Loblaws has issued a statement Thursday morning (July 23, 3015) saying it will close 52 unprofitable stores in Canada over the next year. Loblaws has more than 2,000 stores and its locations include Loblaws, Provigo and Extra Foods. It also owns Shoppers Drug Mart. It did not say where the closures might occur but there are unlikely to be many in the Toronto area. In South Bayview, the Redway Rd. store has always seemed under-patronized and it is well off the main street. This is not an asset. Still, it is full of goods and Loblaws has seemed committed to it.  Loblaws said the closures will cut its annual sales by roughly $300 million a year, but will result in an improvement of $35 million to $40 million in its operating profits. As reported by Canadian Press, the statement said the closures are expected to cost the company a total of approximately $120 million. Of this amount, a charge of $45 million was taken in the second quarter ended June 20, including $30 million for severance and lease termination costs.

CONSOLIDATED SALES

The release shows the grocery retailer’s consolidated sales rose 2.2 per cent to $10.54 billion from the same quarter last year. The firm said it made a second-quarter profit of $185 million, or 45 cents per share, compared with a loss of $456 million or $1.13 a share a year ago. On an adjusted basis, it said it earned $350 million or 85 cents per share in the quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $297 million or 74 cents per share a year ago. “Looking ahead, the grocery industry remains highly competitive and health-care reform continues to put pressure on our pharmacy business,” company president and executive chairman Galen G. Weston said in the statement.

Premier Wynne has announced that HOV lanes will soon become toll lanes. Driver-only cars will be able to skirt the HOV requirement for multiple passengers by paying.  This concept will be called HOT. That cute name is said to stand for “high-occupancy lane tolls” although it might seem a misnomer. Never mind.  In this era of provincial debt that is scaring the pants of mere mortal credit rating wonks, the Cabinet is forging ahead with new and unique methods of “revenue.”  The news conference at which this arose did not generate questions about the government’s pledge to remove the HOV lanes slapped onto the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway for the Pan Am Games. Does that still apply? The closest the Premier got to straight talk was this quote from the Star: “Whether the configurations that have been put in place on provincial roads for the Pan Am Games are exactly what will transpire when we put in place the HOT lanes, that’s not our plan at this moment,” she told reporters after the meeting with Mayor John Tory.

PLEASE DON’T SCREW US AROUND

The Star noted that Mayor Tory had to listen quietly to this bolt from the blue. He later said. “If there’s any frustration that I’ve heard, it’s that the HOV lanes during Pan Am have been underutilized … the lesson for us all now is to take lessons,” the Star quotes his worship. Translation?  In Bulldog parlance that’s “please don’t screw us around like this Premier.” BNN 

A study produced by Re/Max Hallmark Realty says that homes along and near Scarborough’s pleasant Lake Ontario waterfront have become hot sellers. The study found that as the average sale price of an existing detached home in Toronto crosses $1-million, the biggest profits are being made in houses selling for less than a million. It said that neighborhoods in southern Scarborough are gaining the most. Birchcliffe/Cliffside led the city with a 25.4 per cent increase, with the average home in the area climbing $724,187 as of the end of June, compared to $577,567 from one year ago. “The Scarborough community — nestled between the popular Beach area and the Scarborough Bluffs — has experienced a serious upswing in demand due to affordability and close proximity to Toronto’s downtown core,” said Re/Max in a release.

There was a natural gas scare on Manor Road Tuesday (July 21, 2015) when several people were forced from their homes between Forman Ave. and Boynton Rd.  Crews were called to 300 Manor around 2:20 p.m. Police say a construction worker severed a gas line while digging in the area. The leak was repaired without incident.

Fans don’t forget and hundreds of them stood all day to see Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page at the Indigo in the Manulife Centre.  For reason known to himself Page was not signing autographs Indigo warned fans ahead of time that Page would only be stamping books during his appearance and would not be providing customary personalized autographs. Many of the 300 were forced to stand outside the Bay and Bloor streets store in the humid morning weather to buy Page’s book (Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page) for $85 and get a wristband for the meet and greet later in the day. Such is fandom