At last week's CPMA Convention & Trade Show, one of the activities offered to attendees was the annual retail tour. Two routes were offered–one bus took participants into Toronto itself while the other bus headed for the suburbs of Burlington/Oakville. This article gives an impression of the Toronto tour.
Longo's
Canada is dominated by only a few retail chains and the Toronto tour visited four of them–Longo's, Loblaws, Sobeys and Bestco. Tour participants boarded their buses at 8 a.m. and the Toronto tour headed East to the Leaside/East York area to visit the flagship, 48,000 square foot Longo's store. This store opened in 2012 in the former Canadian Northern Railway Easter Lines Locomotive Shop that was originally built in 1919. As the busiest location for Longo's in Ontario and located in a slightly more affluent area of the city, this store pulls in $1.2-$1.3 million in sales/weekly and is where pilot concepts are introduced.
© Astrid van den Broek | FreshPlaza.com
A lengthy pear display at Longo's.
Loblaws
Following the visit to Longo's, the bus headed into Toronto's downtown core to visit the flagship location for Loblaws. Hockey fans know this store, which opened in 2011 and serves a mixed population of condo dwellers and Toronto Metropolitan University students, as Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. This is where the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team once played, as evidenced by the blue maple leaf on the floor which marks center ice. Like the Longo's location, this store also sees new programs and initiatives tried here first before rolling out to other locations.
Given the diverse area this location serves, products in the store are multicultural in nature. The Loblaws chain also has a private label option–President's Choice or PC–which accounts for one-third of the sales for this store.
© Astrid van den Broek | FreshPlaza.comChayote, aloe, turmeric and ginger on display at Loblaws.
Bestco
After Loblaws, the tour stayed downtown to visit Bestco Fresh Foods–the newest retail stop on the tour given it opened just last year, though the chain has been in existence since opening in 2009 in the suburb of Etobicoke. This Asian grocery store very much serves an urban–and again condo occupying–crowd. It is also the first of a series of urban stores the chain has planned to open.
What's unique about this chain is, depending on the demographics of its customers, it changes its inside aisles. (The company's Ajax, Ontario location for example has a heavier focus on Caribbean foods to serve the local population.)
Inside this location, once shoppers make their way past the hot/cold foods tables the entrance takes them to, they'll find largely plastic-wrapped produce–including items that aren't always plastic wrapped such as cabbages and melons. In produce and otherwise, items are also noted whether they're flown in by air.
© Astrid van den Broek | FreshPlaza.com
A longan box at Bestco.
Sobeys
After Bestco, the final stop of the tour headed to that suburb of Etobicoke to visit the flagship of the Sobeys chain. It's conveniently located nearby the Ontario Food Terminal, which is handy for produce deliveries.
The store recently introduced new tables, fixtures on the tables and signage as part of a market look for the store–other changes included bringing the produce and signage up higher. The store also recently introduced increased deliveries for quicker and faster turnover on products for peak freshness.
In the last two years, the store also introduced its WOW (Ways of Working) project which has led to a greater focus on freshness in the produce department, increased flyer marketing and more. Another change was bringing organic produce into its own separate section rather than incorporating throughout the store.
© Astrid van den Broek | FreshPlaza.com
Sobeys recently grouped its organic produce into one section of the store.
After some attendees on the tour picked up lunch at the final retail stop, the bus headed back to the downtown Convention Centre where attendees could take in other events such as the PFP and Young Professionals Networking reception or head to meetings before the evening's Chair's Welcome Reception.
