A new survey by Vibes, a mobile engagement platform, says more than 40 per cent of consumers say they would share more data to get more personalization.
The survey also found that younger consumers prefer SMS from brands over email, and show significant enthusiasm for using Mobile Wallet on their smartphones.
“Consumers are telling us that they’ll gladly interact with brands on their smartphones, as long as offers are personal, timely and relevant, and if they allow them to take the next step to using a mobile wallet”, said Jay Hinman, Vibes’ VP of Marketing. “Nearly 70 per cent of consumers already receive text messages and push notifications from brands on their phones, and younger consumers in particular are saying that they love it, with many saying they want even more.”
Younger consumers say they now prefer SMS (32 per cent) over email (26 per cent) as their primary channel of communication from brands, and that 28 per cent of consumers under age 40 actually cited a frequency of too few messages as a reason to stop receiving communication from a brand;
More than 40 per cent of smartphone users say the information they’re willing to give a brand in exchange for better personalization includes their zip code, their name, their mobile phone number and zero-party survey data;
Mobile Wallet, a wallet on the smartphone that allows consumers to pay for items online or at the register, is taking off in popularity, particularly among younger consumers aged 25-54. 54 per cent of this group say they’re either already using or are interested in using Mobile Wallet to store items such as digital offers and loyalty cards – a terrific opportunity for brands looking to bridge the engagement gap between high-reach, low-engagement channels like email and low-reach, high-engagement channels like a brand’s own mobile app;
More than 70 per cent of smartphone users even said they are likely to save and redeem personalized mobile wallet offers or coupons that are enhanced with their name, and that are tailored to their personal shopping preferences.
In this video interview, Hinman discusses the reasons behind the growing trends and what the future holds.
The Video Interview Series by Retail Insider is available on YouTube.
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Craig has a discussion with Jenn Gregory and Linda Farha about consultancy Retail Strategies and its expansion into Canada. Jenn Gregory is President of Downtown Strategies at US-based Retail Strategies Group, and Linda Farha is Founder and head of Zenergy Communications in Toronto, as well as Chief Connector at pop-up go. The conversation includes helping businesses in smaller communities thrive along with courses for education.
If you prefer to listen to the audio version, it is available below:
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Featured during this interview:
Jenn Gregory, President, Downtown Strategies at Retail Strategies
Craig Patterson Welcome to the Retail Insider video series. I’m your host, Craig Patterson. And we’re joined here today with Jenn Gregory. She’s the President of Downtown Strategies at US based Retail Strategies Group, based in Birmingham, Alabama. And we’ve also got Linda Farha. She’s the Founder and President of Zenergy Communications, which is based in Toronto, and has also been involved in Retail Strategies, as have I. So welcome both of you.
Jenn Gregory Thank you.
Linda Farha Thank you. So good to be to be here.
Craig Patterson I’m gonna ask a few questions here. I’ll start with Jenn, tell me about Retail Strategies, and this plan to expand into the Canadian market.
Jenn Gregory Sure, Craig. So Retail Strategies, was formed as a commercial real estate brokerage house about 15 years ago. And after the 2008 recession, we really decided to branch out a bit and identify other opportunities beyond real estate, but rooted in real estate. And so from there, Retail Strategies was born. And we are a community development consulting firm. And so communities, municipalities, towns, villages across the United States, hire us to recruit National retail to their commercial corridors, but also to revitalize their downtown’s. And what we’re here to talk about today support their small businesses. So over the last 10 plus years or so, we’ve worked with about 750 localities in the United States, in about 27, states coast to coast. And we are very excited about expanding our North American footprint and are really excited to share some of that with you today.
Craig Patterson Wonderful, what brought about the expansion into Canada and to share any plans that might be in place so far?
Jenn Gregory Absolutely. Well, you know, we knew that during the pandemic, specifically that community’s needs were changing a little bit. While they still did want National retail on their commercial corridors, and they wanted to have a vibrant downtown. They knew that their small businesses were really hurting. And from an optics perspective, they couldn’t focus on bringing in a big box retailer while their businesses at home, their neighbors, their friends, were really struggling. And so we started really listening campaign, talking to our communities and talking to businesses about what they needed, how can we support them? And through a couple of different partnerships, specifically, some surveys that were done from Main Street America, which is a National downtown revitalization organization, we learned that small businesses needed poaching, training, and assistance more than they needed cash. So of course, the American Government prioritized funding in the you know, immediate term after the pandemic to try to help those businesses pay their rent, stay open. And while they were shuttered due to some of the regulations. And while that was helpful, these businesses reported to us that they needed to modernize, they needed to learn how to get their businesses online, and really respond to some of the changes that were happening in consumer behavior. So we were so fortunate enough to know Linda at Zenergy, and partner with her. And we can talk more about that later. But that’s really what led us to consider the Canadian market, of course, Zenergy is so well known in Canada and has a great footprint there. And the more that Linda and I started talking and forming our partnership, we realized that businesses in Canada had the very same needs as those in the United States. And so we felt like that the programs and resources that we put together would be a natural fit for the small businesses in Canada. And so that’s really what brought about our focus on bringing these services that we think are so needed and so impactful to small businesses and municipalities in Canada.
Jenn Gregory Now, Jenn, I know here in Canada, we’ve seen downtown’s and smaller and larger communities, sometimes struggling a little bit competing with say Shopping Centres or Big Box Retail that’s on the edge of the community. Are you seeing the same thing in the United States? I’m guessing probably. But tell me a little bit more about downtown revitalization and how you’ve been working with that.
Jenn Gregory Absolutely. Craig, we have seen the very same challenges. But we’ve also seen a real opportunity for rural communities and for those downtown’s and really, that’s because post pandemic, a lot of people are still working from home. They haven’t been called back to their office if they’re working in corporate office spaces in larger urban areas. And so they’re spending more time at home and many times that’s in kind of suburban and Rural Communities. And so because of that people like myself are working remotely They are interested in exploring and kind of being reintroduced to their own downtown’s and their local community. So while it’s certainly been a challenge of resources and kind of a competition of resources, we know that access to Capital is still really slow right now. And some of these businesses, if they were struggling before the pandemic, they’re still struggling. And certainly, you know, things have not necessarily gotten easier for them. But we’ve seen that those businesses that can adapt, really take advantage of that kind of return back to the rural market. And so in terms of American downtown’s, really, those that are investing in placemaking, are the ones that are winning, you know, we know that if people are working in a co working space, they want to go down the street and grab a cup of coffee, and they love to drink that coffee outside, if there’s a beautiful mural next to them, if there’s nice music being played overhead. And so these are the things that we are working with our Rural Communities on, as they sort of compete with these larger Shopping Centres and Malls is how can you invest in a sense of place and really playing up the authenticity that downtown and community has to offer? And we’re seeing those that do that really, really win through this time?
