Tag: Shopping

Buses to the big box

Timmins Transit bus headed west from downtown to Wal-Mart

Last month, I found myself intrigued by American transit consultant Jarrett Walker’s observations about the difficulties of getting to Walmart stores by public transit in US cities. On Bluesky, Walker examined the long walks through hostile environments between Walmart stores and the nearest bus stops, and it is an interesting thread.

In many US cities, Walmarts are often some of the busiest transit destinations.Here is the typical relationship between a Walmart (far right) and its nearest bus stop (far left).Note the details of the pedestrian experience between one and the other. 1/🧵
— Jarrett Walker (@humantransit.bsky.social) 2025-07-19T18:33:32.331Z

Jarrett Walker’s BlueSky thread on US Walmart locations

In response, I noted the more typical experience in midsized Ontario cities. Though American and Canadian land use policies are similar in many ways, complete with the post-1990s proliferation of “big box” retail developments, there are some significant differences. For example, local transit systems will often make an effort to serve big box retail clusters, particularly Walmart stores.

This is something we do a bit better here in Canada. Below are Google Map screenshots of four Walmarts in small Ontario cities.
— Sean Marshall (@seanyyz.bsky.social) 2025-07-19T18:48:29.558Z

BlueSky post that shows Walmart stores and bus stops in four small Ontario cities: Orillia, St. Thomas, Belleville, and Brockville

Walmart stores are important to transit riders, especially in smaller urban centres that have few or no other major shopping centres. Most Walmart stores now have an in-store pharmacy, carry a full selection of groceries, and have ancillary services, such as medical clinics, haircutters, and opticians. Walmart itself will typically anchor a larger commercial development with other big-box retailers such as Home Depot or Canadian Tire. These commercial developments and surrounding areas will have up to have several hundred employees, some of which may also rely on transit.

From the 1960s to the early 2000s, regional shopping malls were often major transit hubs in mid-sized cities and suburban municipalities in Canada, typically located in space set aside in the mall parking lot. For the most part, Canadian commercial landlords were willing to provide the space; in some cases, the terminal was even right outside one of the main entrances.

In my hometown of Brampton, for example, two of the three major transit terminals were Bramalea City Centre and Shoppers World. Mississauga’s main transit hub is at Square One mall; Hamilton has large bus loops at Limeridge and Eastgate malls, and London has transit hubs at Masonville Place and White Oaks Mall. Smaller cities and towns such as Belleville, Orillia, and Peterborough would also be sure to serve the local shopping mall with at least one route stopping on the mall property, typically in a space set aside on a mall driveway.

Sometimes, these mall terminals become too small or too difficult for buses to get in and out of. Brampton Transit grew, the Shoppers World and Bramalea City Centre terminals were moved to larger facilities off-site with better road access, but still close to the malls. In smaller cities, where the importance of enclosed shopping malls (anchored by traditional retailers such as Sears Canada, Zellers, and Hudson Bay) declined in favour of big-box retail, often located on the urban outskirts, the buses followed where their passengers needed to go.

St. Thomas (Railway City Transit) and Middlesex County Connect minibuses wait for passengers in front of Walmart and Real Canadian Superstore

In St. Thomas, a small city of about 45,000 people, the main transfer point is in front of the Walmart store parking lot, meaning that every bus rider gets a one-seat ride to the SmartCentres-managed property, which also includes a Loblaws grocery store, Canadian Tire, and over a dozen smaller stores, restaurants, and banks. The recent relocation of the transit hub from a struggling downtown to the big box centre to the west — which is actually closer to the city’s geographic centre — makes sense. It now also serves as the transfer point to the regional bus service to London.

In Brockville, another small city in Eastern Ontario, the two transfer points are in the downtown and at “Box Stores Transfer” in the northeastern corner of the municipality. The latter is also the transfer point to the inter-municipal River Route to Prescott and Cardinal. In other smaller Ontario cities, including Belleville, Chatham, Orillia, Sarnia, and Timmins, there is at least one bus route extending to the end of the urbanized area to serve the Walmart and/or other large big box retailers. Often the stop will simply be called “Walmart” or “SmartCentres.”

Sometimes, larger cities will have transit terminals in the middle of big box parking lots. On the south end of Sudbury, GOVA’s Route 1 Mainline terminates in front of a Walmart parking lot, with connections to three local feeder routes. A similar set up can be found in the north end of Guelph. In Waterloo, a large big box complex on the edge of the region’s urban boundary, Boardwalk, was designed with a central transit hub.

