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.
Fitness concept StretchLab has launched an aggressive plan to roll out the business in Canada.
The first Canadian location opened in March in Toronto.
“We just grand opened our very first Canada location and tremendous success,” said Verdine Baker, Brand President.
“Going into different countries, not that we were nervous, but we were intrigued as to how we would perform. And looking at how Toronto performed in their build, ramping up their member base ahead of opening and the just the resounding yes of that Toronto community in yes we want this and need this has been pretty amazing to see.”
Image: StretchLab
Verdine Baker
The corporate office is in Irvine, California, just south of Los Angeles. The concept started in 2015 in Venice Beach, California. A second location followed about a year later in Santa Monica and then one opened on Beverly Boulevard in the heart of Los Angeles in Beverly Hills.
“The two founders were a couple of gentlemen – a personal trainer and his client who is a lawyer,” said Baker. “This started out as the trainer training the client and the trainer would typically reserve the last five to 10 minutes of the session for some kind of manual stretch as a way to aid recovery and cool down from the workout.
“And increasingly over time, the lawyer kept on maybe using his lawyer negotiation skills to ask for more time on the stretch as opposed to the workout and they turned that into an actual stretch session and I would presume that’s when they had their aha moment to start the concept.
“Obviously, stretching has been around forever but at that time in 2015 there weren’t a whole lot of brick and mortar spaces that offered stretching specifically as a one on one service.”
Image: StretchLab
In about 2017, the CEO of Xponential Fitness, which has about 10 fitness brands, took over the brand from the two original founders and the right to franchise it.
“And we’ve been off to the races ever since,” said Baker.
Today, there are just over 300 locations.
Baker said the brand has licenses sold in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto. The goal is to build the brand presence north of the border. There is no target right now for how many locations will open in Canada eventually.
Baker said the same approach is being implemented as in the US where the brand is taken to communities that understand health and wellness and is something of importance to them. Expansion is the goal.
“Fast expansion is what we do and I’m looking forward to doing that in Canada,” he said.
“No two bodies are the same and no two stretches at StretchLab are the same. One-on-one stretching is about identifying tightness and imbalances in your body and customizing a stretch routine that is just for you. Our clients may come in with pain, tightness or specific focus areas, but they keep coming back and commit to their flexibility journey once they experience the freedom that comes with having a wider range of motion and flexibility,” says the company on its website.
The company says its proprietary Flexologist Training Program is an intensive and thorough program that each of its Flexologists must complete prior to joining StretchLab. This is the first Nationally Accredited program from ICE – the Institute for Credentialing Excellence. During their required 60-70+ hours of theory and hands-on training, the Flexologists learn the muscular system, a variety of assisted stretches and how to work with a variety of clients of all ages and body types.
“Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (whew!) is the method we use in our one-on-one stretches and certain stretches in our group sessions. Basically, your flexologist will put you in position and ask you to contract certain muscles and hold the contraction for a few moments. This advanced form of stretching is very beneficial in increasing range of motion and getting maximum benefits,” it says.
“Static stretching is holding a stretch for a set amount of time. Dynamic stretching includes some sort of movement associated with the stretch. We use a combination of these methods during every group and one-on-one stretch.”
While Canadians are often holding their breath as they approach their grocery store cash register these days, it appears our grocers’ C-Suite chains are just getting richer. Galen Weston, President and CEO of Loblaws will get a hefty raise this year, $11.7 million in salaries and bonuses, up significantly from 2021. Even though these past 12 months have been marked by historical food price inflation for consumers, the Loblaws Board felt Mr. Weston was underpaid.
Lovely timing, just lovely. Every two years, according to the company’s press release, Loblaws hires an external consultant to review salaries, making sure the chain’s compensation plan remains competitive. The consultant report underscored Mr. Weston’s noncompetitive salary and recommended a significant increase, and the Board obliged.
There are two ways of looking at this decision. From a corporate perspective, Galen Weston was indeed underpaid. The average CEO receives a salary of $14.3 million, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Loblaws’ shares have also outperformed the market in recent months. Each share is now worth over $125, the highest they’ve ever been. Hard not to recognize the company’s sound financial state. Loblaws is a very well-run organization.
