In-store contactless payment using credit card and POS terminal.
The COVID-19 pandemic of the past year has dramatically shifted consumer behaviour with more Canadians shopping online and, for those venturing out, contactless payment methods have become a more popular choice for people.
A survey by Moneris discovered that contactless transaction volumes in Canada grew by 32 percent across credit and debit cards year over year by the third quarter of 2020.
By the end of the year, contactless payments, which saw limits increase to $250 for tap payments, represented about 60 percent of overall transactions. The increase was due to people being aware of health and safety protocols and not wanting to touch screens. Also tap payments can be done in a quicker time at checkout, leading to less lineups.
Peter Goldsztajn, Director of Corporate Data Analytics for Moneris, said significant shifts in consumer behaviour have taken place in the past year around where and how consumers are spending.
“There’s clear evidence of a substitution effect essentially. People are not travelling so they’re spending or they’re not able to go and entertain themselves at bars and entertainment venues so they’re spending more time on home and leisure. That’s been a pattern that’s been evolving the whole year and actually continues as we move into 2021,” he said.
With several businesses closed to in-person shopping, Canadians shopped online more frequently. When Canadians did shop in-store, they were more likely to use contactless payment and made fewer shopping trips, spending more per visit than they did prior to the pandemic. The average transaction size grew 11.7 percent in April following lockdown measures and a limit increase to $250 for tap payments.
“There was a bit of a stockpiling effect at the beginning of the year, particularly March and April when lockdowns first started. People are travelling less to their venues or their merchants. Less frequent transactions but at higher amounts,” said Goldsztajn. I think the reason behind that is people just don’t want to be exposed as much. Perhaps there’s also limitations on where people could shop. There was a lot of hoarding going on in the beginning. I like to call it a stockpiling effect.
“We saw that trend actually go throughout the year.”
The trend in e-commerce continues, added Goldsztajn, with about a 30 per cent increase in sales in the fourth quarter of 2020.
“E-comm generally speaking is being influenced by the fact you don’t have a lot of options in a lot of cases. But there’s a sentiment evolving that we can see. People are shopping more local.”
He said the shop local trend will likely continue to grow.
Here are some of the key recent survey results from Moneris on shopping trends in Canada in the past year as consumers and merchants navigated the choppy economic waters caused by the COVID-19 pandemic:
In April 2020, spending dropped by 32 percent (the lowest transaction volume of the year) but recovered quickly, achieving a negative growth of -0.9 percent by September. Canadians predominantly spent their money at grocery stores on toilet paper and pantry items, as they were making more meals at home due to restaurant closures;
From June to September 2020, the travel and hospitality industries were tremendously impacted by the pandemic, with a nearly 62 percent decrease in spending volumes. From June to September, the loosening of domestic restrictions caused a shift in spending behaviour; money Canadians had allocated to international travel was instead spent on home improvements and outdoor recreation. Golf course volumes increased by 20 percent compared to last year; Bicycle shop volumes increased by 21 percent; Swimming pool sales saw a volume increase of 51 percent; The volumes of home supply and warehouse stores increased by 31 percent; and hardware store volumes increased by 13 percent;
While the summer months saw an increase in spending on outdoor recreation, the cooler temperatures that arrived in October prompted Canadians to spend on indoor home improvements. With more time spent inside and limits on travel, Canadians continued to spend their travel money on their homes. The household category dominated in the fall with a nearly 20 percent increase in volumes compared to fall of 2019; Fireplace stores saw a 22 percent increase in volume in October; Household appliance volumes increased by 27 percent; Furniture and home furnishing volumes increased by 20 percent;
Black Friday was the busiest shopping day of the year, as Canadians purchased gifts for friends and family leading up to the holidays. Moneris processed a high of nearly 550 transactions per second during its peak time of the day, approximately 100 transactions per second less than pre-pandemic levels; and
The New Year brought a negative 17 percent volume growth, caused by a combination of limited post-holiday spending and increased pandemic restrictions. As spending started to pick up, trends from January 2021 indicate that Canadians were preparing for a summer in lockdown. Boat rental and lease volumes increased by 227 percent compared to January 2020; Bicycle shop sales increased by 87 percent; Swimming pool volumes increased by 80 percent; Recreational and utility trailer sales increased by 68 percent.
The retail industry is ever-evolving, mirroring in many ways the evolution and progress of humankind as a whole. It’s always expanding, welcoming new concepts and competitors and consistently innovating to develop more advanced and effective ways to operate, communicate, and succeed. Much of the most recent innovation, within both the retail environment and society in general, has centred around the use of technologies, spawning new systems and tools amid the arrival of the digital age. For retailers the world over, the new digital landscape is perhaps best reflected by the recent explosion in e-commerce and rise in the use of digital devices — a combination that’s resulted in immense opportunities for retailers to leverage and capitalize on the creation of multiple streams of digital commerce. However, with these opportunities also come challenges related to the development and management of experiences across all of the channels. Any friction within these experiences, any points of pain felt by the customer during their shopping journey, could lead to decreased loyalty and sales, interrupting, even preventing, growth for the business. For this reason, retailers everywhere are becoming more attuned to the notion of headless commerce, piquing curiosity throughout the industry as to the potential benefits and payoffs of headless systems.
Going Headless
What’s unique about headless systems is the fact that they operate with the frontend decoupled from the backend, meaning that the touchpoints presenting information to the consumer, such as a retailer’s digital storefront, mobile app or in-store kiosk, function independent of the backend powering and supporting them. Leveraging application programming interfaces (APIs) to link and define interactions between the multiple pieces of software and hardware used to construct the system, the user is enabled with greater agility in their utilization of their systems. In short, the benefits that can be realized through the headless approach are multifaceted and allow businesses to remove much of the complexity that’s often involved in running and supporting a successful digital e-commerce environment for their customers. It serves to increase a retailer’s speed within the ever-broadening digital ecosystem. But, most importantly, says Adam Sturrock, VP Product Marketing at Amplience, a headless architecture and approach provides merchants with the freedom to innovate and enhance the customer experience across all digital channels.
“The experience that is created and offered to customers within today’s digital environment is the most important consideration of any retailer running part of their business online,” he asserts. “Through these experiences, they’re trying to connect and engage with their customers in a way that’s seamless and effective. And increasingly, they’re realizing that these experiences have got to be differentiated within a unique customer journey that is taking place across multiple channels. Customers are interacting with retailers and brands offline, online and on their mobile devices. And retailers have got to orchestrate those experiences and support them by weaving together numerous components and pieces of data from various systems. A headless approach allows content creators, campaign managers and marketing teams the ability to leverage all of the data to develop curated experiences for each channel from a single system, providing them with full control over the design of their digital customer journeys.”