Craig Patterson I love it. I love it. This is something that I’m passionate about as well. So now question for Linda Farha, you’ve been involved with Retail Strategies involved with some education courses and whatnot. I’ve been involved as well. I’ve done a few lectures around Marketing and Communications. Linda, how did this come about? And what else? What other topics have you been involved with, with Retail Strategies here?
Linda Farha Well, it’s been very exciting that to partner up with Retail Strategies on on this project. And what we started with, we put in, by the way, thank you so much for being involved to Craig, I think your involvement has been very, very helpful to those who have been part of the unit and listening to your lectures, and so on, we put together a program based on our conversation with Jenn and her team. And the first module is basically called the Omni Channel Retail Strategies. And really, it was put together with the local Merchants and Retailers and the economic development centres in mind. So you know, going back to what Jenn was saying, to help these Retailers and to help these Merchants, drive business, create awareness and get people into their stores and buying products. So what we did is we put together the module and the module basically is an hour Program Webinar that is then followed by very focused accelerator sessions that are 30 minutes long. And so we started off with like this broad Omni Channel Retail Strategy kind of fairly broad, the content that is then developed further with the sessions. So the sessions really include everything from content development, which is what you covered, customer segmentation, social content, and social commerce, and live stream selling, as well as pop-ups, pop-ups, and collaboration. So all those things really cover all the the gamut in terms of what are the elements that you can do in terms of driving traffic to your store, and also creating awareness. So it’s also helping the merchants who may believe that they’re small, and they can’t actually create a lot of social content, or they don’t, they’re too small to have live stream selling, or that they believe that you know, that online does not support driving traffic to their stores. So really, to give them a bit of a broad education in terms of how could you actually drive traffic to your store, drive sales without spending a lot of money, and understanding that they have limited people, you know, on their payroll, maybe they’re a one person operation or two. So really looking at their operation and giving them the guidance so that they can actually, you know, sell and create more revenue or awareness and get new customers, the Collab, for example, is a really great one. Because if they actually collaborate with other brands, or they have Pop-ins in their stores, all of a sudden, now they’re driving traffic from the the customer database, or the databases and these other people they’re collaborating with. So there are a number of different things that they could do to drive traffic without spending a lot of money. But it’s really to give them that education. And a lot of the information, I would say is fairly basic, but not basic, not too basic, so that they could actually move the needle, you know, they can actually make things happen. So, you know, it’s been really a great thing. And we’re still working on on a number of different programs for you know, with these particular content in mind will be done by the end of May. And then we’ll move on to other other potential geographic areas and a new format, which we’ll talk about in a few minutes.
Craig Patterson Terrific. Now, Linda, also, there’s some one on one assistance, I think, after some of the lectures tell me a bit about that as well.
Linda Farha So you know, when we provide the content, of course, we don’t know every individual in terms of the intricacies of their business. So what we do is after the session And after each of the six sessions that we have, we provided an opportunity for them to reach out the people that are in attendance to complete a handout, where they start thinking about, you know, diving deeper into their own personal content, so they can actually understand their business relative to the content that we presented. And then we booked a personalized one on one session, and that personalized one on one session allows us to give them in essence consultation for them, you know, providing them real guidance to, if they’re talking about social content, how are they going to develop social content specific for their needs, and they’re, who they’re trying to try to attract in terms of customers, and who their target audiences so really dive deeper into their specific needs. So that it’s actually not just a very generic assistance, but a really personalized assistance. And I think that that’s a really good thing, because the reality is, is that we can all listen to content. But you know, we the content, we’re not quite sure how to adapt it to our own personal needs. But that’s where you know, that personalized one on one session is really helpful.
Craig Patterson Terrific. Now, is there anything about the new content that’s gonna be coming after may that can be shared? And that’s a question for either of you.
Linda Farha Well, what I was referring to there, and I’m sure, Jenn, would like to chime in as well, is that what we’re a lot of people are really time starved. You know, a lot of these people that we’re talking to you, they’re small players, what we’re all time, so whether we’re large businesses or small, so what we’ve decided to do is create an environment where you can listen to the content at your leisure. So basically, it’ll be you know, hosted on a specific platform. And in the time depending on the, agreement that we have, they’ll be able to actually access the content, when they can, at their leisure, when they’re able to actually listen to it. And the one on one sessions, however, the personalized sessions will still remain, so they can listen to the content, and then they can dive deeper at a later time, at their leisure when they can and will book a time specifically for them. So that has, it’s in the works. I don’t know if you want to comment anymore, Jenn. But really, that’s pretty much what it is. Because really, we understand that people, you know, we all sign up for sessions and webinars, and then all of a sudden, our lives become so busy, we can’t make them. So we want to make it so that it’s much easier for people to actually have the ability to listen to the content when they can and learn from it.
Jenn Gregory Yeah, that’s right. I mean, I think we know that entrepreneurs are busy people, right, all of us are busy. But those that are starting new businesses, many times are still in a full time job somewhere else, or maybe they are raising a family and trying to start this business, trying to scale it, trying to grow it. So time is limited. And so we’re so excited about kind of this evolution of the training programs, so that there’s still going to be that element of FaceTime, one to one, if those opportunities are requested. But by March, these business owners will be able to access this information, you know, on their couch at midnight, if that’s the best time for them, or first thing in the morning, you know, on their way to school, whatever it may be. And so really meeting these business owners where they are is what our goal is make this as accessible as possible. And while still providing that kind of ongoing training that Linda mentioned, which is what we love so much, you know, they get a worksheet or a template, you know, to help them kind of put what Linda and her team has taught into practice. So they’re not just hearing it, they’re receiving a tool that can help them, you know, put it into practice for their specific business immediately. And we’ve heard just really great reviews about that component as well. You know, I compare it to go into a conference, those of us that are professionals, you know, we go to conferences, professional development opportunities, and we get so inspired, and we, you know, we, the moment we leave, or we get on that airplane, and we go home, we start putting out fires and, we lose a lot of times the momentum that we had, you know, from that point of inspiration, so our goal is really to keep them inspired, make sure that these elements get implemented. And the first piece of that is making sure that it’s accessible in a way that meets their needs. And I think this new evolution really does that.
