A mall for everyone?,.... tough to do that when SheppardCentre Mall management-owners "pushes out" the small ethnic mom&pop retailers,...
Is RioCan's SheppardCentre Mall going more generic and less ethnic, the right approach for this area? Many customers like going to a store where they actually know the owner and can converse with them in their native language. What's the size of the local visible minority demographic?
As RioCan's SheppardCentre Mall raises their rent/lease terms, SheppardCentre Mall owner-management essentially "pushes out" the small ethnic mom&pop stores in favour of larger better known brand name franchise stores like BasilBox, Chipotle, ThaiExpress,... but are these really authentic Vietnamese, Mexican or Thai ethnic food OR "fake" water-down food that sort-of taste like something from another culture but altered for a more Canadian market? Who do you see buying this stuff? Would any self-respecting Mexican person be eating at Chipotle Mexican Grill? Would a real Vietnamese person enjoy his/her meal at BasilBox? Would a person from Thailand a meal from ThaiExpress? Are these really authentic ethnic food from those culture,... or are they over-priced ethnic food "faked" for White folks?
Are these the new "Chinese" Chop-Suey restaurants - "Chinese" restaurants that popped up throughout NorthAmerican towns generations ago and still survive in many small towns, forced to use whatever locally available ingredients to create "Chinese-like" dishes altered to Western taste? Often serving non-authentic Chinese dishes like Chop-Suey, Egg Rolls, Sweet&Sour Chicken Balls, Sesame Chicken, Orange Chicken, Lo-Mein, Egg Foo Young, General Tso's Chicken, Fortune Cookie, etc,... How often do you see authentic Chinese people eating at "Chinese" Chop-Suey restaurants? If you want real authentic ethnic food, go to places where these ethnic people actually line up to eat these ethnic food.
Is it a good idea for RioCan's SheppardCentre Mall strategy to favour larger better known (but less authentically ethnic) brand name franchise stores like BasilBox, Chipotle, ThaiExpress,... especially when considering there's a high number of visible minorities here - especially Korean, Persian and Chinese - including newer immigrants,... OR is EmeraldPark retail area, especially their food court where there's a variety of small mom&pop ethnic restaurants generally creating more flavourful authentic ethnic dishes specific for those ethnicity the better approach? Especially when the local area has a high demographic of visible minorities. Time will tell,....
Warning: Trolls who can't handle the truth and reality shouldn't be reading any further,... yes, that's right, now I bring out the links, photo, Statistic Canada Census data, etc,... as I usually do to prove my point,...
Here's an interesting map by Jeff Clark (software developer specializing in data visualization) based on Statistic Canada Census data from 2011, each dot represent each person in GTA and where he/her live, the colour of the dot represent the ethnicity of that person,... based on visible minority status:
- blue for White
- red dot for Asian
- brown dot for SouthAsian
- green dot for Black
- yellow dot for Mixed/Other
The aggregate of which creates an zoom-able mosaic map with a very colourful visual representation of visible minority distribution and population density throughout the the GTA. Thus, single Residential House areas are more sparsely dotted depending on lot size and high-density condo areas are more deeply saturated with colour. For high density condo developments where each colour dot represent the ethnicity of one person, the resulting aggregate colour could be various shade of all the ethnicity represented in that development (based on RGB colour wheel/palette blending) - the brightness and saturation of the resulting colour represents the density.
http://neoformix.com/Projects/DotMaps/TorontoVisMin.html
Now the trolls have a new screensaver! Admit it,... you were zooming in and out all over this map! While Toronto is a very diverse multi-cultural city,... as this map clearly shows, it's also quite segregated!
Let's zoom in on NorthYorkCentre,.... and see how exciting the "ethnic angle" becomes,....
Hmmm, so this is why certain condo developments gets targeted at certain ethnic groups! Based on this map, for RioCan's marketing budget for their new residential tower,... RioCan would be wise to have about 2/3 of that budget targeted towards the Korean-Chinese market,.... which I'm sure they will,.... but yet they won't do an ethnic mall,.... and are more than happy to "push out" all the small ethnic mom&pop retailers,....