Transformative Approach
For many businesses currently running traditional monolithic platforms to support the experiences they offer, the concept of headless might be a bit of a foreign one, seeming perhaps counterintuitive to the proper management of systems, information, and content. However, for those seeking to harness more of the data that they have access to in order to provide their customers with a greater level of customization and personalization, the migration to a headless approach and execution of new strategies is quickly making a lot of business sense, representing a means by which to stay ahead of today’s digital curve. It all adds up to big changes that are required to the current retail technology infrastructure, a daunting task at best. But, helping businesses navigate through the change to realize the power and potential of a headless approach are company’s like Amplience.
Founded in 2008, the developer of an API-first, headless content management platform began its own journey with the simple mission to “empower retailers to deliver the inspiring experiences that convert customers”. The company has remained true to its intent over the course of nearly a decade-and-a-half, evolving to create a solution that helps its clients dramatically simplify how their commerce teams plan, create, manage, and deliver content across channels. And, according to Sturrock, the company’s approach is also helping to create a digital environment for retailers in which there is no gap between insight and action.
“A lot of the solutions currently available to retailers are quite reactive in the ways they enable teams to respond to things,” he points out. “There will be an external pressure or an internal problem to solve and the systems simply allow them to react to those challenges. Whereas, with Amplience’s solutions, retailers are empowered to be a lot more proactive in their decision-making, scheduling and strategies. Retailers and brands are very campaign and calendar driven by nature. And with the right insights and information, they’re enabled to properly plan, build out a strategy and effectively execute on it. And because our system is built with the competence to allow retailers a clear view into the output of the experiences they offer, they’re provided with insights that they can tie back into their strategies. It’s all about embracing and leveraging agile best practices to help transform your digital offering and create an exceptional experience for customers.”
Harry’s Digitization
One retailer that’s truly embraced the new digital age is Harry Rosen. Through the digitization of its business, the iconic Canadian menswear retailer has elevated the experience it offers is clientele, moving the company forward in a big way. It achieved this by leveraging a MACH-based technology solution (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) for its management of digital channels of commerce, utilizing services from a consortium of vendors whose collective technologies comprise the whole of the company’s tech architecture. Essentially, from a technology standpoint, a MACH-based approach breaks down the traditional monolithic platform into individual components whose functions are fulfilled by a collective of software and solutions. Amplience was selected to provide the technology that supports the retailer’s content management and digital asset management systems, powering the Harry Rosen online experience. Amplience’s involvement in the transformational project resulted in significant website and mobile performance, increasing its speed, functionality and effectiveness.
Reputation and Relationships
In addition to the work that it’s done in collaboration with Harry Rosen, the company provides its expertise to more than 350 of the world’s leading brands, an extensive client list which includes Coach, Crate&Barrel, GAP, Golf Town, Indochino, Mulberry, and a host of others. In a very short time, Amplience has grown to become one of the most trusted and valued technology partners for retailers everywhere, elevating its reputation within its field and increasing awareness of its digital prowess. It’s a trajectory that obviously bodes well for the company. And, as Sturrock explains, it’s a reputation and trajectory that continue to make positive gains as a result of the relationships that Amplience builds with its clients.
“Because we’re a software vendor, we have direct relationships with all of our clients,” he says. “But it’s the nature of these relationships that we’ve developed that’s most important, positioning ourselves as a partner rather than a supplier. We provide them with the infrastructure and content repositories. And our customer success and solutions teams assist, helping clients through the pre and post implementation process and with the scaling of campaigns. We also help clients understand where the friction and pain-points are within their workflows and the experiences they’re providing and offer advice and solutions to mitigate and solve those challenges. In addition, we also work with a network of partner system integrators that we can recommend to support retailers’ efforts in building out their infrastructure. Our objective is always to help ensure the success of the retail clients we work with. In doing so, we ensure our own successes.”
Acceleration and Change
In this age of increasing digitalization, the experiences that retailers deliver through their digital channels is becoming paramount, and the importance of the content that helps support those experiences is growing in significance. The combination is more often than not serving to meaningfully impact notoriously low online conversion rates and providing brands with the greatest means of differentiation and advantage available to them. And, as technology developers and partners like Amplience consistently innovate to deliver the right solutions to help retailers achieve their digital goals and grow their businesses, the future of headless looks bright. With respect to Amplience’s plans, Sturrock says that the company remains fixed on continuously improving its offering to the industry and expanding its client-base further during this time of acceleration and change.
“We are looking to grow rapidly over the next few years. We just experienced a fantastic quarter and I’d imagine our growth is going to continue to quicken as we build out our products and invest in further product development. But our primary focus is on maintaining the high level of service and expertise that we provide our clients through our software solutions and collaborative approach. As the world continues to become an increasingly digital one, and the number of digital touchpoints and channels of commerce expand, the concept of a headless approach to content and digital asset management systems is going to become the accepted norm when it comes to creating and executing on the experiences that customers are beginning to expect from their favourite brands. And we want to ensure that we’re partnering with as many retailers as possible to help elevate their digital strategies and the experiences that they offer.”
For more information about the ways Amplience’s headless approach to content and digital asset management systems can help enhance your digital customer experiences across all channels, visit amplience.com.
Sainte-Catherine Street storefronts adorned/aglow with Christmas lights. Photo: City of Montreal.
Retail Insider continues its Photo Tour series to provide a window into retail hotspots across the country that may be continuing to grow and expand while dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This edition takes us to Sainte-Catherine Street in Montreal, Quebec, beginning at Crescent Street and continuing east to Aylmer Street.
Sainte-Catherine Street Google Map
History of Sainte-Catherine Street
This 11.2-kilometre-long street in Montreal is considered the “backbone of Downtown Montreal” and its history stretches back to the 1700s. The street was never formally planned so the growth of the street ebbed and flowed as needs arose rather than with a specific intention. By the end of the 1800s, the opening of several department stores solidified Sainte-Catherine Street as a key retail destination in Montreal — some of those businesses relocated from Old Montreal where buildings lacked space. Department stores left their mark on Sainte-Catherine Street over the years, including Eaton’s, Henry Morgan & Company, Ogilvy’s, Dupuis Freres, and Simpsons. Independent retailers and mid-sized retailers have also graced the street over the years. Jewellery stores such as Maison Birks have become part of the retail fabric of Sainte-Catherine Street.
Historic photos of Saint Catherine Street
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Henry Morgan Building, the flagship store in Downtown Montreal (1890s). Photo: Wikipedia.
Menswear showcase of Simpson's store on St. Catherine Street in Montreal, 1936. Photo: Wikipedia.
"The Ogilvy Store," St. Catherine and Mountain streets, Montreal, 1906. Photo: Wikipedia.
