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.
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A well-known downtown Toronto commercial and entertainment complex previously known as 10 Dundas Street East has been rebranded to The Tenor, the culmination of a multi-year re-investment strategy for the property by BentallGreenOak, one of Canada’s leading real estate investment management firms.
The Tenor is a 10-storey, 360,000-square-foot entertainment, retail and office complex at the northeast corner of the intersection of Yonge and Dundas Streets. This is the 11th year of the building’s existence.
The real estate company’s re-investment strategy included the installation of one of Canada’s largest outdoor digital billboards, the successful addition of new anchor tenant “Little Canada” – a one-of-a-kind tourist and education destination – and earning international distinction by taking home The Outstanding Building of the Year (TOBY) Award in 2021, BOMA International’s most coveted prize.
Image: The Tenor (Facebook)
“As we look ahead with great anticipation to the revitalization of our district and a reimagining of the surrounding public spaces, The Tenor will be a strong and central presence in an inspiring future for Torontonians and all who visit our great city,” said Bob Emond, General Manager of The Tenor.
“Our vision is to showcase The Tenor’s dynamic energy with a new brand identity that captures the character and vitality of our tenants and our collective aspirations for a future that reflects the diversity of cultural and commercial activities that will animate this building for decades to come.
“The offices are comprised of Ryerson University, the Ministry of Tourism, the Toronto Film School, and The DMZ, which is an entrepreneurial startup run through Ryerson. The offices themselves are very mixed. The commercial aspect of the property itself we’re home to Cineplex which houses 24 theatres including their VIP theatre. We’ve got Jack Astor’s, which coincidentally per square is the busiest Jack Astor’s in Canada. It’s just incredible. We’ve got Spring Sushi. We’ve got Milestones. Those are our big three dine-in restaurants. And they’re all unique.”
He said all three of those restaurants have exterior rooftop patios that overlook the downtown core.
Image: The Tenor
“So it really is kind of a happening place – a gathering place – for folks after work, lunches, whatever,” said Emond.
There’s also a traditional food court with a variety of tenants. It’s unique because it’s on the third level of the building with a huge window expanse that overlooks the heart of Yonge Street.
“When students are back in class (at Ryerson), generally they use 11 to 14 of the cinemas daily, Monday to Friday, as lecture halls through the week,” said Emond. “It’s amazing. Around lunch time you’ll see 4,000 students come down the escalators or elevators to the food court or restaurants. It’s a happening place.”
There’s also a number of retailers such as Adidas, Winners, Dollarama, Tim Hortons, Blaze Pizza.
Image: The Tenor (Facebook)Image: Little Canada (Facebook.com/littlecanada.ca)
“But most importantly, in 2019 we were lucky enough to get Little Canada. We signed a lease agreement for 45,000 square feet here to bring their new attraction to Canada and that started the whole conversation. We’ve always been known as an address. We’re 10 Dundas. In 2019, we wanted to really identify the building as a destination. So we started the process. In 2019, we were awarded the Building of the Year through BOMA, the TOBY Award for best retail under a million square feet,” said Emond.
“We made a lot of inroads through the year. Yonge and Dundas basically it’s our Times Square if you think of it with all the media boards, the signage, the activity. We introduced a multi-million dollar digital screen on our exterior and really it’s one of the biggest billboards in Canada. It becomes a focus.
“So we were talking, what are we? We’re more than an address. We started kicking around names and we did some focus groups. We thought we’ve got to come up with a name that’s the go-to place that kind of resonates with people. We started the conversation and actually just this past summer . . . we won the prestigious international TOBY for 2021 as Building of the Year. That was awarded in Boston this past August.
“Little Canada is anticipating in their preliminary numbers up to 300,000 visitors in the first couple of years, growing to as many as half a million visitors a year. We thought we’ve got the cinemas, we’ve got the dining, we’ve got fast food, we’ve got Little Canada. We’re more of an entertainment destination . . . We thought of identifying ourselves as simply more than an address. We landed on The Tenor and it was a play on the number 10, being on 10 Dundas, 10 floors.”
Daniel's Chai Bar at Bramalea City Centre (Image: Jonathan Lewis / Jonathan Productions)
A near-death experience a few years ago changed Daniel Lewis’ life and put him on the path to entrepreneurship with plans to grow Daniel’s Chai Bar, based inside Bramalea City Centre Shopping Mall in Brampton, Ontario, into a franchisable brand.