Though the examples here are all Ontario examples, the pattern generally holds across Canada, from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Nanaimo, British Columbia, though there are many exceptions. It also helps that many Canadian Walmart stores are located in shopping malls as they are in renovated and/or expanded former Woolco or Zellers stores.

Despite these attempts to provide transit services to retailers like Walmart, these are not ideal set ups. Shopping malls were designed as pedestrian environments within large parking lots. As long as there is a convenient, safe, and short walkway to the mall entrance, transit riders could be well-served. This is much harder with contemporary big box retail, as they are designed completely different. With malls, parking lots surround a cluster of stores. Most big box developments have the stores surround gigantic parking lots. Even if walkways and bus facilities were included in the site plan, there are still long, unsheltered walks between the bus stops and store entrances.

Trinity Common Shopping Centre at Highway 410 and Bovaird in Brampton. The red lines mark where the buses stop.

An early attempt to create a more transit and pedestrian site plan in a big box centre was Trinity Common in Brampton, which opened in stages in the early 2000s. There were distinct roadways, complete with sidewalks and street lighting; in the centre, surrounded by restaurant pads, were several bus bays and a transit terminal office. Several busy Brampton Transit bus routes converge here rather than simply stop on the adjoining multi-use roadways. Even so, the distances between retailers — which include Canadian Tire, a Metro supermarket, Home Depot and Brampton’s only multiplex cinema — make walking unpleasant.

But at least, unlike the American examples Jarrett Walker highlighted, there’s an attempt at doing better. Hopefully, the next generation of retail centres — mixed use developments with residential uses on upper levels — do better with incorporating the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users.

August 13, 2025
The fall of an empire

The former Hudson’s Bay Store in Downtown Winnipeg, one of its western flagship stores. After years of decline, the store closed in November 2020 and is now being transformed into a centre for Manitoba’s First Nations.

There’s a touch of irony that in the same year Canadian sovereignty is increasingly threatened by an American president, the Hudson’s Bay Company — one of the world’s oldest corporations — has filed for bankruptcy protection. It will likely close at least half of its 80 stores, but with no guarantee it will emerge in a healthy state, able to rebound.

On May 2, 1670, The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson’s Bay, was given a royal charter to trade in all lands that drained into Hudson’s Bay, 3.9 million km² of land in the heart of the North American continent, in order to compete with the lucrative French fur trade in the St. Lawrence basin. The new company had monopolistic commercial control of what was then called Rupert’s Land: the entirety of present-day Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan and Northern Ontario, a significant part of present-day Quebec, Alberta, and Nunavut, and even parts of what eventually became Minnesota and North Dakota.

Of course, this new monopoly, which quickly became known as simply the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), was created without consent or consultation with the many First Nations and Inuit communities. In the early days of trade, however, HBC relied on trading with First Nations for the valuable fur trades. It established forts and factories (trading posts) throughout the northwest, establishing places such as Moose Factory and Fort Albany that remain to this day.

In later years, HBC claimed a trading monopoly on lands draining into the Pacific Ocean; it also brought in missionaries to convert Indigenous peoples. (Its monopoly was challenged by new entrants such as the North West Company, which eventually merged with HBC after violent skirmishes over trading territorial rights.)

HBC’s vast networks of forts and trading posts, particularly Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) led towards the full colonization of western and northern Canada. In 1870, with the decline of the fur trade HBC relinquished control of Rupert’s Land to the new Dominion of Canada, which led immediately to the creation of the Northwest Territories, followed quickly by the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the Province of Manitoba.

HBC continued as a fur and goods trading company and it was still the only retailer in remote western and northern communities. In larger cities like Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary, it established new department stores. In smaller communities, especially in the north, it took full advantage of its dominant position, and Northern Stores became notorious for high prices (in 1987, HBC sold off its Northern Stores division). HBC continued to exploit Canada’s natural resources — it even had an oil and gas subsidiary between 1926 and 1982.

