New store on Queen Street West in Toronto. Image supplied.
Toronto-based mattress brand Dozy has moved into a new brick and mortar location on Queen Street West, as it continues to build on its success which started five years ago.
David Owen, Owner and President of Dozy, said that having mattresses made and sold in Toronto gives the retailer room to offer a great price to consumers.
The company combines tradition with innovation with direct shipping to the consumer that skips the middle-man and passes savings along to the customer.
“We make them in North York and we ship them direct right out of the factory. The mattress business has been in the family for four generations,” said Owen, adding the business started in Peterborough, Ontario with his grandfather, who also was behind the Kingsdown mattress brand.
“I started Dozy in 2017, after having worked for my family’s mattress shop in Mississauga. While helping run the family business, I did all manner of work. Started out on the delivery truck and eventually worked my way up to the sales floor. I learned many things about the industry and noticed that the way customers were buying mattresses was changing fast. People on the hunt for a mattress were gravitating to more straightforward online shopping, and I knew that that was the route to take. A clearer, honest and upfront approach was needed.
“While the older generations of my family were getting out of the mattress business, I thought there was an opportunity to get back in and do things better. After getting in touch with a local manufacturer, I started Dozy out of a small showroom in North York.”
Click image for interactive Google Map
The new 290A Queen Street West location is in the hub of retail in downtown Toronto.
“It was also kind of really hard to access that but because of the pandemic it really loosened things up. I found the store about six months ago. But I was always operating around the core. I was operating around the corner on Spadina, which was another big staple street.”
The Queen Street store is 1,500 square feet.
Competing successfully against some other sleep retailers, comes down to service, said Owen.
“We focus really hard on making sure that every client that ever walks through our doors gets taken care of in such a way where they would want to tell people about us, leave a five-star review on whatever platform that they prefer, and just kind of getting that name out there really through hard work and keeping them happy,” he said.
“It wasn’t too long ago where I was doing pretty much every delivery, pretty much selling every customer, so they would see me in the store and they would see me deliver it. That really contributed to people talking about us on the internet, talking about me specifically. People coming down.
“Since we make everything here in Toronto, I work with customers all the time, customizing beds. Making it firmer, making it softer. When I tell this to people who have gone through 10, 15 online companies, which happens all the time, people love it. With my rating, I don’t let people down really. That helps a lot because once I’ve captured the sale I don’t really give you up. I really work with my customers to keep them very happy. Once they go through that process, it’s always good reviews and happy news to their friends.”
US-based Competitor Casper also has a storefront nearby at 342 Queen Street West which opened in 2018.
L’Heureux talks about the growth plans for the new restaurant/bar as well as CRAFT, lessons learned during the pandemic, the challenges the hospitality industry has faced, and the current labour shortage.
The Video Interview Series by Retail Insider is available on YouTube.
Connect with Mario Toneguzzi, a veteran of the media industry for more than 40 years and named in 2021 a Top Ten Business Journalist in the world and the only Canadian – to learn how you can tell your story, share your message and amplify it to a wide audience. He is Senior National Business Journalist with Retail Insider and owner of Mario Toneguzzi Communications Inc. and can be reached at mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com.
Also check out the other series offered by Retail Insider, including The Weekly podcast and The Interview Series, which are both available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Podcasts, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Simplecast and other podcast players.
Arc'teryx Arc’type Concept Store in Westmount, Montreal (Photo: Arc'teryx)
By Ed Strapagiel
According to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada, Canadian retail sales were up 9.1% year-over-year for the 3 months ending February 2022. By historical standards, this is certainly a healthy gain. On the other hand, this is an overall average across all retail sectors, and does not well reflect what’s going on in any particular retail area. The differences are somewhat extreme, ranging from a decline of 16.3% for E-Commerce to a gain of 23.8% in Automotive & Related for the period.
Another matter is that the retail sales total is significantly influenced by the price of gas. Gasoline station sales were up 30.5% year-over-year for the 3 months ending February. Excluding gas stations, overall retail sales would be up 7.2% instead of 9.1%. This is a direct example of how inflation boosts retail sales but just makes consumers poorer.