Linda Farha And also I you know, what we will do and this is certainly part of the evolution is dive deeper. So for example, they may we may take content on social content development, for example, and maybe a session is all about Facebook, or all about Instagram. So over time, you know, this program is certainly going to evolve beyond just the elements that we have now in it and actually, you know, maybe it’ll evolve beyond an Omni Channel Retail Strategy to another topic. So this is really a program and evolutionary program that you know, touches a lot of Industries. Of course, we’re talking about Retail right now, but there’s a lot of components that we can actually touch on that we haven’t even started. So this is a really a great start to what we believe to be something that can grow tremendously, and provide a lot of guidance, a lot of Retail businesses out there that are looking to, you know, who are struggling to find ways to, you know, to grow their business.
Craig Patterson Now a question for Jenn, Retail Strategies has obviously worked with lots of smaller businesses in the United States, as well as smaller communities and what not, is there anything you can share in terms of expansion plans for Canada, as we’re, you know, obviously a country that also has all kinds of small businesses and lots of smaller communities as well.
Jenn Gregory Yeah, we feel like you know, that it’s somewhat universal in terms of like you just mentioned, most economies, especially in North America, certainly are driven by small businesses, the majority of businesses in the United States, the majority in Canada, you know, Linda and her team, did some research, and it’s about two thirds of all businesses in the United States and Canada, are considered small. And so this is a major part of the economies of both of our countries. And so kind of our plans are in terms of, of moving into the Canadian market, it’ll be relationship based. So we are excited to be going to the ICSC Vegas show. And that’s going to really give us an opportunity, Linda and I both to kind of officially launch this expansion and meet with, you know, Influencers, may be regional economic development leaders. You know, I think the other interesting component of this is funding that’s available. One thing that we think makes this program very unique is that the business that businesses that are participating, they don’t, they don’t invest in these courses themselves. They have sponsors, and naturally, through either the municipality, you know, in the United States, the locality, that local government, or even, you know, the Federal Government’s, there has been really a large amount of funding prioritized for technical assistance for small businesses in both the United States and Canada, and also in our indigenous populations. And so we are really working our way through those opportunities and making sure that our services align with the priorities of both National Governments so that we can really be a tool and a provider of technical assistance that meets the needs. And I think the last thing I’ll mention is that, and Linda hit on this, you know, most of the businesses that we’re working with, you know, they’re successful businesses, but they’ve been doing things a certain way for a really long time. And moving into this digital space is a big jump for them. Also, they their staffs, like Linda mentioned, are small, you’re talking one or two, certainly under five people kind of Micro Enterprises is the term we use. And, you know, so it’s really vital that we focus on what are the first what is the first step and the next step in terms of implementation. Like Linda mentioned, sometimes the training to those of us that are accustomed to Digital media and, and resources like that may think it’s basic, but we want to be sure that, you know, kind of our first job is to convince these businesses that this is something that they need to do, that they can’t not exist in the digital space. Post COVID. We know that that online shopping percentage is creeping up incrementally, you know, it’s not. It’s not an apocalypse by any means. But that number is ever increasing. And so we have met with some businesses through our downtown revitalization partnerships, in particular, that have said I was scared to jump into this, but I did and now my online sales, eclipse my Brick and Mortar sales. And so when we think about kind of what that means for downtown’s, it really shifts the Real Estate also. So you know, we’re seeing Retailers take on smaller square footage, footprints, you know, for kind of that main street frontage space, and reserving a lot of the back of house space for order fulfillment. And that creates jobs, right when people are needing to pack lots of orders for a whole additional store that exists online. You know, they’re hiring folks in that local economy. And we start to see kind of these small scale little Industries being built in rural downtown. So it’s it’s a proven concept, but a lot of the work that Linda and her team are doing is convincing the businesses to take that jump into the digital space, and then kind of work their way through. It’s just very overwhelming and I would imagine that is a universal concept. across both of our countries,
Craig Patterson I think it is here in Canada, we definitely saw a digital shift, they say we moved into the future much faster than we would have normally, because of the pandemic, people were online because they couldn’t go into physical spaces for periods of time, depending if there was Lockdowns. But now we’ve seen people online more than ever, and I know that some small businesses haven’t necessarily been able to keep up. So services like this are terrific.
Linda Farha Yeah, and I think that I think that was really important is that people, you know, we talked about on the tab, but the reality is, is that you can’t look at your business in silos, you’ve got to look at it as a holistic business. So the Digital is part of it, and it can’t be seen as a separate entity, it’s got to be seen as part of it. So you’re dealing with your business in a very integrated way, as opposed to, you know, looking at your online versus your in store and treating them separately, we’ve got to be looked at as part of the whole package. And I think that’s really where the transformation has to occur is that people have to understand that your Brick and Mortar store may drive online sales, but the presence of your store really allows people to actually come in and understand or your your online drives people to your store. I mean, there’s there’s, you know, there are shifts on both sides, and depending on, you know, how you actually utilize a social media and, and your database that you have in terms of communicating to people and, and your website and all the way that you communicate, it allows people to really kind of drive traffic, whether it’s online or in store, but you know, you can’t look at it as two separate entities. And to Jenn’s point, I mean the store becomes your backup, you know, because your shipping center as well, your fulfillment center. So I mean, the reality is, is that they need to look at things in a very holistic way and not in a siloed way. And I think that that’s really what’s the crux of the Omni Channel Retail Strategies program is that you’ve got to look at everything not as separate entities but holistically and integrated.
Craig Patterson Terrific. Now, Linda, you’re Founder of Zenergy communications, you’re also the Chief Connector of pop-up go. Congratulations on 20 years for Zenergy. How did it get started? And tell me a little bit about both of these endeavors?
