Goodbye Market Mall Safeway.

I made my last visit to Market Mall Safeway.  I was kind of hoping to buy one last donut from them, but they didn't bake any today.  The store was supposed to close for the last time at 6 PM.  When it reopens it will be a FreshCo store.  Even if it hadn't been chosen for a FreshCo conversion the store was in need of some reno work.  It was looking kind of tired.

I'll Feel Less Safeway.

In 2013 the Sobeys grocery chain acquired Safeway's Canadian stores.  I'm sure I was not the only one surprised when instead of rebranding them all Sobeys kept a large percentage in operation as Safeways.  (23 stores had to be sold off as part of the merger agreement.)  But now we are going to see a rebranding of some.  In Saskatoon's case 3 of the existing Safeways will be converted to the Sobey's run FreshCo branding.  FreshCo is the Sobeys equivalent of the Loblaw budget No Frills stores.  Sobeys says FreshCo stores will replace "underperforming" Safeway stores, with construction taking place in Saskatoon early next year.

The 3 stores to be converted in Saskatoon are at Market Mall, Confederation Mall, and on 33rd Street.  I only go into the 33rd Street store once in a blue moon, but I'm not surprised about the Confederation Mall store, since that mall as a whole underperforms.  Market Mall has the problem that its located in the middle of what is supposedly the oldest per capita population in Canada, the area having a large number of older residents in seniors housing.  Some of them buy little or no groceries, so it's hard to see how lower prices will change that.  One thing all three stores share is that they're smaller than the other two Safeway stores in Saskatoon, making them more suitable for a budget branding.

As for the other two Safeway stores the only thing I can imagine happening to them in the foreseeable future would be a conversion to the Sobeys branding.  The Mall at Lawson Heights store is brand new, having replaced the old Safeway space in the same mall last year, while the McOrmond Road Safeway is only a few years old.  The Lawson Safeway would need little more than some new paint and signs to become a Sobeys, as it has pretty much the same layout as recently built Sobeys stores.  The McOrmond store would need more work, unless of course they just changed the appearance.

Gas In Saskatoon, June 29, 2018.

It's been a while, but we've finally had a notable price change.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 120.4 cents a litre at most locations.

We've also had a new player enter the market.  Mobil is now in Saskatoon.  Last year Loblaws sold 200 some gas stations it owned to Mobil.  Billboards appeared a month or so back in Saskatoon announcing their arrival.  Loblaws had 4 stations in Saskatoon connected to the Real Canadian Superstores on 8th Street, and Confederation Drive, and at the Independent Grocers at Wanuskewin Road, and Herrold Road.  But even with the change in brand you'll still be able to use your PC Optimum card at those stations.

Still Open.

To follow up my last post here's a correction.  The 7-Eleven on 22nd Street is in fact still open.  It will be closing on the 29th, so if for some reason you really feel the need to go there you still have time.

Three Down.

It might seem that 7-Elevens never go out of business, but we now have three less in Saskatoon.  The stores on 22nd Street, Broadway, and 8th Street across from Grosvenor Mall have all closed up.  Some posters on reddit claim that problems with theft was a reason for this, but I'll take that with a grain of salt.  Of course there are still plenty around if you need a Slurpee fix. 

One I'm surprised is still in business in the same place is the one on Central Avenue.  That's one of the first, or perhaps the first, stores of the chain in Saskatoon.  I can remember going into it in the late '70s.  It's small and cramped, and has a tiny parking lot.  So you'd think it would have moved to some other location by now.  Compare it to the nearby Circle K(recently rebranded from Macs) at 108th Street and Central, which is a much larger store with more parking.

Last Presents.

For Christmas my mom gave me a t shirt and a pair of pants purchased at Sears.  These will be the last gifts I received that were purchased at Sears, as Sears Canada is going out of business, the stores currently well into their final liquidation sales.  Back in December of 2014 I mused whether that might be Sears last Christmas in Canada.  I was only off by three years.  Yet another victim of the changing retail market.

"Please!"

I just went to look at a website I regularly visit, and got a bit of a surprise.  It was a Sears Canada ad, advertising shopping for the upcoming school year. As is the case with its American counterpart Sears Canada is in major trouble, suffering from changes in the Canadian consumer market.  In June it was announced that 59 stores would close after the company was granted protection from its creditors.  This included 4 stores in Saskatchewan, although this didn't include the store in Saskatoon's Midtown Plaza.  So of course they`re really hoping that you`ll shop at the stores that are left.  But it seems their online advertising efforts hadn`t been reaching me until now.