In 1960, HBC focused almost entirely on its department store empire, acquiring the Montreal-based Morgan’s chain, competing head-on with Eaton’s and Simpsons-Sears. In the 1970s and 1980s, it also scooped up discount chain Zellers, Simpson’s stores (after its split from Sears Canada), Ottawa-based Freimans, and Hamilton-based Robinson’s, eventually rebranding those stores as “The Bay.” Finally in 1993, it acquired Vancouver-based Woodward’s. During this time, it sold off the Northern stores and the oil company. In the late 1990s, it launched the Home Outfitters big-box chain. The Zellers chain expanded under HBC ownership, first acquiring the competing Towers discount chain in 1991 and K-Mart’s Canadian stores in 1998.

Though the flagship stores still proudly proclaimed the May 2, 1670 incorporation date, few thought about the long and checkered history of the company. My first memories of The Bay’s retail empire were of the Simpson’s store close to where we lived in Brampton. Simpson’s was the flagship anchor of Shoppers World, a once-vibrant mall. I also knew Simpson’s from the flagship Queen Street store in Downtown Toronto, famous for its toy section, Christmas window displays, and of course, the TVO children’s program Today’s Special. (The most memorable episodes for me, a young, budding urbanist, dealt with a fictionalized closure and demolition of the store, before a heritage plaque uncovered during the move out saved the day.)

Opening sequence of “Today’s Special,” set in the downtown Simpson’s Queen Street store

The Shoppers World Simpson’s store, like the rest of the banner, was converted to “The Bay” in 1991. In 2007 the store closed, not long after I moved to my own apartment in Toronto. (I still have some of the chinaware I purchased at that Bay store before I moved to my own place.) But as I worked, and later lived, in Downtown Toronto, I found the Queen Street store very useful for casual clothes shopping and the occasional big-ticket item.

Demolition of the Shoppers World Simpson’s/The Bay department store in 2010

Though HBC was sold to a private equity firm in 2008, under CEO Bonnie Brooks’ leadership, there was still life in the department store, with leading stores like the Queen Street flagship upgraded. The fifth floor was a great place to browse for men’s clothes; the seventh floor had an excellent kitchenware department. HBC persisted through the bankruptcy of Eaton’s in 1997-1999 as well the wind-down of Sears Canada that began in 2012 (when it began selling the leases of its urban flagships, including former Eaton’s stores) and concluded in 2018.

But private equity did what private equity does best: it began selling off the assets and closing down stores, just as Sears did in its last decade. The Zellers discount department store chain was discontinued, with the majority of store leases sold to the ill-fated Target Canada operation in 2011. The Home Outfitters stores were closed in 2019. Real estate was sold off, with HBC leasing back the properties. For example, the Queen Street store was sold to real estate developer Cadillac Fairview — who owns the adjacent Eaton Centre mall — for $650 million in 2014.

In the last few years, it became clear that the department store chain was in decline. Though pandemic restrictions in 2020 and 2021 had a major effect, the downtown stores also lost office worker patronage. Suppliers were having trouble getting paid and were seizing merchandise at several stores; escalators and elevators were put out of service, and store hours were reduced at most locations.

The Hudson’s Bay store at Scarborough Town Centre closed at 7:00 on a weekday evening in March 2024, even though the rest of the mall remained open for another two hours

The loss of Canada’s last department store is unfortunate, but it comes as no surprise given the way private equity sucks once-proud businesses dry. The evidence was impossible to miss. How could customers be lured back when escalators were blocked off, marketing non-existent, and store opening hours scaled back? Not even Sears turned off the escalators in its last years.

I suspect, given the company’s 355-year history, a vestige of HBC will live on, especially in an era of renewed Canadian nationalist. Another business will certainly purchase the name and brand to continue selling the famous point blankets. Though the Queen Street store will certainly be redeveloped by Cadillac Fairview, strict heritage considerations will prevent its complete demolition. The Downtown Winnipeg store, closed in 2020, is already being repurposed into a new hub for Manitoba’s First Nations.

But it will remain a true shame, as I have always felt there was still a place for a full-service department store in Canada. It only needed to be well managed, relevant, and cared for.

March 10, 2025
Woodbine Centre: the end of a Fantasy

Woodbine Centre & Fantasy Fair is up for sale, again

Growing up in Brampton in the 1980s and early 1990s, there were two favourite day trips I fondly remember.

There were the drives to nearby Georgetown, which had one of the largest indoor playgrounds at any McDonald’s restaurant. It featured a multistorey indoor crawl maze, a spiral slide that led to a giant ball pit, a tire swing, as well as a standard McDonaldland-themed merry-go-round. A CN caboose could be rented for children’s parties. At least we’d burn off some of the calories from the burgers and fries. (There’s a video on Reddit from 1992 that shows what it looked like.)

