https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONF1qbD-tnY?start=12
The Scarlet Strawberry is a hybrid fruit, like the Honeycrisp apple. It is now being grown in small numbers on farms near Rutgers University in New Jersey where it was developed. The berries are expected to be in commercial distribution next summer and, like the Wisconsin Honeycrisp, may be grown in Ontario.
A court order for Loblaws to hand over many company records to the Federal Competition Bureau is causing interest. The bureau evidently is concerned that the big grocer’s business practices in dealing with suppliers represent a threat to the open market. It’s about how much you pay for food and whether it can reasonably be said to be too much. For Loblaws and the other giant retailer Sobey’s, is will be about margins. That’s where brand names like Silk soy beverage get squeezed off the shelf at Loblaws. It’s a popular product but Loblaws thinks it can make more money by using the shelf space for something else. There is lots of competition for Loblaws, a sure force for keeping prices down. There are curious anomalies too. Like Dole non-organic bananas at 69 cents per pound at the high-end Summerhill Market, eight cents less than at Loblaws at 301 Moore where the price is 77 cents a pound. Go figure. The Toronto Star quotes an industry lobby source, Gary Sands, as saying: “We think this investigation underscores the need for a code of conduct in Canada to govern the grocery industry.” A nice idea but does it inspire much confidence? The bureau meanwhile says it has determined that Loblaws practices with manufacturers and suppliers may “impact the incentives and conduct of suppliers to Loblaw and the ability of other retailers to compete vigorously with Loblaw, particularly on price and product selection.” That smells a bit like restraint of trade, which is the bureau’s main bete noire. One thing is certain, there is enormous competition in South Bayview for your grocery dollars. The newly renovated Metro has a dazzling array of food. Whole Foods is set to open at 1860 Bayview Ave. next year. Longo’s is an aggressive promoter of its Leaside Village store and Rowe Farm Meats on Bayview is now selling fish. Sobey’s is ever-present and Summerhill Market has two fine stores. Got enough choice?
The tunnel will not be open in time for the PanAm Games this summer and part of the reason is the unremitting ice earlier this year. Commercial News
Monica Franklin writes to say the Banff Road annual street sale will again benefit from the efforts of at least 15 families in the stretch of Banff between Eglinton Ave.East and Soudan Ave. It is scheduled to go this Saturday, June 6 between 8 a.m.and 2 p.m. Thinking ahead, there is a rain date of Sunday, June 7, 2015. Items are said to include china, rockers, antique picture frames, railway items, an aquarium, two sewing machines plus tables, portable sewing machine, dining room light fixture. This street sale offers to feed you too. Hot dogs and beverages.
Marina Strauss writes in the Globe and Mail that Saks Fifth Avenue, which is owned by the Hudson’s Bay Co. will bring with it to Toronto the discount chain Off 5th. as it opens stores next year. Unlike in the U.S. Saks will apparently locate Off 5th stores nearby or next to its Saks branded outlets. It seems like an effort to build volume regardless of previously finicky concerns about location. Ms Strauss quotes Jerry Storch, CEO of Hudson’s Bay, for this information.
Roger de Toit, a well known Rosedale architect, has died of his injuries in a cycling accident May 19, 2015. Mr. de Toit’s bicycle was in a collision with a light SUV at Roxborough St. E. and Wrentham Place. He died at Sunnybrook Hospital. The collision occurred as he rode north on Wrentham. He collided with an eastbound vehicle driven by a 43-year-old woman. PC Clint Stibbe of TPS traffic says the investigation into the accident is ongoing. Mr. de Toit was a distinguished member of his profession and a founder of the firm DTAH. The victim was friendly with fellow cyclists in Rosedale. One report says that a memorial ghost bike ride is being organized. Police say the investigation is ongoing and asked anyone with information to contact traffic services at 416-808-1900 or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
Murky group says it wants to have an orgy because: “The contemporary reality of city life is that we have never been so alone despite be [sic] surrounded by so many people.” Uh-huh. Hamilton Spectator
In a stunning announcement made at a hastily called news conference Tuesday (June 2, 2015) in Zurich, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said he will resign after FIFA elects a new leader at an “extraordinary congress” that will be called by the organization’s executive committee. It appears that cannot happen until September. But the situation is fluid. The defiant Blatter reversed himself as his second-in command Jerome Valcke was named by U.S. investigators as the authority for a $10 million wire transfer that ended up vanishing into the murky coffers of corrupt officials in New York and Trinidad. Valcke is FIFA’s secretary general and works hand-in-glove with Blatter. It seems the splattering mud of corruption has landed on Blatter himself. A spokeswoman for FIFA said the $10 million in bank transactions were authorized by the then-FIFA Finance Committee chairman. The Finance Committee chairman was Julio Grondona, who died last year.
The minimum fine for distracted driving has doubled under changes to the Ontario Traffic Act. Fines go from between $60 and $500 to between $300 and $1,000. Add a further penalty of three demerit points on conviction. Distracted driving has long since passed drinking as the single most serious cause of traffic deaths. Third reading was given today (Tuesday, June 2, 2015) to these and other changes.
WATCH YOUR DOOR
The government has chosen to create a new offense known as dooring. This is an occurrence which will be entirely accidental (unlike distracted driving) but which will prevent cars doors from hitting cyclists who are beside the vehicle. This offense, and the time-honoured hippie offense of driving while doped up on marijuana or other drugs will bring a $1,000 fine on conviction.
COUNTER FLOW BICYCLES?
The revised HTA also allows cities to build more types of bike lanes and it imposes new fines on cyclists who refuse to light up their rides. The new legislation will give cities permission to build counter flow (or contraflow) bikes lane. Let’s hope these lanes, which would run counter to one-way vehicular traffic, don’t kill too many bike riders. The consensus seems to be traffic has to be very slow to allow these lanes to work. The offense of towing a skate boarder behind a car is now illegal. It is an offense which seems too dangerous to be true The HTA already forbids the towing of everything from toboggans to skaters.
A Hamilton man, Henry Evans-Tenbrinke, is sitting in a lawn chair at the spot near his Brucedale Ave. home where Canada Post intends to install more of its widely hated community mailboxes. The retired health-care worker has his dog, a boxer named Albert, and water plus proper clothing as he vows to stand in the way of the postal service. He has been there since May 11.
