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Downtown Grocery Store List (current + proposed)

Jonny5 said:
Perhaps McEwan should have considered the Lynn Crawford route to get through the pandemic and compromise her brand to sell or do anything that anyone throws your way. She's promoting some fast food chain's (I can't remember which one) little $3 snack wraps in her chef's coat on TV commercials, she is in multiple brain dead reality-TV cooking show competitions that are low budget knock-offs of Chopped, and she even has her own line of frozen foods now! Lynn Crawford, the frozen food chef!

This plastic bag of sauce included here really does not look appetizing to pour over your shrimp (these are their own promotional materials!).

3babd16b2da28f54585b2634e7d1bf42.jpg

All that said, I'm sure she's making money hand over fist, which McEwan is not.
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The pandemic has completely changed the way we shop, cook and eat. I found myself shopping more and more at the small ethnic food markets near me, making meals freshly made from scratch, instead of pre made grab go dinners or boxed food. I can get enough food at these small stores, that keeps me from making weekly trips to the big chain stores. Best of all, I'm in and out of the store in under 10 minutes. I don't see myself changing my shopping habits anytime soon. And i know a lot of people are still doing the grocery delivery services since the first shutdown in 2020.

I can't see Mark McEwan going the Crawford route. McEwan is a out of touch celebrity chef. He hasn't kept up with the times. I got his cookbook for Christmas one year. What a joke that thing is. "Family style cooking" Yeah maybe for rich families who have access those exotic ingredients. The average working class Joe and Jane sure as hell ain't making these extravagant recipes for dinner.

McEwan has no one to blame but himself. His Twitter page full of anit lockdown, anti Trudeau silliness. He isn’t doing himself any favors by tweeting this nonsense.
 
One thing I am hoping with the closure of McEwan is that people will stop saying the neighbourhood is saturated when it comes to grocery stores. A number of towers are planned or under construction within a few blocks; thousands of people will be moving in. Soon we will need more options, not less.

I cook from scratch most days, and for about a year, I used Instacart and the Eataly delivery service a lot. Instacart in particular can be a pain - as I think I mentioned before, I once ordered a spaghetti squash and I was given instead a canary melon... and I generally hate planning meals several days in advance. Now I have resumed shopping almost every day at Eataly and at the Independent City Market at Manulife - but with an N99 mask.
 
Bayer said:
One thing I am hoping with the closure of McEwan is that people will stop saying the neighbourhood is saturated when it comes to grocery stores. A number of towers are planned or under construction within a few blocks; thousands of people will be moving in. Soon we will need more options, not less.

I cook from scratch most days, and for about a year, I used Instacart and the Eataly delivery service a lot. Instacart in particular can be a pain - as I think I mentioned before, I once ordered a spaghetti squash and I was given instead a canary melon... and I generally hate planning meals several days in advance. Now I have resumed shopping almost every day at Eataly and at the Independent City Market at Manulife - but with an N99 mask.
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Among existing developments there is exactly one space in the area that would make sense for a grocery store; that's where Nordstrom Rack is located.
The second floor space is 30,000ft2; just about perfect, with high ceilings.

I have no idea what kind of traffic that store does, or whether that lease will turn, but it would make immense sense to me if the mini-Longos across the street relocated to a full-sized store.

***

I haven't paid enough attention to the retail layout of some of other proposals in the area under construction or proposed, but my impression is that one more full-sized store would meet near-term needs.

An additional store later should probably fill in the shoulder space between Bloor and the larger stores at College/Carlton.
 
Has anyone heard what's happening with the grocery store that was to come in the bottom of the new condo just east of Church St. on Shuter St?
 
Personally I am sad that McEwan's is closing at Yonge and Bloor. I enjoyed jumping downstairs to grab a pizza slice from their counter on my way between places. Probably wouldn't have found myself grocery shopping there if I was a local though.
 
khristopher said:
Has anyone heard what's happening with the grocery store that was to come in the bottom of the new condo just east of Church St. on Shuter St?
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The space has become construction offices for 88 Queen's south tower. I suspect that whoever was going into that space (I heard Longo's) pulled out or is willing to wait. The 88 North tower is occupied, as is Fleur, adding more residents to the area, with more to come (Ivy, Garden District, 88 South). There is the Metro two blocks north, but it'd be nice to have a second option around here.
 
WislaHD said:
Personally I am sad that McEwan's is closing at Yonge and Bloor. I enjoyed jumping downstairs to grab a pizza slice from their counter on my way between places. Probably wouldn't have found myself grocery shopping there if I was a local though.
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That was the problem I think. Eataly opened, and the market at Manulife improved its already large selection of imported products. I had no reason whatsoever to go there.
 
Bayer said:
Celebrity chef Mark McEwan’s restaurant and gourmet foods business files for creditor protection, citing cash crunch (paywalled)

"Toronto-based McEwan Enterprises Inc. was struggling even before the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in temporary closings and reduced traffic at its locations. The company has not been profitable since 2017, according to court documents." He wants to dump his Yonge & Bloor store, as well as Fabbrica in Don Mills
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Update to this in today's Globe; the judge has rejected the proposed sale of most company assets to a new company controlled by the same owners.

This largely has to do w/whether a good faith effort was made in terms of how First Capital (1BE landlord) was compensated.

www.theglobeandmail.com

Judge denies celebrity chef Mark McEwan’s restructuring plan

A judge has dismissed celebrity chef Mark McEwan’s restructuring plans for his restaurant, grocery and events business after finding that a requirement under Canada’s creditor-protection statute was not met
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
 
Stretching well beyond Downtown; but Organic Garage now has ambitious expansion dreams of up to 22 additional locations across south-central and south-western Ontario.

canadiangrocer.com

Organic Garage plans significant expansion

New expansion plan targets up to 22 Ontario markets
canadiangrocer.com canadiangrocer.com

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Northern Light said:
Stretching well beyond Downtown; but Organic Garage now has ambitious expansion dreams of up to 22 additional locations across south-central and south-western Ontario.

canadiangrocer.com

Organic Garage plans significant expansion

New expansion plan targets up to 22 Ontario markets
canadiangrocer.com canadiangrocer.com

View attachment 360981
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Guelph will be a difficult market to get into. My home city, it's full of organic grocers with Goodness Me holding a big portion of the market. There's also a lot of competition from traditional grocers like Zehrs.
 
jacnel said:
Guelph will be a difficult market to get into. My home city, it's full of organic grocers with Goodness Me holding a big portion of the market. There's also a lot of competition from traditional grocers like Zehrs.
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I haven't spoken to Matt Lurie about this (CEO of OG); but I would assume they will target DT Guelph, the other likely choice would be near the university.

While I'm semi-familiar w/Guelph, I'm not sure of the competitive situation on the ground in those two spots.

My recollection was that none of the majors had space right in DT. Where the University I think had NF close by, and a Metro a bit further out.
 
Northern Light said:
I haven't spoken to Matt Lurie about this (CEO of OG); but I would assume they will target DT Guelph, the other likely choice would be near the university.

While I'm semi-familiar w/Guelph, I'm not sure of the competitive situation on the ground in those two spots.

My recollection was that none of the majors had space right in DT. Where the University I think had NF close by, and a Metro a bit further out.
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Downtown would be the better option, right now Stone Road is becoming a bit saturated. While Downtown only has a Goodness me and a Zehrs, Food Basics, slightly up Eramosa Rd, Stone Rd has a No Frills at Gordon, a Walmart at Edinburgh, a Metro also at Edinburgh, and now a Farm Boy at Scottsdale. The last thing that part of Guelph needs is yet another grocery store.
 
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