Major retail building landmarks hosted by Sainte-Catherine Street include the Montreal Eaton Centre (including the former 1.1 million square foot Eaton department store), Les Cours Mont-Royal, Hudson’s Bay, and others. This tour visits the retailers from a street view — Retail Insider will not be entering any of the landmark retail buildings.
Breaking Up Sainte-Catherine Street
The Photo Tour starts at the intersection of Crescent Street, near the Apple store, and proceeds eastward ten blocks to the Hudson’s Bay store facing onto Phillips Square (at Aylmer Street). For the purpose of this retail tour, we separated the street into six ‘tour zones’ which generally span two city blocks each.
Sainte-Catherine Street Tour Zone Map. Photo: Google Map
The above six purple-encircled ‘tour zones’ along Sainte-Catherine Street include:
Zone 1: Crescent Street to Drummond Street
Zone 2: Drummond Street to Peel Street
Zone 3: Along Peel Street
Zone 4: Peel Street to Mansfield Street
Zone 5: Mansfield Street to Boulevard Robert-Bourassa
Zone 6: Boulevard Robert-Bourassa to Aylmer Street/Place Phillips
Due to the density of retail in the first two ‘tour zones’, we have further divided those zones into parts based on each city block individually.
Sainte-Catherine Street Tour Zone 1 Map. Photo: Google Map
Retail Tour Zone 1: Crescent Street to Drummond Street
While we formally begin our tour at the intersection of Crescent Street and Sainte-Catherine Street West, we should point out that Point Zero, Rudsak, L’Intervalle, and Dr. Martens all have retail stores on the city block preceding our starting point.
Retail Tour Zone 1 (Block 1): Crescent Street to Rue de la Montagne
Thor Equities acquired units on Sainte-Catherine W. at Crescent St
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ECCO (1327), TAG (1325), and Apple (1321 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Telus (1333 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Of the two units Thor Equities acquired, Danish footwear brand ECCO subsequently opened their larger flagship in August 2017 at 1327 1321 Sainte-Catherine St West, and Boutique TAG outerwear currently enjoys 2,600 square feet of retail space at 1325 1321 Sainte-Catherine St West. The acquisition resulted in Thor becoming neighbours with the Apple Store flagship located at 1321 Sainte-Catherine St West.
Apple Store (1321 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Other retailers on this retail block which have featured in Retail Insider include:
Mackage: Upscale Montreal-based fashion brand replaced a 3,000-square-foot BCBG store with a new Mackage flagship store in 2018. At the time, it became the second Montreal location for the retailer and the fifth Mackage store in Canada.
COS: H&M‘s upscale fashion brand opened this location in October 2015. COS, which stands for Collection of Style, launched in London in 2007. The brand’s price point is marginally higher than that of H&M, and it says that its designs are timeless, tactile, functional, classic, and modern.
Mackage (1300 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) & COS. Photo: Maxime Frechette
COS (1310 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Other select retailers in the first block of this ‘tour zone’ included Key West, Vans, and ALDO.
Sainte-Catherine W. from Crescent St to Rue de la Montagne
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Aldo (1320 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Vans (1334 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) and Steven Madden. Photo: Maxime Frechette
Arriving at Rue de la Montagne reveals the prolific Holt Renfrew Ogilvy that has been reported extensively in Retail Insider. The original Ogilvy’s department store was founded by the Ogilvy family in the 1800s and changed ownership several times over the years. Two major ownership shifts included of note in the Ogilvy ownership being purchased by Equidev (a Montreal development group) which performed major updates to the building in the 1980s that included developing a concession model housing 52 designer boutiques. The retailer changed owners a couple more times as decades passed and most recently was purchased in 2011 by Wittington Investments which also owns Holt Renfrew within its subsidiary company, Selfridges Group Limited.
The existing Montreal Holt Renfrew store, which had previously operated nearby at 1300 Sherbrooke Street West since 1937, closed in June 2020 to coincide with the opening of the expanded Holt Renfrew Ogilvy store on Ste-Catherine Street. The 250,000-square-foot Holt Renfrew Ogilvy store is one of the largest multi-brand luxury stores in North America and is the largest showcase of luxury brands in the Montreal market. All six retail levels were renovated and reopened in July 2020.
Holt Renfrew Ogilvy (1307 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Louis Vuitton (1300 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime FrechetteHolt Renfrew Oglivy (1307 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Retail Tour Zone 1 (Block 2): Rue de la Montagne to Drummond Street
Ardene (1255 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Swatch (1256 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) and Urban Outfitters. Photo: Maxime FrechetteLa Vie en Rose (1220 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
The second block of this ‘tour zone’ includes a variety of retailers including Urban Outfitters, GNC General Nutrition Centre, The North Face, Sunglass Hut, Lululemon, Armani Exchange, and an Oakley Store.
Urban Outfitters (1246 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Sainte-Catherine W. from Rue de la Montagne to to Drummond Street
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The North Face (1247 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
GNC and Sunglass Hut (1242 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Sunglass Hut, Adidas, Lululemon (1232 Sainte-Catherine St. W). Photo: Maxime Frechette
Oakley (1230 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Armani Exchange (1241 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Lululemon (1232 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) and Adidas. Photo: Maxime Frechette
A stretch of vacant retail space before the Virgin Mobile at the corner was previously occupied in 2012 by Guess/Marciano and Buffalo.
Vacant Retailers (2021 versus 2012 Comparison) - SWIPE TO COMPARE
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Vacant retailers next to the Virgin Mobile Store (1221 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Guess and Buffalo in 2012 occupying the vacant retailers next to Virgin Mobile (1221 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Google
Retail Tour Zone 2: Drummond Street to Peel Street
The second retail-dense ‘tour zone’ is the remaining stretch of Sainte-Catherine Street from Drummond Street onward to the main thoroughfare of Peel street.
Sainte-Catherine Street Tour Zone 2 Map. Photo: Google Map
As with the ‘Tour Zone 1’, the sheer density of the retailers in “Tour Zone 2” resulted in separating the tour into two parts based on city blocks.
Retail Tour Zone 2 (Block 1): Drummond Street to Stanley Street
Across Drummond Street from la Vie en Rose is footwear/sporting retailer, Reebok, which starts off this block of our ‘Tour Zone 2’.
Mister Steer, Basha Restaurant and Reebok (1204 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Other retailers on the block included Little Burgundy, Jack & Jones, Dynamite, and Garage
Little Burgundy (1127 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) and Aritzia (1125 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime FrechetteH&M (1100 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Retail Tour Zone 3: Along Peel Street
Named after a former Prime Minister of England, Peel Street commands several lofty retailers warranting a separate tour zone of its own.