Food & Drug
For the 3 months ending February 2022, retail sales in the Food & Drug sector declined 1.3% year-over-year, perhaps in part because year ago sales were particularly strong. The underlying 12 month growth trend (green line in the chart) however has been steadily declining over the last year. Food & Drug is normally a fairly steady business and growth declines are unusual, especially in times of high inflation.
Supermarkets & other grocery stores account for a little over half the retail sales in this sector, but their sales were off 3.1% for the 3 months ending February 2022. Convenience stores however fared even worse, with sales down 6.2% during the period.
Health & personal care stores (mostly drug stores and pharmacies) made solid gains and tended to buoy up sector sales last year. For the 3 months ending February 2022 however, their sales were up a scant 0.7%.
Store Merchandise
While Food & Drug is down in the dumps, the Store Merchandise sector appears to be up on cloud 9. Their retail sales grew by 12.7% year-over-year for the 3 months ending February 2022. The underlying 12 month trend gained 14.1%, a record high. Year ago sales growth however was depressed due to COVID, which likely contributed to making current results look good. By the same token, Q2 2022 gains may not be as robust because of strong sales in the same period in 2021.
Clothing & clothing accessories is the runaway best seller in retail, with sales up a sizzling 39.8% year-over-year for the 3 months ending February 2022. General merchandise, furniture & home furnishings stores, and the other stores group also clocked in with double digit gains for the period.
Electronics & appliance stores however remained the poor cousin of the sector, with a sales decline of 0.7%.
Automotive & Related
The Automotive & Related sector continued to have strong gains, with an increase of 16.4% year-over-year for the 3 months ending February 2022. The underling 12 month trend also improved to a gain of 23.8%.
The main driver here is gasoline station sales, which were up 30.5% year-over year over the last 3 months. This of course is almost entirely a result of pump price increases. When you pay more for gas however, you don’t get more for your money, but you do have less money for everything else.
Sales at automobile dealers were up by 11.1% during the period, somewhat due to slow performance a year ago. But sales growth took off in Q2 last year, so it’s difficult to expect a repeat performance coming up this year.
By The Numbers
Note that the data and analysis in this report are always based on not seasonally adjusted (or unadjusted) retail sales statistics.
Canadian e-commerce retail sales nearly doubled in 2020 due to COVID. Things cooled off in 2021 but there still was a decent gain. Now, at start of 2022, a correction appears to be underway, with sales declining 16.3% year-over-year for the 3 months ending February 2022. It seems like consumers are going back to the store. The circumstances however are so unprecedented that it’s impossible to know what might happen next.
Overall, e-commerce represented about 6.2% of retail sales over the past 12 months, according to Statistics Canada, including both pure plays as well as bricks & clicks stores. Note that Canadian consumers may also buy online from foreign websites which is not captured in these numbers.
Location based retail is the same as that in the preceding “By The Numbers” table. It’s what’s normally reported as Canadian retail sales. Except that it isn’t. Location based retail excludes another section called Non-Store Retailers (NAICS code 454), which includes electronic shopping and mail-order houses, which in turn is where (mostly) pure play e-commerce businesses are. For the 12 months ending February 2022, electronic shopping and mail-order houses had an estimated $27.2 billion in e-commerce sales.
But that’s not the only source of e-commerce, as (mostly) bricks & mortar location-based retailers also sell online. This group had an estimated $17.6 billion in e-commerce sales during the period. With electronic shopping and mail-order houses, there’s a grand total of $44.8 billion in e-commerce sales by Canadian operators. Note that this does not include foreign e-commerce purchases made by Canadian consumers, but it does include e-commerce purchases made by foreigners at Canadian operations.
For electronic shopping and mail-order houses, an estimated 96.0% of their sales are currently allocated to e-commerce. For (mostly) bricks & mortar retailers, it can be estimated that 2.6% of their total sales are attributable to e-commerce.
In the final section of the above table, (mostly) pure play operators (namely, under electronic shopping and mail-order houses) generated an estimated 60.7% of all e-commerce sales in Canada, while (mostly) bricks & mortar location-based retailers’ share of e-commerce was 39.3%.
This analysis is updated monthly as new numbers are published by Statistics Canada. If you would like notification from Linkedin of when an update becomes available (and you’ve read this far), please connect with Ed Strapagiel on LinkedIn.
By Michael von Massow, Associate Professor, Food Economics, University of Guelph
The rhetoric around inflation and increasing food prices has become a point of emphasis for politicians, particularly for those in opposition to the incumbent government.