The fact that CEOs may be earning too much in general notwithstanding, Mr. Weston’s salary increase was well-deserved. The compensation package for Nuvei’s CEO Philip Fayer was worth more than $140 million. GFL’s Patrick Dovigi was given a package exceeding $40 million, and he’s 43. Galen Weston was the 35th best-paid CEO in Canada before this announced raise.
If you are selling tires, clothing or industrial equipment, that’s morally and socially more acceptable. Loblaws, on the other hand, is arguably more than a grocer. It’s a real estate investment fund, a bank, a pharmacy, a clothing retailer and more. But since Mr. Weston is continually on television selling food to Canadians, he is very much seen as a grocer. And that’s the problem.
There is more at stake when your business, at least partially, is about selling food, a necessity of life. From an ethical point of view, it is indeed a hard pill to swallow for many. A few days ago, the federal government purposely labelled their new, enhanced GST rebate, the “grocery rebate,” to make a point. Canadians need help, and we all need to do our part, one way or another. This announcement is plainly indicative of how out of touch the Loblaws Board really is.
When hearing of Mr. Weston’s raise, Canadians would have likely thought of two specific issues. For one, consumers will wonder how much from that can of soup or that cucumber they’re buying at a Loblaws-operated store will be going into Mr. Weston’s pocket. The other issue concerns front-line workers. Over 40,000 employees will get a pay increase, according to the release, but the company employs well over 200,000 people. It is the largest private employer in Canada. Many Loblaws employees will wonder what’s in it for them. Not great for morale.
And it’s not just Loblaws. Sobeys and Metro have also made similar decisions in the past. Boards have obligations of disclosure, of course. But Mr. Weston’s case is a little different. Loblaws’ current market capitalization is over $40.6 billion now. George Weston Limited owns 52% of Loblaws, and Galen Weston, Jr. owns 56% of George Weston Ltd. Loblaws’ market capitalization this year is making him richer, much richer. Unlike other CEOs in the field, he is from an illustrious family and from an incredibly affluent background.
In essence, the Loblaws Board should have read the room and the communications around the announcement were terribly off. Along with the announcement, the Board should have disclosed efforts to support food banks and Second Harvest, the largest food-rescuing agency in the country. Loblaws does great work to support several non-profits and food agencies. It was the right time to make these efforts better-known to the public. As for Mr. Weston’s raise, it could have quite simply waited. Or at the very least, Mr. Weston should have shown some compassion and donated some or all of his salary increase to some charities of his choice. It’s not too late. Compassion can go a long way.
People get raises all the time. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, organizations are just concerned about losing their talent. But in Loblaws’ case, it’s highly doubtful that Galen Weston received a competitive offer to bargain for a higher salary. It’s fair to say that he’s probably off the market.
Sainte-Catherine Street in Montreal (Image: Montreal Tourism / k_photographyca)
As the new language bill, Bill 96, in Quebec is active, it still leaves a lot of unanswered questions in the retail landscape. Éric Blais, the President of Headspace Marketing, explains his thoughts on the bill, how it will affect retailers, and what it will mean for brands who want to enter into the Quebec market.
“Bill 96 is not a new law, it is a long overdue update of Bill 101 which was the first language law in the late 70s to make French the official language of Quebec and to create laws and regulations around it. What Bill 96 does, is it revisits certain sections of that law and strengthens it. It is a law that goes further in making French the language of business, of contracts, retail, education, and more,” says Blais.
Éric Blais
So how will this impact retailers? Blais says brands have until 2025 to make changes and if they don’t – they could possibly face fines. Businesses do not just need to adjust signage, but they will need to change their POS systems, hiring policies, job postings, packaging, and all HR documents if they do not already have it available in French – costing retailers more money to adjust to Bill 96.
“So you can see here that it is about operating in French and it is so much more than packaging and signs. That is a huge cost and a huge investment for anyone thinking about expanding into the Quebec market.”
Retail Signage
The Bay at 585 Saint-Catherine St W in Montreal (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Blais says the bill will force brands to make massive changes. Bill 101 required retailers to ensure that there is a sufficient presence of French in exterior signage, meaning if you had a registered trademark in French. If a company did not have a French trademark the brand must include an additional descriptor.