Then there were the trips to Fantasy Fair. When Woodbine Centre opened in 1985, it featured a unique attraction: a large indoor amusement park, complete with a historic Looff carousel (though with replica fiberglass horses), a Ferris wheel, and a train ride that wound through the attraction. The highlight for me, however, was a huge indoor playground that spanned two floors that was many times the size of the Georgetown McDonald’s playground. It had multiple slides, a mirror maze, swings, and two ball pits. There was also a McDonald’s restaurant facing Fantasy Fair, in one of the faux-Victorian storefronts that surrounded the attraction.

Fantasy Fair Carousel, November 2024

The mall itself was anchored by The Bay and Simpson’s, along with a Cineplex multiplex cinema, and a complete assortment of mid-market retailers. In 1991, when the Hudson’s Bay Company retired the Simpson’s brand (converting most of those stores into The Bay), it sold the redundant store to Sears Canada. A Zellers discount department store was added in the 1990s. But the mall slowly lost its pizzazz.

Cadillac Fairview sold Woodbine Centre in 2005 to a numbered company, with real estate management firm Avison Young operating the mall. By then, many of the national retailers had left once their leases were up. The mall’s relatively isolated site, without good transit access became a liability. Changing demographics in northern Etobicoke, competition from surrounding larger malls (Bramalea City Centre, Sherway Gardens, Square One, Vaughan Mills, and Yorkdale) and new big box retail developments also took their toll.

The Zellers store was not one of the leases picked up by ill-fated Target Canada, and it closed in 2012. Sears closed in March 2017, a few months before the entire chain was liquidated. Sport Chek closed its store in 2018.

Woodbine Centre’s Zellers store was not picked up by Target, and the parking lot-facing doors still have the defunct retailer’s logo intact

There was an attempt to renovate the mall, as part of a grand plan to revitalize the property with a new supermarket, refreshed food court, new entertainment options, and condominium towers surrounding the shopping centre. The Woodbine Village proposal competed with the better-financed Woodbine Live plans at the nearby racetrack, which included a casino, hotel, and event hall, all of which were built or are nearing completion. Condominium development is complicated as the property, particularly the southeast corner at Highway 27 and Rexdale Boulevard, is directly below the approach for Pearson Airport’s Runway 23.

Poster promoting “Woodbine Village” which boasts a new supermarket, condo development, hotel, and expanded Fantasy Fair including indoor waterpark

NAV Canada map showing approach and noise contours for Runway 23, which passes directly above Woodbine Centre

Woodbine Centre’s central atrium, including defunct fountain below glass elevator

After a disheartening American election result on Tuesday, November 5, I decided to turn off the newsfeeds, and out for a walk and explore Woodbine Centre again.

Though the basic architecture remains intact, the corridor floors were given cheap new brown, grey, and beige tiles that look out of place in the post-modern interior. Much of the original green paint on the roof, walls, railings, and signs is now red and mahogany.

Apart from the fast food offerings, there were few recognizable store names among the tenants in 2024. Apart from Hudson’s Bay, Foot Locker, Ardene, The Children’s Place, Dollarama, LensCrafters, TD Bank, and Urban Behavior, most stores were independent clothing, home décor, and furniture stores, or were cellphone vendors such as Wow Mobile, Best Buy Express, or Rogers and Bell kiosks. About 20 percent of the store fronts were vacant.

Looking towards the old Sears store, which is now All Home Furnishings, which was having a clearance sale in November. Note the Payless Shoe Shack, a knock-off of the defunct Payless Shoe Source chain, on the left.

Vacant faux-Victorian storefronts at Fantasy Fair

Professional property managers are quick to update signage and keep up appearances; the management at Woodbine has clearly given up. Vacant storefronts are left exposed, rather than blocked off. Signage advertises stores that are long gone. Pot lights flicker on and off.

Overhead sign pointing the way to Sears, which closed over seven years ago. The Subway restaurant is also gone. Behind the sign, a shuttered Yogen Fruz/Prestotea store front acts as storage.

