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Duke Street Food Block
#31
How convenient is a convenience store if you have to go several blocks to get to it?
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#32
Bring back the corner store! When driving along Victoria Street you can tell that between West Ave and Joseph that there was a corner store more or less every second block. I wonder whether any has done an analysis of what kind of traffic or geographic reach a typical corner store had in its heydey. Would those kinds of figures still hold true today?
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#33
Spice Tree is now definitively closed. It's been dark for months (except for the lit "open" sign that they had left turned on), but all the furniture and fixtures are now gone, and the sign is (half) torn down. I guess they did not want to make another effort, even with Amaya Express gone.

No indication of a replacement tenant.
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#34
(03-20-2017, 01:00 PM)nms Wrote: Bring back the corner store!  When driving along Victoria Street you can tell that between West Ave and Joseph that there was a corner store more or less every second block.  I wonder whether any has done an analysis of what kind of traffic or geographic reach a typical corner store had in its heydey.  Would those kinds of figures still hold true today?

That's pretty much the frequency of convenience stores in Tokyo today ...
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#35
There's still a convenience store pretty much every block on King downtown. From Water street headed east (south?) there's one in the block that used to rock beside La Cucina, Shoppers, not one on City hall block, one beside the panini place that used to be called La Cucina but is now closed, a dollar store between Philly cheesesteak and Ace shawarma, the walper convenience store, one beside where Niko Niko sushi used to be, dollarama, nothing in the market square/record block but one just kitty corner to it then a small African foods store that serves a similar purpose then new city market and across from the market there's a pharmacy and a convenience store.

Downtown is well served by convenience stores and others that fill the same need.

I'm curious if convenience stores sell any meaningful volume of things that aren't lottery tickets, tobacco, chips and soft drinks. I'm curious how much grocery stores selling soft drinks as loss leaders is to blame on the death of neighbourhood convenience stores, and how much reduced tobacco consumption is to blame.
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#36
Quote:I'm curious if convenience stores sell any meaningful volume of things that aren't lottery tickets, tobacco, chips and soft drinks. I'm curious how much grocery stores selling soft drinks as loss leaders is to blame on the death of neighbourhood convenience stores, and how much reduced tobacco consumption is to blame.

Also, most supermarkets are open longer hours these days, some of them 24 hours. Being open longer hours is one of the most convenient parts of convenience stores.
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#37
(05-09-2018, 03:44 PM)robdrimmie Wrote: nothing in the market square/record block

Actually, there is one in the Market Square food court (just opposite the 22 Frederick bridge).
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#38
Good news and bad news today!

The bad news? Bread Heads is closing, permanently, as of December 21st (per a sign in the restaurant). Blaming it on the lack of parking directly in front of the restaurant "due to LRT". Uuuuhhhhhhhh, there's a gigantic parking garage literally across the street. I really doubt "the LRT took away 3 of our parking spots" is the reason for business loss.

The good news? Crafty Ramen is INDEED moving into the newly renovated space at King / Water! I remember someone posting that rumor here a few months ago, now seems to be official.
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#39
Bread Heads had terrible hours. I used to stop there often for take out dinner when getting together with friends, and then they started closing at 6pm. I understand business was slower in the evening, but they basically eliminated their opportunity to grow by restricting themselves to daytime business.
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#40
(11-08-2018, 06:02 PM)GtwoK Wrote: Good news and bad news today!

The bad news? Bread Heads is closing, permanently, as of December 21st (per a sign in the restaurant). Blaming it on the lack of parking directly in front of the restaurant "due to LRT". Uuuuhhhhhhhh, there's a gigantic parking garage literally across the street. I really doubt "the LRT took away 3 of our parking spots" is the reason for business loss.

The good news? Crafty Ramen is INDEED moving into the newly renovated space at King / Water! I remember someone posting that rumor here a few months ago, now seems to be official.

That's some BS sour grapes.  The *only* time I visited the Duke Food Block (because AFAIK most stores are only open during work hours, and I don't work downtown) I was running errands, and thus, I drove there, there's tons of parking around, I walked less than a block at 12:10 or so.  Most traffic is from businesses around, whose employees walk.
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#41
Agreed.

I rarely eat lunch out but had they been open for dinner I would have liked to visit more often ...
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#42
I tried Bread Heads a couple of times, back in the day, but I found their pizza crust too soggy for my liking.
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#43
Some places downtown can attract enough demand from nearby offices and residents. Those that don't, need people to be able to come by from elsewhere pretty easily especially if it's for lunch. That's not generally going to be a model that works in downtown Kitchener going forward, but I don't see a reason to doubt its impact on Bread Heads in particular.
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#44
You need to be open to attract customers. You could be across the street from a parking garage and it won't do you a lick of good if there's a closed sign in your window.
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#45
(11-09-2018, 06:25 AM)jamincan Wrote: You need to be open to attract customers. You could be across the street from a parking garage and it won't do you a lick of good if there's a closed sign in your window.

I agree.  I love their pizza but they were closed too often and for long periods of time.  That's not a formula for success.  

With Bread Heads closing, the Duke Food Block will only have two restaurants.
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