“For example Burger King. There is no French version, but if you stroll down Ste-Catharine street and you see Burger King on the corner, you will see Le Restaurant, Burger King. That would be, prior to Bill 96, a sufficient presence of French because they have added Le Restaurant in a font that is half the size of Burger King. That is how the law, until Bill 96, allowed retailers to use their trademarks in English.”
With Bill 96, Blais said it will change from retailers needing a sufficient presence of French to the predominance of French, and wants to encourage anybody who needs guidance with the new law to navigate the implications of Bill 96 with a lawyer. And although the bill was passed on June 1st 2022, the enforcement of public signage will not be enforced until June 2025 which will give retailers more time to adjust to the changes.
The Unknown of Bill 96
Now if Burger King increases the sign of Le Restaurant to be as big as Burger King – will that be enough to show predominance of French?
“I don’t know, nobody seems to know. So it is a big question mark and as you could imagine a big question mark that probably makes a lot of retailers crash their heads in terms of how many locations they have, what signage will be needed, and so on. So that is a big unknown, the application of Bill 96 as it relates to commercial signage.”
Blais said there is also uncertainty of what the new law means for signage that is visible from the street. Could the sign, such as Burger King or Mastermind, be in English if they don’t have a French trademark and have a massive permanent signage with their slogan in French on the windows instead? Blais said from his interpretation of Bill 96, that would count as a predominance of French. “Is it possible that we could end up with permanent signage with brands in English because they don’t have a French version?” Blais said we will know more in 2025 what the new bill will look like for retailers, and the law is much bigger than retail signage as it also affects everything else as well, such as packaging and labels.
Hesitation of Entering into the Quebec Market?
Image: Dollarama
“If there was a hesitation from a retailer of moving into the Quebec market, you have just added another variable into the mix.”
Blais said if retailers, such as Dollarama, and even though the company is based in Montreal and you need to comply with Bill 96 or face penalties – do you open your target amount of stores in 2023 in Quebec, or do you decide to pivot your plan and expand into other markets in Canada?
“This is the real question retailers are going to be asking themselves. I wouldn’t say Quebec is doomed and no retailer will go there, I don’t mean that at all and I think there are some national and international players who recognize the great potential in the Quebec market. However, if retailers who are there already and are already struggling this law will make it more difficult to operate – and they will pack up.”
Retailers who do need to pack up could possibly be leaving because of Bill 96, but Blais said they could also be packing up because they walked into Quebec thinking they could succeed without reading the market correctly. Retailers who are successful in Quebec, or want to be, need to choose to invest catering into the Quebec market and use the language.
“I don’t think you are about to see a movement of just packing up and leaving Quebec as a result of the law, I suspect you will see more reluctant retailers who are rethinking their decision to enter the Quebec market. But I hope that businesses outweigh whatever regulations, barriers, and related costs are to the new law because if you are in Canada, this is one quarter of the country – and you can’t ignore it.”
Sleep Country Canada, the country’s leading omnichannel specialty sleep retailer, is acquiring the Canadian operations of Casper Sleep.
“We are very excited to acquire 100 per cent of Casper’s Canadian retail business, who invested over $1 billion globally to build a leading brand that elevated the importance of a good night’s sleep for all. With their omnichannel business, and their mission to deliver a frictionless and elevated sleep retail experience, they align perfectly with our strategic omnichannel journey that began four years ago,” said Stewart Schaefer, President and CEO of Sleep Country, in a press release.
Stewart Schaefer
“Casper, combined with our entire house of other leading brands like Tempurpedic, Sealy, Kingsdown, Endy, and many others, reinforces our 29-year brand statement of “Why buy a mattress anywhere else?
“We look forward to growing Casper’s brand in Canada to make the newest member of our family of brands more accessible to all Canadians in a seamless manner that will exceed our growing customer expectations. We are excited to continue working with Casper Sleep Inc. as they continue executing their long-term strategic growth plan.”
Image: Casper
Casper has six physical stores in Canada. Toronto, North York, Etobicoke, Newmarket, Vancouver and Calgary.
“It will be business as usual with no immediate changes,” shared a statement by the brand. “The Casper Canada team will continue to support Canadian customers in Casper stores and its omnichannel business and help ensure the authenticity of the Casper brand in Canada.”
