The impressive storefront features a wide range of name and private branded goods and is part of the Empire-owned grocer’s ongoing expansion in Ontario.
This is the sixth location in Atlantic Canada for the family-owned sweets brand which was founded in 2001 in historic downtown Halifax.
“Freak Lunchbox searches the world to find the weirdest, newest and hippest candy and pop culture items on the market,” shared the brand.
“We have a passion for classic hand-painted signage and create all of our own with a team of artists in the Freak Lunchbox studio in Halifax. Freak Lunchbox is a labour of sweet, sweet love and we hope you can feel it when you visit.”
Image: Freak Lunchbox
In addition to Avalon Mall, the brand has locations in Downtown Halifax, Sunnyside Mall, Halifax Shopping Centre, King Street in Saint John, NB and Water Street in St. John’s, NL.
Matthew Dutczak’s fascination with the West Edmonton Mall began at an early age.
He still has very fond memories of his visits as a child to the massive shopping centre.
That fascination sparked the establishment of the Best Edmonton Mall, a website and YouTube video project highlighting and celebrating the gigantic shopping centre.
His mini documentary From Fantasy to Galaxy recently won the Best Web Series Award from the Edmonton Short FilmFestival.
Dutczak, 37, who has spent his life between Edmonton and Calgary, began the Best Edmonton Mall initiative about five years ago.
“I didn’t really seek out to make it a thing or to make it into a full-fledged project,” he said. “There were just a couple of things I wanted to talk about and thought it would be interesting to put out there. It just grew from there. I never thought it would become as big of a thing as it is and I’ve become the Best Edmonton Mall Guy and I have a community of followers in Edmonton, Alberta, and Western Canada, who are really enthusiastic about it.
“I didn’t think there would be this many people out there who cared but I guess there are.”
A few years ago, Dutczak saw some videos on YouTube talking about Disneyland and some old attractions. He thought it was a really neat way to talk about the destination and preserve some of the history.
“I made a video about the submarines (at West Edmonton Mall) and then about the Dragon and it just took off. It’s mainly YouTube based. I do have a website and social media account but 95 per cent of the energy goes to the YouTube videos.”
The video that has the most views is actually one of another mall in the province – the New Horizon Mall in Balzac, just outside of Calgary. It has more than 700,000 views. That mall is unique in that the concept is one where retailers buy space in the mall like buying condo units. When it first opened, it was a ghost town.
“That one took off and became pretty viral.”
For his West Edmonton Mall videos, he’s got about 300,000 views on his submarine video and several other ones that have more than 100,000 and 200,000 views.
Image: Edmonton Short Film Festival
“In the grand scheme of things, they’re not the biggest videos in the world but for a niche mall-based channel, that’s pretty big,” he said.
Dutczak said his connection to West Edmonton Mall is definitely a personal one.
“It’s my life. I grew up in Edmonton and in Alberta and some of my earliest memories are going to the mall with my family. Going to the mall with my dad who took me to the Lazer Maze. It’s one of my earliest memories overall. I remember my dad saying the words ‘they’ve got this thing called the Lazer Maze and we have to go check it out’,” he said.
“I would go there all the time growing up. As a child, I’d go there with my dad, my brother, my mom. We’d go there as a family and go to the waterpark and the amusement park and as I grew older I became kind of a teenage mall rat and I spent so much time there as a teenager going to the arcades, a lot of times seeing movies.
Matthew from Best Edmonton Mall
“As I grew older I reflected on it nostalgically and now I take my kids there. We go there as a family all the time. It’s kind of just that place that’s always been there and the memories have always been really good.”
His YouTube video From Fantasy to Galaxy is a four-part series. It was something he had wanted to do for a while – document how Fantasyland came to be when it first opened in 1983 and how it maintained its popularity for so many years.
“When it first opened (West Edmonton Mall) it was a spectacle. It was one of a kind. You’d never seen anything like it before and now some people avoid going there because it’s too busy,” said Dutczak.
“But it’s also there for the people who haven’t seen it before. Every once in a while you see tourists coming in, you see people who are friends of family coming in, and you hear ‘what the hell is this, my God’. They exclaim loud and to them the wow factor is certainly still there. It’s funny to see from an Edmontonian view because it’s like really I see this every week. But the novelty is still there. We’re just so used to it.