It began with the establishment of T By Daniel initially.
“It was born out of what I like to call a tragedy to triumph to story. I spent most of my high school years as an aspiring music artist. Rap, hip hop, and I became a Canadian songwriter. I was exploring all avenues in the music industry. I really believed that’s where my destiny was, until 2009 rolled around. On account of lyrics to one of my songs, I went through a bit of an unfortunate circumstance where I was the victim of a nearly fatal stabbing,” said Lewis.
Daniel’s Chai Bar at Bramalea City Centre (Image: Jonathan Lewis / Jonathan Productions)
Daniel Lewis
“That was a real eye opener for me in my life and without going into all the details of that incident, it caused me to look at my time here on earth very differently. It really made me ask the question:
What impact do I have in the world?
I looked and considered the ways in which everybody had impacted me during this tragic period; the pilot, the paramedics, the doctor, nurses, everyone who stepped in to help me survive that life and death moment.
They all impacted me and contributed to my life and they were all strangers to me a week prior. “
Daniel’s Chai Bar at Bramalea City Centre (Image: Jonathan Lewis / Jonathan Productions)
“So I asked myself in the hospital. What impact do you have in life Dan? If this was fatal, what did you do?
I hated the answer and so I promised myself that when I got out of the hospital I would find some way, some tool or method of impacting people’s lives in a positive way.”
He stopped drinking and smoking and he caught onto tea. A casual walk in the mall one day and a David’s Tea location put him on his current path. He found out tea was healthy for him, good for his body to heal from all the damage caused by the incident.
Daniel’s Chai Bar at Bramalea City Centre (Image: Jonathan Lewis / Jonathan Productions)
“I just became a huge tea addict really, a tea enthusiast. And after spending way too much money on tea one day I said to myself what if that thing I was looking for is tea! What if I start my own tea business and make it built on the foundation of impacting people’s lives in a positive way,” explained Lewis. “And that idea became T By Daniel.”
The brand was established in 2011 as an online company. Very quickly he realized that the brand was not visible enough to the public. So he began to go to events, farmer’s markets, trade shows to just get the name out there. After three years of doing that, the first store was opened with his wife Renata in downtown Brampton.
In 2018, the brand relocated to the Bramalea City Centre Shopping Mall. After a year, the couple had their second child, and they decided to step back from the front facing aspect of the business and focus on online expansion.
They eventually changed the company name to Daniel’s Chai Bar and it is now back at Bramalea City Centre with a brick and mortar location with its recent opening.
“The reason we changed the corporation is that Daniel’s Chai Bar is designed to be a franchisable concept which is very different from T By Daniel,” explained Lewis.
“I’m re-positioning this and re-imagining everything about it – the brand, the look. Everything is made with franchising in mind and so I do see more store locations in the near future, which I’m already starting to facilitate those conversations.
“Tea has piggybacked off the coffee industry for many years. But I think as coffee took on a more artisanal look and feel to it; baristas, barista art, and special lattes etc. Tea followed suit and did the same thing. I’m a certified tea master myself now and tea has become an art and as it gets more artistic, chai and chai lattes are in higher demand. Chai is loaded with different flavours and health benefits and it just strikes that good balance between tea and spice, and because of that it’s a hot choice for consumers all over the world.”
Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West in Toronto, 2021 (Image: Groupe Dynamite)
Montreal-based fashion retailer Garage has debuted a pop-up in Downtown Toronto, which includes the first-ever GARAGE FOR ALL unisex apparel collection.
The design of the pop-up includes a ‘See it, Scan it, Shop it’ format, with the online inventory synced with the in-store offerings. It also features an intricate mural from Paris & Montreal-based artist DelphineDussoubs (aka dalkhafine).
Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Groupe Dynamite) Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Groupe Dynamite)
Garage is part of Groupe Dynamite, a Montreal-based company with two brands in the portfolio, Garage and Dynamite and operates more than 340 stores in worldwide and employs more than 5000 people.
Garage has opened the pop-up at 330 Queen Street West, which has been home to long-term tenants in the past, including an 8-year run with G Star Raw, from 2012 to 2020. Buffalo David Bitton also called this space home in the late 2000’s.