Linda Farha Yeah, well, I started Zenergy communications, actually to fill a need that I thought was non existent, which is basically helping all sides, all company sizes, you know, if I was working in an Organization, and I tried to find an agency to help me out, and maybe I had limited budgets, or didn’t have budgets of a large Fortune 500 company, but I had the same needs. And I thought, why not set up a boutique firm that answers the needs of whether you’re a small entity or a large entity in the same way and treat each one of those companies or the size of organizations the same way. Because at the end of the day, every company has the same needs a granted, everybody has different budgets. And of course, the needs are very different in terms of the breadth or the depth of the services. But the reality is that we all need the same thing, we all want to drive awareness, we all want to drive sales. So I started off as a PR firm. And over time, now if I fast track to 20 years later, of course, over time, things have changed. And now we have become a service provider of an Omni Channel, Retail, but Omni Channel service provider, where we actually provide services that can cover all gamut in terms of Communications and Marketing. And, you know, we don’t do it in a in a very, you know, individualistic way, we do it in a very holistic way. So that we can, you know, help customers that are looking to develop awareness or grow their brand or, or create new customers or actually even identify gaps in the marketplace. We help them to identify those things. But we do so in a holistic way. And we do it the same way we do with Retail Strategies, we’re looking at it from a broad perspective, but making sure that when you’re on somebody’s website, it’s you’re communicating in a very similar way than if you walk into a store or your whatever your product is. But the reality is, is that we we take what we’ve been doing with Retail Strategies, we’ve been doing those kinds of things for, you know, B2B companies, or, you know, Manufacturers, etc. Because everybody has the same needs, the reality is, that we need to make sure that we’re not, that we’re seeing the same way and that a brand ethos, or the persona of a brand is properly represented across all channels. So I think, you know, we started off as a PR firm, but really, we, you know, you evolved to becoming one that provides those services. Because really, at the end of the day, that’s really what it takes, right? It takes that whole approach of, of understanding what are we trying to achieve, who our customers are, etc, and breaking it down so that we really, you know, at the end of the day, we’re driving ourselves, and we’re actually succeeding, and we’re, you know, our bottom line is growing. So, that’s what we do for all of our customers and we’re really excited but looking at, you know, what are we doing with those who are on our program or with Retail Strategies? How are we helping these small vendors, you know, move the needle, may be not so fast. but move the needle. So we do that with all sorts of Organizations.
Craig Patterson Let’s quickly talk about pop-up go as well. We can talk about a pop-up Retail even in smaller communities. I don’t know if that’s quite as big of a thing. But, but But Linda, you started pop-up go a few years ago.
Linda Farha Yeah. So pop-up go, I started five years ago. And I would say actually pop-up go is interesting, because really, what we were doing at the time was to serve a need, which was basically, you know, there a lot of vacancies, people wanted to test a product, or they want to test a new brand, they wanted to test something, but they didn’t want to commit to a long term lease. And five years ago, people were saying, Well, you know, it was very difficult for a lot of brands to do so because a lot of Landlords were, you know, they were reticent, they didn’t really want to, you know, open the door to short term leases. It’s interesting how the pandemic and the changes in the marketplace have really created an environment where actually landlords are happy to have that, because they recognize the fact that, you know, if I have a pop-up, well, you know, you create that whole FOMO fear of missing out. So you know, you create that traffic, because normally pop-ups are shorter, you know, they’re the shorter term, they’re maybe there for a few months, or 10 days, or whatever it may be, but they’re driving traffic in a, in a more was higher volume in general, because, you know, they’re creating an environment where they may not be there for long and, and I would say that pop-ups, they’re not only in big centers, there are a lot of we’ve been getting a lot of requests for pop ups in secondary markets and smaller markets, you know, from all kinds, right, they’re not just for, you know, brands of or retail brands, or the only fashion brands, but they could be, you know, entertainment or art exhibitions or, you know, whatever. Basically, they’re all over the map in terms of the types of, of activations and, you know, I touched on pop-ins earlier, but what pop-ins are basically a pop-up within a store. So, you know, even though we’re talking about small town, USA, or a small town, Canada, you may have a small retailer who maybe has a small part of let’s say, a jewelry pop-up their fashion retailer, but they don’t sell jewelry, but they get a pop up that comes in pop in that goes into their store, a jewelry brand. And all of a sudden now that retailer is driving traffic from that jeweler that they may not have had before. And again, you know, if it’s a short term thing, it drives traffic. And it creates a urgency because they’re not there for a long time. So I would say that pop-up go really helped a lot of these smaller merchants find a place to actually drive traffic and you know, and create awareness. So pop-up, though, was really in need of the reality of the public goes supported by his energy services. Because once you do a pop-up or when you’re creating a pop-up while you need all the services that we talked about in our omni channel program. So it all fits together very nicely.
Craig Patterson Thank you so much for joining me today. This has been Jenn Gregory. She’s the President of Downtown Strategies at US based Retail Strategies in Birmingham, Alabama. Thank you so much for joining us, Jenn.
Jenn Gregory Thank you so much, Craig, great to be with you.
Craig Patterson And Linda Farhan out of Toronto. You’re the Founder and President of Zenergy Communications as well of course the Chief Connector of pop-up go. Thank you so much for joining us today here as well, Linda. Pleasure.
Linda Farha Pleasure, Thank you for having us.
Craig Patterson And I’m Craig Patterson. I’m the founder, CEO and publisher of Retail Insider Media Limited. I’m also the host of the Retail Insider video interview series. Thank you so much everyone for joining us today. Whether or not you’re watching us here on video or listening to this through our podcast channel. Thank you so much again. Take care and bye for now.
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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.
Montreal-based Lolë, a global apparel brand producing elevated athleisure, active and outerwear designed to last, plans to open three additional stores in Canada this year after recently acquiring San Francisco-based époque évolution, an upscale, female-founded collection of ethically crafted, high fashion and function everyday essentials for women.
CEO Todd Steele said the retailer plans to grow the époque évolution brand as well.
Todd Steele
“We’re thrilled to welcome époque évolution and its founder, Nancy Taylor, to the Lolë family,” said Steele. “She brings decades of design experience, along with extensive knowledge and innovation in sustainable fashion, and we look forward to seeing how both brands evolve in this exciting new chapter.”
Taylor will maintain her current role at époque évolution while also stepping into the role of Head of Design and Creative Director for Lolë.
Steele said époque évolution was started in 2018.
Lolë at Toronto Pearson Airport – Terminal 1
“We’re interested in the brand for a few reasons. The first is just Nancy as a talent. She’s got a tremendous amount of experience in we’ll call athleisure, active lifestyle apparel, and we thought she could do even more for us and for our business. We brought her in house and had her work across our brands,” said Steele.
“The brands Lolë and époque both share similar values around sustainability, around fair trade, around making product the right way for both our customers and the world at large. So that was really important to her and to us.
“Finally and most importantly, we think that she really identified a white space that maybe’s not the focal point of most of our competition, which is taking these active fabrics and applying them to silhouettes that are maybe a little more sophisticated and appropriate for the office, for travel, at slightly higher price points. We do see as people return to the office and as people emerge from this post COVID world the need to want to dress up but want to still carry with them the comfort and versatility that comes with some of these fabric choices.”
Image: LoleLolë and époque évolution Logo (CNW Group/Lolë Brands)
Steele said époque does not have any retail stores. It is a 100 per cent direct to consumer business over the web.
“We’ll look to probably add some of their product in the short term to our retail stores but over time we’d like to begin to test brick and mortar retail for them as well. They also have no wholesale business but we do think there’s plenty of retailers, premium retailers, out there that would be appropriate for the brand,” added Steele.