“You walk in and there’s store after store. And you’ve got these huge advertising lit signs. You’ve got this water park, indoor lake, oversized pirate ship, themed golf course. There’s just so much. It does have that Las Vegas feel to it.”
Dutczak said he didn’t think this Best Edmonton Mall project would have gone as long as it has.
“It seems like every quarter in the last three years I’ve thought well I’m running out of material. I better stop soon. I better move on. But I just find something else to talk about. I have no plans to stop as long as I keep having stuff to talk about. I do worry what those topics will be but it seems to be going alright so far.”
The casual dining location is slated to be a key tenant of The COURTYARD, a 27,500 square foot indoor and outdoor space that is currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2022.
“We are very excited to be a part of Willowbrook Shopping Centre and to be a key anchor in THE COURTYARD,” says Jamie Reeves, Red Robin Canada’s Chief Operating Officer. “This new location allows Red Robin to continue to serve the neighbourhood and guests we’ve had for nearly three decades.”
THE COURTYARD at Willowbrook Shopping Centre
In addition to Red Robin, restaurants confirmed for THE COURTYARD include:
AO Ramen – Upscale Japanese dining including the only teppanyaki bar south of the Fraser.
Chachi’s – Gourmet sandwiches and comfort food.
Good Taco – Fresh, homemade tortillas and authentic fillings are at the heart of every Good Taco.
Trattoria Italian Kitchen – Classic Italian cuisine with the charm of a neighbourhood feel.
OEB Breakfast Co. – An all-day breakfast and lunch restaurant that offers familiar classics.
Red Robin currently operates more than 525 restaurants across Canada and the United States.
Peace Collective at The Distillery District - Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Retail brand Peace Collective, which is known for giving back to the community and supporting several causes, has opened its flagship location in The Distillery District in Toronto.
Yanal Dhailieh
“Peace Collective is a lifestyle brand that helps customers look good while giving back to causes they believe in,” said Yanal Dhailieh, founder and CEO of the concept. “So for every purchase with Peace Collective part of your purchase goes to causes we work with.”
“Causes we help and support are mental health, food insecurity, such as the food bank, and refugee support internationally.”
Peace Collective began in 2014 and sells men’s, women’s and children’s apparel and accessories.
Peace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin Fuhs
“It’s about showing pride in yourself, or your country, or in the things you love. So a lot of our product lines that we’re known for are our Canada collection and our Toronto collection which is all about giving back in a show of pride in being from Toronto and Canada,” said Dhailieh.
“We also have our mental health collection which is all about showing self-love and then we also have a lot of sports items. We have NBA, MLB and MLS apparel all showing pride for your favourite team.”
Dhailieh was studying to be a doctor several years ago but really wasn’t passionate about it. It was then that he took a trip to Morocco to teach English, being involved in a program that allowed children from lower income households to go to school.
“My parents immigrated here from the Middle East, from Syria. I just knew whatever I wanted to do I wanted to be able to give back. The things I saw when I was young and the things my parents had to go through. That was kind of how it was born,” he said. “The idea was I wanted to start something that gave back. I think the first cause that we supported was school meals.
Peace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin Fuhs
“I graduated university and I kind of had this idea in my mind and this name for Peace Collective. It started in 2013-2014 with the first design.”
The retailer currently has two stores – the location that just opened in the Distillery District and one inside Union Station.
The Union Station location has been open since 2017.
Peace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin Fuhs
“Right before opening this (newest) store we closed our original flagship store which was in Ossington Avenue. We had it up until March of this year. But with things changing during the pandemic we made the decision to close it and reopen it in the Distillery District,” said Dhailieh.
“For us, we’re primarily an ecommerce brand that drives us in retail. But the way I like to view retail is people need to experience it as sort of a destination. It adds to everything you’re doing as a brand. So when we were looking for a new destination . . . we could have gone to one of the many malls or higher traditional traffic areas for retail. But it’s a really unique store because of the products we offer.
“We felt that the Distillery kind of added to that brand story and is in another historic area in Toronto and it’s always a place that’s going to have destination traffic. I think having a store inside Union Station and a store inside Distillery really adds to the brand value. It’s something pretty unique.”