The Midtown Plaza store is a large 2 storey outlet, so losing it would be a big hit for Midtown Plaza.  It`s hard to think of something that might replace it, as potential tenants who`d want a space that size have tended to build in Saskatoon`s `big box` areas.  So Sears Canada isn`t the only company hoping you`ll visit, it`s all the companies that have Sears as a tenant as well.

Sunrise Has Risen.

Back in March Ontario based music retailer Sunrise Records announced its plan to take over various stores run by the HMV chain after HMV announced it was shuttering them.   There were two HMV stores in Saskatoon, one in the Mall at Lawson Heights, and one in Midtown Plaza.  Both have now reopened as Sunrise stores. 

I went into the Lawson store yesterday and the Midtown store today.  They were about what you'd expect from a chain music store, although they're a bit brighter than the old HMVs were.  They both have a good selection, but no real surprises.  And unlike HMV their vinyl LPs are right at the front of the store, an indication of their interest in attracting vinyl buyers.  Whether they'll be able to do what HMV couldn't, maintain a national chain in the digital download and streaming era, remains to be seen.  There's probably no point in guessing until at least after the Christmas buying season, unless of course they really screw things up.

Sunrise For Saskatoon?

As many Canadian readers will be aware HMV is going out of business in Canada.  This includes two stores in Saskatoon.  But those spaces may not stay empty for long.  Ontario based Sunrise Records has decided to take a big gamble.  They intend to take over HMV spaces across Canada.  Sunrise believes there's still a place for stores selling music in Canada, despite HMV's decision there isn't.  Will we see a Sunrise in Saskatoon?  The press statement implies so. 

More Competition.

Last year it was announced that Save-On-Foods would be entering the Saskatoon market.  At the time I speculated the first one might be in Saskatoon's new Brighton neighbourhood.  This week signs advertising Brighton went up along the far end of College Drive, with one listing businesses that will be built within.  One of them is Save-On-Foods.

It will be nice to have some more competition in the market.  Safeway and Sobeys now have their sales prices synchronised, so products they both offer are on sale at the same time, reducing the change of finding a specific product on sale when you might go shopping.  Perhaps Save-On will carry some products the existing chains in the Saskatoon market don't, and it will be interesting to compare things like bakery products to what can be found here at the moment. 

But don't go running out to check it out just yet.  A Regina Leader Post article covering the opening of the first Regina Save-On-Foods on April 1 states the first Saskatoon location won't open until 2017.  That seems likely, since Brighton is in the early stages of things like roads being put in.  I suspect even opening for the Christmas 2016 season isn't likely, and probably we'll have to wait until March or April of 2017.

Target: Looking Back A Year Later.

Via Randy McDonald here's Canadian Business magazine's look at the Target Canada disaster a year later.  For American visitors not familiar with the story Target Canada set up shop in Canada in 2013, with the first stores opening in March.  By the beginning of 2015 Target Canada was 2.1 billion dollars in the red, with no prospect of profits until 2021, and the decision was made to shutter all 133 stores.  The article elaborates on what we already knew about Target Canada's problems, such as poor product distribution and what could be considered an overambitious expansion plan.

Will Nikki Be Happy Or Unhappy?

It's really hard to say.  One of the things that defined the character of Nikki Wong on the Fresh TV cartoon series 6teen was her skepticism towards consumerism.  So it's hard to say how she'd react to the news that Toronto's Galleria Mall is probably going to be demolished, replaced by a condo development.  In the series a namesake mall is the centre of most of the action, other than the occasional scene elsewhere, and the place that Nikki and the other characters hang out.  Of course the fictional Galleria Mall is the kind of place you might want to hang out, while the real one is old and past it. On the other hand Nikki might not approve of yet another generic condo building popping up in an increasingly crowded skyline.  In any case if you're in Toronto, or visiting it, and you're a 6teen fan  you might want to stop in for a visit, while you have the chance.  At the very least you can check out Randy McDonald's pictures of Galleria at the link above.

"Does This Store...

...make me look fat?"

This odd version of a cliché phrase came to mind when I heard that  the Save-On-Food grocery store chain will be coming to Saskatchewan.  Save-On-Foods is part of the Overwaitea Food Group, which still includes 15 Overwaitea grocery stores in BC.  It's a name that seems a bit odd to still see in our weight obsessed era, given how close it sounds to overweight.  Not that there seems to be any intent to operate Overwaitea branded stores in Saskatchewan.

