Pretzel places do well in large malls where people spend a lot of time to shop and hang out, seeing Pretzel as cheaper alternative to food court. Yonge-Sheppard Centre is small; most foot traffic generated by non-shoppers commuting between Subway Station & office or local condo apartments - there's no real draw for most folks to spend time here. Look at the foot traffic, the very few carrying shopping bags shopped at Dollarama & Winners - not exactly big spender types!
Things are not going well for some stores and food court units. Low foot traffic is hurting and some are operating at a loss or just breaking even hoping sales will increase when the mall is completed, big anchor tenants like Longo's and Cactus Club Cafe are open and the Pivot building will add a lot of people to the mix. The food court looks full at lunch but not everyone is buying. Some people are bringing their own lunch and sitting with friends.
Longos is really a double edge sword,... Longos could be a Trojan Horse!
As a realistically priced neighbourhood supermarket (not like overpriced Whole Foods Market) Longos will attract a lot more foot traffic into Yonge-Sheppard Centre. The problem is since retail market tanked, RioCan was forced to rent out proportionally more of its retail space to restaurants & food type businesses (mall still has 30% vacancy rate),... and now all these food places are fighting each other for lunch money! Of all supermarkets, Longos does very well with its ready-made food items - if most folks find it tasty & cheaper than what they can get at the food court or restaurants in mall - Longos will be taking a chunk of what's left of the mall other tenant's lunch & dinner business!
Just look at Loblaws at RioCan EmpressWalk - Loblaws draw lots of foot traffic into EmpressWalk, lots of EmpressWalk foot traffic is really commuter traffic from NorthYorkCentre subway station to surrounding condos,... EmpressWalk has lots of empty retail space slow to rent out or renovate into new store (Milestone former restaurant space still remains empty, former Staple 2nd floor space been undergoing stalled renovation to Asian noodle place? Sushi place closed down to renovate into another sushi place,...)
Look at the Loblaws at BayviewVillageMall,... shoppers go to one or the other,... very few interact between the two.