Lolë, which began in 2002, currently has 10 locations – four corporate owned stores (two in the U.S. and two in Canada) and six partner stores in Canada.
“We’ve got plans to open up three new Canadian stores this year,” he said. “One in the Montreal area and two in Toronto.
“We had pre-COVID somewhere around 40 stores globally and obviously as we restructured the business we closed many of those stores. I think we’d like to do three to five stores a year. I think it will continue to be reasonable growth. But yes we absolutely believe in the brick and mortar retail experience.”
It also has a fairly substantial wholesale business where its products can be found in such retail locations as The Bay, the Forzani Group of retailers, SAIL, Sporting Life, Nordstrom. Lolë clothing can be found at more than 1,500 retail outlets around the world.
Image: epoqueevolution.com
After holding senior design positions at Athleta and Gaiam before starting époque évolution in 2018, Taylor witnessed a real need for change in the way things were done in fast fashion.
“It’s all about choices: better materials, better production partners. We’ve proven that you can be fashionable in a way that functions in your real life, and maintains environmentally sound values,” said Taylor. “This is an incredible opportunity to grow the brand with the help of Lolë’s amazing team, operations and distribution network.”
Lolë was created in 2002 by Evelyn Trempe when she spotted a gap in women’s technical outerwear. She noticed that the selection of women’s travel and outerwear was bland and lacked style. So she set off on a mission to create an inspiring collection for women who want to get out there and live out loud every day, says the company on its website.
“Fast-forward to today, Lolë has evolved into a global brand with a mission to inspire mindfulness. From smart consumption to unique experiences, we create to make you feel good, day and night, at work or play, year after year.”
Canadian entrepreneur Doug Putman is launching a new Canadian home store brand called rooms + spaces in 21 retail locations formerly occupied by Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuyBABY storefronts.
Putman is acquiring more than 800,000 square feet of real estate and the new stores will open in early summer.
“With so many empty storefronts across the country right now, Canadians are craving enjoyable in-store shopping experiences, where they can see and touch products, especially when it comes to outfitting a home. I see such a strong opportunity to invest in Canadian retail and I’m always looking for new opportunities,” said Putman, founder of Ancaster-based Putman Investments.
“The creation of a new home brand was a natural addition to my retail portfolio, which now provides shoppers with everything they need across the baby, toy and home categories.
“We just went through the (available leases) and estimated what we thought we could potentially do in sales and then kind of looked at what the rent agreements would be. If we thought we could make the store profitable we took it on. There were some stores that we didn’t feel we could make profitable either sales we thought would be too low or rents were too high. Ideally I would have loved to take all 55 but in the end it came down to the stores we got. Since this release, we signed a couple more as well. We know we’re going to be above 21 stores. It’s now just seeing how many other deals we can get across the line. I’m still hoping we have more than 30 stores by the end of the year.”
Photo supplied
The entrepreneur’s retail portfolio includes Toys”R”Us and Babies”R”Us Canada, Sunrise Records, Alex Brands (including Alex Toys in the US), T.Kettle, hmv in the UK and more.
Doug Putman. Image supplied
The new retail concept will cater to the modern shopper who is looking to create spaces throughout their home that reflect their unique personality and style. The stores will carry a broad range of products for every room in the home. From essentials such as kitchen gadgets and luxurious towels to unique items like bed wedges, cherry pitters and charcuterie sets, the stores will have everything needed to transform a space, whether it be a house, apartment or cottage, into a home.
rooms + spaces is actively hiring 500 associates and will open more positions in the near future. Interested candidates are asked to apply online at roomsandspaces.ca.
The new retailer said it will support Canadian businesses and suppliers wherever possible and carry iconic brands, such as oxo, Homedics, Cuisinart, Martex and more.
The company will be led by Greg Dyer, formerly General Manager of Bed Bath & Beyond Canada.
“I can’t wait to welcome shoppers into our new Canadian-owned rooms + spaces stores this summer,” said Dyer, President, rooms + spaces. “Our team is excited about creating product assortments tailored to Canadian homes and decorating styles. Whether it’s couples seeking affordable decorating or entertaining solutions, or parents supporting the needs of students moving away to school, our store associates are here to help consumers find everything they need to make their home their own.”
The stores will be located in former Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY locations in the following cities:
British Columbia:
Kelowna: Orchard Plaza, 1540 Keehn Road
Langley: Langley City Square, 19860 Langley Bypass
Vancouver: 1740 West Broadway
Victoria: Mayfair, 775 Finlayson Street
Alberta:
Calgary: Brentwood Village, 3630 Brentwood Road
Calgary: Chinook Station, 306 Glenmore Trail SW
Edmonton: South Edmonton Common, 2021-98 Street NW
Edmonton: West Edmonton Mall, 8882 170 Street
Saskatchewan:
Regina: Grasslands, 4855 Gordon Road
Saskatoon: Preston West, 1709 Preston Avenue North
Ontario:
Belleville: Bell Front Shopping Centre, 366 North Front Street
East Gwillimbury: Green Lane Centre, 1-18126 Yonge Street
Kitchener: The Boardwalk, 225 The Boardwalk
London: Westwood Centre, 3325 Wonderland Road
Richmond Hill: Bayview Ridge Shopping Centre, 225 High Tech Road
Stittsville: 5487 Hazeldean Road
Stoney Creek: Heritage Greene, 1783 Stone Church Road East
Whitby: Thickson Ridge Power Centre, 1650 Victoria Street East
Woodbridge: RioCan Colossus Centre, 67 Colossus Drive
Newfoundland:
St. John’s: The Village Shopping Centre, 430 Topsail Road
Putman said the available lease locations were attractive.
“There’s not a ton of medium, large box space available and Bed Bath had good real estate to begin with. So getting these locations is good for us and obviously we want to be where the traffic is and where people are going to buy. We like the centres that we’re in,” he said.
Putman said the new retail concept began as soon as he started hearing there were troubles with Bed Bath & Beyond.
“We look at a lot of opportunities in retail. There’s obviously been a bit more now, recently. So any time something comes up we’re always thinking about the space and do we believe it’s a large enough opportunity for us and do we believe we can fix the problems that whatever that company has had,” he said.
“I think on the Bed Bath piece we felt it was a great retailer at one time. They had their troubles. Payment became an issue. Vendors stopped shipping. They made some poor decisions and all of a sudden the business is in a lot of trouble, but overall the top line of the business was really strong. Customers were shopping there. Customers enjoy it. They’re not happy they don’t have the right stock and things like that.”
