The question in the headline is reverberating along South Bayview Ave. as word comes that Shoppers will locate an outlet in the new Whole Foods Market complex at 1860 Bayview. Many swear it means that Shoppers Drug Mart in the old Bayview Playhouse at 1601 Bayview will close. Parking is said to be an issue. The best response from two sources at the two-level South Bayview store is that yes they’ve heard the story and nobody seems sure what will happen. It does not seem too unreasonable in terms of distance for Shoppers to keep two locations. Rexall Pharma has a store at Moore Ave and in the Sunnybrook Plaza. They both seem very busy. But there is much behind-the-scenes business not visible to outside observers. The playhouse building is a special case as leasing goes. It takes a public-spirited retailer like Shoppers, and before them Brunos, to shoulder the size of this space. The complaint heard most often against it is parking. But there is parking. The grocery stores that leased this space got into trouble because groceries are heavy. No one wanted to cart them a block. When Shoppers opened there in the Spring of 2011 (before Loblaws) they were still keen on the two-storey concept for their stores. But they went a step too far in manipulating the clientele by putting the dispensary on the second floor. People resented it. The perfume promenade inside the front door (like Bloomingdale’s in New York) was one thing, but it was quite another to send old people up to the cheap seats for their medicine. Anyway, the story is out there for Shoppers to deny. Right now, there are people in South Bayview who think that Shoppers will forsake our pleasant high street for a home at Bayview and Broadway,