Additional Photos from Peace Collective Distillery District Flagship
Peace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin FuhsPeace Collective at The Distillery District – Photo by Dustin Fuhs
We are in the midst of a digital revolution. Though there have been fits and starts of innovation that span the better part of the past three-quarters of a century, all lending to the cumulative technology stack that surrounds us today, the pace of digital development and adoption since the onset of the pandemic has been extraordinary. For retailers, the accelerated digitization has been highlighted most predominantly by the dramatic shift in consumer purchasing behaviour, trending away from physical brick-and-mortar locations toward online channels. The shift has resulted in a slightly altered retail landscape, prompting merchants everywhere to reimagine their service and retool their digital offering in order to remain relevant and successful. However, according to the LexisNexis Risk Solutions True Cost Of Fraud Study for Ecommerce and Retail 2021 U.S. & Canada Edition, with the increased digitization of retail operations and escalating numbers of digital transactions occurring, retailers’ vulnerabilities to cyber fraud and the cost associated have also increased.
“What’s most interesting about this report is the fact that it’s providing the first glimpse into the real impacts of the pandemic from a fraud activity and risk perspective, while shedding light on some of the challenges merchants are facing,” says Kimberly White, Senior Director of Fraud & Identity, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. “And what the report finds is that there has been a significant increase in the cost and volume of fraud that’s been perpetrated over the course of the past year. This escalation, which has been driven primarily by the increased availability and use of online and mobile channels in order to execute transactions, has exacerbated challenges that retailers everywhere have been facing for years, placing further pressure on their fraud prevention teams.”
Increased volume and cost
The twelfth annual report developed and released by LexisNexis Risk Solutions – the second installment that includes Canadian data – indicates that the cost of fraud for U.S. retail and ecommerce merchants has increased by 15 percent from the report’s pre-pandemic survey and 7.1 percent over the past year. Likewise, the cost of fraud in Canada also increased over 2020 numbers, rising by 5.2 percent. In addition, the report also finds that the frequency and overall success rate of attacks attempted against North American retail organizations that offer online and mobile transactions has also risen sharply, with U.S. merchants reporting a 140 percent increase in attacks since 2020, 52 percent of which were successful. That’s compared to a 52 percent increase in attacks reported by Canadian retailers and a 45 percent increase in those that were successful. White recognizes the alarming growth in fraud, citing the complicated nature of the crimes themselves as one of the biggest challenges that fraud represents for its victims.
“Fraud continues to become even more complex,” she asserts. “We’re seeing all different kinds of fraud being committed against merchants that offer online and mobile transactions. However, we’ve seen particularly significant increases in fraud related to identity, both stolen and synthetic. And because it’s extremely challenging at the moment to verify someone’s digital identity, retailers everywhere are finding it very difficult to deal with this issue, interacting with identities that are fraudulent. As a result, identity verification has become the top challenge reported by merchants across the continent. There’s currently a subsequent increase in the use of digital solutions that can help mitigate some of these challenges. But it’s still a huge concern for merchants, and one that will continue to be, going forward.”
Lack of reporting
The report also cites account-related fraud such as breached data, botnet attacks and the deploying of malicious malware as other types of fraud that are on the rise. Collectively, each of the modes and methods by which cybercriminals are employing are wreaking havoc on merchants’ operations, causing disruption and uncertainty. However, according to retail industry expert and President of retail consultancy Bottom Line Matters, Stephen O’Keefe, just as big of a concern, adding yet another layer of complexity to the already convoluted issue, is the lack of consistency with respect to the actual reporting of attacks and incidents related to fraud within the industry.
“There are perceived disadvantages to reporting incidents of fraud within the industry which are largely driven by the resources that are required to do so in combination with the low likelihood of a case being investigated that yields a recovery,” he explains. “And so, most of the time, the juice isn’t really worth the squeeze. That’s the problem for retailers. And it becomes a bigger problem for the industry as a whole. Without a proper holistic understanding of the issues and challenges that retailers face when it comes to fraud and the means by which fraudsters are committing their crimes, it’s difficult to effectively combat against it.”