Where might Save-On-Foods set up shop in Saskatoon?  The new Brighton neighbourhood, which is just starting to be created on Saskatoon's east side is an obvious location.  Getting the first grocery store in the area could be a big advantage to a new to the city chain.  Another possibility is the Cumberland Square property on 8th Street, which is about to be demolished as part of a major redevelopment.  It would have the possible disadvantage of a Sobeys being across the street.  Existing Safeway stores would also be a potential problem for the other potential locations, the now empty Target spaces in the Centre Mall and Lawson Height Mall, and the old Zellers space in Market Mall.  Market Mall also has its ongoing demographic problem, being located in a neighbourhood with one of the oldest per capita populations in Canada.

Stores are also planned for Regina, Moose Jaw, and Yorkton.  I could see them building a store in Martensville or Warman at some point given the growing population of those towns and nearby Dalmeny, more that 15 thousand people between them at this point.

Whatever the case you aren't likely to be shopping in a Save-On-Foods store here anytime soon.  Even if construction were to begin in short order I doubt we'd see a store open before the Spring of 2016 at the earliest.

Target Lost.

Today was the end of Target's operations in Saskatoon.  The Mall at Lawson Heights store closed yesterday.  The Centre at Circle and 8th store will end operations tonight.  I went to the latter last night, assuming it would be less busy than today.  Frankly it looked almost like a riot had taken place.  Most of what was left was clothing, and much of that was scattered around the store.  From the looks of it some stuff was dropped by customers who decided at the last minute not to buy things.  This seems consistent with news reports about other Target outlets, with employees noting piggish behaviour by would be customers.(I'm probably insulting pigs by saying that.)

Target likely holds as much of the blame as the customers do.  I was in those same stores when Zellers, the previous holder of those spaces, closed their doors in 2013.  Even at the very end the Zellers stores looked neater that what I saw yesterday.  It seemed as if some of the employees were still willing to put some effort at making a good impression.  Perhaps the difference then was that Zellers had generated loyalty in both its customers and its employees, and Target's Canadian operations never managed to do that.

I've never been to an American Target store, but there were multiple news reports that Canadian buyers didn't find the experience the same, or the prices as low.  This strikes me as naïve on their part.  Surely some of these people must have visited Walmarts in the US, and noticed the Canadian ones weren't clones of the American stores, especially when it came to price.  Operating in Canada is always going to be a bit more expensive than the US, even when the Canadian dollar is closer to the US one, as it was when Target opened.

In the end though Target's disastrous Canadian foray was the result of their own mistakes.  Reports indicated an inability to understand the Canadian market, and an unwillingness to change their ways until it was too late, which seems odd.  You'd think someone at Target would have realised the value of hiring former or even current Walmart executives, given the latter's long and successful operations in Canada.  Along with price complaints the most commonly heard criticism of Target was their lack of selection, which was obvious even to the casual customer, and which they never managed to correct.  To me at least the Saskatoon stores lacked any sort of energy that would encourage customers to become regular patrons.  This was a result of that lack of selection and other things, like the absence of any sort of music or customer information from an in store PA system.  They may also have hurt themselves with their unwillingness to offer previous Zellers employees preference in hiring for the new stores, people familiar with the markets they were serving.

Given how poorly they did in Canada, a country with strong cultural similarities to the US, and a common language, English, spoken in most of the country, I hate to think they might have done if they'd picked a non-English market as their first expansion attempt.  Target's foreign expansion plans are likely to remain on the back burner for a long time to come given what has happened here.

No Future.

Another long running name leaves the Canadian retail landscape with the demise of Future Shop.  American owner Best Buy abruptly closed the chain this morning, with no warning to customers or staff.  Saskatoon's Future Shop outlet, at Preston Crossing, will be one of 65 that is converted into a Best Buy store, joining the existing Best Buy at the Centre at Circle and 8th. 

It's unfortunately probably been overdue.  The consumer electronics retail business has been contracting for years, with many buyers switching to online sources like Amazon, or even the online divisions of Future Shop and Best Buy.  It's a different market than when Future Shop opened its first store in 1982, or when Best Buy purchased them in 2001.  And operating both brands has always been a bit odd, as one unit of the company has been competing with the other.  Whether running two stores in a market like Saskatoon, but now under the same name, is viable remains to be seen. 

If you're a now let go Future Shop employee I hope you find a replacement job as soon as possible.