While this might initially seem like a good idea, price ceilings actually end up taking money out of the system. If that money isn’t replaced (i.e. through government subsidies), products either stop being produced or make their way to other, more profitable markets. Currently, the Canadian government can’t afford these kinds of subsidies because of the debt accumulated from COVID-19 relief.
There are some products, like dairy and poultry, that have domestic production controls. Farm prices are set based on a cost-of-production model, meaning farmers earn back the amount of money it costs to produce their products. If grocery prices were capped, retailers and processors would make less money and less dairy products would make it to store shelves.
Price ceilings are impractical for food. They are unlikely to achieve much and end up hitting farmers, processors and retailers the hardest. In the long run, they end up reducing access to products and stifling innovation and research investment.
Limiting food exports
In some countries, governments have chosen to limit exports — meaning goods must be sold domestically — as a way of reducing food prices. Argentina did this recently after wheat prices increased following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While this is good for domestic consumers, it puts the burden on farmers who could stop production in favour of selling unregulated products.
Export taxes can also be used in place of export controls. While these stabilize domestic prices, they end up hurting domestic producers, who get lower prices, and importing countries, who face higher prices.
Canada, as a significant exporter of food products, cannot afford to let its reputation as a trusted exporter be compromised. In addition, limiting or taxing exports would only have small impacts on domestic prices, but would negatively impact Canadian producers and export customers.
For countries that import food, like India, the reduction of import duties can also help to reduce domestic prices. Import duties are often used to protect domestic producers. For the most part, Canada does not have high tariffs on food products, with the exception of supply-managed products, so this approach is not broadly applicable.
There has been discussions from CEOs and political parties about implementing a grocery code of conduct for regulating how large grocery companies interact with their suppliers. While a code might benefit grocers and their suppliers, it is unclear if it would actually lower food prices for consumers.
Income support for those with lowest incomes would hep reduce the burden of rising costs of living. Broader tax relief could also take the pressure off for the middle class, but tax relief is less effective for low income earners that pay little tax. Targeted programs, like the school food programs announced in the 2022 federal budget, could also increase food access for vulnerable populations.
Politicians who criticize incumbent government for rising food prices should be challenged to provide real proposals that would differentiate them. This is not an easy fix and we shouldn’t be pretending it is.
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 three days.
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.
Todd Throndson, Managing Director of Avison Young in Calgary, discusses the impact on retail and the food industry of a return to downtown foot traffic.
Throndson talks about Calgary having the highest downtown foot traffic volume in Canada and third in North America, the impact that has had on vacancy rates in the downtown office market, and what the future holds for the downtown this year.
The Video Interview Series by Retail Insider is available on YouTube.
Connect with Mario Toneguzzi, a veteran of the media industry for more than 40 years and named in 2021 a Top Ten Business Journalist in the world and the only Canadian – to learn how you can tell your story, share your message and amplify it to a wide audience. He is Senior National Business Journalist with Retail Insider and owner of Mario Toneguzzi Communications Inc. and can be reached at mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com
Interviewed this episode:
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Avison Young Downtown Calgary Office Q1 Report:
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View looking South-East over Village Green (CNW Group/Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited)
Shopping centre landlords across Canada are increasingly redeveloping their underutilized parking lot land and adding a residential component to their properties.
The latest is Cadillac Fairview, along with its partner SHAPE, who recently announced their joint rezoning submission for the first phase of a new Master Plan that anticipates a series of developments, which will ultimately surround and complement its landmark property CF Fairview Mall, creating a vibrant, new community in North Toronto.
The first phase of development is located at the doorstep of the Don Mills Subway station, on the South side of the shopping centre fronting onto Sheppard Avenue East. This phase is approximately 1.1 million square feet of mixed-use development, which will consist of three new buildings, two condominium towers and one CF rental residential building, with retail and amenities. A new pedestrian urban plaza, the “Village Green” will be situated between the TTC and the residential buildings, providing much improved pedestrian access for the entire community living, working, and shopping in the area. The rezoning application required to permit the Phase 1 development has now been filed with the City.
