Month: January 2011

Shoppers Drug Mart is on the hunt for a new chief after it was announced Wednesday that CEO Jurgen Schreiber is quitting the drug giant. Shoppers is an anchor in every business district and street in the country. The move comes suddenly after Shoppers had it first earnings decline since 2001. During his tenure, Schreiber oversaw the somewhat revolutionary two-storey drug store format (right) at Shoppers. As is known, such a location will be installed on South Bayview in the old Bayview Playhouse. Schreiber will be replaced temporarily by Chairman David Williams, a former food retail executive, until a permanent successor is found.

Of course in Toronto they are protected from adventurous human carnivores, but raccoons (like this one seen last night on Roxborough Ave. W.) are a delicacy in many parts of the world. That’s when they’re cooked of course. It’s also an adventure to even speak about such things in this happy municipality, where all things great and small survive the roasting pan in perpetuity. If you’re adventurous, take a look at The Food Detective: Raccoon for Dinner? Photo by Peter Rehak.

Spurred no doubt by the imminent arrival of hundreds of Target stores, Wal Mart has announced that it will open 40 new stores across Canada. Great, if you like that sort of thing. On the same day, Yorkdale, the mall that ate North York, announced that it will add 40 stores. Some of them will be pretty big too. Apparently Riocan is talking to discount mall operator Tanger for the use of some of that space. These retail titans will now duke it out with other big U.S. operators such as Costco and T.J. Maxx (Winners, Homesense, Marshalls) for the big box buck. Where to go, where to go? It’s like trying to do your grocery shopping at ten supermarkets. On South Bayview, we should never worry about such things. Let’s just talk service. If you like a challenge, try to find it at the boxes. Oh yes, there’s lots of talk in the commercials about how much they love you, but try to find it at the checkout. No, our only wish is for the City of Toronto to stay off the necks of small business. We know, that’s a lot to ask.

ServiceOntario has moved its storefront to 854 Eglinton Ave E near Laird. The old location closed Monday and the new one was supposed to be open today. No doubt the rather enormous job of shifting so many records and making the new place ready for business caused some delays — and the “Closed” sign in the window. A postscript to this story: ServiceOntario was open for business on Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The bad luck house at 250 Sutherland Drive which burned Sunday morning, and then was demolished the same day, sold for $850,000 in March of 2010. This was some $150,000 above the listed price. Above left, is the house as it was sold, centre, the morning of the fire and right, the empty lot taken Tuesday, January 26, 2011.

Transit riders in the Czech city of Brn0 rebelled against the new Porsche designed streetcars (lower left). The day the trams went into service, riders began to complain about the face-to-face seating (upper left). Riders had too sit to close together and practically rub knees across a narrow aisle, they complained,. So great was the furore that authorities reconfigured the cars with traditional front-facing seats (upper right). This was an unintended win-win. Riders liked the seats and the transit operator found an extra 12 spaces for strap-hangers to stand. Lower right, the new Toronto subway cars are much wider and seem to have a combination of across the aisle and front facing seats. Incidentally, still no word on when those subway cars go into service.

Health Canada has issued a recall alert for two models of foldable strollers that apparently put parents at risk of losing a fingertip. The stroller manufacturer, New Zealand’s phil&teds, issued a recall of the strollers, sold online and in stores in Canada. Some 7,000 models of the sport V2 (left) and classic v1 have been sold. No injuries are reported.