Southern Ontario Retail Blog

Indigo is the largest and only major surviving bookstore chain in the country. The Indigo brand has been expanding like crazy lately with a lot of new stores replacing Chapters and Coles locations. They have 209 stores operating under various banners including Indigo, Chapters, Coles, and IndigoSprit. In today’s post, I’ll be going over the rise of Indigo and how they grew to be Canada’s #1 bookstore. Brief History Indigo Books & Music   was founded in 1996 by Heather Reisman . Indigo opened their first “superstore” in 1997 . Indigo then   merged with Chapters in August 2001 , which got them a lot of locations under the Chapters and Coles banners. Reinventing Indigo Indigo introduced what they call a “Cultural department store concept”. While still featuring books, this concept expands Indigo’s non-book merchandise to include home decor, toys and more. My thoughts It’s kind of amazing seeing Indigo thrive a little pre-covid when most book retailers around the world a...

Today’s post is part 2 to my series on Loblaws models and store decors. I’ll be going over the store decor packages that Loblaws uses. This will only be going over the ones that I can find and ones used for Loblaws and their other market banners because there is some over lap with the decors used. 80s neon (Loblaws only) This decor package was used in the 80s and featured neon signage. Market (90s-2008) This decor package was introduced in the 90s and features real tile floors in the grand aisle as well as a painting of a streetscape in the grand aisle. Stores also have some local flair in the form of exterior signage that said “xx market” where xx is the plaza/neighborhood/cities’ name and a mural with local landmarks or skyline. Deluxe version of Market The deluxe version has the front end decorated like a street. The lane lights had fake lamps on them. The service departments are deluxe looking with more detailed elements. Great Food (2008-2011) Loblaws created a food focused format...

Another retailer was killed by the pandemic. On September 9th, Groupe Dynamite, owners of the Dynamite and Garage chain filed for creditors protection and will be filing for Chapter 15 Bankruptcy in the US. It's unknown right now how many stores are going to close, but I can confirm that the one in the blog's coverage area already closed with signage intact. They operate 400 stores under both banners. Source:  https://www.retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2020/9/groupe-dynamite-files-for-and-obtains-creditor-protection-amid-pandemic-struggles

Hi everyone, here's a quick update on what's going on with the blog right now! I'm in the process of writing posts for this month and October. Those posts will automatically go up bi-weekly on Tuesdays @6:00 p.m Eastern Time like usual. So if you notice anything off about those posts, please let me know. Also, I'm experimenting with using Tumblr as a blogging platform. As part of that, those posts will be posted on both this blog and Tumblr.  Thanks for reading this update :). - Dom, aka DZ.

Today’s post will be the start of a 2 part series on Loblaws models and decor packages. The first part going over the major store models that Loblaws used within the blog’s coverage area. This will only cover known models that Loblaws used and not models used by their other chains or acquired chains. Note that there may be overlap with other models. Early models Loblaws used many store models in their early years that look similar, so I’ll only be talking about the most common surviving one. Their earliest surviving store model was the “generic market” model with a rectangular entrance way. Most of these stores are now Nofrills or Valu-Mart stores or reused for other non-retail uses. See link at the end of the post for photos of these early stores. Late 70s- 80’s Super Store model [1] This model was used around the  late 70s 80s. Stores during this era were known as “Loblaws Superstore”, which is a forerunner to the present day Real Canadian Superstore chain. These store had a cong...

Update April 5th, 2026: This post has been update with new information in italics as some of these locations are no longer abandoned and have been repurposed. 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. This location has been partially re-tenanted by a pickleball club. Target: Sheridan Centre- Mississauga ON Credit: Google Maps This Target hasn’t been touch...

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