[Sooke] Sooke Retail Plaza | Proposed

Major news on the south Island retail front as a 156,000 square foot retail complex starts making its way through the municipal planning process.

A 156,000 square foot retail complex has been proposed for a nine-acre parcel between the 6700-blocks of West Coast Road/Highway 14 and Eustace Road in Sooke, identified in blue. If approved, the project will deliver the largest single infusion of retail space to Sooke's town centre.

Large shopping plaza proposed for Sooke's town centre poised to deliver much-needed retail capacity to Victoria's western-most suburb

https://victoria.cit...rn-most-suburb/

Is this true the town hall thinks a population growing by thousands of people needs just 18,000 square feet of retail space growth by 2030?

If you visit Sooke today you'll note it has two grocery stores in plazas across the street from each other. One dates back to something like the 70s and the other dates back to the late 90s. Currently for anything more than groceries, pharmacy items and the basics of a small Home Hardware residents are required to drive into Langford.

I too don't understand how only 18,000 square feet of retail growth can be sincere if you have a catchment population of 20,000 people (13,000 just in Sooke-proper as of the 2016 census) and a growth rate of 15% over five years, which is 3x that of Saanich or Victoria.

who shops in person for anything these days save for groceries?  maybe the odd bit of small hardware.

Big-box and large format retail is doing very well, and is showing no signs of slowing down. The future, I think, is less specialization per retailer and more add-on value. Look at Canadian Tire's latest stores. They combine CT, Mark's, and Party City under one roof. SuperStore combines Joe Fresh, banking, haircuts, insurance, etc under one roof.

Big-box and large format retail is doing very well, and is showing no signs of slowing down. The future, I think, is less specialization per retailer and more add-on value. Look at Canadian Tire's latest stores. They combine CT, Mark's, and Party City under one roof. SuperStore combines Joe Fresh, banking, haircuts, insurance, etc under one roof.

is walmart's non-grocery, in-person sales growing?  i think it's not.  their online was up 97% one quarter last year.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 May 2021 - 07:58 AM.

Big-box and large format retail is doing very well, and is showing no signs of slowing down. The future, I think, is less specialization per retailer and more add-on value. Look at Canadian Tire's latest stores. They combine CT, Mark's, and Party City under one roof. SuperStore combines Joe Fresh, banking, haircuts, insurance, etc under one roof.

Canadian Tire Q4 2020:

FOURTH QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

• Strong omni-channel performance in the quarter drove CTC's comparable sales growth of 9.5%
  • CTR's strong growth of 12.8% was driven by double digit growth in almost 70% of product categories and Owned Brands growth of 18%
  • Mark's delivered strong comparable sales of 7.6%, driven primarily by eCommerce sales and strong performance of national brands
  • SportChek's comparable sales growth declined 3%, due to reduced promotional activity, temporary store closures and restrictions
  • Over 600,000 new members joined the Triangle program and contributed $168 million in sales
• eCommerce sales in the quarter grew 142%, with penetration rate more than doubling 2019 levels
  • eCommerce sales surged across all retail banners, with CTR up 179%
  • Digital visits across retail banners grew almost 50% to over 230 million visits

https://www.newswire...-814048074.html

Sounds like brick-and-mortar is doing just fine, and online sales are growing at a very fast clip.

...The minute that Homesense reopened in Ontario it was lined up out the door with people desperate to shop.

The same thing happened at the Homesense on Blanshard when it re-opened last Spring. I should know, I was in the line.