel their inner activist – inviting them to participate in social and environmental causes that are important to them and their community. To date, these new concept stores are welcoming higher traffic and sales compared to traditional stores, she said.

“Shoppers come to Yorkdale from across the country, and even around the world, seeking engaging retail experiences,” said William Correia, Director, Yorkdale Shopping Centre. “We are thrilled to welcome The Body Shop Canada’s flagship store to our vibrant Yorkdale community. The Body Shop’s new Changemaker’s Workshop delivers on customer desires and expectations for innovative ways to interact with brands. This is an immersive retail environment that will inspire a new generation of conscious consumers.”

The Body Shop at Yorkdale Shopping Centre

Lloyd said the retailer shifted from a previous location in Yorkdale to its new site which is larger.

“The new store in keeping with our values is designed to be a community hub. A space for advocacy, a space for gathering people. Almost like a platforming space for communities and the Toronto community at large,” she said.

“It’s an amazing space full of great opportunities for our customers to fall in love with our products, to fall in love with our brand advocacy and hang with our folks who would love to tell them how great The Body Shop is.”

The Body Shop said a key feature for each Canadian Workshop store is that they reflect the local communities they serve and each store is unique with a variety of local artists designing in-store murals, installations and/or sculptures.

“In the Yorkdale location, The Body Shop is proud to present a custom piece of textile art by multidisciplinary Toronto-based artist, Laura Moore. The piece, a handmade memory quilt, was inspired by the brand’s 40+ years of activism work in Canada, made with The Body Shop materials sourced across the brand’s Canadian employee collective as well as from the previous Yorkdale store. The Body Shop has a long history of using textiles as tools for change, upcycled tote bags, aprons, t-shirts, scarves – all designed to communicate our Canadian activism efforts over the years. With the textiles stitched together to shape a map of Toronto, the quilt represents the power of community, and The Body Shop’s long history of changemaking in Canada,” said the company.

“Also unique to the Yorkdale store, is a nostalgic reminder for Torontonians of all of the things they once loved – and continue to love – about the rejuvenated The Body Shop brand and store concept. The flagship opening features exclusive and limited edition throwback t-shirts – newly made as well as vintage-sourced – as an homage to the long and beloved history of the brand in Canada. All proceeds from the t-shirt sales will benefit The Body Shop Changemakers Youth Fund which directly supports young activists in Toronto through the brand’s partner, Apathy is Boring’s RISE program.The store will also feature limited edition ‘greatest hits’ pouches, containing Torontonians most loved products of the past and present – Satsuma Body Butter, Hemp Hand Cream, and Vitamin E moisturizer.”

Key features of the new concept include:

● A central sink area where customers can smell, lather and test The Body Shop’s best-loved products;

● A gifting station for people to personalize gifts with ribbons and recyclable paper.

● A dedicated ACT area that gives customers the chance to learn about and engage with issues that impact their communities.

● A refill station where customers can take The Body Shop’s 300ml aluminum bottle and fill it up with any 12 of the brand’s best-loved shower gels, shampoos, conditioners and hand washes.

● Sustainable countertops that are created from recycled plastic destined for landfill.

● A range of upcycled and reclaimed materials such as reclaimed wood and part-recycled plastic storage crates.

Meanwhile, recently the federal government announced its commitment to prohibit cosmetic animal testing in Canada. The measures, which were finalized through the 2023 Budget Implementation Act on June 22, 2023, will also prohibit the sale of cosmetics that rely on new animal testing data to establish product safety as well as false or misleading labelling pertaining to cosmetic animal testing.

“The Body Shop is the first international beauty brand to campaign against animal testing in cosmetics and along with Cruelty Free International and other advocacy groups, recognizes this as a historic win for animal rights activists and beauty lovers alike,” said the company.

Founded in 1976 in Brighton, England, by Dame Anita Roddick, The Body Shop is a global beauty brand and a certified B CorpTM. It operates about 3,000 retail locations in more than 70 countries.

Community Natural Foods Expands Beyond Calgary with New Store in Edmonton’s Old Strathcona Neighbourhood [Photos]

By

Mario Toneguzzi

-

July 11, 2023

Opening Day Edmonton-39 — Community Natural Foods Edmonton (Image: Community Natural Foods)

Community Natural Foods, owned by Calgary Co-op, has opened its first store outside of Calgary in Edmonton’s Old Strathcona neighbourhood.