Sainte-Catherine St. Tour Zone 3 Map. Photo: Google MapCanada Goose across the street from H&M. Photo: Maxime Frechette
Harry Rosen is located at upscale Les Cours Mont Royal which was once a large hotel. Built in 1922, the then Mount Royal Hotel was the largest in the British Empire, with 1,100 rooms. In 1988, about 200,000 square feet of the hotel’s lower portion was converted to retail and the upstairs is dedicated to residential condominium apartments.
Les Cours Mont Royal (1555 Peel St.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Other retailers along this stretch of Peel Street included Aerie, Iberica, L’Uomo, and Pandora.
The American Eagle store is closed for a refresh this week according to Retail Insider correspondent Maxime Frechette who was also celebrating his birthday. The Sainte-Catherine Street American Eagle spans three floors and is the second largest in the world after a Manhattan flagship store.
Peel Street Retailers from Sainte-Catherine W. to Boulevard de Maisonneuve O
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Iberica and L'Uomo Montreal (1452 Peel St.)Photo: Maxime Frechette
American Eagle Montreal (1452 Peel St.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Retail Tour Zone 4: Peel Street to Mansfield Street
The Peel to Mansfield ‘tour zone’ was home to the iconic Simons department store as well as several other retailers which featured in Retail Insider over the years.
An exclusive 2016 interview with Charles Fortin, son of the founder of fashion retailer, Tristan, remarked, “the design for the majority of our stores find their origins from our flagship store (1001 Sainte-Catherine St. in Montreal) which used to be an old bank. The store’s lozenge mesh, stone, and several other interesting design elements come from this inspiration”.
TRISTAN (1001 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Other retailers on this first block of this ‘tour zone’ before crossing Metcalfe Street included Roots, VANS, Lids, Club Monaco, Lacoste, and Aldo.
Sainte-Catherine St. Retailers from Peel Street to Metcalfe Street
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Lacoste (1011 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
ALDO on Sainte-Catherine St. Photo: Maxime Frechette
Club Monaco (1000 Sainte-Catherine St. W.), FIDO, and LIDS. Photo: Maxime Frechette
Club Monaco, FIDO, and LIDS. Photo: Maxime Frechette
Roots (1025 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Crossing Metcalfe Street, pedestrians reach the Quebec City-based, large-format fashion retailer La Maison Simons located at 977 Ste-Catherine Street West. The location was the first to open its standalone ‘mini-store’ in early 2019, which involved relocating the store’s home furnishings ‘Maison’ concept downstairs to a separate floor from the existing Simons store.
Simons, Club Monaco, and Jean Coutu. Photo: Maxime Frechette
The 200,000-square-foot Simons building once housed the city’s Simpsons department store. Construction commenced in 1928 and finished in 1930, and the building was expanded in 1954. Simons occupies a portion of the mixed-use building which now also houses a cinema, boutiques, and restaurants.
In 1978 according to to a book written by former Simpsons Chairman G. Allan Burton, the Simpsons store on Sainte-Catherine Street had annual sales of about $90 million, possibly making it the top-selling store in Canada at the time. The Hudson’s Bay store nearby, spanning more than 650,000 square feet, had sales of about $65 million. In years past, department stores flourished on Sainte-Catherine Street and in many instances, women’s fashion offerings were more comprehensive than those found in Toronto. That is certainly no longer the case today.
La Maison Simons (977 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Other retailers on this second block of this ‘tour zone’ includes Jean Coutu, Moores, a former BCBGMAXAZRIA, Lolë, and a former TELUS store.
Saint-Catherine St. Retailers from Metcalfe Street to Mansfield Street
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Moores (966 Sainte-Catherine St. W.), SQDC, and Jean Coutu. Photo: Maxime Frechette
Jean Coutu, SQDC, Moores (966 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) and former BCBG. Photo: Maxime Frechette
Lolë (954 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) and former BCBGMAXAZRIA locatiion (960 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Lole (954 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) and the former Telus location (950 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Lolë (954 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) and former BCBGMAXAZRIA location (960 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Retail Tour Zone 5: Mansfield Street to Boulevard Robert-Bourassa
Sports Experts, Zara, and Simons (Corner of Mansfield St. and Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
This ‘tour zone’ begins by crossing Mansfield Street from Simons to Place Montreal Trust with Zara and Indigo. Across the street from Place Montreal Trust is NewLook, Camper, and Foot Locker.
Zara (1500 McGill College Ave.) at Place Montreal Eaton. Photo: Maxime Frechette
Saint-Catherine St. Retailers from Mansfield Street to McGill College Ave
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NewLook Lunetterie and Sports Experts (930 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Foot Locker, Camper, NewLook Lunetterie, and Sports Experts (930 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Aveda, Bell, Foot Locker, and Camper (880 Sainte-Catherine St. W. to 904 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Crossing McGill College Avenue reveals the standalone Banana Republic and GAP stores which are across the street from the Google Headquarters and Kiehl’s.
Banana Republic and Gap at 777 Saint-Catherine St W
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Banana Republic (777 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Banana Republic (777 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) and GAP Kids. Photo: Maxime Frechette
Kiehls (760 Sainte-Catherine St. W.), Google, and Les 3 Brasseurs. Photo: Maxime Frechette
Centre Eaton de Montreal (705 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
The shopping centre joined two adjacent shopping centres that both have unique histories. The former Complexe Les Ailes was created out of a former Eaton department store flagship store that once spanned nearly one million square feet. When Eaton closed in 1999, the lower floors of the building were converted into a shopping centre called ‘Complexe Les Ailes’, which was anchored by an impressive 225,000-square-foot Les Ailes de la Mode department store. After failing to capture shopping dollars, Les Ailes was downsized to a mere 75,000 square feet at the back-end of the Complexe Les Ailes — the chain continued to flounder and morphed into a discount concept before shuttering.
Eaton de Montreal (705 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
UNIQLO Centre Eaton de Montreal (705 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
UNIQLO Centre Eaton de Montreal (705 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
Retail Tour Zone 6: Boulevard Robert-Bourassa to Aylmer Street/Place Phillips
The final retail tour zone is home to Montreal’s downtown Hudson’s Bay as well as the Promenades Cathedrale Boutiques and Maison Birks.
Promenades Cathedrale Boutiques. Photo: Maxime Frechette
The Promenades Cathedrale Boutiques is located underneath the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral, and the 134,495-square-foot retail complex was constructed in 1987 with RÉSO (Montreal’s Underground City) connections underground to the iconic La Baie d’Hudson Building.
Facade Photos of La Baie d'Hudson
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La Baie d'Hudson (585 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
La Baie d'Hudson (585 Sainte-Catherine St. W.) Photo: Maxime Frechette
The Montreal Bay store was built between 1891 and 1964, with the oldest part of the store facing onto Ste-Catherine Street. It was built as an upscale Henry Morgan department store which catered to the carriage trade (Macleans in 1953 referred to it as “most courtly department-store keepers in Canada”). Morgan’s expanded into Ontario before going into decline and being acquired by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1960. In 1972 the Ste-Catherine Street Morgan’s store was converted to the current Hudson’s Bay store.
