Toronto Eaton Centre

[Richard White]

* Crosspost from Eaton Centre Renewal thread*

Eataly is one of the tenants in the former Nordstrom box, coming early '25

Eataly to open 4th Toronto area store - Grocery Business Magazine

Eataly plans to open a fourth store in Toronto at the Eaton Centre early in 2025. It is the only city in North America to have multiple Eataly stores. Eataly […]

www.grocerybusiness.ca

Seriously?

That's two in less than 2 kilometres. I wonder if they will be closing the manulife centre location.

 

[Northern Light]

Seriously?

That's two in less than 2 kilometres. I wonder if they will be closing the manulife centre location.

Are you kidding? Its incredibly busy at most hours of the day, they're making money hand over fist.

TEC is a net new location.

 

[Richard White]

Are you kidding? Its incredibly busy at most hours of the day, they're making money hand over fist.

TEC is a net new location.

Fair but with locations so close together one is bound to suffer.

Hand over fist with one location. With two it may change the metrics.

 

[Northern Light]

also does the Eaton centre really need this?

The Eaton Centre needs tenants who can pay the rent, who draw traffic and in this case are willing to take somewhat oddly configured, large blocks of space.

Did it have to be Eataly? No; but I'm not sure you would been more excited with the other choices; and truthfully this one will probably draw better and pay higher rent than many others who kicked the tires.

 

[ardwold1]

I understand that they need tenets but since they just redid a food court that failed and it's replacement doesn't seem to be doing well do we really need something like eatly which from the pictures in the article from the article it looks like a clustered mess of spaces. I hope it fails miserably. I would eat at chick Fila before setting foot in that abomination of a space.

This post is a mess! Yikes.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

This post is a mess! Yikes.

Not as messy as this place looks like. Who thinks that a fast food counter, a restaurant and grocery store belongs together?

 

[Towered]

I understand that they need tenets but since they just redid a food court that failed and it's replacement doesn't seem to be doing well do we really need something like eatly which from the pictures in the article from the article it looks like a clustered mess of spaces. I hope it fails miserably. I would eat at chick Fila before setting foot in that abomination of a space.

Wow, that's...a lot of hyperbole. Why do you hope that this Eataly "fails miserably"? What would you rather see in that space?

As for the newly done food court at the south end - where are you getting the impression that it's not doing well? I checked it out yesterday around 2 pm and the place was absolutely packed. Every single food stall had a lineup.

 

[Natika33]

Not as messy as this place looks like. Who thinks that a fast food counter, a restaurant and grocery store belongs together?

Every time I go in Eataly is packed. It also appears to be doing well internationally across diverse markets & cultures, so they must be doing something right.

 

[Natika33]

Applicable to Eaton Centre, but also beyond - I am not quite sure why the major malls & department stores in Toronto have not all added supermarkets as a major anchor like they do in Tokyo. People need groceries, so it seems a guaranteed way to generate traffic. Sure, some will only enter the grocery portion, but others will think "while I'm here anyway..."

 

[Towered]

Applicable to Eaton Centre, but also beyond - I am not quite sure why the major malls & department stores in Toronto have not all added supermarkets as a major anchor like they do in Tokyo. People need groceries, so it seems a guaranteed way to generate traffic. Sure, some will only enter the grocery portion, but others will think "while I'm here anyway..."

They used to when I was a kid in the 80's. Both Sherway and Yorkdale had full sized Dominions (now Metro). Cloverdale still does, though that's not a major regional mall.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Applicable to Eaton Centre, but also beyond - I am not quite sure why the major malls & department stores in Toronto have not all added supermarkets as a major anchor like they do in Tokyo. People need groceries, so it seems a guaranteed way to generate traffic. Sure, some will only enter the grocery portion, but others will think "while I'm here anyway..."

For "A" malls - probably not the best use of the real estate (other than food hall, quasi-grocery kind of offerings); also the sight of shoppers carrying bags of groceries strolling the mall doesn't jive particularly well with the theme?

AoD

 

[Natika33]

For "A" malls - probably not the best use of the real estate (other than food hall, quasi-grocery kind of offerings); also the sight of shoppers carrying bags of groceries strolling the mall doesn't jive particularly well with the theme?

AoD

I suppose, but if you're losing business anyway, why not try it? Though perhaps that's more applicable to Hudson's Bay than Eaton Centre. (Major department stores in Tokyo always include a decent grocery in the basement and no, I don't mean a small upscale section like Pusateri's though they might have something like that too).

In Eaton's case, Eataly seems like a nice choice here. It's a grocery store (amongst other things), but still fits the "A" mall-type branding they want to convey.

 

[Richard White]

For "A" malls - probably not the best use of the real estate (other than food hall, quasi-grocery kind of offerings); also the sight of shoppers carrying bags of groceries strolling the mall doesn't jive particularly well with the theme?

AoD

When I was visiting Hungary last year, all the major malls had grocery stores which were well used!

 

[pw20]

A few thoughts:
1. For major malls, a portion of their traffic (and outsized % of their buyers) are tourists - especially yorkdale and TEC. Tourists generally don't need groceries.
2. There is a huge push across all retail to add food as a service and entertainment. Ironically Nordstrom was always a leader in this, but when people grab something to eat a mall, they stay longer, they have a glass of wine and maybe that liquid courage inspires them to make an extra purchase.
I'm sure Eately will do very well here; also unlike suburban malls there are now thousands of workers at the north end of the mall who need places to eat lunch.
Super interested to see the configuration and who else takes the ~150k SF>

 

[Blixtein]

Fair but with locations so close together one is bound to suffer.

Hand over fist with one location. With two it may change the metrics.

If anything the metrics might change for the better due to the economies of scale.