“Canadian shopping centre owners are densifying their properties at an unprecedented pace to unlock value that has been held within components of their properties such as underutilized parking fields and low-density anchor store spaces,” said Michael Kehoe, broker with Fairfield Commercial Real Estate.
“This strategy syncs up perfectly with transit-oriented development trends and the demand for residential housing and other mixed-use structures that will add important amenities to the communities where they are situated and drive traffic to the retail and food service components of the projects.
Major mall ownership and management teams in Canada are the masters of densification that keeps these properties relevant to the consumer and a blue-chip commercial real estate investment over the long term.”
View looking West from the 404 (CNW Group/Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited)View northwest to CF Fairview Mall Redevelopment with Phase 1 highlighted. Image: Cadillac Fairview/SHAPE
“I think we will see more of this, particularly in larger cities as space is at a premium and demographics line up nicely with this approach. Many younger Canadians cannot afford a house and do not want to spend hours commuting to work. They also want convenience, and this trend offers that. They want to live, play and potentially work in the same location,” said Winder.
“The trend to mixed-use malls allows numerous stakeholders to benefit. Landlords significantly increase the eventual cash flow and thus value of the properties, builders make money on the construction, governments get additional taxes and can say they create jobs, commercial tenants receive greater sales with a captive customer base and residential tenants get convenience and a new supply of housing. Finally, the environment benefits as citizens use less fuel as they are closer to mass transit and may not need a vehicle.”
Click image for interactive Google Map
But Winder said potential negatives of this trend include heightened congestion as population density increases significantly, difficulty finding a place to park if you drive to the mall and finally, greater lack of affordable housing as many of the units in these new builds are middle to high priced.
George Minakakis Principal of advisory firm Inception Retail Group Inc., and author of The New Bricks & Mortar Future Proofing Retail said C tiered centres have a number of empty locations more than in 2019. B tiered malls have some empty stores and a number of unfamiliar store operators with temporary looking storefronts. Of course the A malls are still drawing healthy traffic where the rest are not enjoying the same volumes. Their only choices now are to evolve.
“Shopping centres across North America are in need of either a renewal, redevelopment or complete repositioning strategy. The redirection they take all depends on the shopping centre, its current performance, existing demographics and the potential for continued growth,” he said. “Many have been talking about mixed use for the property shopping centres sit on. But that doesn’t mean all of them will see the same kind of redevelopment or success and it could take years. A lot more changes can happen in the retail industry both from consumers and disruptive technology being introduced. Yes, we should expect a lot more changes coming.
“Retail has been undergoing a lot of competitive threats. As a result, retailers have been rationalizing their store counts and simultaneously growing e-commerce, coupled with economic and consumer behaviours today. And so many malls are aging, they are all generally identical in their representation of retail offerings and not as exciting. There is also a convenience factor to consider. Fairview is an ideal centre to develop given its location and access to commuter transportation.
“Obviously, in the case of this shopping centre, redeveloping the available lands to create a community where you live, shop and potentially can work in, fits with the changes the pandemic has brought about along with a growing community of gig workers. Depending on the demographics you can bring back new life to shopping centres that are tired. Traffic drives sales and profits. And developers are bringing more value to their land holdings.
View looking East rental tower lobby in the background (CNW Group/Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited)
“The only negative is that it may not work for all. I am an advocate for turning malls into different specialty categories, for example some just furniture, others technology and some just services and health and wellness. We have to reimagine all of this or it will be more trying the same and failing. Even if it doesn’t work out, the space used for commercial uses could also be converted to residential development. “
CF Fairview Mall, Canada’s first two-storey mall, is currently completing a previously announced $80 million renovation and revitalization dedicated to transforming 230,000 square feet of existing department store and other retail space, including T&T Supermarket outlet, to introduce brands, restaurants and improve pedestrian access to the property and the nearby Don Mills subway station. The mall renovation is expected to be completed in late 2022.
“For more than 50 years, CF Fairview Mall has been a community hub in North York, serving the evolving retail, transit, entertainment and service needs of the local area residents and businesses. As our longest operating shopping centre in the GTA, the Master Plan redevelopment extends our long-term vision and supports an expanding demographic seeking convenient, high-quality, and accessible residency in a dynamic, transit-connected community,” said Wayne Barwise, Executive Vice President, Development, Cadillac Fairview.
