Retail Watchers

I notice around Vancouver a very common theme in shopping centers that are grocery anchored. I keep finding other "grocery" type stores in the same shopping center. By that I mean there are produce markets, bakeries, meat/butcher shops, etc. all other small chain businesses and all in these shopping centers with grocery stores.

All of these shopping centers also had multiple fast food type places, a drug store, a liquor store, and a Dollar Tree or Dollarama.

I do not remember so many of these non grocery stores in the shopping centers in the past, but maybe I just didn't notice.

Specifically I kept running into "Kin's Fresh Produce" and "Cobs Bread." Both of these do what they do far better than any grocery store does with produce and bread/sweet bread, and had a lot of traffic. Excellent quality at these places.

So I am wondering if there has been a recent surge in this type of competition that has eaten away at the conventional grocery stores up there. It is also odd as in the US there are typically lease situations that would protect the interests of the grocery store anchor tenant and prohibit these types of competing businesses from opening in the shopping center that sell fresh perishable food...

Kin's is one of the best things in the Vancouver area for sure.

Last visit I was there, Cobs wasn't that widespread but perhaps they have succeeded and grown.

There are also a number of formats that copied Kin's and they are quite present as well. I can really see how these places take a bite out of a traditional grocery store's sales. It was a little odd for me to go to a shopping center and make purchases from 3-5 different stores but in the end it really did not take much longer than a single walk through a conventional grocery store because these small stores took little time to walk through (not much to walk through at Kin's or Cobs), had little wait in line to pay, or in the case of the Shoppers/London Drug had self checkout, and it was easy to find items.

I'm wondering if there is some stipulation in these leases where a competing grocer can't open in the center, but these produce only or bakery only or butcher only type places that literally sell only one product category (and only one product category... no racks of candy or soda or chips like you'd expect to see...) are able to operate in these shopping centers because they really do stick to their one category.