Downtown Grocery Stores

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Ya looks like Downtown Calgary has 1 or 2 grocery stores according to the map.

It's funny how you had a problem with my list but were praising the Downtown Peninsula of Vancouver, which is 50% larger in area (6 km2 not including Stanley) Homerism for the win! I even provided a map for christ sake! lmao gotta love it.

Originally Posted by zahav

There's also an HMart on Robson and Seymour, and Hannam Supermarket (also Korean) on Robson and Jervis. There are numerous other small ones too, the ones Ozabald mentioned are just the biggies

This is what I love about Van, can barely walk five blocks without tripping over a small unique grocery store in much of the city, even outside of the downtown peninsula.

[EpicPonyTime]

Yellowknife has an Independent and a Shoppers downtown.

[Pavlov]

I suppose I should chime in on the Kingston front: two full service grocers (Food Basics and Metro) and then a half dozen or so specialty grocers (Asian/local/fancy imported).

[speedog]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

It only includes Downtown and Beltline. As my post says, it's only 4 km2.

Even if you did include all of what you mentioned (which why would anyone give a shit? I provided a map showing how compact the area is [17 blocks by 17 blocks minus the river curve, with 50,000 people]), you still only mentioned half of the number of options we have in the same area. If we only included downtown (1.8 km2, 20,000+ people), we'd still have Superstore, Kay's Grocery, East Village Grocery, Chinatown, London Drugs, and Shoppers.

Everything doesn't have to be an competition, I literally provided a map delineating what is considered by all Calgarians to be downtown. The title of the thread says "Downtown Grocery Stores," not "CBD Grocery Stores".




There isn't a major city downtown in the world that only considers its downtown to be a 3 block by 3 block radius The CBD is centred on where that map says "Stephen Avenue Walk" and is 6 blocks by 10 blocks, the other four downtown neighbourhoods are clearly labeled in place, and the Beltline for some reason has several names on it (the "design district" doesn't even exist), and Victoria Park was merged into the Beltline 15 years ago.

Interesting, I've been living in Calgary for over 41 years and downtown to me has always been north of the CPR rail line, south of the Bow River, from the Elbow River in the east to 14th Street on the west side.

The Beltline is the Beltline and a separate and distinct community but for some reason people seem to conveniently lump it in as a part of the downtown when it really isn't. Does this mean that the Mission should be lumped in as a part of downtown too? Sunnyside? Bridgeland? Inglewood?

But then, maybe being here only 41 years doesn't qualify me as a Calgarian yet.

[Chadillaccc]

Well that's a little pedantic, but obviously lumping the Beltline in with downtown is nothing comparable to lumping Mission, Kensington, or Inglewood. All having very defined barriers off of downtown, different demographics, and far different built forms... unlike the similarities between the Beltline and Downtown. Anyways, pretty much anyone in this city going to the Beltline from anywhere outside of downtown+beltline says "yeah we're going out downtown", usually referring to 17 Ave, 4 Street, First Street, or Stephen Ave (only one of which is in the traditional core). Maybe it's a generational thing , but nobody says "I'm going out to the Beltline tonight". Not really something to be argued about though, if BC posters are going to lump the entire downtown peninsula together (150% larger in area, 200% larger population), then I can most cerrrtainly lump Downtown Calgary together

[lio45]

Originally Posted by speedog

Interesting, I've been living in Calgary for over 41 years and downtown to me has always been north of the CPR rail line, south of the Bow River, from the Elbow River in the east to 14th Street on the west side.

The Beltline is the Beltline and a separate and distinct community but for some reason people seem to conveniently lump it in as a part of the downtown when it really isn't. Does this mean that the Mission should be lumped in as a part of downtown too? Sunnyside? Bridgeland? Inglewood?

But then, maybe being here only 41 years doesn't qualify me as a Calgarian yet.

FWIW, I'd tend to use Google Maps' definition of downtown (the orange zone that denotes "areas of interest"). There aren't many options there - most of the stuff that Chad highlighted seems to be in a ring that encircles this "downtown core" on the southern side.

(Using that metric, Vancouver wouldn't get to call the entire downtown peninsula "downtown".)

[Loco101]

Timmins used to have at least 3 or 4 grocery stores downtown until about the mid 1990s. Now there are none. The last one was a small independent one that moved about 7 or 8 years ago.

[speedog]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Well that's a little pedantic, but obviously lumping the Beltline in with downtown is nothing comparable to lumping Mission, Kensington, or Inglewood. All having very defined barriers off of downtown, different demographics, and far different built forms... unlike the similarities between the Beltline and Downtown. Anyways, pretty much anyone in this city going to the Beltline from anywhere outside of downtown+beltline says "yeah we're going out downtown", usually referring to 17 Ave, 4 Street, First Street, or Stephen Ave (only one of which is in the traditional core). Maybe it's a generational thing , but nobody says "I'm going out to the Beltline tonight". Not really something to be argued about though, if BC posters are going to lump the entire downtown peninsula together (150% larger in area, 200% larger population), then I can most cerrrtainly lump Downtown Calgary together

Pedantic?

