London Drugs celebrated on Friday the grand re-opening of its Brentwood Village Mall location in Calgary, with a new fresh, open-concept design.
And it is poised to deliver two other new store concepts in 2025 under its DaVinci initiative as well as launching its technological systems Galileo initiative.
The Calgary Brentwood location is part of its strategy to renovate existing stores when the opportunity comes up.
Blending wellness, technology, and convenience into one space, customers can explore modernized departments like TECH and PhotoLab, enjoy personalized care in private consultation rooms, and experience a full-service Canada Post outlet. The renovated space reflects London Drugs’ commitment to wellness, customer care, and innovation with community-centred services, said the company of the Brentwood Village Mall location in Calgary.
Clint Mahlman, President and COO, London Drugs, said the company will be unveiling this year its new DaVinci concept in The Amazing Brentwood in Burnaby, BC as well as CF Polo Park in Winnipeg.
“This is one of our older stores in Calgary,” said Mahlman on Friday at the grand re-opening of the Brentwood Village location. “Close to the university. An opportunity came up to refreshen it. What it does have is some elements of our stores that have been relatively recent. What we used to call our promotional, our seasonal aisle, is now called Market Central. It gives a little bit better display capability of what people love about London Drugs which is the treasure hunt and exciting seasonal products.
“One of the biggest differences is in our pharmacy. Our pharmacy is quite busy and we’ve been expanding our professional services. So we now have two consultation rooms to have customers’ needs met in a more professional and elaborate way. Being the first pharmacy in Canada to introduce private counselling booths, we just keep evolving that concept. That’s different and a much more refreshed and open design.
“Probably the biggest change is on the tech side. We have adopted what we call an open layout. Before, historically, a lot of technology liked to be sold in individual areas. So for example an AV room, a computer room. But the technology has converged and it’s really hard to tell how people use it for different use cases. We’ve opened it up so it’s just one section that allows a customer and our staff to interplay between the different technologies that they may be using it.”
Just prior to the renovation, the brand also introduced a Canada Post location within the store.
“That’s been really exciting. Customers are really thrilled with that especially with the ongoing increase in ecommerce. Not only does London Drugs have more space to accommodate ecommerce parcel pickup but Canada Post has brought a lot of people that are both dropping off and picking up their ecommerce parcels.”
London Drugs began in 1945 with a small 1,000-square-foot community drug store on Main Street in Vancouver. There are now 80 London Drugs locations in more than 35 major markets throughout British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Mahlman said Calgary is the company’s third oldest market and many of the stores were built in the early 1980s.
“So working with the landlords when we renegotiate a lease we always like to try and make sure we update the store to offer our best and present it in that way. This is a really solid market for us. And the Brentwood area, close to the university, lots of traditional customers that have been loyal to us for a long time. So it’s important to us that we upgrade the store and that there’s new and fresh offerings all the time,” he said.
“We’ve had two big initiatives over the last several years we’ve been working on behind the scenes,” explained Mahlman. “The first is called the Galileo initiative. We’ve been working in refreshing all our systems to take advantage of the digital age and AI. The first of the big go-live happens in a couple of weeks when we transfer our finance system over to the new location – a whole new Point of Sale experience by the end of the year. It’s very big. It’s not necessarily something that the customers see but they’ll feel in the years to come when we’re able to offer better information right at the Point of Sale and allow to connect for marketing, communications, all those things. And a lot of efficiency initiatives that will happen behind the scenes.
“The more customer facing one is called the DaVinci initiative. We’ll see two of those stores that we plan and test for the future. One is in the Brentwood mall in British Columbia. It’s a little bit smaller store mainly because of the mall renovation but it has just a different feel and look. When we looked at that we asked ourselves what does a customer expect of a retail store in 2035. Retail has changed so much. The difference of ecommerce. Like every retailer, you struggle between the absolute cutting-edge design you would love to see, but customers also don’t like a lot of change. So it’s important you don’t scare them off or they feel it’s a different location. That’s the first store.
“And we’re opening a new store in the (CF) Polo Park mall in Winnipeg, which is our second store in Winnipeg. That will also have the DaVinci design with a few tweaks to the test to see how the customers respond in two different markets. And that template will allow us to get that feedback and start to continue to evolve our design.”
Mahlman said when an opportunity comes up to renovate an existing store the company will do that. There will also be a couple of relocations this year that he can’t disclose right now.
Related Retail Insider stories:
- CF Polo Park Mall Winnipeg: 65th anniversary, London Drugs expansion, and retail growth [Feature]
- London Drugs Expanding Cautiously as Costs Increase: Interview with COO Clint Mahlman