I Hope They Stayed Home.

If you're a Target Canada employee I hope the local assholes stayed away from your location today.  You've got enough problems without putting up with nasty idiots who are only there to pick the store's bones clean.

The Last Christmas?

No, not for you or me(unless our luck turns really bad).  Rather, seeing a toy ad online for Sears Canada got me wondering if this might be the last Christmas for them.  Like its US parent the Canadian version is not in good shape.  Their revenue has dropped heavily in recent years, and they lost money, almost 120 million dollars, in the third quarter of this year.  Their workforce is half what it was in 2005.  New CEO Ronald Boire claims the company is not going away, but to some extent that seems like wishful thinking.

I have a family connection with the company.  My mother worked in the women's underwear department of the Saskatoon store for years.  So it's strange to think of it disappearing, that this might be the last year their familiar Christmas Wish Book turns up in mail boxes.  Of course it could be argued that this is another sign of Sears failing, still putting out what must be an expensive piece of advertising in the scheme of things in the modern online era.  In any case, it could be that this time next year all that will remain of Sears Canada is memories.

Contraction.

Even as a new era began today at the former Safeway store at the Centre at Circle and 8th, it was announced an era was about to end not very far away.  Saskatoon Co Op has decided to close their store at 8th Street and Emerson.  A third party assessment has revealed various problems with the systems and physical condition of the building, and Co Op has decided it's not worth the time and money to renovate the store.  The gas station on the same property will remain in business for the foreseeable future.  The store is unionised, and the United Food and Commercial Workers are working with Co Op to relocate the 99 employees to other Co Op locations in Saskatoon.

The building also currently houses a Co Op run travel agency and a Gamma-Dynacare medical lab, which will presumably be looking for a new home in short order.  Early this year a Hakim Optical outlet that was in the building closed, making me suspect Co Op was already seriously considering closing up shop, and therefore decided not to renew their lease.

Given the store's reported issues the closure isn't a surprise.  The new Centre at Circle and 8th location is only a kilometer away, and is a modern store that has been renovated in the last few years.  The changes needed to make it suitable for the Co Op are minimal.

In my post earlier today I mentioned that much of the customer base of the 8th and Emerson store is senior citizens.  I would imagine some of them will not be happy with the closure, as they were regular patrons of the store's cafeteria, a feature the new store does not have. 

It will be sad to see it go.  My family were patrons of the store for a long time, although the amount of business we've been doing there has declined considerably as the number of grocery options in Saskatoon have expanded.  I've been in there hundreds of times over the years from a very young age, and have seen the changes it's gone through. 

I Beat You.

Today saw the former Centre at Circle and 8th Safeway location reopen as a Saskatoon Co Op grocery store.  And I beat you there.  I was one of the first half dozen or so customers in the store.  Not that I planned it that way.  I didn't realise the store was scheduled to open at noon, so I arrived there just before that.  On top of that I was one of the first people to actually buy something, a Coke Zero and a couple of donuts.  I did have to wait in line for a bit, as the cashier was having a bit of trouble getting used to the new cash register setup, and a customer ahead of me had merchandise whose sale price wasn't entered into the system properly.

They're still doing work inside the store, like painting.  I imagine they will be tweaking things for a while yet, so be patient with the staff if you go in.

It will be interesting to see what cliental the store draws, as the store further west down 8th Street seems to draw a lot of seniors. 

Last, Yet Not.

This morning I made my last visit to the Safeway in the Centre at Circle and 8th shopping mall.  Yet it won't be my last visit to a grocery store in that retail space.  Co Op takes control of the store tomorrow.  They acquired it after Sobeys, which bought out the Safeway stores in Canada, had to sell that store to meet government restrictions on the purchase.  With the closure earlier this year of Safeway's 8th Street and Cumberland store the changeover will see the end of a decades long presence of Safeway stores on 8th Street.

The future of the brand itself is unclear.  Sobeys continues to operate its Safeway stores under the Safeway brand name, and has apparently not decided yet whether it will rebrand those stores as Sobeys stores or not.  So, for the immediate future, I'll still be shopping at Safeway, just not one that's as convenient for me to get to as the Centre Mall store, which I'm relatively close to.  But if they do decide to drop the name we may soon see the brand disappear entirely from North America, as their former US parent has been acquired by Cerberus Capital Management.  It's possible Cerberus will rebrand Safeway stores into Albertsons stores, and if so it will be the end of a name that has been active since 1925.