Additional Photos from the Garage Queen Street West Pop-up
Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Dustin Fuhs) Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Groupe Dynamite) Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Groupe Dynamite) Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Dustin Fuhs) Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Dustin Fuhs) Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Dustin Fuhs) Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Dustin Fuhs) Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Dustin Fuhs) Garage Pop-up on Queen Street West (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Montreal-based luxury outerwear brand Moose Knuckles has opened the new pop-up location in the brand’s hometown of Montreal.
The Rue de la Montagne store, next to the Four Seasons Hotel, provides fans of the brand to see an evolution of Moose Knuckles over the years in a museum-like showcase.
Moose Knuckles Montreal (Image: Moose Knuckles)
Moose Knuckles Montreal (Image: Moose Knuckles)
Moose Knuckles Montreal (Image: Moose Knuckles)
“Our newest Moose stores are designed by renowned designer Stefan Beckman and create a completely immersive experience into our world,” said Andrea Elliott, EVP, Direct to Consumer, Moose Knuckles. “Moose has always merged Canadian technical know-how in outerwear with a fashion edge through a global lens that makes us truly unique in the space. We welcome the opportunity to showcase our complete line to new markets across the country and the world.”
Moose Knuckles has designed the pop-up to reflect the brand’s commitment to a more ‘circular economy’. LED Lighting, responsibly harvested wood flooring, recyclable metals and glass – in fact, all fixtures in and elements in the space are designed to last and reuse as the brand expands.
Moose Knuckles Montreal (Image: Moose Knuckles)
“The concept of applying a tundra-inspired lens on city life struck a chord with me,” said Stefan Beckman, Set Designer & Founder, Stefan Beckman Studio. “The question was how to merge these two vastly different worlds? We had to be very sharp and purposeful with every element.”
Moose Knuckles recently opened a permanent storefront at CF Toronto Eaton Centre in November, which featured technology that was installed as part of the guest experience. RFID technology is included in every jacket, which allows consumers to interact with the environment that the garment was designed to thrive in.
Retail Insider will be covering the future expansion plans of Moose Knuckles as it continues to build the brand globally.
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 first Calgary Co-op grocery store opened in downtown Calgary in 1956 and 65 years later the chain has more than 440,000 members and numerous supermarkets and speciality stores in the local region.
Ken Keelor
Company CEO Ken Keelor said Calgary Co-op has seen many changes over the decades, but its values and community-minded approach remains the same.
So how does a grocery store remain in business for 65 years especially in such a competitive environment?
“It is very, very important to focus on financial sustainability. You can have all the heart and wonderful culture and all of that stuff, but if you are not financially sustainable you’re done. You can’t serve your community. You can’t serve anyone. I think where a lot of companies, especially those that are sort of much more socially focused like we are, can lose their focus is where the management team, leadership and board, lose track of the fact that you have to be financially sustainable,” said Keelor.
Image: Calgary Co-op
“In the last seven years, we’ve had three wage increases, we’ve had property tax increases, we’ve had discount competitors come into our marketplace and open up shop, we’ve had a really tough economy with joblessness, the drop in the price of oil and jobs that were never filled again, we’ve had people leave the city.
“Calgary Co-op has put a very strong focus on I would say four elements – our sales, our profitability, our people development and our long-term plan and strategy. We built a long-term strategy for this very reason. That’s the first element and all of those pieces play into it. You’ve got to have a long-term strategy, you’ve got to be thinking financial sustainability and you’ve got to be very aware that in the environment that we’ve been in, sales are going to be hard to come by, so you’ve got to manage your costs, you’ve got to manage your margins and you’ve got to be here for the community, not just in spirit.”
Keelor said the second piece of success really is culture.
“You can’t work on strategy without working on culture, on risk and on financials. And so whenever I talk strategy I always talk about culture, financials and risks. Culture I pick out as the second factor . . . The beauty of this organization is that in its very DNA it’s service oriented and community oriented and people love to serve,” said Keelor.
Celebrating 65 years with the grandson of member number 1. He uses his grandmother’s number every time he shops at Calgary Co-op.
“It’s a culture that preserves the heart of what makes team members want to work here and want to serve.”
Today, Calgary Co-op employs about 3,850 people with 24 food stores, 30 Wine, Spirit and Beer stores, 10 cannabis stores, 39 gas bars, three Home Health Care locations and three Community Natural Foods stores.
