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Welcome to the Southern Ontario Retail Blog!

Started in January 2019, the Southern Ontario Retail Blog (originally called DZ's Retail Blog) is your source for keeping up to date with everything retail in Canada with a focus on the Southern Ontario region. Here, you can find info on unique, old or interesting stores as well as relevant Canadian retail news. You'll also find store maps and some 3D models of stores that I've been to before and ones that I've made up.

Popular posts from this blog

Lost Retail: The history of Knob Hill Farms

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A picture of a Knob Hill basket. Credit: Wikipedia For today’s lost retail post I’ll be talking about an old, local chain of grocery stores called Knob Hill Farms. Knob Hill Farms was a chain of 10 warehouse-like “food terminals” in the Toronto area. These stores were pretty large for a supermarket at the time they operated ranging from 65,000 sqft to a gigantic 335,000 sqft. Due to financial issues, Knob Hill Farms closed/sold all their stores in 2000. History Knob Hill Farms was founded in 1954 by Steve Stavro as a more conventional grocery chain operating 9 markets in Toronto. It wasn’t until 1963 that Stravro opened his first 65,000 sqft “food terminal” in Markham. In 1971, Knob Hill Farms expanded into Pickering with its second terminal. Knob Hill Farms than opened their first Toronto store  in 1975 and second Toronto terminal opened in 1977. Their fifth store, which was billed as the largest food store in North America at the time, opened in 1978 in Mississauga. Thi
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Abandoned Target stores: 5 years later

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Today’s post will be covering a few well preserved Target stores that are still abandoned 5 years after the company left Canada. Some of these locations are still listed on Google Maps as closed if you look up Target. Many of those abandoned stores are located in dead malls or smaller community malls, which make them harder to re-tenant. Target: Cloverdale Mall-Toronto ON Credit: Google Maps You’re not fooling anyone. They only painted the store green in the last 2 years or so and the store never got a new tenant after Target left. This Target won’t get a new tenant anytime soon because there are plans to redevelop the mall and plus the former Target wing of the mall is dead. Target: Sherdan Centre- Mississauga ON Credit: Google Maps This Target hasn’t been touched since they left. It’s a nice treat to see if you are in the area. There are some noticeable label scars on the building. It’s one of the better preserved stores in the area.  Target: South Oakville Centre- Oakville ON Credit
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My First Impressions with Walmart Airport Decor

I recently went into my first Walmart with Airport decor,  and here's my first impressions of it. The Walmart I went to, located at Dixie and Dundas in Mississauga, opened in March of 2013 with Project Impact. In Summer of 2021, the store started to remodel. At first I thought they were going to get the same package as the Dufferin Mall store . When I walked in today, I was surprised to see the full US version of Airport. When I went, they were just wrapping up the remodel. The Canadian division was previously using their own decor package based on Bogle with custom elements for grocery and light-up signs. That's all gone now as for the first time since Cheap Impact(which was rarely used in Canada), Walmart Canada is using the exact same decor package as the US division with minor localization changes. Impressions The following are my mostly positive impressions and observations on the Airport decor. The outside is using the old blue, yellow and grey scheme, which has been the
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