Misrepresentation of fraud
O’Keefe goes on to explain that the absence of reporting all incidents and attacks related to fraud is not the only impediment to properly and sufficiently combatting the challenge. He says that the way in which some incidents are reported is also contributing to merchants’ cloudy view into the fraudulent attacks being perpetrated against their organizations, suggesting that greater emphasis must be placed on the centralization of communication within the business around the occurrence of fraud activity. Without taking this approach, he says that fraud activity will continue to go misreported and therefor misrepresented.
“One of the negative impacts of the online world on loss prevention teams is the ways in which incidents of fraud are handled and communicated within the organization,” he asserts. “Take the trend of porch pirates, as an example. If a customer orders a pair of sunglasses that are delivered, but stolen from the doorstep, when they call to report the item as stolen, they’re going to be connected with the retailer’s ecommerce department, rather than the loss prevention department. Ecommerce teams don’t have the means to investigate something out in the public domain. And, so, from a nuisance value settlement perspective, they will simply send another pair of sunglasses to the customer. The first pair will most often be written off in the books as a customer service gesture. As a result, a loss preventer isn’t afforded a full view of the losses associated with the business, and is without any visibility into that transaction that took place. To handle this most effectively, retailers need to centralize their communications and track the fraud.”
Challenges and opportunities
If a comprehensive and accurate reporting of the fraudulent activity within organizations can be achieved, LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ White says that they can then take the necessary next steps in order to develop and implement measures that can help prevent the very issue of fraud itself. And, looking ahead to a post-pandemic world, one in which she doesn’t see consumer behaviour or sentiment around their use of digital channels to shop and make purchases changing, the need for merchants to bolster their protections against fraud will quickly become paramount.
“Merchants that are serious about optimizing fraud detection while minimizing customer friction will want to use a multilayered solution approach. If they do this across their different touchpoints, they’re really going to find success within this environment. And it’s not about employing ten different solutions at every customer touchpoint. It’s about approaching the issue intelligently, understanding their organization’s individual needs, the experience they’re offering their customers and assessing their risks accordingly. There are solutions that retailers can use today that will help them verify whether or not a name and email go together, whether a device that’s being used to login to a website is a known device or if it’s a bot or has malware on it. There are a lot of opportunities to leverage solutions that will minimize risk to the organization and enhance the customer experience. And, with the assumption that this acceleration toward online and mobile transactions is going to continue, merchants will want to really ensure that the safeguards and solutions they have in place are helping to support their success going forward.”
Praise Bottle Shop has launched a retail space in downtown Toronto to further accelerate its reach with sister business Gargoyle Wine Club, a wine-subscription based service with an altruistic twist.
Will Predhomme
The concept was an idea by Scott Zebarth and Will Predhomme, both Managing Directors for Gargoyle Wine Club and Praise Bottle Shop.
“Gargoyle Wine Club is a subscription-based national wine club involved in wine delivery, mixed packs, sourced by our team of sommeliers across the country. We’ve been around for four years in this capacity,” said Predhomme.
“Praise Bottle Shop is our retail bottle shop we just opened in Toronto and it’s a physical embodiment of this online business.
Image: Praise Bottle Shop
“We are more of a water company than a wine company. Every bottle that is purchased by our customers provides one year of clean drinking water for somewhere in the world. We have this partnership with water.org which is one of the best, oldest, designated water charities to solve the water crisis in the world. That is the main reason why we exist and we utilize wine as the best way to solve this problem.”
Scott Zebarth
The retail store opened on Bloor Street near the corner of Shaw Street.
Zebarth said it was important to have a physical space where people could interact with the brand.
“Really our differentiation point truly is the water mission. So we wanted to have almost a headquarters where people could come in and try to experience that for themselves,” said Zebarth.
Image: Praise Bottle Shop
Image: Praise Bottle Shop
“Every single item you get from our Bottle Shop whether it’s just a glass of beer or whether you just walk out with a case of wine or even just some of our pantry items, that’s one more year of water for people.
“We wanted to make it very clear for our members and now our customers what that all means. So many people talk about a percentage of sales. Getting into the dollar math, we just didn’t want to get into that. I think it gets problematic. We also wanted to be transparent. So every single bottle you receive, or every item you receive from the Bottle Shop, is one year of water. And to date our members have given over 170,000 people water for an entire year. That’s both Gargoyle and Praise. We’re really excited and that number is climbing every single day.”