“SHAPE could not be more excited to expand into the Toronto market alongside our valued partner, Cadillac Fairview. Following our incredible success with RC at CF Richmond Centre, we’re ready to raise the bar, engage the local community and set a new standard for urban living with the complete reimagination of CF Fairview Mall,” said John Horton, President and CEO, SHAPE.
Port Credit standalone storefront. Photo: Fran Olmstead via Google Images
The famous Carlo’s Bakery has opened its first retail location in Canada in the Port Credit neighbourhood of Mississauga as it also continues to expand its footprint with its unique automated CAKE ATMs across North America.
The ATMs are temperature controlled and restocked daily.
Chris Zownir
Chris Zownir, Managing Partner of Carlo’s Bakery Canada, said the brand began in Canada in 2019 with the CAKE ATMs in Toronto and it rapidly spread the number of automated machines across the country and into the United States.
“During the pandemic, during the lockdowns, we started shipping cake across Canada to people’s doorsteps and then the next progression is we opened up the brick and mortar bakery in Port Credit in January of this year,” he said.
In Canada, the company has about 30 ATM locations in high-traffic areas such as shopping centres.
“My business partner (Gino Tomaro) grew up in this neighborhood (Port Credit) and there’s a lot of family history here, a lot of connections to this area specifically with our team. And in addition to that we really wanted to pick a location that was community based, that was family oriented, that we could really connect with the community. So that was really important to us,” said Zownir.
Port Credit location, photo: Michael Lambert via Google ImagesCarlo’s Bakery Express ATM at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
As for the CAKE ATMs, Zownir said the company is definitely expanding with additional locations throughout Canada as well as in the US.
“We’ve got some in Las Vegas, South Florida. We’re going to continue to expand. Multiple locations in the US with more coming,” added Zownir.
“My business partner and I, our background is in retail and in automation. We wanted to work with a well-known, established popular brand in the automated space so we partnered with Carlo’s Bakery. They just have an incredible brand, an incredible family history, an incredible product. We wanted to partner with them to bring their product to a modern, retail environment such as high-end automated retail. And when we did we saw some great success with it in terms of people being excited about the machine, the technology, the ease, the fun and playful experience of it. It’s not just about ‘hey I’m hungry I want a piece of cake and I want it right now and that’s the most convenient thing for me to get’. It’s about telling the story of a brand. It’s got Buddy’s voice (brand founder Buddy Valastro) that comes on when you buy a cake that says his common term ‘hey who wants to eat some cake?’, which he says at the end of every show if you watch the TV show Cake Boss.
Carlo’s Bakery Express ATM at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
“We’ve incorporated a lot of that fun and playfulness of the brand into the technology. The lights go on, we created a jingle that plays while you’re shopping. We wanted to create an experience that connects people with the brand and something they’re going to remember saying ‘oh my gosh the cake was amazing but the machine was so much fun and we had a lot of fun. What a great experience’.”
Zownir said the company is always looking at different opportunities and if it makes sense to find another location, it is open to expansion.
“There’s popularity with the brand. Buddy came up to Canada to visit. He’s got a great fan base and people love him and his family and the show and the bakery and the brand. With that popularity of the brand and the product, we’re open to expanding when the time and the location is right for sure,” he said.
At the Port Credit location, the space allows for a savoury program there as well with pizza and sandwiches.
“It’s about creating this memorable experience which we’re really committed to,” said Zownir.
Carlo’s is a family owned bakery featured on the TLC hit show Cake Boss. Carlo’s, originally opened by Carlo Guastaffero in 1910, was acquired by Bartolo Valastro Sr. in 1964. Since the untimely passing of Bartolo Sr. in 1994, matriarch Mary Valastro and her children Grace, Maddalena, Mary, Lisa and master baker Bartolo Jr. “Buddy” Valastro have expanded the business with the help of their spouses, according to the company’s website.
“Because of the Valastro family’s dedication to quality and excellence, Carlo’s has received national recognition. Master Baker Bartolo Jr. “Buddy” has been featured in numerous publications, such as Modern Bride, and The Knot. Buddy’s cake design was voted by the Today’s Show viewers as best cake in America. He has also appeared in many other media outlets, including multiple appearances on the Food Network, for his intricate sugar art designs specialty cakes and wedding cakes that look just as good as they taste,” said the company.
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.