1890s rendering of Colonial House, the first name of the Morgan’s department store on Sainte-Catherine St. W. Image: HBC archives
A French language report in La Press noted that the Montreal Hudson’s Bay building had been for sale through brokerage CBRE, as was the Vancouver Hudson’s Bay flagship store recently.
A recent proposal to the City of Montreal to modify the historic 655,000-square-foot downtown Hudson’s Bay flagship store could result in the building of a massive office tower along with a reduction in the footprint of the retail space within in the building. What would result is a real estate asset that would feature substantially more office space than retail space.
The proposal seeks permission to demolish the unattractive circa 1964 back-end of the Bay building facing onto Blv. Maisonneuve (intended at one time to become a 200,000-square-foot Saks Fifth Avenue) and replace it with a 500-foot-tall office tower with 25 floors. The total office space, including levels five to eight of the retail store as well as the new tower, would span 678,000 square feet. The retail space in the building would be downsized to five levels (basement up to level four) spanning about 295,000 square feet.
Renderings and plans for a proposed redevelopment of the Hudson’s Bay flagship
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Rendering of the newly-renovated Hudson's Bay store and office building extension. Rendering: Menkes Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux
View of the newly-renovated Hudson's Bay store from Sainte-Catherine Street. Rendering: Menkes Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux
Side rendering of the newly-renovated Hudson's Bay store and office building extension on Union Avenue. Rendering: Menkes Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux
Rendering of the newly-renovated Hudson's Bay office building extension. Rendering: Menkes Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux
Aerial rendering of the newly-renovated Hudson's Bay office building extension. Rendering: Menkes Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux
Aerial rendering of the newly-renovated Hudson's Bay office building extension on the Sainte-Catherine Street side. Rendering: Menkes Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux
Aerial rendering of the newly-renovated Hudson's Bay office building extension facing west. Rendering: Menkes Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux
Iconic Montreal-based jewellery retailer Maison Birks rounds out our extensive retail photo tour of Sainte-Catherine Street in Montreal. The retailer completed its recent overhaul in June 2018 which ‘right-sized’ the retail store to only the main floor. A new Hôtel Birks opened later in 2018 and occupies the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors previously occupied by the retail store and offices. The hotel’s website mentions ‘the damaged 5th floor, which once housed Birks’ watch-making department, was entirely replaced with two crowning glass-enclosed floors, luminous rooms, and intimate balconies overlooking the city”.
Hotel Birks Montreal (1240 Phillips Square) Photo: Maxime Frechette
We had a very interesting photo walk around Sainte-Catherine Street in Montreal and we hope you enjoyed coming along with us. Don’t forget to check out our other retail photo tours over the past few months. Thank you for taking this tour with us, and thank you Maxime Frechette for taking photos for this article.
Discover More Related Retail Photo Tours From Retail Insider:
Exterior of new Freson Bros.store in Edmonton. Photo: Christopher Lui
Albertan grocery retailer, Freson Bros., opened its first store in Edmonton this month. Founded in 1955 as a small butcher shop, Freson Bros. has grown to be the largest family-owned independent grocery chain in Alberta, with a focus on stores in smaller Albertan communities. The chain has 17 stores across the province. In 2017, Retail Insider reported on Freson Bros.’ history.
Located in southwest Edmonton, the new 42,000-square-foot store is located in the Rabbit Hill Crossing shopping centre. The cost to build the store is estimated to be $9.8 million. The location represents the next generation of Freson Bros. stores and Fresh Market concepts, which has been built upon the success of the Freson Bros. Stony Plain store which opened in 2013, and the second evolution with the opening of the Fort Saskatchewan store in 2018.
Rabbit Hill Crossing is an 8.93-acre retail shopping centre located in the northeast corner of Rabbit Hill Road and Anthony Henday Drive. Current tenants in the centre include a mix of health and professional services (Mr. Barber, Nova Cannabis, Q-Nails), food service (barBurrito, Love Pizza, XO Bistro, Subway), and a Co-op Gas Bar. There is an additional pad planned for Fall 2021 that will add 15,000 square feet of retail space.
Alberta Smoked Meats section in new Freson Bros.store in Edmonton. Photo: Christopher LuiKid’s Table in new Freson Bros.store in Edmonton. Photo: Christopher LuiThe Root Cellar in new Freson Bros.store in Edmonton. Photo: Christopher Lui
Doug Lovsin
Retail Insider was fortunate to be offered a store tour by Freson Bros. President, Doug Lovsin. Lovsin mentioned that this store is an advancement of the brand and embodies their 3 core values — great food matters, belief in the strength of human connection, and belief in the skills of their employees. A produce department is at the front of the store and is branded as Market Garden. Lovsin said, “There is a large emphasis on Alberta-grown produce”. The perimeter produce wall is easy to shop as there is signage above that clearly identifies each product. A unique addition to the produce section is the Root Cellar —a special temperature-controlled room with low light to ensure maximum freshness housing root vegetables such as onions, yams, and garlic. There is also something for the little ones that are shopping with mom and dad in the produce section. A Kid’s Table allows children to pick up a piece of fresh fruit with a small donation. The donations support local charities and rotate monthly.
Moving towards the back of the store, we entered the meat and seafood department that is branded as The Butcher Shop. Lovsin said, “Freson Bros. prides itself on its carcass beef program with butchers cutting and preparing meats in an open market concept”. Shoppers can choose from freshly-packaged Alberta beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and Ivan’s sausages that are produced by Ivan Fano, an in-house butcher from their Hanna, Alberta store. The dry-aged beef that is sold is all aged in store between 14 and 28 days in a dedicated humidity-controlled fridge tucked behind the meat counter. There is also a smoked meat counter branded as Banj’s Smokehouse with all of the Alberta beef and pork products including bacon, sausage rings, jerky, and pepperoni, all of which is smoked in store with real hardwood.
Kitchen Creamery section in new Freson Bros.store in Edmonton. Photo: Christopher LuiHealthy Choice section in new Freson Bros.store in Edmonton. Photo: Christopher LuiFather Dough Pizza section in new Freson Bros.store in Edmonton. Photo: Christopher Lui
The next section is the dairy section that stocks refrigerator staples including milk, yogurt, and cheese. Shoppers will also find specialty dairy items including goat milk and nut milk.
