Down Sizing the Big Box Store

[Tuscani01]

Curious if the Canadian tire does so bad is there a chance it may get closed downtown ?

What's the key factor, I'm guessing rent + the fact while the store attendance (not sure what the correct term is here) is very high, actually can you confirm this ? i.e. it is one of the more visited stores ? The problem being the purchases made per person are probably very low in comparison to the suburban location.


How about the location around Yonge and Bloor, its been there for a while ?

Along the same lines, do you know how best buy / future shop fare ? I'd imagine a little better as there are many more smaller items there that cost quite a bit ?


Size can't be the only issue though, King E is full of high end furniture stores, more then anywhere else in the GTA by far I'd guess in one area. Clearly there aren't products that are easy just to walk in and pick up, yet there is no parking or the like in the area.

Our main measure is average basket size, which is the average that each customer spends in a store. Bay & Dundas has the lowest basket size, but the highest customer count. It does mean that people are spending significantly less at that store than they are at other stores. It was somewhere around $20 back when I worked there, though I have heard that it has since increased a bit. Thats less than half of what other stores are doing.

The store is still turning a profit, and for the first time ever, staff will be collecting profit sharing. The store will be around as long as there is someone who is willing to operate it. The store at Yonge and Bloor is the oldest store and is a full Canadian Tire. It has consistently done well.

 

[adma]

Except for WalMart, the ones that we don't have wouldn't really cater to urbanites, anyway. I mean, how many dowtown condo dwellers need to visit a Home Depot garden centre or buy a 15-pack of pork chops for their family of 4 kids?

If not Home Depot or Costco, then certainly Ikea. (Then again, they may Autoshare or Zipcar their way out there if necessary.)

 

[TrickyRicky]

You might be surprised how many downtown people, including condo residents go to Home Depot for example. I think I heard someone say that Stockyards Home Depot has one of the highest sales figures in the country. While the average downtown resident may not spend as much, the density of residences make some of these big box locations in or near the core the most profitable in their entire porfolio.

 

[Hipster Duck]

More than you'd think.

Countless balconies in my building are dotted with planters and plants, as are balconies on other buildings. An urban format garden centre would probably do well downtown, especially if it catered to the condo dwellers. Home Depot wouldn't need the wood/drywall/interlocking etc. but everything else would probably sell well.

As for Costco and their bulk product... the concept does well in Vancouver, where Costco is located in the podium of a condo. I buy chicken breast at No Frills on King in bulk and freeze it for use throughout the week. Sure beats going grocery shopping every night. Costco would also come in handy for all those small ma and pa stores. My grandpa used to purchase product for his corner store from Costco as it was cheaper in some cases than going to the regular supplier.

OK, Costco I can see - but you are limited to very large condo podiums in places where the public realm is going to be sacrificed. The Costco in Vancouver is at the base of a podium about the size of Maple Leaf Square (but unlike MLS, the whole space is dedicated to one retailer), and is underneath an elevated highway. It's pedestrian friendly insofar as it is easily accessible by Skytrain, but pedestrian unfriendly insofar as it presents an expansive blank wall beyond the entrance. Luckily the entrance is right beside the skytrain exit.

A Garden Centre is a pretty spacious, ground-oriented kind of retail environment that has to compete with other uses in a downtown with high land prices. I can see a boutique garden store that sells potted plants and potting soil at an incredibly high markup (places like Sheridan nurseries do this already), but I can't see a big box garden retailer making a go of it in an urban area.