Photo supplied
Putman said the home decor and furnishing sector is a huge category in the retail industry with billions of dollars spent on it.
“I think it just checked a lot of our boxes of being a business that was big enough and interesting enough for us and the opportunity was there. It just all worked out well for us,” he said.
There were no financial details released about the lease transactions, although sources have said the purchase prices for leases was somewhere in the $3 million range.
Putman said the new brand has purchased all new inventory for its stores.
“We believe it’s going to be successful because we have the capital to allow the team to purchase the inventory that they need with a focus on brands. And I think the team we’ve assembled, the merchants, are very knowledgeable and I think they understand the category really well. So I think the assortment is going to come out looking fantastic when we get opened,” he said.
“It was one of the categories that benefited through the pandemic of spending. But even if you look at the Bed Bath numbers pre-pandemic in 2019, 2018, 2017, they always had really good robust sales, good robust earnings . . . They were doing exceptionally well for many years. So the pandemic was good for them and that probably helped mask a lot of the issues they were having. So when sales kind of dropped back down it was a big problem.
“We think the home category is going to continue to grow. Everyone wants to have a space that they love and enjoy whether that’s their house, their apartment, their dorm, their condo. So I think if you have the right product at the right price then I think you’ve got a winning formula. We’re not trying to compete with a Walmart or a TJX. Our outlook is there’s this great big mid-space where you can do a good, better, best assortment and not be in a race to the bottom to have the cheapest towel or the cheapest blanket. To have something that’s a good price but is a great quality product.”
The retail giant announced Tuesday it was acquiring 10 of those leases for $1.6 million.
Acquiring these leases will enable CTC to continue building on the growth of its Mark’s and Pro Hockey Life (PHL) banners. CTC has designated six of the 10 leases acquired for Mark’s relocations in Grande Prairie, Medicine Hat, Red Deer and Strathcona County (Alberta), Langley (BC), and Oakville (Ontario), it said.
In addition to the Mark’s relocations, the agreement will allow CTC to implement plans for four new Pro Hockey Life (PHL) stores in Ontario. The 10 leases combined represent more than 242,000 square feet of retail space, added the company.
Retail Ventures CND Inc. was retained by Bed Bath & Beyond Canada LP and Alvarez & Marsal Canada Inc. (court monitor), to facilitate the sale of leases or other property rights for 54 leases of Bed Bath & Beyond and the 11 leases of Buy Buy Baby across the country.
Sam Winberg, Principal/Broker of Retail Ventures CND, said the brokerage worked under the direction of Dave Rosenblatt, Partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, LLP in Toronto, in the process that concluded on March 31.
A large and innovative food hall will open in downtown Toronto’s Financial District this summer at the CIBC SQUARE complex. Called TABLE Fare + Social, the food hall will compete with others nearby at a time when foot traffic is down in Toronto’s core.
The TABLE food hall is a partnership with Ivanhoé Cambridge and Hines, which developed the CIBC SQUARE office complex which spans 50 floors and about three million square feet over two phases. The approximately35,000 square foot food hall itself will be located on the fourth floor of the first phase at 81 Bay Street.
A “multifunctional space with various seating areas” will be included, “from communal tables to quiet alcoves in the library and al fresco dining”, according to a press release. A range of food will be available, from Thai to Japanese and local options to create diversity and to reflect the diversity of the city. Tenants will be announced at a later date. The goal is to create an experiential space with year-round programming that includes food tastings, cooking classes, live music, pop-up events, trivia nights, and others to be announced.
The food hall’s target audience includes attendees at the Scotiabank Arena entertainment facility which is located across the street, as well as commuters from nearby Union Station and the thousands of office workers in Toronto’s downtown core. While foot traffic is down significantly in downtown Toronto as many work from home, things are expected to improve into the summer as more office workers return to work in the Financial District in the coming months.
CIBC SQUARE on May 3, 2023. Photo: Dustin FuhsImage supplied
A nearby residential boom will also add customers to the new TABLE food hall — thousands of multi-family units have been built in the area in recent years and many more are on the way.
The food hall will be open six days a week from the morning into the evenings, offering options such as morning coffee, lunch options, pre-game cocktails and dinner options depending on timing. The space was designed by DesignLSM and The Behar Group is handling leasing. At the moment, The Behar Group is looking for additional food tenants for TABLE Fare + Social.
Avi Behar, Chairman and CEO of The Behar Group, said that the new TABLE Fare + Social will be unlike anything currently in downtown Toronto. The setup will include a range of first-class vendors and seating depending on one’s preference — that includes quieter areas near ‘The Library’ while others may choose to be closer to the action near a central bar area. Private dining areas in the food hall can be booked for events, meetings, talks and other activities, creating an amenity for the office complex above as well as businesses and people in the area. TABLE will connect to a licensed privately owned public park space which will become a draw for the area and an added attraction for the food hall.
TABLE will compete with nearby food and beverage offerings at Union Station, which has been under renovations for years while adding new tenants catering to visitors and locals. Toronto’s Financial District, including the expansive underground PATH network, is home to hundreds of food offerings along its corridors and in food courts located at the base of office towers. Other food halls in the area include Chef’s Hall at 111 Richmond Street and another operated by Oliver & Bonacini which is under construction at CF Toronto Eaton Centre. Further out, a food hall will be opening this year at The Well in downtown Toronto as well the Waterworks project nearby.
(CNW Group/TABLE)Rendering of the completed CIBC SQUARE via Ivanhoé CambridgeRendering of the completed CIBC SQUARE via Ivanhoé Cambridge
“TABLE will deliver an innovative and dynamic culinary experience to the heart of Toronto. At CIBC SQUARE, we are committed to creating vibrant and engaging spaces that reflect the needs and interests of the communities we serve. TABLE is a great example of this, bringing together a diverse mix of vendors, activities, and programming to create a truly extraordinary and memorable destination,” said David Hoffman, General Manager at CIBC SQUARE. “We look forward to seeing TABLE thrive and grow as a hub for social interaction, culinary exploration, and community engagement in Toronto.”
“We are proud to see our collective efforts in the creation of TABLE come to life, which will undoubtedly become a sought-after gathering place for Toronto residents and visitors alike. We are committed to curating an exciting and diverse culinary experience that reflects the rich heritage and dynamic food scene in Canada. With TABLE, we aim to provide a space that fosters a sense of community, belonging and connection,” says Sunita Mahant, Head of Social Impact & Inclusion, Sustainable Investments, at Ivanhoé Cambridge. “We cannot wait to welcome everyone to TABLE and invite them to pull up a chair, connect with others, and savour what TABLE has to offer.”