Next is the bakery, branded as Mother Dough Bread Co., that focuses on sourdough products that take three days to make. To align with using Alberta-made ingredients, the bakery uses only Alberta flour. There is also a Torte station that merchandises the house-made cakes, which Lovsin said is “inspired by a Vienna bakery”. Shoppers can find Strawberry Cream, Cinnnatorte, Carrot, Granny’s Viennese, and Black Forest tortes in the station. A new addition to the Edmonton store is a cinnamon buns station.
The next section along the perimeter is the expanded deli which is branded as Deli Classics, where shoppers can find deli meats, salads, and house-made sandwiches. Lovsin said, “A few unique items stocked include an eight-foot section filled with smoked meats including turkey legs, chicken, and baby back ribs, and European-inspired foods such as schnitzel and lasagna”. There is also a section branded as the Kitchen Creamery that stocks a selection of specialty cheeses from across Alberta and Europe. House-made cheeses include mozzarella and ricotta. A unique addition to the store is the Made-to-Order Sandwich station which serves sourdough bread from the bakery and Valbella Gourmet Foods European-style hams and meats. There is also a variety of pre-made sandwiches and salads for the on-the-go shopper. For the soup lovers that are also environmentally conscious, there is an artisan soup program that features rotating house-made soups in glass jars including Borscht, Broccoli Cheddar, Chicken Noodle, Potato Bacon Sauerkraut. and Thai Chicken with a refundable deposit on the glass jar.
Candy aisle in new Freson Bros.store in Edmonton. Photo: Christopher LuiDeli section in new Freson Bros.store in Edmonton. Photo: Christopher LuiTake-and-bake pizza pies in new Freson Bros.store in Edmonton. Photo: Christopher Lui
Rounding out the perimeter of the store is the hot food section of the store which includes the Father Dough Pizza, Butcher’s Cookhouse, and Fresh Off the Grill concepts. The Father Dough Pizza concept allows shoppers to build their own thin-crust sourdough pizza or select from a variety of chef-designed pizzas by the slice or the entire pie. The pizza is baked in a large wood-fired pizza oven to replicate a high-end pizzeria experience. There is even a take-and-bake option with the same pizzas for shoppers that want an at-home experience. The Butcher’s Cookhouse concept is a ready-to-eat smorgasbord with fried chicken, crispy wings, macaroni and cheese, and more classic foods. The Fresh Off the Grill concept is a new addition that serves a ground-fresh-daily, 100%-Albertan chuck meat Smashburger, steak sandwich, tartine, and grilled cheese sandwich. On the weekends, these stations offer breakfast favourites including a build-your-own omelet station, sourdough French toast, and pancakes. All of these ready-to-eat foods can be enjoyed both at home and in store. In addition to being a grocery store, there is a licensed 116-person restaurant where shoppers can enjoy ready-to-eat foods and on-tap craft beer and wine. Shoppers can also purchase the craft beer and wine for at-home enjoyment.
Interactive Google Map of Rabbit Hill Crossing and the surrounding area
The middle of the store contains more shop-in-shop experiences including Sweet Spot which is an old-fashioned candy kiosk that stocks favourites including saltwater taffy, chocolate, and modern sweets. Flanking The Butcher Shop is the Plant Based Proteins section that aligns with the increasing demand for meat alternatives. There is also a health and beauty department that has been branded as Granny’s Wisdom and Healthy Choice that features a health food store feel and a symptomology wall where shoppers can shop for health solutions by symptoms. For the aspiring bakers and home cooks, there is the Baker’s Pantry section which stocks a variety of specialty baking and foods such as Callebaut chocolate by the chunk. The grocery department contains all the essentials that you would expect at a grocery store and has also been refreshed with aisles that are shortened and have an opening in the middle to allow better flow and shoppers to cross shop aisles.
The Edmonton Freson Bros. store is positioned for success. It is located in a high-traffic zone and is the main arterial road into the Mactaggart neighbourhood. There is also visibility from Edmonton’s Ring Road, Anthony Henday Drive. It has traffic counts in excess of 77,800 Vehicles per day. The Mactaggart neighbourhood has an average household income of $181,074 per year and has experienced a population increase of 60% since 2016. The closure of Planet Organic stores in 2020, which had two former locations in Edmonton, bodes well for Freson Bros. as it can capture the abandoned health food shoppers of Edmonton. Freson Bros. carries an expanded assortment of health-focused brands and organic produce.
“We are very thankful for the response from Edmontonians, and we are very excited to bring a unique Alberta food experience to Edmontonians,” said Lovsin, Looking to the future, Freson Bros. is pursuing expansion opportunities in Alberta and beyond.
Empire Company Limited, parent company to various grocery banners, announced that it has signed an agreement to purchase 51% of Toronto-based specialty grocery retailer Longo’s with stores in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as well as the Grocery Gateway e-commerce business for $357 million. It’s part of a strategy to beef up Empire’s business in Canada’s biggest market.
Michael Medline, President and CEO, Empire, said, “Empire has strong momentum and we are laser-focused on our Project Horizon growth plans in key markets like the GTA, both in bricks and mortar and e-commerce.”
He went on to say, “Longo’s has built one of the most successful and sought-after brands in the GTA and Southwestern Ontario. Longo’s is a crown jewel of grocery and as a values-driven company, Longo’s culture aligns closely with Empire. We couldn’t be happier to be partnering with Anthony and the Longo’s team.”
Longo’s operates 36 stores in Ontario, most being in the Greater Toronto Area. Grocery Gateway will add 70,000 long-standing online customers to Empire’s e-commerce business, according to the company.
Longo’s will continue to be led by President and CEO Anthony Longo and his team. Although managed separately, Longo’s will benefit from Empire’s infrastructure and capabilities in areas such as sourcing, logistics and real estate. The Longo’s philanthropy through the Longo’s Family Charitable Foundation will continue and, with Empire’s support, is expected to grow over time.
Grocery Gateway will continue as a stand-alone business. Empire will continue to invest in the growth of Grocery Gateway’s customer base while building efficiencies through collaboration with Empire’s Voilà online business.
Other Empire-owned grocery banners in Ontario include Sobeys, Foodland, FreshCo, Farm Boy and Voilà, the latter being a delivery program.
Empire says that its success with the Farm Boy acquisition is a reason for the further expansion including acquiring Longo’s and Grocery Gateway businesses into its family of banners. Empire will continue to grow the Longo’s and Grocery Gateway businesses while unlocking benefits through non-customer facing synergies. Longo’s and Grocery Gateway customers will see no changes to their experience. Longo’s plans to open several new stores over the next five years.
The Longo family has expressed their intentions to remain as long-term shareholders of Longo’s. The deal, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the first quarter of Empire’s 2022 financial year.
Empire will initially acquire 51% of Longo’s issued and outstanding shares based on a total enterprise value of $700 million. The transaction structure allows Empire to achieve 100% ownership of Longo’s over time.