A closed KFC/Taco Bell stall in the food court, with the signage still up and illuminated, despite the equipment taken out

Surprisingly, Fantasy Fair was still operating, even on a Wednesday afternoon where there were few visitors. Ride attendants, dressed in red vests, looked bored, even when running the train for the lone parent and child. The Ferris wheel is now permanently closed, however, and some of the attractions look sadly decrepit.

The railway crossing lights, bells, and gates still work at Fantasy Fair when the train passes through

Outside the mall, much of the parking lot is fenced off and is now used for truck and trailer storage, and the storage of overflow rental car fleets. Though the rental car parking began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people stopped travelling, it continues to be an easy revenue stream for the mall management. The truck trailers, on the other hand, are an unsightly feature, particularly where they face Highway 27.

Fenced-off rental cars in the Woodbine Centre parking lot

Truck trailer parking on part of the mall parking lot

Unfortunately, the future is not good for Woodbine Centre as a mall. Though mixed-use development remains a possibility — Humber College is within walking distance — the airport noise will continue to be a challenge for condominium sales. Transit expansion would certainly help; the nearly-complete Finch West LRT terminates nearby. Extending that two kilometres south to serve Woodbine Centre, Woodbine Racetrack/Casino, and a planned GO Transit station, could be the boost the site needs. (Of course, the mall site could have made a good location for a mega-spa, particularly with the nearby casino venue and hotels, but I digress.)

The Humber College LRT terminus is less than a kilometre north of Woodbine Centre

The mall’s fate will likely be decided soon. The site is up for sale again, not advertised as a shopping centre, but as a “50 acre mixed use site.”

1992 Tenants

Below is the list of tenants at Woodbine Centre in 1992, obtained from the 1993 Canadian Directory of Shopping Centres, published by Maclean-Hunter. Tenants still open in 2024 are bolded.

Anchors
Anchors: The Bay (140,000 sq.ft.), Sears (135,000 sq.ft.)

Fashions and footwear
Children’s Wear: Flora’s, Just Kids.
Family Wear: Cotton Ginny.
Ladies’ Wear: Addition-Elle, Antel’s, Au Coton, Braemar, Braemar Petites, La Cache, The Cavery, Cotton Plus, D’Allaird’s, Dalmy’s, Emotions, Fairweather, Irene Hill, Jacob, La Jolie, Karuba, Lady Foot Locker, Limité, Lindor, Liz Porter, Mia, Northern Reflections, Ports International (Ladies), Reitmans, Ricki’s, Shirley K Maternity, Smart Set, Suzy Shier, Tabi International, Tan Jay, Tristan, Tucci Fashions.
Menswear: Casa Angelo, Petrocelle Vomo, Randy River, Star’s Men’s Shop, Steel, Tip Top, Tuxedo Royale.

Unisex / Men’s & Ladies’ Wear: Benetton, Boca, Bootlegger, Canary Island Adventure & Travel Company, Le Château, Frenz Leather, Jean Machine, Levi’s 1850, Pantorama, The Pro Image, Stitches, Thriftys, Willow Ridge.
Footwear/Leather Goods: Agnew, Aldo, Bata, Belinda & Brother, Bentley Leathers, Calderon, Florsheim Shoes, Foot Locker, Fredelle, K. Jamson, Kinney, The Little Shoemaker, Moneysworth & Best, Naturalizer, Pegabo
Jewellery/Fashion Accessories: Accessories For You, Ardene, The Joy of Sox, Mappins, Peoples Jewellers, Reflexions, Young’s Jewellers