Nice.

You just can not help yourself, eh.

[vid]

I was going to mention Thunder Bay's situation (all three downtowns have a full-size grocery store; one has two!) but I see this is a thread about neighbourhood boundaries in Calgary, so I'll leave.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

Are you referring to the Centertown location specifically (I've never been)? Farm boy most definitely sells that stuff (the big brands plus some more "exotic" stuff) in general.

All of them. I can't recall ever seeing Coca-Cola at any Farm Boy (I drink a lot of Coke), but I could be wrong.

[J.OT13]

I didn't mean for this thread to become another debate on the definition of "downtown". I think we already have a few of those.

In my opening post, I used a very broad definition of "downtown" for Ottawa that includes the CBD, Escarpment District and ByWard Market (traditional definition of "downtown") but also Centretown, Little Italy, Chinatown, The Glebe, Lowertown, Sandy Hill, Old Ottawa East and Old Ottawa South. This is what the City considers the "Central" and "Inner" Areas.

Maybe I should have used the term "Urban" or "Downtown Neighborhoods" instead of just "Downtown", which for Ottawa would be the traditional downtown and streetcar suburbs (add Mechanicsville, Hintonburg, Wellington West, Westboro, New Edinburgh and Vanier to the previously mentioned enumeration).

[niwell]

I mean, Toronto's financial district really is only a few (extremely dense) blocks in size... Not sure how many grocery options within that boundary since I've never had a need to check, but there's only a few residential buildings there (3?) anyways. "Downtown" is a whole other kettle of fish, but that's been debated ad nauseam in other threads

Originally Posted by zahav

There's also an HMart on Robson and Seymour, and Hannam Supermarket (also Korean) on Robson and Jervis. There are numerous other small ones too, the ones Ozabald mentioned are just the biggies

In the past couple years 2 HMarts have opened up on Yonge (near Elm and closer to Bloor) and I've frequented it for cheap lunch options when I've failed to bring my own. Also gotten a fair amount of frozen items such as dumplings to bring home. I've noticed a number of similar places pop up in the previous years around this part of downtown as well, though I wonder how they are fairing during COVID.

[jamincan]

I think KW does reasonably well on this front. Waterloo has a Valumart right in Uptown and Vincenzo's is just south of Uptown in Midtown along the LRT corridor. Further south firmly in Midtown between Kitchener and Waterloo is Central Fresh. Downtown Kitchener doesn't have great offerings aside from some more specialty or boutique options, but not a full grocery experience. There is a Valumart not far outside the core to the east, and west of downtown near Highland and Belmont has a lot of offerings, including more specialty options. The south end of DTK is anchored by the Kitchener Market and New City Supermarket.

[MolsonExport]

Mods: Please rename the thread "The Great Canadian Downtown Boundary Delineation Debates and Grocery Store Wars Thread" I would surely not check it out with such an accurate title.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Mods: Please rename the thread "The Great Canadian Downtown Boundary Delineation Debates and Grocery Store Wars Thread" I would surely not check it out with such an accurate title.

But seriously Mods, maybe rename it "The Great Canadian Urban Grocery Store Thread", or something along those lines.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I didn't mean for this thread to become another debate on the definition of "downtown". I think we already have a few of those.

In my opening post, I used a very broad definition of "downtown" for Ottawa that includes the CBD, Escarpment District and ByWard Market (traditional definition of "downtown") but also Centretown, Little Italy, Chinatown, The Glebe, Lowertown, Sandy Hill, Old Ottawa East and Old Ottawa South. This is what the City considers the "Central" and "Inner" Areas.

Maybe I should have used the term "Urban" or "Downtown Neighborhoods" instead of just "Downtown", which for Ottawa would be the traditional downtown and streetcar suburbs (add Mechanicsville, Hintonburg, Wellington West, Westboro, New Edinburgh and Vanier to the previously mentioned enumeration).

Haha.

Unlike many cities, Edmonton's most urban/central community is formally called 'Downtown'. It creates issues with downtown versus Downtown and its boundaries are well defined for Downtown, but not downtown.

[MonctonRad]

Coincidentally, a new Indian grocery store is soon going to open on St George Street in Moncton. I good addition to a rapidly diversifying neighbourhood.

[WhipperSnapper]

I don't think there is another form of retail that loves clustering more and as stores have gotten bigger so has their catchment area. It leads to these large desert in comparison to the 1980s when many chains still operated neighbourhood stores in the 5 to 15,000 square foot range. 30,000 plus is the norm today. That's extremely hard to find in established urban areas regardless of parking needs and close to other 30,000 square foot competing stores.

[SteelTown]

Originally Posted by Northern Light

****

Hamilton has one full-service supermarket right in the heart of downtown. A mini-chain named Nations.

Some pictures of Nations Fresh Foods at Jackson Square













Source: Raisethehammer
http://raisethehammer.org/article/18...ns_fresh_foods

[SignalHillHiker]

That looks delightfully ominous. I love it. It’s like... an airport bar, or a tourist hotel lounge in the off-season. I love it lol