Walmart Canada is investing over $500 million this year in its store network, focusing on refurbishing and refreshing stores across the country and making it the largest ever yearly investment in store upgrades.
But the retail giant also announced Monday it is closing six stores: Malton, ON, Hamilton (County Fair), ON, Calgary (Deer Valley), AB, Edmonton (Abbotsfield), AB, Kitchener East (ON), St. John’s South, Nfld. Each of these locations is in a market that is already well served by other Walmart stores, it said.
Horacio Barbeito
“We are on a mission to modernize all aspects of our business and that includes our stores,” said Horacio Barbeito, President and CEO of Walmart Canada, in a statement.
“Investing in our stores is a major priority. In so many cases our stores are pillars in the community, and we want them at their best – especially as we serve our customers in more omnichannel ways.”
The investments include:
Upgrading Supercentres by enhancing the look and feel of the store for example with improved lighting, repairs, paint, new signage, and a refreshed exterior front look;
Upgrading and improving staff lounges;
Enhancing some of its highest e-commerce volume stores with an improved picking space for online orders;
Revamping sales floor layout in select stores;
Walmart Canada’s first automated market fulfilment centre inside the Scarborough West Walmart Supercentre; and
The Calgary Northland Walmart and the Kitchener Walmart will be converted to Supercentres, and will feature an assortment of fresh groceries, general merchandise, and services available.
The company said the work is expected to create more than 2,000 construction jobs in Canada.
Michael Kehoe
“The Walmart Canada store modernization announcement is a major affirmation of the importance of bricks and mortar retail and a vote of confidence in communities across the country,” said Michael Kehoe, a national retail expert and broker/owner of Fairfield Commercial Real Estate in Calgary.
“This significant investment by Walmart and the related construction jobs will reverberate across the Canadian economy as the country emerges from the recent pandemic era challenges. Retailing now more than ever is a Darwinian struggle and innovative omni-channel retail models that are both contemporary and efficient are essential especially for a gorilla-sized merchant like Walmart with over 400 stores nationwide.”
Walmart said that more than 60 percent of all its stores in Canada will be improved by the investment. It is all part of the retailer’s planned $3.5 billion investment over the next five years to make the online and in-store shopping experience simpler, faster, and more convenient.
“When a customer chooses to shop at our stores we want to do everything we can to ensure they are met with the best and most modern experience possible,” said Sam Wankowski, Chief Operations Officer, Walmart Canada. “We are making a lot of improvements, including digitizing the experience to be more contemporary and creating a more efficient store to serve our customers regardless of how they choose to shop with us.
Sam Wankowski
“Over this past year we’ve certainly seen the customer behaviour has really dictated the experience that they want in a retail store. So as we’ve seen our stores, and what our customers expect, really transform and bringing together all the great products that you would expect at a Walmart at obviously unbeatable prices equally we’re thinking about the stores changing and clearly a focus on digitizing what we do, opening up obviously more services like online groceries and delivery to our customers. Something that they told us really clearly that they’re enjoying. Clearly, our investments this year really, really enforce the fact we feel really strongly about our business here in Canada. We want to continue to play an important role in supporting Canadians in the communities that we serve and we want to do that obviously with the best and most modern experience that we see possible.”
Wankowski said the retailer reaches essentially about 80 percent of the Canadian population within a 10-kilometre radius. But the company is always evaluating where there is potentially a community that may be under-served.
When asked about the closure of the six stores, he said: “We’re always continually evaluating our store network to ensure that we continue to meet the very expectations our customers and community have. As we’ve done that evaluation, we’ve made the tough decision to close those locations. And look, those are not easy decisions. My focus and the team’s focus right now is supporting all of the associates who are obviously impacted in these stores and I’m pleased to say all of associates will be offered positions at nearby Walmart locations and we already have stores in each of those markets where we will be closing those stores. But equally we made that decision knowing that we’ve got stores in those markets that we believe we’ll still be able to serve that customer really well right now and in the future.”
The company has more than 400 stores across Canada with about 1.5 million customers every day. It employs more than 100,000 people. Wankowski said about 90 percent of the company’s Canadian stores are now classified as Supercentres.
Bruce Winder
“I think these investments by Walmart are desperately needed to keep them competitive in the new normal of retail. With COVID-19 and its acceleration of trends such as the growth in online shopping, Walmart has no choice but to make their shopping experience more user friendly for a growing group of consumers who demand more,” said Bruce Winder, author of RETAIL Before, During & After COVID-19 and President of Bruce Winder Retail.
“These investments come with controversy as suppliers are being asked to fund a portion of them at a time when margins are being squeezed on the vendor side as a result of higher operating costs due to shipping mayhem and other costs associated with the pandemic. Over time, Walmart’s virtual monopoly in discount in Canada is at risk of being further eroded with incumbents such as Amazon and Costco offering strong go-to-market strategies.”
Exterior of the Sunterra Market at Bower Place in Red Deer, Alberta. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Calgary-based Sunterra Market is expanding its footprint in Alberta with the opening of a new location in Red Deer — now its ninth store — with ambitions of eventually growing even more with the right market conditions.
The Red Deer store is located in the Bower Place shopping centre in about 20,000 square feet of space.
“Sunterra’s story began on my parents’ farm in Acme, Alberta about 100 kilometres southeast of Red Deer,” said Glen Price, the company’s president. “After more than 50 years in farming and 30 years in retail in Alberta, we saw Red Deer as a perfect bridge between (Calgary and Edmonton) — an agricultural community who would understand and appreciate our focus on fresh, local and high-quality ingredients.”
Sunterra began in 1990 in Calgary in the south part of the city and the same year opened a location in the downtown Bankers Hall office skyscraper. The company has two stores in Edmonton today and six in Calgary.
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Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Interior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
The Red Deer store includes a mezzanine called the Community Table which will be a space for the community but also where it will do its cooking classes. The store will create 130 new jobs.
“I would say we’ve always had a lot of interest out of Red Deer with consumers asking us to locate there,” said Price. “We were just busy enough with our developments in Calgary and Edmonton that we just never really took a close look at it. Quadreal, the landlord at Bower, pursued us quite aggressively and were really keen on having us locate there and then we started looking at the community and even the combination of things in Red Deer, including we’re going to be very differentiated in Red Deer there’s nothing really like us at all in Red Deer, the community looked great. It’s super easy to get around.
“From Bower you can basically get to every part of Red Deer in 10 minutes. We liked that a lot. We tend to look at our market as within a 10-minute drive. That ends up being a lot of population and households in Red Deer.”