And more may come in the future.

The health food store has three locations in Calgary.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to introduce this long-established and well-respected health food store to the Edmonton market, one that is currently underserved in the health food retail space,” said Ken Keelor, CEO of Calgary Co-op and President of Community Natural Foods.

Community Natural Foods Edmonton (Image: Community Natural Foods)

The over 10,000-square-foot store offers a huge array of organic produce, meat, and dairy; a broad selection of grocery items for all dietary preferences; a large supplement and natural body care section; and a fresh juice, elixir, smoothie, and grab n’ go bar.

The store opened in an old Planet Organic space.

“It’s a very large space with great parking and access,” said Keelor.

“We believe that wellness should be available for all, and we strive for this through the sharing of knowledge, offering choices in products we carry, and supporting local producers and partners invested in the wellness of our community members. We’re looking forward to assisting the people of Edmonton with their wellness journey.”

Calgary Co-op bought the Community Natural Foods brand about three years ago. Keelor said the brand was in need of a little bit of TLC (tender loving care).

“The previous owner had done an amazing job of creating a wonderful brand but it needed a bit of injection of modernization and change. So during the COVID time frame we took the downtown store and a lot of people were not coming to work, they were working from home. So business had dropped downtown anyway for all businesses,” he said.

“We took that opportunity to renovate that store. We did a bit of research on Community Natural Foods customers to understand their needs and we built new decor, new design and looked at the product mix and layout of the store. That work is now completed. We re-did the whole kitchen and cafe area. It’s beautiful. We put in some digital ordering screens and so on. There was a bit of technology injected as well.

“On our radar of course is Crowfoot and Chinook (two other locations in Calgary) for some tuneups. Downtown has always been an iconic flagship store. Now those learnings have been applied in Edmonton but the advantage in Edmonton was that we had a new store to work with. It’s a lot harder to take an existing store and shuffle things around. This is a brand new store, empty, no product in there.

“So you’ll see a lot of things reflected. I would call it lighter, brighter, a more natural look to the store.

“Store design and decor really is an evolving process. Every time you touch a store you have a chance to reflect consumer needs.”

Keelor said Calgary Co-op is very focused on the needs of Calgary and surrounding areas.

“But we also looked at markets like Edmonton and we understand we can’t be Calgary Co-op in Edmonton but we do feel that Edmontonians do have some similar needs,” he said.

“And natural foods and natural care we feel there was a big opportunity in this marketplace. When I attended the opening of the store, there were lineups of people down the road . . . There was a massive need and in fact what we learned from that and those customers is that they appreciated us bringing the banner to Edmonton. Many of them had shopped in Calgary. And they were asking for more locations in Edmonton. So we now have to think about other locations potentially in the north areas like St. Albert where they might not be served.”

Keelor said Community Natural Foods is prioritizing Edmonton-area and Alberta products. One of the first things it did was put the call out for more Edmonton-local brands.

Community Natural Foods was founded in 1977 with the intention of providing Calgarians with natural and organic food at a great price. In November 2019, Community Natural Foods was acquired by Calgary Co-op and is operated as a wholly owned subsidiary.

“It’s exciting for Calgary Co-op and our member owners because as we expand in the markets beyond Calgary the net earnings from those businesses come back to our members as part of patronage and also get reinvested and continue to grow this co-op in a sustainable way,” added Keelor.

“Health and wellness is a very fast growing area. Traditional groceries, canned goods, baked goods, that’s not a growing area. So in order to sustain business it’s really important to grow, reflecting the trends of customers which health and wellness is a long-term trend. And Edmontonians are very focused on it too, just like the rest of the world.”

Community Natural Foods was founded in 1977 by the Wilkes brothers.

Calgary Co-op, owned by members, is one of the largest retail co-operatives in North America with locations in Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, High River, Okotoks, and Strathmore. It includes 22 food stores & pharmacies, 37 gas stations, 4 Home Health Care centres, 29 WSB stores (including World of Whisky and a World of Wine store) and 10 cannabis locations. Besides Community Natural Foods, Calgary Co-op operates and is the owner of Beacon Pharmacies, The Organic Box and Willow Park Wines & Spirits.

It has 400,000 members, 3,850 employees, assets of $700 million, more than 100 stores and annual sales of $1.3 billion.

Keelor said the Willow Park brand has a presence in Edmonton but it’s also growing to Saskatoon in November after opening a second store recently in Regina.

