Bagless grocery shopping? (Loblaws Milton)

[adma]

Another issue worth noting might be the *scale* of shopping--like, if you're prone to buying $100+ dollars worth of goods once a week, versus making several visits--the latter technique has its own way of justifying bagless shopping...

 

[ShonTron]

I visited the store yesterday for myself. Not a bad store site for a big-box at all. The GO station in Milton doubles as the Milton Transit hub.

Coming in, Thompson Road underpass U/C.

It's right across the street, just about. The internal road system suddenly makes the Milton GO station feel less of a sea of parking.

Hybrid car parking. I think it's a joke really. Should a Ford Escape hybrid get preference over an Echo or Smart Car? It's a little bit Greenwash.

I stumped the nice lady greeting customers and reminding them about the bagless store when I said I like to walk home from the GO Train and do shopping at random when I think of it. She couldn't quite answer my question on how I could go bagless.

Otherwise, a nice store. I grabbed a slice of pizza there that was cheaper and better than anything at Pizza Pizza.

 

[Northern Light]

The problem with Loblaws

This chain is such a sad story to me.

Years ago I did 80% of my grocery shopping with them.

I lived in the inner burbs (north of the Beaches area).

At the time, they were the market leader in what they did (food) in so many ways.

The first major chain to have organics.

The first major chain to carry 'Green' products.

They built stores that had some ambiance to them, relative to their competitors (anyone remember how drab Dominion or IGA/FOOD City used to look in the early 90's?)

They were first to bring back the butcher counter.

The seafood counter.

etc. etc.

*****

Now they've spoiled what they achieved by at best stagnating (not further improving their stores)

At worst they've down right ruined the shopping experience by polluting their stores full of crap that has no remote connection to grocery shopping.

They've added furniture, electronics, clothes etc)

They seem to want to be Walmart.

*** note to Loblaws, this would be fine if this were your NO Frills division, the one meant to go after customers with no taste or who live on a budget)

The Loblaws division was about feeling good about where you shopped.

It was about supporting the most attractive retailer (among big chains) and the one that treated its staff best and was a leader in all things GREEN.

It was guilt-free shopping in a nice store.

Now the RCSS stores are where the union is all but busted and the wages crap (and a manager at local Loblaws I stopped by at metioned that this year he got his first pay hike in 7 years, a whopping 2%)

The staff are grumpy and it shows.

PC Organics no longer adds new products in any meaningful way.

PC Green, 10 years on doesn't have a facial tissue or a dish soap.

The markets look more blah.

The food selection is down.

And my business is gone to Whole Foods.

Shame how they completely misread their customer base.

No one I know ever shopped at Loblaws cause it was cheaper (which seems to be their sole focus these days)

They shopped their because of the stores, the product mix, the innovation.

 

[adma]

*** note to Loblaws, this would be fine if this were your NO Frills division, the one meant to go after customers with no taste or who live on a budget)

When I think of it, forget Wal-Mart, it's No Frills that has cannibalized the Loblaws core--especially since NF graduated to readybuilt stores from repurposed ex-Loblaws (or put more effort into the repurposing).

Go visit the Loblaws at Dundas near Jane (the one that had the Hep A scare a few years ago). It's desolate. Then go to the No Frills of similar scale at Dundas + Lansdowne. It's anything but desolate...

 

[RJR123]

Those pics of the Loblaws store and environs make me more thankful than ever that I live in downtown Toronto...utterly depressing. It's as if society is regressing.

 

[Pep'rJack]

^ I just don't understand people who choose to exist in dystopian hellscapes like those featured in the photos. Nightmare.

And I don't much care for this "bagless shopping" idea, either - I prefer to do my consuming exclusively with supercharged virility.

 

[RJR123]

I've been wanting to check out a doc called Radiant City, but it's always out at Roger's. From what I can gather, it's about life in sprawlsville (exhibit A above) so maybe it will provide clues into why people live in such an environment.
The hypocisy of people feeling good about themselves because they didn't accept a plastic bag whilst living in this environment is breathtaking.

 

[Observer Walt]

Why do people live in any given location? Proximity to work, price of the housing, proximity to friends and recreational activities, probably in about that order, explains it for many people.

Milton is the burbs, and you don't get far without a car, GO Train notwithstanding. But you can get a house for a fraction of Toronto prices. There are attractive lifestyle features: some nice countryside is within minutes (hike the Bruce Trail, pick your own apples and other things, ski at Kelso right after work, etc. ...) There's a big box centre, but there's also an attractive and healthy main street.

It's certainly not everyone's cup of tea. You won't find me there. But you won't find me running it down too much either. It suits some.

 

[adma]

I agree; it's not great, but easy "dystopian hellscapes" knocks are sanctimonious, unless you're a hardcore Hamish Wilson type.

Also, would this be the nearest (or most directly accessible) Superstore to Loblaw HQ over at 407 and Winston Churchill?

 

[ShonTron]

Nope. The Lobaw's HQ is at Mississauga Road and 407 in Brampton, so the closest RCSS stores are Winston Churchill and Argentia or Steeles and Hurontario. The BT route 51 passes by both the HQ and Brampton RCSS.

Oh Hamish, Hamish. Over at Spacing Wire, there's hardly a comment by him (and there are many) without the words "carcooned", "carrupt" or "Front Street Extension" (or reference to such). Even David Miller knows him by his first name for it. It's taken it this long for him to be mentioned here?

 

[AndreaPalladio]

I've been wanting to check out a doc called Radiant City, but it's always out at Roger's. From what I can gather, it's about life in sprawlsville (exhibit A above) so maybe it will provide clues into why people live in such an environment.
The hypocisy of people feeling good about themselves because they didn't accept a plastic bag whilst living in this environment is breathtaking.

It's a crap movie -it's not a doc - everyone in it is acting. Save your 4 bucks.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

For most people in the 905, they don't have a choice if they want to live in this city...it's not like even a quarter of them could fit in the 416 without a Kowloon-style condo boom, let alone fit in good areas downtown.

 

[RJR123]

It's a crap movie -it's not a doc - everyone in it is acting. Save your 4 bucks.

Thanks for the tip...glad I didn't waste my money on this. It seemed to be a doc from the trailer on YouTube.

 

[Admiral Beez]

About eight years ago my wife and I bought these plastic bins from No Frills for IIRC $1 each. They're great as they are designed to click into the base of the standard dual-seat double-cage Loblaws shopping cart. We haven't used shopping bags since.

 

[RJR123]

For most people in the 905, they don't have a choice if they want to live in this city...it's not like even a quarter of them could fit in the 416 without a Kowloon-style condo boom, let alone fit in good areas downtown.

We could fits loads and loads more people into the 416. We are not even remotely near the density we could achieve. Look at how many people live on the island of Manhattan, for example. We should be replicating that type of density here, rather than resorting to garbage development like the pics above depict.