4 Retail Fun Facts you may have not known about

Here are 5 fun facts about retail that you didn't know about.

1. Sobeys' parent company, Empire Company, owned a movie theatre chain called Empire Theatres, which closed in June 2013.

2. Loblaws still operates a Dominion chain in Newfoundland and Labrador long after the brand officially went defunct. This is due to them acquiring some Dominion stores when A&P divest most locations outside of Ontario when they acquired the chain.

3. The Hudson's Bay Company name is over 300 years old! It dates back to 1670.

4.Bi-Way is planned to make a comeback this month!

Until the next one, DZ

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Store Facts: No Frills Dixie Outlet Mall

I’m starting a new series called store facts where I talk about the history of a particular location of a chain, the layout of the store and some key points about the location. I’ll be talking about the No Frills located at Dixie outlet Mall in Mississauga. This location has an interesting past as it was previously a Knob Hill Farm Food Terminal. If you are not familiar with that chain, you can view my post here . Background This location originally opened as a two-level Knob Hill Food Terminal, which was down sized a few years after it opened. Knob Hill closed down all their stores in 2001 and Loblaws brought a couple of the stores and some, like this one were converted to a No Frills franchise in 2001. I’m not too sure which decor this store had originally, but I’m guessing Smile, which it had until 2016 when it was renovated Very yellow. The store was then refreshed with the Monochrome revision of “Very yellow” in 2018. Layout Here’s a rough map of the store that I'v...

165 The Source stores to re-brand as Best Buy Express

Best Buy Express Logo Image Credit: Best Buy Back in January of this year, Bell announced a partnership with Best Buy to convert 165 The Source locations to the Best Buy Express banner by the end of this year with locations that do not get converted closing. For those who don't know, The Source started out as the Canadian branch of RadioShack before being acquired by Circuit City in 2005 and being rebranded to The Source by Circuit City. Then in 2009, Bell acquired the chain and re-named it The Source. Some The Source locations in the blog’s coverage area are running a pre-renovation sale, so I assume that’s in preparation for the conversion to Best Buy Express. It will be interesting to see how these stores will look like in person. The first location in Surrey BC opened today according to a press release. According to the one image at that link, it looks largely the same as a typical remodeled The Source location, just with Best Buy branding just as I predicted....

Walmart store Number Meanings

Ever wondered what each of the store numbers that are on the top of Walmart receipts mean? These store numbers identify each Walmart store internally and seem to have a common pattern based on when each store was planned/opened. Here’s a list of the store numbers Walmart currently uses in Canada and what they mean. Note that they may be anomalies to this rule and stores may not follow these “rules”. Last updated June 20 th , 2020. Store number Meaning 3xxx 1990s built store. Also used on former Woolcos. 10xx Usually used for 2000s stores. 11xx Early 2010s stores. 12xx Mid 2010s stores. If you have anything to add to this list, please let me know in the comments. Side note: I'll be switching to my summer posting schedule of 2 posts a month from July 1st till September 1st. Until the next one: DZ

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