“So businesses like Community Natural Foods, Willow Park Wines & Spirits, our pharmacy and home health care businesses, these are all growth businesses. We have to get beyond pure Calgary borders. It’s a great city and we’ll continue to very much be primarily focused here,” he said.

“But there’s opportunity across the Prairies, across the West, and potentially across Canada that we want to take advantage of in the long term as we diligently grow Calgary Co-op. We’re not going to have explosive growth but we’re going to grow with diligence.”

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For July 11th, 2023

By

Retail Insider

-

July 10, 2023

News at a Glance

Retail Insider is streamlining its Canadian retail news from around the web to include a handful of top news stories that can be viewed quickly during the day. Here are the top stories from the past 24 hours.

Global Fuels to acquire one of Canada’s largest retail gas station networks (Financial Post)

Giant Tiger founder Gordon Reid has died at 89 (Global)

Dollarama CFO departs (Newswire)

Competition Bureau strategies unlikely to succeed, here’s why: Stewart Samuel, IGD (Grocery Business)

Self-checkout theft causing problems for retailers — and shoppers who despise receipt checks (CBC)

Nearly half of Canadians are paying more attention to loyalty programs (Strategy)

Not everything at the grocery store is costing us more: Food Professor (CJWW)

Amazon Prime Day isn’t the catalyst it used to be (Financial Post)

More than half of Canadians $200 away or less from not being able to pay all of their bills (CTV)

Governments need to remove interprovincial trade barriers: CFIB (BNN)

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For July 10th, 2023

By

Retail Insider

-

July 9, 2023

News at a Glance

Retail Insider is streamlining its Canadian retail news from around the web to include a handful of top news stories that can be viewed quickly during the day. Here are the top stories from the past several days.

Two thirds of retailers believe Gen Z customers are crucial to business success, according to new American Express Canada study (American Express)

Developers are turning 14 GTA malls into tiny cities, with Cloverdale leading the way – is this the solution to Toronto’s housing crisis? (Toronto Star)

One Canadian grocer is already putting metal security tags on steaks to prevent theft — will others follow? (Toronto Star)

Suncor cyberattackers obtained Petro-Points members’ contact information (Canadian Press)

If You’d Invested $10,000 in Loblaw Stock in 2012, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today (Motley Fool investing)

COBS Bread celebrates 20 years of baking and community action in Canada (Newswire)

5 Yonge Street properties should be designated as heritage buildings, council committee says (CBC Toronto)

Nature’s Fare Markets opens new Kamloops, B.C. store (Grocery Business)

Salvation Army thrift store in London, Ont. officially closes its doors (CTV)

Massive indoor bike park opens in former Sears store in North Vancouver mall (CBC)

B.C. civil forfeiture claim reveals elaborate scheme of shoplifting, returns for cash and fake credit cards (Vancouver Sun)

Phase 2 of Sainte-Catherine Street revamp begins in August (Global Montreal)

‘I’m kind of numb right now’: Toronto florist repeatedly targeted by vandals (Global)

Owner of Main Street furniture store says he’s ‘going in circles’ with province over cleanup after fire (CBC Manitoba)

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For July 6th, 2023

By

Retail Insider

-

July 5, 2023

News at a Glance

Retail Insider is streamlining its Canadian retail news from around the web to include a handful of top news stories that can be viewed quickly during the day. Here are the top stories from the past 24 hours.

Vancouver clothing retailer Kit and Ace bought by company co-owned by Joe Mimran (Canadian Press)

Fears over supply-chain disruption grow as B.C. port strike talks remain deadlocked (CBC)

Canada’s Grocery Rebate gets under way (Winsight Grocery Business)

People vow to boycott Ben & Jerry’s after ice cream company marks Canada Day by tweeting about ‘stolen land’ (CTV)

Downtown Toronto’s Holt Renfrew store goes all in with Beyonce ‘Renassance Flagship’ pop-up (Chain Store Age)

Yorkville gets a fashion facelift with five new stores and more on the way (Streets of Toronto)

The Brick adds 2 Ontario showrooms (Furniture Today)

Vernon woman who lost business in downtown fire speaks out (Global)

Saskatchewan urged to keep small business tax at zero per cent (SaskToday)

Man arrested following organized retail thefts across GTA (CTV)

Point Roberts’ rebound hinges on return of Canadian workers, say local businesses (Vancouver Sun)