Calgary Openings, Closings, and Developments

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by you&me

WP seems to have enough brand equity that Co-op will (or should!) be keeping it as a standalone thing... I could even see them rebranding certain locations from CoOp to WP.

WP's biggest strength is their selection and events, and there's no way they'll be messing with that. More often than not, in my experience, CoOp has them beat on regular and sales pricing, so I don't see how CoOp's acquisition is a bad thing in any way?

Coop actually has a pretty good schedule of events and offerings as well (or at least they did previously as I haven't checked in a while.) It may be store specific but the Crowfoot location had a lot of different wine tastings, scotch tastings and other events.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

I don’t know if that’s how these things usually go

Originally Posted by you&me

WP seems to have enough brand equity that Co-op will (or should!) be keeping it as a standalone thing... I could even see them rebranding certain locations from CoOp to WP.

WP's biggest strength is their selection and events, and there's no way they'll be messing with that. More often than not, in my experience, CoOp has them beat on regular and sales pricing, so I don't see how CoOp's acquisition is a bad thing in any way?

It depends on what they want it for.

First and foremost its profitable and, as indicated has a very strong brand equity.

Moreso than that though, Willow Park's main strength rested on relationships with suppliers. Co-Op adding them, even as a subsidiary is probably to strengthen their supply chain and bolster their ability to get certain products at better prices for the entire group.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by boogerz

Anyone know if Uncle Fatih's Pizza still opening along 17th Ave SW?

I think so. It’s right next to the rose and crown on 4th st. Not sure if it has a date or just says opening soon but it looks close. They’ve got all the branding up already.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Locke

It depends on what they want it for.

First and foremost its profitable and, as indicated has a very strong brand equity.

Moreso than that though, Willow Park's main strength rested on relationships with suppliers. Co-Op adding them, even as a subsidiary is probably to strengthen their supply chain and bolster their ability to get certain products at better prices for the entire group.

According to the email sent out to people that like spam, WP will be kept as a distinct entity.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Locke

It depends on what they want it for.

First and foremost its profitable and, as indicated has a very strong brand equity.

Moreso than that though, Willow Park's main strength rested on relationships with suppliers. Co-Op adding them, even as a subsidiary is probably to strengthen their supply chain and bolster their ability to get certain products at better prices for the entire group.

They’ve done it with Community Natural Foods. It operates separately and probably benefits from the wider Coop network, buying power and things like that.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Locke

Moreso than that though, Willow Park's main strength rested on relationships with suppliers. Co-Op adding them, even as a subsidiary is probably to strengthen their supply chain and bolster their ability to get certain products at better prices for the entire group.

In Alberta, there is no such thing as suppliers - everything is purchased via the AGLC/Brewers Distributers. They may have a better relationship with the brand representatives which can bring in more cases or pallets of a product via the AGLC but ultimately it still goes through the ALGC/BDL.

In this area, Co-op already has gargantuan buying power as they will purchase warehouses full of product from the gov't and sit on it, especially those on weekly discount, leaving the smaller stores unable to compete on price or selection as all liquor stores have to get their supply from the same source. It's a government monopoly on the supply chain side, then it becomes an oligopoly for the big chains. I had panic attacks every week trying to scrape together enough to keep my shelves stocked compared to these big chains with their buying power.

The benefit here might be relationships Willow Park had in the food and beverage restaurant business and Co-op gaining a foothold there.

[Bigtime]

U-Haul bought the Calgary Herald building, they had also purchased the old Calgary Sun building and turned it into a self storage facility and vehicle rental site. Probably the same fate for the Herald building?

[calf]

Saw on Twitter that the Green Line project has purchased Eau Claire Mall to get ready for an underground station. The mall will be demolished in Q2 2024

[Bigtime]

Eau Claire Market will close mid Q2 of 2024, as they have just reached an agreement with the city for the Green Line and underground station on the site.

https://eauclairemarket.com/transformation/

Edit: Beaten! ^^^

[Engine09]

I'm actually sad to hear that, I remember watching a bunch of Flames playoffs games with friends in 2004 in the arcade/bar that used to be next to the theater. I still hit the theater if they're playing what I want to see, went just 2 weeks ago. During the summers while commuting to work by bike I would often stop at the market to pick up stuff or hit the crappy food court.

Oh well, change is inevitable.

[Locke]

Well I'll be damned. They're going to finally demolish Eau Claire Market.

Hopefully whoever owns that bafflingly inexplicable Egyptian shop can set up a kiosk in the C-Train station.

[topfiverecords]

Remainder of the land will likely be used as Green Line construction staging and then sit as a vacant dust pit for the next decade.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Remainder of the land will likely be used as Green Line construction staging and then sit as a vacant dust pit for the next decade.

Oh yeah, if the old Greyhound station is any precedent to go by it'll probably sit for a couple of decades.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Eau Claire Market will close mid Q2 of 2024, as they have just reached an agreement with the city for the Green Line and underground station on the site.

https://eauclairemarket.com/transformation/

Edit: Beaten! ^^^

Man that was a slow drawn out death

[Bigtime]

I still wonder if Harvard has the chops to actually get the site developed?

[Muta]

Kinda bittersweet news, haha. I worked in that mall for over eight years of my life and hung out there as a kid so much since the 90's, have some great memories there. Gonna miss that place, but hey - change is always a good thing! Cannot wait to see the new development from Perkins+Will next (if that's still a go, or at least a modified version of it since the Green Line developments!):

Spoiler!

https://calgary.skyrisecities.com/ne...ommunity.19402

[Swift]

I don't get to it often enough but the loss of the Cineplex in there will be a blow. Apart from the Globe (and their selection is meagre), they're the only cinema in town who regularly show artier/international movies.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Muta

Kinda bittersweet news, haha. I worked in that mall for over eight years of my life and hung out there as a kid so much since the 90's, have some great memories there. Gonna miss that place, but hey - change is always a good thing! Cannot wait to see the new development from Perkins+Will next (if that's still a go, or at least a modified version of it since the Green Line developments!):

Spoiler!

https://calgary.skyrisecities.com/ne...ommunity.19402

I think that original plan is long gone, probably see something different.

[timun]

It'll be completely different, that old plan did not take into account the LRT station.

[Weitz]

That’s too bad. I really like the Canadian blood services location there.