Sleep Country said it will pay US$20.6 million at close, receive a cumulative US$4.5 million marketing transition fee from Casper Sleep over the next four years and receive three-year warrants which would convert into about a one per cent stake in Casper Sleep Inc. upon exercise. In addition, Sleep Country invested US$20 million in five-year convertible notes which will have the option of converting into about five per cent of Casper Sleep Inc.’s shares.
In a statement, Emilie Arel, CEO of Casper Sleep Inc., said: “We are thrilled to expand upon our retail journey by partnering up with one of North America’s top sleep retailers. Sleep Country has been a retail mattress legacy for almost three decades, and sharing best practices with this leading retailer only helps accelerate our expertise and rapid growth in the retail omnichannel space.
Indigo at CF Sherway Gardens in Toronto (Image: Casper)
Sleep Country operates under the retailer banners; Sleep Country Canada, Dormez-vous, Endy, Hush and most recently acquired, Silk & Snow. The company has omnichannel and ecommerce operations including 290 corporate-owned stores and 20 warehouses across Canada.
Casper has a full portfolio of obsessively engineered sleep products—including mattresses, pillows, bedding, and furniture—designed in-house. In addition to its e-commerce business, Casper owns and operates Sleep Shops across North America and its products are available at a growing list of retailers.
Schaefer said very few Canadians don’t know the Casper brand.
“For me, it always comes down to that we need to always be focusing on relevant brands that the consumers gravitate to and we need to build distribution channels to be able to service as many Canadians as possible in the most effective way,” he said. “That’s just a basic understanding that my leadership team knows that we focus on.
“Casper is definitely this brand that came onto the scene about six years ago and spent a fortune in advertising and building really a fabulous brand – a brand that was cool and relevant, a brand that definitely differentiated themselves and elevated the conversation around sleep.”
Image: Casper
Schaefer said there was an opportunity for Sleep Country to acquire in Canada ownership of this brand.
“You could ask why would you want ownership of the brand compared to just buying it from them? So we own it 100 per cent. We own the IP, we own the market assets. But we own the ability also to create the products and change the mattresses and the comfort. There is a little bit of difference between the United States and Canada in terms of comfort and what the preferences are in Canada and there also is a benefit to us not importing from the United States where the dollar is at $1.35 and Casper has a nice collection of accessories but we have a broader collection of accessories and I strongly believe that even some of our accessories with the Casper brand will elevate the desire for people to buy the product,” he said. “It’s all about the brand and owning this brand rather than call it leasing I guess. It was a really attractive opportunity on our growth side.
“In Canada, they only have six stores. One in Calgary, one in Vancouver and four in Ontario. And I truly believe that we could grow the physical footprint of it and I also believe as we’ve acquired over the last few years Endy, now Casper, we acquired Hush, we acquired Silk & Snow, some are mattresses, some are accessories, potentially this is a fabulous growth story on the brick and mortar component of combining maybe some of these B2C stores together. Who knows? I haven’t decided upon that yet. But there’s no question in our mind that we could grow this Casper both on the digital side and on the brick and mortar side, which is really our wheelhouse. We can expand the product lineup, we can reduce the costs to the consumer because we could either manufacture it in Canada or bring it in internationally. So there’s a lot of really big wins for our shareholders and our customers to do this transaction.”
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.
The coffee chain is at the corner of Yonge and Wellesley Street, just steps from the busy TTC Station at Wellesley St. East.
“It’s really exciting for us. This is such a prime location,” said Nan Eskenazi, one of the brand’s founders.
“It’s a big step for us. It’s a showcase for us and I think it will be apparent really quickly in Toronto and in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) that we’re opening a variety of locations. This one is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Good Earth Coffeehouse at Yonge and Wellesley (Image: Good Earth) Good Earth Coffeehouse at Yonge and Wellesley (Image: Good Earth)
Good Earth is a network of coffeehouses with over 50 locations throughout Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. The first Good Earth Coffeehouse opened in Calgary in 1991. Founders Eskenazi and Michael Going began with a desire to serve exceptional coffee and wholesome food, with a down-to-earth attitude. Good Earth has focused on creating a unique experience for customers through the combination of a distinctive coffeehouse environment with social and environmental responsibility. The company has grown through franchising and remains true to the original mission – to be a coffeehouse with good food.