Zebarth said the company wants to be meaningful. This is the first step for the company in launching physical space. While there is nothing in theory in the pipeline for more stores, he said they would love to have more Bottle Shops.
“It’s all going to a great cause. It’s a really interesting way of building community. We were able to do it online and I know it’s kind of a little backwards. So many people start bricks and mortar then move online. For us, we actually did it the opposite way. But for us it’s really just building a community and I think a really great way of doing that is to have multiple parts,” he said.
Image: Praise Bottle Shop
Image: Praise Bottle Shop
Gargoyle started in 2016.
“We’ve been doing this for five years now and growing it from essentially nothing to the point where we’re at this retail aspect which we never dreamed of doing but to put in context of retail it’s a tremendous opportunity to get your message out and having the Club and having the content and wealth of business behind that helps us to be able to build this environment in a physical representation,” said Predhomme.
“So we don’t see retail as being a negative. We see it as a massive physical positive that is supported by our online business. It’s a nice hybrid.”
Zebarth said the key differentiator for the business is its team of sommeliers. He said gargoyles were the traditional protectors on the sides of a building. They wouldn’t let the evil spirits in – only the good had entry to the buildings.
Image: Praise Bottle Shop
“That is really what our company does. It’s all about curation. Every single item has been curated. And the name praise, when you are going to say something great you’re giving it praise. So that is why we landed on that name,” he said.
“Additionally, we’re going to be starting a new wine brand called Praise as well and that’s going to be launching next year.”
Currently, Gargoyle has anywhere between 1,500 and 3,000 recurring customers who have subscribed to a membership. There is no fee to join. But people don’t need to be a member to utilize its services. It has a full size of concierge products, it can source products for people, there’s also gifting items, one off products as well.
“The point is to create an easier access to the customer and help to demystify the choices that you have when you go to a bottle shop. We spent our time in developing our careers in understanding wine. So to give that option to people who shop, take that off their plate, people want to think it, they don’t want to go to school for it. Let us do that work and trust us that it’s going to be done right,” said Predhomme.
Gargoyle focuses on wine and whiskey for its product.
Image: 'Beyond the Rink' pop-up by Bauer at Union Station
‘Beyond the Rink by Bauer‘ has opened a pop-up concept inside “Union Spaces”, a pop-up dedicated location within the Front Street Promenade of Toronto’s Union Station.
“We are thrilled to present Bauer as our newest showcase in the Union Spaces pop-up store. Over the past three years, we have built an incredible program that features local and international brands on rotation in our pop-up space,” shared Jessica Lemire, Marketing Activations and Event Sponsorship Manager, Toronto’s Union Station.
“We are particularly excited about the Bauer concept as they are a Supporting Sponsor for the Union Holiday- Presented by TD skating rink taking place from November 29th to January 2nd on the Front Street plaza. The “Beyond the Rink” pop-up by Bauer is truly an extension of the skating rink and a perfect opportunity for commuters to conveniently grab holiday gifts for their loved ones while at Union Station.”
‘Beyond the Rink’ pop-up by Bauer at Union Station (Photo: Dustin Fuhs)
Mary-Kay Messier
Offerings at the Beyond the Rink by Bauer pop-up will include a full apparel line-up, including jackets, sweaters, tees, face masks, toques and ice skates.
“This holiday season, we are excited to collaborate with Toronto’s Union Station with a pop-up store located in the heart of one of North America’s busiest commuter hubs,” shared Mary-Kay Messier, Global Vice-President, Bauer Hockey.
“Our partnership provides premium placement to launch our first “Beyond the Rink by Bauer” pop up shop designed to create a brand experience celebrating hockey life and offering our latest in lifestyle apparel.”
The Beyond the Rink by Bauer pop-up at Union Station will be available until December 26th, 2021.
The 369 square foot Union Spaces retail space is marketed as an opportunity to showcase international brands with interactive experiences and retail concepts through short-term leases and specialty activations.
‘Beyond the Rink’ pop-up by Bauer at Union Station (Photo: Dustin Fuhs)‘Beyond the Rink’ pop-up by Bauer at Union Station (Photo: Dustin Fuhs)‘Beyond the Rink’ pop-up by Bauer at Union Station (Photo: Dustin Fuhs)‘Beyond the Rink’ pop-up by Bauer at Union Station (Photo: Dustin Fuhs)