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.
Canadian Tire at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Canadian Tire Corporation is expanding its Mark’s store footprint with the acquisition of several real estate leases formerly held by Bed, Bath & Beyond in Canada.
The retail giant announced Tuesday it was acquiring 10 of those leases for $1.6 million.
Acquiring these leases will enable CTC to continue building on the growth of its Mark’s and Pro Hockey Life (PHL) banners. CTC has designated six of the 10 leases acquired for Mark’s relocations in Grande Prairie, Medicine Hat, Red Deer and Strathcona County (Alberta), Langley (BC), and Oakville (Ontario), it said.
“Following our 10th consecutive quarter of growth in Q4 2022, Mark’s is continuing to build on its incredible momentum in the Canadian market by strategically relocating six retail spaces to more convenient and larger sites,” said PJ Czank, President of Mark’s, in a statement. “These relocated stores will feature more products and deeper assortments of our best brands to meet the needs of our customers in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.”
Photo: Bed Bath & Beyond
In addition to the Mark’s relocations, the agreement will allow CTC to implement plans for four new Pro Hockey Life (PHL) stores in Ontario. The 10 leases combined represent more than 242,000 square feet of retail space, added the company.
Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited is a group of companies that includes a Retail segment, a Financial Services division and CT REIT. Its retail business is led by Canadian Tire, which was founded in 1922 and provides Canadians with products for life in Canada across its Living, Playing, Fixing, Automotive and Seasonal & Gardening divisions. Party City, PartSource and Gas+ are key parts of the Canadian Tire network. The Retail segment also includes Mark’s, a leading source for casual and industrial wear; Pro Hockey Life, a hockey specialty store catering to elite players; and SportChek, Hockey Experts, Sports Experts and Atmosphere, which offer the best active wear brands.
There are close to 1,700 retail and gasoline outlets. In addition, CTC owns and operates Helly Hansen, a leading technical outdoor brand based in Oslo, Norway.
Retail Ventures CND Inc. was retained by Bed Bath & Beyond Canada LP and Alvarez & Marsal Canada Inc. (court monitor), to facilitate the sale of leases or other property rights for 54 leases of Bed Bath & Beyond and the 11 leases of Buy Buy Baby across the country.
Pro Hockey Life at South Edmonton Common
Sam Winberg, Principal/Broker of Retail Ventures CND, said the brokerage worked under the direction of Dave Rosenblatt, Partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, LLP in Toronto, in the process that concluded on March 31.
He said 48 leases were “purchased”.
“There were a total of 65 leases for sale but through the due diligence process some leases were not able to be sold. Various reasons like insufficient term, exclusives or restrictions,” he said.
“Some landlords bought back their own leases to control future tenancy. Retailers bought the rest of the stores. There is very little large format space available in the better power centres across Canada. Demand for space is stronger than supply.”
In a previous Retail Insider story, Winberg, who was an original founder of Northwest Atlantic Canada in 1991, which was sold to JLL in 2018, said interested parties could purchase the lease and have the courts endorse the assignment.
“When Bed Bath & Beyond filed (under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act), the Monitor reached out to us because we had experience doing this and have asked us to help them in trying to create value from the 65 leases that Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby have.
“During (court) filings, the Monitor’s job is to try to create value to pay debts of the filing company.”
Bed Bath & Beyond’s flagship store in the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan
Court documents filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on February 10 under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act indicated that the Bed Bath & Beyond Group has been in financial difficulty for the past several years, suffering significant net losses since 2018.
“Over this period, BBB Canada itself has seen dramatic declines in revenues. In an effort to improve the Bed Bath & Beyond Group’s financial performance, former management embarked on a series of initiatives designed to transform the business. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic and the broader economic downturn significantly disrupted the Bed Bath & Beyond Group’s operations, putting further financial strain on the entire enterprise, including BBB Canada, and hindering the transformational efforts of management,” said the documents.
“The Bed Bath & Beyond Group’s situation significantly worsened throughout 2022, with declining year-over-year sales in both the United States and Canada, multiple credit rating downgrades, cash flow constraints, and significant inventory reductions. Cash constraints caused delays and stoppages of merchandise shipments to BBB Canada’s stores, causing inventory levels to decrease dramatically.”
As of January 31, BBB LP employed approximately 387 full-time employees and 1,038 part-time employees in connection with its retail operations across Canada.
“The North American retail industry has experienced a period of rapid change and shifting consumer demands over the past number of years. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers like the Bed Bath & Beyond Group faced dramatic declines in retail foot traffic as consumers shifted their spending to online platforms like Amazon and Wayfair. The rapid changes resulted in a surge of retail bankruptcy filings,” said the court documents. “The Bed Bath & Beyond Group was not immune to the foregoing challenges. By 2018, its revenues were declining and it was reporting significant net losses. Recognizing the need to quickly adapt, the Bed Bath & Beyond Group’s former management developed a comprehensive plan to transform its business and position itself for long-term success.
Closed Store Signage at Bed Bath & Beyond Lincoln Square in Manhattan (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
“Unfortunately, the Bed Bath & Beyond Group’s efforts to restructure its operations was interrupted in its early stages by the global COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic extended beyond the immediate effect of store closures and resulted in global supply chain disruptions and persistent inflation. Ultimately, the Bed Bath & Beyond Group’s liquidity constraints resulted in a significant number of key suppliers either tightening or revoking the ability of the Bed Bath & Beyond Group to access inventory on credit.
“In 2022, the Bed Bath & Beyond Group announced that it had taken steps to address its liquidity constraints and improve its balance sheet and cash flows. The process of remedying the Bed Bath & Beyond Group’s business and financial decline, however, continued to be complex and challenging throughout the Fall of 2022. While the Bed Bath & Beyond Group successfully reduced its accounts payable, raised gross proceeds of approximately US $75 million through an at-the-market offering program, and cleared out a significant portion of its excess private-label goods, inventory issues continued to plague the Bed Bath & Beyond Group through the 2022 holiday season.”
Holt Renfrew at Yorkdale Shopping Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Have you ever gone to a store to try on shoes before going on to buy them elsewhere? Or had a salesperson talk you through the advantages of different models of printers before buying a cheaper version online? If so, you have engaged in “showrooming.”
Showrooming is the practice of visiting brick-and-mortar retail stores to research a product before buying it elsewhere at a lower price. It allows consumers to look and test out products before spending their money on them.