“I think we can easily in the GTA get up to comfortably 10 or 12 that we feel are really great sites,” said Eskenazi. “Right now, just in Ontario alone in addition to the Yonge and Wellesley location, we just opened in a hospital in Mississauga. We’ve got another hospital in Mississauga about to open. So there’s two more in kind of the outlying GTA.
“We’ve got locations in Kitchener opening and then further afield out in Sudbury that will be opening. All of those are already under construction. So being able to begin with a flagship footprint in downtown (Toronto) and then working a few outer GTA locations and back into the downtown is our strategy. It’s very exciting.”
Image: Founders Nan Eskenazi and Michael Going
With the locations under construction, the brand is at 57-58 locations. There’s quite a few that are just about to open.
Ezkenazi said Good Earth has a location in Halifax in which it is looking for a franchise partner. It’s part of the Indigo/Chapters relationship the brand has developed.
“We’re continuing to develop that relationship and a number of the Indigo/Chapters locations are the ones under construction,” she said.
“And a special shout out to our hospital development. It’s really awesome that we opened the Credit Valley hospital in Mississauga the same day we opened Yonge and Wellesley. We’re about to open at the sister hospital called Trillium. We’re opening in Sick Kids in downtown Toronto in about two to three months from now. And we’re opening out in Victoria in Victoria General Hospital as well in early summer.
“The institutional side of our company or personality is also growing quite strongly.”
The Toronto Designers Market has relocated its permanent storefront from the city’s Parkdale area to Bloor-Yorkville. The new location is on the concourse level of the Holt Renfrew Centre which is anchored by luxury retailer Holt Renfrew.
The new Toronto Designers Market features an attractive interior in a 1,450 square foot space. Contained within are a range of local designers’ products curated specifically for the new store. The retailer was recently honoured with its second Le Petit Futé Award.
Designer and entrepreneur Karen Ferguson now owns Toronto Designers Market, which has an interesting history. The retailer’s humble beginnings included, until recently, a storefront at 1605 Queen Street West in Toronto’s Parkdale area.
Toronto Designer Market was founded by entrepreneur Joshua James in 2015. He was a gallery owner and part of Parkdale Flea at the time, and he founded Toronto Designers Market with a roster of designers of jewellery, clothing, and artists in the Queen Street space.
Inside the Toronto Designers Market at the Holt Renfrew Centre in Toronto. Photo: Craig Patterson Inside the Toronto Designers Market at the Holt Renfrew Centre in Toronto. Photo: Craig Patterson
Looking to pursue different things, James sold the business in 2016 to entrepreneur Marcus Kan, who was the Director Of Operations at the retailer — in 2019 he sold the business to Karen Ferguson who was also one of the original designers at Toronto Designers Market when it was founded four years prior. Kan continues to work with Ferguson in the store as well as with his other business ventures.
Ferguson said in an interview that the pandemic was a challenging time for the retailer and that she had to innovate to keep things going.
Owner Karen Ferguson with the Petit Futé award. Photo supplied
“It was crazy scary, we didn’t know what to do because our designers had their own websites. It didn’t make sense for us to shift online because our designers already had their own websites.”
Ferguson said that she pivoted the business to include an education component and kept things going until people returned to physical spaces such as stores. When things began to go back to normal, the business began to thrive again. At the same time, she decided to change the business model which had originally included a collection of shop-in-stores for individual designers.
“With the shop-in-store model, the level of brands in the store were inconsistent,” Ferguson said. Some brands were just beginning while others were established, and some were good at merchandising while others were not.”
Ferguson said that she tried curating a section of the store and found success, and soon decided to curate all brands in a single space so that merchandising would be consistent within the store. Brands now pay for space within the Toronto Designers Market based on the square footage required.
There’s a vetting process involved to get into the Toronto Designers Market, she explained. “They have to be ready for retailing,” Ferguson said, which includes having stock and the ability to supply enough product to the store in an organized and timely fashion including turnaround time. Toronto Designers Market reviews a designer’s portfolio as well as social media and website if they have one as part of the vetting process to determine if there’s a fit.
Inside the Toronto Designers Market at the Holt Renfrew Centre in Toronto. Photo: Craig Patterson Inside the Toronto Designers Market at the Holt Renfrew Centre in Toronto. Photo: Craig Patterson
The retailer is also continuing with its education component, working with one new designer yearly in a mentoring capacity at no charge that includes everything from getting a brand established to creating tags to merchandising to visuals. Toronto Designers Market has become a ‘community’ according to Ferguson, which includes referring brands to trusted sources such as photographers and communications professionals.