The company’s presence is beyond Calgary in communities such as Cochrane, Airdrie, Strathmore, Okotoks, and High River.
Keelor became CEO in 2014.
Calgary Co-op, one of North America’s largest co-operatives, was established by Calgary and area farmers and ranchers who wanted to serve Calgarians with fresh, local food.
Image: Calgary Co-opImage: Calgary Co-op
Today it also has three private brands: Cal & Gary’s, Founders & Farmers, and Only Alberta Meat.
It has assets of $627 million and annual sales of $1.2 billion.
“We need to innovate but it needs to be commercial innovation that drives the business of the company,” said Keelor.
In the past year, the company has renovated its stores in the Dalhousie and Brentwood neighbourhoods. It has also completely renovated the downtown Community Natural Foods location.
It has also significantly advanced its construction and redevelopment of the Oakridge Co-op location which will include a residential component. The plan for the redevelopment of the North Hill location, with residential as well, is coming along.
The grocery chain is planning to open a new location in the Marda Loop neighbourhood in 18 to 24 months.
Image: Calgary Co-op
“We are also potentially looking at one more site in that Springbank Hill area,” he said. “We haven’t inked an arrangement yet but certainly we have interest in going into that area,” said Keelor. “We might look to areas like Cochrane in the future to areas like Skyview which is way northeast (in Calgary). Skyview is a developing community that’s growing really fast. Cochrane has grown really fast already. We believe those two areas would fit the bill quite well for Calgary Co-op.
“The small footprint that we put in Sage Hill that we’ll even skinny down more in Marda Loop we’re very interested in seeing how these perform because there may be potential for smaller footprint stores in the future for Calgary Co-op.”
Keelor said health and wellness is an area of focus for the company moving forward. It will be growing its pharmacy business, its home health care business, its Community Natural Foods division, and its natural foods business within its stores.
“The whole area of health and wellness is going to be something that we’re going to lean on for growth for the company for long-term sustainability and long-term strategy and financial sustainability are all founded on one thing – being uniquely different to the marketplace,” he said. “If you don’t have differentiation, you will not have long-term financial sustainability.
Image: Calgary Co-op
“You might sustain a couple of years but if people don’t see you as different, your competitors can copy you and you’re done. So health and wealth and wellness will be one strong area of focus. The other area of focus will definitely be leveraging our real estate to grow. When you look at our real estate, we have over $400 million in real estate and we have got to look at how we can use that to grow be that expanding our stable of tenants that we have on the properties, be that building more or new lines of business on those properties, or be that even monetization of those pieces of land that a lot of Calgary Co-op’s money is invested in. Those revenues can drive our growth.
“We can only kind of grow by using our operating earnings or cash from the business by leveraging the properties that we have or by taking a loan. And we plan to do all three of those things.”
Consumer sentiment and behaviour is always evolving, their needs and desires seemingly changing as frequently as the seasons. In fact, an inevitably shifting consumer mindset is one of the only constants within the retail industry. With this understanding, merchants everywhere are perpetually exploring ways by which they can keep up with the consumer, or get out ahead of them, in order to ensure that they provide the offering and service they seek. And, increasingly it seems, as part of that offering and service, consumers are looking for greater flexibility at checkout, including purchasing options like ‘buy now, pay later’. It’s evolving sentiment that represents a bit of a transformation of purchases. And it’s one, according to Brian Weiner, VP and Head of Product and Digital at Visa Canada, that represents the uninterrupted progression of the payments industry.
“At the end of the day, consumers want flexibility and they want choice,” Weiner asserts. “And merchants now have the technology available to them in order to provide that flexibility and choice in ways that they just couldn’t previously. We’ve seen a number of consumer trends emerge of late, including the rise of contactless payments, open payments in transit, crypto payments and, most recently, in the increased demand for installment options. The payments ecosystem is constantly evolving. Consumers and merchants are transacting in different ways and places than they have traditionally. Merchants want to sell things. And consumers want to be able to purchase things. So, it’s our job as a network to be where consumers and merchants are engaging, enabling those transactions through the solutions that we offer.”