Other retailers
Books: Classic Bookshop, Coles, Moyer’s The Teacher’s Store, Smithbooks
Cosmetics/toiletries: Body Reform, Caryl Baker Visage, Enchante Perfumes, Merle Norman Cosmetics
Department store/mass merchandiser: Marks & Spencer
Drugs/health & beauty: Shoppers Drug Mart
Electronics/Computers: Bell Canada Phone Centre, Compucentre, Majestic Sound Warehouse, Radio Shack, Safe & Sound
Fabric & Sewing: Needle ‘n’ Thread
Florist/Nursery: Woodbine Florists
Furniture & Furnishings: Brass Imports, Clocks Unlimited, Diamond Furniture, Lighting Unlimited, Pictures
Gift: A. David Soloway, China Panda, Den For Men, Jinny’s China & Gifts, Party Hut, Rafters, Le Roulet
Grocery: Bulk Barn
Hardware/Paint & Paper: St. Clair The Paint & Paper People
Hobby/Craft: Lewiscraft
Housewares: House of Knives, Pot Pourri, Shaver Centre Fine Blade, Stokes
Music/Records & Tapes: A&A Music & Entertainment, Discus, Music World
Optical: LensCrafters
Pet: Aquarium Toronto
Photo/Camera: Blacks, Japan Camera
Restaurant and Fast Food: A & W, Abacus Cuisine, Baby O’Donuts, Dutch Treats, Jimmy The Creek, J.J. Muggs, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Kernels, London Style Fish & Chips, Los Rios, Made In Japan A Teriyaki Experience, Manchu Wok, Manfreds, McDonald’s, Mr. Submarine, New York Fries, Sbarro.
Specialty Food & Drink: Baskin-Robbins, Laura Secord Mrs. Fields Cookies, mmmarvellous mmmuffins, Swiss Fudge, Timothy’s Coffees of the World, Yogurty’s Yogurt Discovery.
Stationery/Card: Garfield, Grand & Toy, Hallmark.
Toy: Toy World.
Variety/Convenience: The Silver Dollar Store, United Cigar Store.
Dry Cleaners: Parker’s Cleaners.
Financial/Legal: Bank of Montreal, Canada Trust
Hairstyling/Esthetics: The Cut Above, Da Vinci, Tantastic, You’nique Hairstyling.
Medical/Dental: Eye-Exam Centre, Procare Medical Centre, Woodbine Dental.
Printing: K.P. Copy.
Theatre / Entertainment: Cineplex, Orville & Wilbur Family Games, Wizard’s Castle
Travel: Marlin Travel
Miscellaneous: Lottery Kiosk

November 9, 2024
The death and life of Shoppers World Brampton
An old Target shopping cart sits in front of Shoppers World. Target, which closed in 2015, now subdivided into smaller retail units, including JYSK, Staples, and Giant Tiger

Previously on this blog, I wrote about Shoppers World Brampton, a shopping mall that slowly declined despite being located in a high-growth suburban city. I wrote that RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), the owners of the mall, were interested in developing the property by reducing the retail footprint and adding new residential uses. Some of those details have now been revealed.

Shoppers World opened in 1969, on the outskirts of the Town of Brampton, which was transitioning from a county service centre and industrial town to a suburb of Toronto. The mall expanded twice: once in 1973-74, and again in 1980-81.

In the 1980s, Shoppers World boasted a Simpson’s department store, K-Mart, two full-service supermarkets, a Pascal’s department store, two movie theatres, and even an indoor waterpark. Familiar national chains filled the halls: Thrifty’s, Grand & Toy, Coles and W.H. Smith, Smart Set, Naturalizer, Black’s, Collegiate Sports, Peoples Jewelers, and Reitman’s. Shoppers World never had the status that Square One or Yorkdale enjoyed, but it was a good mall offering just about anything you’d ever need.

It was where I got my first paying gig: returning stray shopping carts to K-Mart for a few dollars apiece. I lived within walking distance of the mall, though I joked that the best thing about it was the bus to Square One.

But many of those national retailers left by the mid-1990s. Square One, a 15 minute drive south, was expanding, and Bramalea City Centre had renovated and expanded as well. But when RioCan REIT purchased Shoppers World in the late 1990s, it made some long-needed improvements, including new flooring over the old terrazzo, a new food court, and removing some of the dead retail space for new big-box retailers like Canadian Tire, Staples, and Winners. When The Bay (successor to Simpson’s) closed, it was replaced by more exterior retail.

Meanwhile, Zellers replaced K-Mart, and briefly became a Target store during the American company’s disastrous foray in the Canadian market. Rio-Can carved that into spaces for smaller retailers, including Giant Tiger. Finally, the bus terminal moved, from a distant corner facing Steeles Avenue, to a central location right at the corner of Main Street and Steeles Avenue, designed for easy transfers to the Hurontario LRT.

The interior of the mall is still busy, but nearly all chains let their leases expire, with independent retailers taking over. Even so, there are many vacant storefronts.

Earlier in October, RioCan submitted their plans to the City of Brampton, and were also presented at an open house at the mall on October 22, 2019. The redevelopment proposal includes new roads, residential towers with at-grade retail, underground parking, among other features.