The owners of 1605 Queen Street West recently decided to transition the space which is now an event space called Parkdale Hall. Ferguson moved Toronto Designers Market into the Holt Renfrew Centre last month — the shopping centre is connected to the Bloor-Yorkville PATH system which also connects to Toronto’s Line 1 and 2 subway lines. Bloor-Yorkville is also home to a range of luxury retailers and shoppers that support them.
Prices in the new, attractive and bright Holt Renfrew Centre Toronto Designers Market store range from about $35 to over $3,000. Some one-of-a-kind pieces include a lamp by an artisan priced at $550. Categories range from consumable goods to fashions to jewellery and art.
Marcus Kan, left, and Karen Ferguson in the new store. Photo supplied.Inside the Toronto Designers Market at the Holt Renfrew Centre in Toronto. Photo: Craig Patterson Inside the Toronto Designers Market at the Holt Renfrew Centre in Toronto. Photo: Craig Patterson
Ferguson said that she hopes to expand the business in the coming years. That could include expansion in the Toronto market or even in another city. She said that the Toronto Designers Market is unique when compared to other local market retailers — her business focuses on designers while others tend to focus more on crafted goods.
Earlier this month, Toronto Designers Market hosted a well-attended opening party in the space that included various designers and local influencers. Ferguson said that her business will continue to foster community in the city.
Gourmet cinnamon roll bakery Cinnaholic is expanding in the Calgary market.
President of Cinnaholic Calgary, Robby Teja, has the rights for the brand in Calgary and Airdrie, said the company currently has two locations.
Another location will open in the Township Shopping Centre in the southwest neighbourhood of Legacy in a few months followed by one in northwest Calgary right after that.
“We’re going to have four in Calgary and one in Airdrie,” he said.
Cinnaholic is the original, gourmet cinnamon roll bakery, acclaimed for serving “create your own” cinnamon rolls and other sweet treats like made from scratch brownies, cookies and edible cookie dough. Cinnaholic offers something to satisfy every sweet tooth, with products that are fresh baked and 100 per cent vegan, dairy and lactose free, egg-free and cholesterol-free.
Image: Cinnaholic CalgaryCINNAHOLIC CALGARY – SOUTH TRAIL CROSSING
The first location opened last year at the corner of 17th Avenue and 5th Street S.W., in the Beltline area. The second location just opened at the South Trail Crossing at 130th Avenue S.E.
“The Township location will open in June or July of this year. The northwest one we’re just signing a lease for (in the Royal Oak area) and we’re signing a lease in Airdrie soon as well,” said Teja.
“When Cinnaholic first opened its doors last year, Calgarians welcomed us with overwhelming enthusiasm and the demand has only grown stronger. That’s why we’re thrilled to serve Calgary and Airdrie with more mouth-watering cinnamon rolls made with the highest quality, animal-free ingredients.
“Cinnaholic is a gourmet cinnamon roll company. We actually have customized toppings. We have 20 different frosting flavours and 20 different topping flavours. The real big thing is we’re 100 per cent vegan. All of our items are vegan. There’s no dairy or eggs in our products.”
All products are fresh-baked and Cinnaholic has over 80 locations across Canada and the U.S.
Image: Cinnaholic CalgaryImage: Cinnaholic
Teja has the rights for Calgary and Airdrie.
“I feel in the City of Calgary five could work. I would think so. So each store would be busy. We don’t want to flood the market like Subway. I would say five could work in Calgary. Right now I have four I’m really interested in. I might put a fifth one, I’m not too sure yet,” he said.
“I feel in the 2020s vegan has been a huge thing with everybody. Now there’s actually vegan franchises like a McDonald’s with Odd Burger. I feel vegan is in now. People are liking plant-based more. So I really feel that was one good thing we went to the market with.
“A lot of our customers don’t know we’re vegan so it’s great and they enjoy it. And a lot of people know we are vegan and they can actually now eat dairy like they couldn’t before.”
Typical sizes of the locations are about 1,000 to 1,200 square feet with some seating area.
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 48 hours.