Innovative Installments
Image: Visa
One of the solutions that Weiner refers to is the recently announced Visa Installments. Set to launch in Spring 2022, Installments is a collaboration between the global financial services giant and Moneris – a recognized world leader in unified payments – that allows participating merchants to provide installment options at checkout to eligible Canadian credit cardholders on qualifying purchases. At the time of purchase, the option provides consumers with the flexibility to choose whether to pay for their purchase in full or in smaller, equal payments that are made over a defined period of time. And because Installments payments are drawn from the cardholder’s existing credit balance, they don’t take on any additional debt, making the solution an especially responsible one as well. It’s an offering from Visa that not only facilitates these kinds of transactions, Weiner points out, it does so in a seamless and frictionless way for both consumers and merchants alike.
“The idea of paying for purchases through installments is not a new concept,” he recognizes. “However, the technology that we’ve put in place to enable these types of purchases is fairly new and represents a completely different way of delivering installments to the market. It’s going to allow merchants to meet a growing level of interest, particularly among affluent, digitally-native consumers, in having access to more options with respect to the ways they make payments and manage their cash flow. Through our solution, we’ve effectively embraced the concept of installments within an existing Visa transaction. With one of the other fintech solutions, when making a purchase either in-store or online, customers are often taken away from the retailers’ website to another page where they have to fill out a form and authorize a credit check. It results in a tremendous amount of friction within the experience. Because Installments has been built within the existing flow of a regular Visa transaction, with cardholders presented with payment options at the point-of-sale, there is never a deviation away from the retailer, creating a seamless purchasing experience.”
Meeting consumer demand
Installments represents an innovation in payments that, as Weiner points out, reflects the continued evolution of the industry. However, it’s also representative of a strong response by the financial services leader to mounting demand for ‘buy now, pay later’ purchase options. In fact, according to findings of a recent Visa survey, installments adoption among Canadian consumers has increased 30 percent over the course of the past 12 months. In addition, more than a third (35%) of Canadians said they would not have made recent purchases if ‘buy now, pay later’ options were not available, with a further 47 percent recognizing the importance of flexible payment options since the onset of the pandemic. As a result of this rising sentiment, installments currently represent over $1.7 trillion of global payment volume, with approximately $50 billion occurring in Canada annually. Visa Installments certainly goes a long way toward satisfying this consumer demand. However, Weiner suggests that the flexibility provided to the merchant with respect to the management of the payment options they provide is just as critical a component inherent in the solution.
“Supported by our technology, we provide the capability for merchants to load information into the system with all of the offers available to their customers,” he explains. “It enables them with incredible flexibility to be able to make different offers presented to different customers, depending on a number of different factors. Visa’s job in this equation is to facilitate the connection between the merchant and customer, enabling them to do business with each other. And, because Installments is an API-based solution, it’s incredibly easy for merchants to plug into their existing systems. Moneris is the biggest acquirer in the country and integrated to the solution. Because of this, it’s been made very simple for any of Moneris’ merchant customers to take advantage of this offering.”
Increasing expectations
Image: Visa
Weiner also notes that solutions like Visa Installments often result in 20 to 25 percent increases in basket size and equally impressive improvements in conversion rates which, for retailers operating in any category, are each representative of significant growth. In Weiner’s estimation, Installments presents this opportunity to merchants and a platform to enhance the customer’s shopping experience and journey, instilling in them a trust that is often critical in defining their relationships with brands. And, he adds, it’s a solution that allows Visa to continue evolving with the expanding and changing payments ecosystem, positioning it well to carry on providing the all-important connection between merchant and customer.
“It’s never been more important for businesses and organizations to continue exploring new ideas and searching for ways to improve and enhance their current offering and service. Visa has always shown a commitment to doing this, and we continue to innovate and push the envelope. We’re one of the most digitized economies in the world here in Canada, one of the most advanced electronic payments markets in the world. So, the bar is already high with respect to offering, and it just keeps getting pushed higher. As a result, there’s no question that merchant demands and expectations are changing. And it’s also without question that consumer demands and expectations are changing, too. Each want options, to be able to transact in new ways and new places. And Visa wants to be there to enable them to do that, wherever they are, in whatever form factor they’re using and channel they want to operate in. In whatever way they want to interact, we just want to enable that digital commerce to take place.”
*Retail Insider occasionally works with selected brands on content, and this article is no exception. For more information, email craig@retail-insider.com.