Details from RioCan’s submission include:
- Four new north-south and east-west public streets through the property, including multi-use paths, as several private laneways. Mill Street would continue south from Charolais Boulevard to Steeles Avenue.
- New residential towers up to 28 storeys tall, containing 4,725 units (one, two, and potentially three-bedroom apartments)
- 155 townhouses in the northern end of the property, towards low-rise subdivisons north of Charolais Boulevard
- 44,647 m² (480,582 sq. ft.) of retail space integrated with the residential towers, a reduction from 62,256 m² (670,124 sq. ft.)
- An enlarged Kaneff Park (west of the mall, between two separate existing high-rise rental tower clusters), along with new community and library space
- New office space adjacent to the expanded park and community space
- Most parking will be located underground
- The Brampton Gateway terminal will remain
Site plan from RioCan’s submissions to the City of Brampton. Click to enlarge.

The first phase of the redevelopment will be 27-storey tower on the southwest corner of the site (where the abandoned Brampton Transit terminal now sits). This will be constructed before the mall itself is touched. Further phases will see the mall slowly demolished, though they are dependent on market conditions.

Rendering of Shoppers World redevelopment, looking northwest from the existing Brampton Gateway Terminal

RioCan hired Quadrangle and SvN architects to develop conceptual renderings for the development, indicating that RioCan is serious about this development. Given the City of Brampton’s own plans for urbanizing this part of the city, I am optimistic this will be built. The area already has good public transit access, with Zum express bus service to Downtown Brampton, Mississauga City Centre, Sheridan and Humber Colleges, as well as local service. This will also be at the terminus of the Hurontario LRT line (construction will begin shortly as the contract was just awarded), which may yet continue to Downtown Brampton.

This is the largest shopping mall redevelopment in the Greater Toronto Area, following work now underway at the Galleria Mall in Toronto, and proposed for the Promenade Mall in Vaughan (though much of that mall’s structure will remain intact). As the mid-market gets squeezed by discounters, internet shopping, and high-end shopping centres, more malls of Shoppers World’s size will see similar development.

I was surprised to see such urbanity proposed for suburban Brampton, but it may finally be the time for the Flower City to bloom. Despite my nostalgia for Shoppers World, I am excited for its future.

Looking south on Mill Street towards the park expansion and Steeles Avenue. The first phase tower is shown in the middle background.
October 22, 2019
Requiem for Ontario’s regional malls

Shoppers World Brampton, 2016, before the Target store was replaced by smaller stores, including Giant Tiger

Recently, I wrote about the history of Ontario’s downtown malls. Most of these shopping centres, built in the 1970s and 1980s in the downtown cores across the province, failed by the end of the 1990s. The collapse of the Eaton’s department store chain and competition from larger, suburban malls and new big-box retailers drove customers away from Ontario’s downtowns. Only in Toronto and Ottawa, with large downtown office employment, residential development, and good urban transit, did these major shopping malls thrive.

But that does not mean that all suburban shopping centres are doing well, especially after the loss of Target in 2015 and Sears Canada in 2017. For TVO, I wrote more about how smaller regional malls in Ontario are re-positioning themselves.

The Brampton house that I grew up in was a ten minute walk from Shoppers World, which, in the 1980s, had a full line department store, Simpson’s, as well as Marks and Spencer, K-Mart (where I had my first paying gig, delivering shopping carts back to the store abandoned in nearby parks), a Pascal hardware store, and two supermarkets, Food City and A&P. Larger, more popular malls like Mississauga’s Square One and Bramalea City Centre were one bus ride away, but Shoppers World held its own, even if it was second tier. By the 1990s, though, it was clear that the mall was in decline: national retailers were leaving and there was a noticeable lack of investment in the property.

When RioCan REIT purchased Shoppers World in the late 1990s, it made some improvements and attracted big-box retailers like Canadian Tire, Staples, and Winners. Zellers took over the K-Mart store, which was expanded. But The Bay (which replaced Simpson’s) was closed down and the store later demolished. I had left Brampton in 2006, but I was still sad to see my one-time local mall decline. Now RioCan has talked about downsizing the mall, and redeveloping part of the property. Competition from larger, stronger shopping malls, newer retail power centres, the mismanagement of several retail firms, and internet shopping have all taken their toll. Shoppers World isn’t a dead mall, but like many smaller malls, it will be adapting to changing times.