In addition, research has found that brick-and-mortar businesses do indeed suffer from this type of consumer behaviour. Showrooming puts retailers under price pressure by intensifying competition and squeezing margins.
But this isn’t always the case. Recent years have seen stores that encourage showrooming, like Best Buy, and companies like Amazon, that have invested in bricks-and-mortar stores, to flourish. This suggests the reality of showrooming might be a little more complicated than initially thought.
Our research took into account several different types of consumers. Some consumers were pickier than others and preferred to shop at stores with more product variety, while others engaged in showrooming.
Crucially, those who showroomed didn’t engage in price-comparison shopping — they did their research ahead of time and knew exactly what products and prices to seek out.
Some shoppers didn’t engage in showrooming because they felt guilty about buying a product elsewhere after a salesperson spent time marketing a product to them, or had no time to visit many different venues.
But other consumers were not-so-choosy and opted to shop at stores with less variety, with the intent of making a purchase, so long as they found a product that was a good enough fit. If they didn’t find an acceptable fit, they moved onto another store.
Mountain Warehouse at Square One (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Our research found that only this last kind of consumer — the not-so-choosy consumer who doesn’t showroom — was the key to determining prices. Their choices and behaviours determine product prices in any given sector.
The reason why showrooming can increase prices is because most consumers — including showroomers — do not compare prices. This leads stores to increase their prices (even just slightly) to make more profit.
Stores and consumer behaviour
Our research differs from past studies in a crucial way. Instead of assuming there is only one kind of store where consumers can discover how suitable a product is, our research accounted for three different types of stores.
The first type, known as deep stores, carry many varieties of products within a certain category. Best Buy, for example, carries many types of television to allow consumers to find the product that suits them best. Deep stores tend to charge higher prices because their shoppers are more likely to make a purchase. Picky consumers tend to shop here.
The second type, known as shallow stores, carry many different types of products, but fewer brands within each product category. Walmart and Costco are examples of shallow stores. These types of stores tend to have lower prices, and less picky consumers tend to shop there.
Walmart Supercentre at Square One (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Lastly, online stores offer the widest variety of goods (and usually at the lowest prices), but don’t allow consumers to test out products. The mix of consumers at these three store types affects how retailers price their products by shaping the shopping experience.
Broader implications
As showrooming becomes more widespread — and easier to do thanks to online shopping — prices across the retail industry could increase, depending on price sensitivities and the overall mix of different kinds of consumers.
Ultimately, the range of different kinds of stores determines how people shop. Consumers’ shopping patterns and behaviours, in turn, determine prices.
While the perceived threat of showrooming has led to strong policy proposals — like one minister in Spain that proposed retailers should charge shoppers for using changing rooms — our study suggests the effects of showrooming are more subtle than initially thought.
Understanding showrooming requires thinking about the impact the practice has on consumer shopping patterns and how stores respond to them. Retailers, policymakers and observers should be wary of over-emphasizing the role showrooming plays in bringing down prices and changing the retail landscape.
By Heski Bar-Isaac, Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance, University of Toronto and Sandro Shelegia, Associate Professor, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Kelowna-based The Chopped Leaf, which opened its first location in the BC city in 2007, has grown to more than 100 locations in five provinces with plans to add another 30 locations this year.
The Chopped Leaf, owned and managed by Innovative Food Brands, is focusing on Ontario, Manitoba and Atlantic Canada and locations are franchisee-owned and operated.
The brand was founded by Blair Stevens and his wife Karla.
“We’re in the quick service world. We’ve told our consumers we’re more so the full-service experience put into a quick service manner,” said Blair Stevens, President & Founder of The Chopped Leaf. “Our pride and joy is serving salads, bowls and wraps along with a few sandwiches and quesadillas.
“What makes our brand special there’s no doubt about it is the flavours of it. All our dressings and soups are those same recipes that my wife and I developed from day one that are unique recipes to the brand. We offer dine-in and takeout experiences.’
Image: The Chopped Leaf
The fun and upbeat tone of the ad encourages viewers to try out the Shake-A-Bowl and experience the joy of shaking their own salads. The commercial was created by award-winning advertising agency, Crew, and directed by, Rob Tarry. The campaign will be rolled out across various media channels, including social media and national broadcast TV.
He said the original menu was created in the Stevens home kitchen.
“We knew that salads were the base of the menu. Karla and I would brainstorm over each family dinner and lay out what we thought was best. Karla would then get to work producing numerous dressings to test. Every home meal for some time ended up being a potential chopped leaf menu item,” said Stevens.
The name, The Chopped Leaf, came from the idea of a herb cutter (mezzaluna) chopping the lettuce.
Today’s new menu includes nine flavours available as a bowl, wrap, salad and the new shake-a-bowl packaging makes it easy to eat a fresh, healthy meal on the go.
“I came out of high school and worked some construction. My old man always said listen if you made some money we’ll match it and we can get into business together,” said Stevens. “I started off I owned a franchise of Blimpies Subs and Salads in Edmonton. Grew a second location. And then a couple of buddies and I had an idea of developing the Wok Box concept about 18, 19 years ago in downtown Edmonton.
“I was part of that initial growth with the Wok Box but living in Edmonton I knew my wife and I always wanted to relocate to Kelowna. That’s where we got married. We always wanted to do a brand that associated to our lifestyle so we began the search of a salad brand because there was continuous salads at our dining room table. On our searches we noticed that there was a salad craze happening down in the big metro cities in the USA and we knew we could take what they had and Canadianize it. We worked on the recipes and concept for over a year and we were able to come across an existing restaurant that is close to home and figured we’d throw everything in and try to make it happen.”
Image: The Chopped Leaf
He said average stores are about 1,300 square feet and the brand lends itself to larger power centres with big anchors with lots of parking and easy access.
The average store has about 20 to 24 seats in it.
“A very efficient, compact lay out,” said Stevens.
“We’ve always been taking it since day one. It’s not about the numbers. It’s all about the quality over the quantity. But with that said, we are pushing, we’re coast to coast today. We definitely want to be focusing in on the Ontario market along with Quebec and the Atlantic. We are attending our first US multi-unit franchise conference here soon and we’ll be doing a big US push over the Q3, Q4 this year. We’re really excited about that for sure.
“We’ve been working on our brand for the past two and a half years. Of course, COVID was fun to deal with. But it was a good testament of how strong our brand was. We didn’t have one closure. We’ve rejigged our menu to simplify it for a better customer experience. We worked on this thing for a year and a half and we were able to just launch it a couple of weeks ago. It’s called One Bowl where it’s not only a simpler customer experience but it’s easy for us to execute behind the line which drives to a better consumer experience.”