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Exterior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Exterior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Exterior of Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Indoor seating area in Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
Coffee station inside Red Deer Sunterra Market. Photo: Red Deer Branding Photography
The new grocery is introducing itself to people in Red Deer by gifting more than 37,000 households in the city a complimentary family-sized meal that includes Sunterra Market-Made fresh casarecce pasta and pomodoro sauce paired with an artisan sourdough loaf and salted butter. To redeem, Red Deer residents simply bring the offer they receive in the mail to Sunterra Market Bower Place. The offer will be delivered to Red Deer mailboxes over a period of time starting in late March to be mindful of limiting lineups in-store.
“This gift is our way of saying thank you to Red Deer for welcoming the Sunterra Market family,” said Price. “The past 12 months have been particularly challenging for many families, and providing a comforting meal is the best way to show our investment into Red Deer and introduce ourselves as a neighbour who truly cares about the communities where we do business.”
Price said the company doesn’t have any immediate plans for further expansion.
“I think it’s going to be a tenant market here for quite a while now. But we don’t have anything signed up at this stage and this will keep us focused for a bit for sure. Just getting this started up in the midst of COVID and getting it going. That will be our focus for the next six months or so for sure,” added Price.
“I think we’ll keep adding. Methodically. I think we’ve got to be smart about it. It’s not so much that we have a lack of consumer market demand or landlord interest. We’ve got lots of that. It’s more that we need to continue to build more of our people base. The people are by far the best part of our organization and what differentiates us – our personality and our brand. We just need to continue to develop more people within our organization to expand more if we choose to. That’s our main asset and it’s our main challenge in terms of continuing to develop people. That’s good. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. We don’t mind being challenged to get people to a super high level. I think if we expanded too fast and too quick, our customer service might slide or our product quality might slide and then it’s no fun for anybody. So we’ve always been methodical and thoughtful about when we take on more.”
The Red Deer location’s design highlights the company’s deep roots in the Alberta farming community, incorporates a farmer’s market atmosphere that focuses on merchandising of produce, includes a kitchen for its chefs to prepare its meal kits and prepared meals, and features an innovative bakery department to act as the central hub for daily fresh bread.
Landlord, QuadReal, has announced that The Joseph Richard Group will be the operator of the new food hall that will be opening at The Post in downtown Vancouver in the fall of 2023. The food hall will join other retail tenants at The Post as well as an office complex leased by Amazon.
The 26,000-square-foot food hall will act as an attraction for those in the downtown core and will be a first of its kind for the city. It is expected to attract office workers, students and other visitors to the downtown core as well as a nearby residential population that live in condominium apartment towers.
The food hall will include a mix of full-service, sit-down, and quick-service restaurants. QuadReal said in a statement that it will be “an experience unique to Canada”.
The Post, which is considered to be one of the most ambitious heritage redevelopments in Canadian history, involves the redevelopment of the massive full-block downtown Vancouver Canada Post distribution centre building at 349 W. Georgia Street. The commercial podium at The Post will encompass about 185,000 square feet. Other confirmed retail tenants include a 50,000-square-foot Loblaws City Market as well as Deville Coffee and Vancouver-based Buro The Espresso Bar.
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West Georgia Street facade of The Post. Rendering: QuadReal
Exterior of The Post's Loblaw City Market. Rendering: QuadReal
The office component above the retail podium will house about 1.13 million square feet that has been entirely leased to Seattle-based Amazon.
“I think our commitment to this project, especially at this time, should speak to our confidence that this sector will rebound as will Vancouver’s downtown core,” says Ryan “Richard” Moreno, CEO and co-founder of The Joseph Richard Group. “As with any of our venues, guests can expect unique experiences which include top-quality offerings, notable talent and uncompromising commitment to every guest.”
The Joseph Richard Group, based in Surrey BC, runs unique hospitality ventures owned by André “Joseph” Bourque and Ryan “Richard” Moreno. The company operates 25 establishments including Townhall Public Houses, Oak & Thorne, The Henry, The Buck & Ear, Livelyhood S+L Kitchen & Bar, The Italian Osteria & Cheesebar, Blank Canvas Catering, and Glass House Estate Winery. The Joseph Richard Group was recently recognized as British Columbia’s Fastest Growing Hospitality company and it was nominated in 2017 for Ernst & Young’s Top Employer Award.
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Exterior of The Post Food Hall. Rendering: QuadReal
Interior of The Post Food Hall. Rendering: QuadReal
Interior of The Post Food Hall. Rendering: QuadReal
Interior of The Post Food Hall. Rendering: QuadReal
Interior of The Post Food Hall. Rendering: QuadReal
Food and beverage will be important components to The Post, as will the highly anticipated new grocery store. The Loblaw CityMarket will feature a considerable assortment of grab-and-go items as well as fresh meat, produce and bakery items, a cafe, a brew pub and cooking classes. It will be the largest grocery store in downtown Vancouver and will feature an entrance on Homer Street. It will be the fourth Loblaw CityMarket in the Vancouver area.
Two large restaurants will occupy a combined 20,000 square feet and will face onto West Georgia Street — one of the restaurants will span two levels, and both will feature expansive south-facing outdoor patios.
Life will hopefully get back to normal as the pandemic is hopefully resolved by 2023. Being in relatively close proximity to theatre and sporting facilities, The Post will offer amenities for visitors to the downtown core. The food hall, for example, could become a destination before or after a hockey game or event at the nearby Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The main branch of the Vancouver Public Library is close by as are draws such as CF Pacific Centre which is anchored by flagships for Nordstrom, Holt Renfrew, as well as being adjacent to Hudson’s Bay’s Vancouver flagship.
The Post in Vancouver from above. Rendering: QuadReal
Built in 1958, the cavernous Canada Post building is located on a full city block in the heart of Crosstown, an area that’s becoming a significant employment and cultural centre for the city, as mandated in zoning. As a result, in several years the area will be surrounded by several major new commercial developments. Nearby as well, 3.6 million square feet of residential growth is expected to see the addition of 5,300 residential units.
The Post’s expansive office floor plates are desirable for tech firms such as Amazon, and the building will also feature amenities such as rooftop sports fields that can be used for volleyball, basketball, and soccer. Office floor plates in the south tower will span about 33,000 square feet, with 36,000 square feet for floor plates in the north tower. Super-plates directly above the retail podium will span an impressive 110,000 square feet, which will be the largest in the city when completed. The Post will also become the largest single office building project in Vancouver’s history.
Andy Clydesdale, QuadReal’s Executive Vice President, Retail, noted in an earlier interview that the project will respect and preserve the Canada Post building’s heritage and architectural features through sustainable and adaptive reuse, with a goal to re-establish the property as a signature landmark that will “deliver welcoming and beautiful gathering places”. The Post will also offer co-working spaces, technology incubators, experimental food and beverage retail, educational spaces, networking events, and more will be announced as the project progresses.