In NorthYorkCentre where 3 largest ethnicity are Korean, Persian and Chinese; east of Yonge Street just north of Highway 401, Avondale Condominiums are purplish (Red and Blue combined Note: Persians are considered White not Asian),... but heading north, the condo development becomes more red and brighter red (higher percentage and concentration of Asian) closer to the heart of KoreaTownNorth just south of Finch - but yet, condo towers on the West of Yonge in KoreaTownNorth are purple (fairer mix of Asians and Whites (mainly Persians)).
And now you can see why HullmarkCentre WholeFoodsMarket supermarket isn't doing very well here - usually more employees than customers there. Why? This store is primarily dependent on walk-in customers but most of their potential walk-in customers are the visible minorities concentrated in the high density condos along Yonge within walking distance,.... the "Whites" in their demographic research also includes Persians who make up a significant demographic here and have their own cultural diet,.... Due to the product line at WholeFoodsMarket, it's difficult for them to go after the ethnic market and thus their supermarket doesn't do well here. And their potential car driving customers thinks,... as long as I'm already driving, why not just drive a bit further and save a lot more money on grocery.
The new Longos at SheppardCentre should be able to target the ethnic market better,... but they're primarily just stealing customers mainly from HullmarkCentre WholeFoodsMarket, EmpressWalk Loblaws and maybe the Metro on Church Ave.
When I moved into NorthYorkCentre 25 years ago (KoreaTownNorth was only on SpringGardenAve & only 2 Chinese "Chop-Suey" place on Yonge Street), this map of NorthYorkCentre would have been covered in Blue (like Oshawa)! 20 years ago they started allowing high-density condo developments right on Yonge Street (EmpressWalk) then Avondale condo community about 15 years ago,.... and since then, real estate prices in NorthYorkCentre for all segment of the market has consistently out-performed the rest of Toronto. This map shows a clear correlation between higher proportion of visible minorities (mainly Korean, Persian and Chinese) moving into the area and the area's strong real estate price increase; often moving into the high-density condo first and (since many like the area) then into the surrounding single residential houses area. In the above map, you can literally see the Red (Asian) "bleed" (almost block by block!) from the high-density condos on Yonge into the single residential house area west of Yonge, between YorkCememtery and FinchHydroCorridor; where single residential house area between Beecroft Rd and Senlac Rd is basically evenly split between Red (Asian) and Blue (White) but area west of Senlac Rd is still predominately Blue (White) with a quarter sprinkling of Red (Asian).
Obviously, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what will happen to the area's real estate prices when these visible minorities (mainly Korean, Persian and Chinese) get "pushed out",... as they follow their visible minority (mainly Korean, Persian and Chinese) retailers and restaurants who get "pushed out" first,....
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...-concerned-about-bloor-bike-lanes-impact.html
http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=a331edb9b72d3510VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD
Why is SheppardCentreMall on east-side of Yonge Street becoming more generic when their side of Yonge Street has a relatively more ethnic demographic (Asian attracted to better school district)? Likewise, why is EmeraldPark Mall on west-side of Yonge Street becoming more ethnic when their side of Yonge Street has a relatively less ethnic demographic? Thus, maybe EmeraldPark Mall should have became the more generic non-ethnic mall,... and SheppardCenter Mall should have became the ethnic mall! Imagine SheppardCentre Mall replacing upper floor LA-Fitness & Longos for a Loblaw's T&T Chinese supermarket or Korean Galleria supermarket or Perian Adonis supermarket,... and converting its retail space into a PacificMall format full of various ethnic retail stores and restaurants serving authentic Chinese Dim-Sum and authentic Korean BBQ restaurants and authentic Persian Shish-KaBob,.... so that SheppardCentre Mall becomes more representative of the area's ethnicity.... but instead RioCan likes being mainstream and generic,....