In the TVO article, I take a look at a few other malls, like London’s Westmount Mall, in similar circumstances.

Shoppers World, 2018. Despite many store vacancies, it’s still a community hub.

June 18, 2018
Ontario’s failed downtown malls

Bayside Mall, formerly the Sarnia Eaton Centre, on a Saturday morning in 2013. Most stores are vacant or occupied by non-profits or independent businesses.

The Toronto Eaton Centre, large, famous, and vital, is only one of many malls built in the downtown cores of Ontario cities between the 1960s and 1990s. From Thunder Bay to Cornwall, the construction of new enclosed shopping centres were seen as a necessary tool to keep the old city centres vibrant and relevant in the face of competition from new suburban malls. But only in the province’s two largest cities did the concept work. Elsewhere, these urban shopping complexes were left largely vacant within ten years of opening, when leases expired. When the Eaton’s department chain went bankrupt in 1997, huge voids were left behind that developers and municipalities struggled to fill.

The Toronto Eaton Centre was opened in two phases between 1977 and 1979. It added hundreds of shops and new office space to Downtown Toronto, anchored by a new Eaton’s flagship and was connected to the Simpson’s store across Queen Street. Today, the Eaton Centre is Canada’s second largest mall (including the Hudson’s Bay/Saks Fifth Avenue building) and the Toronto region’s second most productive shopping centre in terms of sales per square metre. In Ottawa, the downtown Rideau Centre, opened in 1983, is the busiest and most productive mall in that region (Retail Council of Canada, 2016).

But elsewhere in Ontario, downtown malls — mostly built with municipal and/or provincial government support — have been, without exception, commercial and urban development failures. Not only did they suffer from high vacancy rates, they helped to wreck the downtown cores they are located in rather than foster the economic revitalization they once promised.
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February 14, 2018
They call this a “SmartCentre”

The word “smart,” like many buzzwords, is thrown around a lot, to the point that it has lost meaning. SmartTrack, for instance, might have been a catchy name for a transit plan, but in the end, it didn’t turn out to be all that smart.

There’s also the case of SmartCentres, the retail arm of SmartREIT, a real estate investment trust. SmartCentres are ubiquitous in suburban Canada; the firm owns retail properties in all ten provinces and is Wal-Mart Canada’s largest landlord.

I was recently in St. Catharines, a mid-sized city of 125,000 on the Niagara Peninsula. I’ll have more to say about my visit there in a few upcoming posts.

I was walking from the VIA Rail station, on the west side of Twelve Mile Creek, opposite downtown, towards the new St. Catharines hospital on the city’s western outskirts. My route to the hospital (more on that later) took me through a SmartCentre big-box retail complex at Louth Street and Fourth Avenue. Tenants include Real Canadian Superstore (a large supermarket part of the Loblaws group), Wal-Mart Supercentre, Canadian Tire, Best Buy, and LCBO.

Google map of the big box complex in west St. Catharines

Like most big box centres, the stores are laid out surrounding a large parking lot. Pedestrians are an afterthought – there are few walkways or connections to surrounding sidewalks.

A token measure — a bus stop — is located within the property. The bus stop is on the main driveway, but a considerable distance from the front entrances of Wal-Mart or the supermarket, especially for anyone carrying groceries, using a mobility device and/or with young children. Shopping carts are left next to the bus shelters, and there are no other supermarkets in western St. Catharines. Anyone without a car must either visit Superstore, Walmart, or shop at higher-priced local convenience stores. The property owner is SmartREIT, a real estate investment trust with retail properties in all ten provinces.

Excerpt from St. Catharines Transit daytime map. Only route 3 serves the big box centre from the south.

Only one St. Catharines Transit bus route, 3 Pelham Road, serves the SmartCentre stop (evenings and weekends, route 115 replaces route 3), and only from the south. Traditional shopping areas, such as Downtown St. Catharines and the Pen Centre mall, are much better served by local transit. Route 1, which directly connects downtown and the new hospital and serves neighbourhoods to the north, runs nearby, but it doesn’t enter the property.

St. Catharines, once an industrial powerhouse, has struggled with de-industrialization and poverty. The census metropolitan area has the lowest median family income in Ontario; the city also has one of the highest obesity rates. Access to fresh, affordable food, especially for those without automobiles, should be a priority. It’s a shame that the built form isn’t smart enough to help.

February 17, 2017