1771 replies to this topic

[aastra]

I know. Nothing ever changes. That's what I'm saying.

[aastra]

Apparently the Town & Country Safeway store later claimed the "biggest in B.C." title, but then lost it to stores on the mainland. Such honours never last.

 

FYI: Piggly Wiggly seemed to have had access to prophetically insightful ad writers:

 

 

Daily Colonist
May 29, 1937

SAVE ON FOOD
By shopping at your Neighbourhood Piggly Wiggly, where you will find greater value for your food dollar..

 

 

Daily Colonist
September 29, 1937

 

Piggly Wiggly

MID-WEEK VALUES FOR THRIFTY SHOPPERS

 

[JohnsonStBridge]

Cook St Village's favourite place to buy near expired groceries is soon to be no more. The Root Cellar will be taking over Oxford Foods. 

 

"You know when you have a secret, but you pinky swore (lawyers!) not to tell, and it’s torture? Well we will be tortured no more ....

12 years after opening our little market on the corner, it is with enormous enthusiasm that we announce plans to OPEN A SECOND ROOT CELLAR LOCATION!

This winter we will be taking over the Oxford Foods location in Cook Street Village. We anticipate The Root Cellar at Oxford Corner opening in the second half of 2021.

Honouring the farmers, and food makers in our community is a vital part of our business model, as is honouring the generations of grocers before us. This location has been run by the Louie family since 1971 and we are proud to be continuing their legacy whilst bringing some fresh ideas and a new spin on things to the neighbourhood.

When choosing a home location is everything, and this is the ONE other location in the city that we have always felt would be a perfect home for a Root Cellar. We are excited to be taking our Village Green Grocer to Cook Street Village and look forward to being part of a community whose values align so beautifully with ours.

Over the years we have received countless personal requests for a location closer to home for residents of Fairfield/Rockland, Cook Street Village, and Down Town/James Bay. We take great pride in being a responsive business who sincerely and intimately engages with our customers & community.

They say it takes a village, and in this case, the village has spoken, so here we come.

Lets do this shall we?!

XO
Warmly,

Adam & Daisy"

[Kapten Kapsell]

This is a positive thing for the neighbourhood ! It will be interesting to see how Mother Nature responds. Will the Louie family be retiring?

[Victoria Watcher]

great catch, bridge!

[Rob Randall]

Only if old man Louie continues to watch over things in his old tweed sportcoat.

[Victoria Watcher]

i might open a food store that ONLY has expired products.  i'll buy inventory from the big chains at cents on the dollar.

 

it'll need a catchy name.

 

aastra?

 

(to be clear it won't be called "aastra".  i'm calling upon aastra for naming advice).

 

my airline might only serve expired food too.  but it'll do it on westbound flights that cross the international date line.  so by the time people eat it it'll be the previous day.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 September 2020 - 03:33 PM.

[SimonH]

i might open a food store that ONLY has expired products.  i'll buy inventory from the big chains at cents on the dollar.

 

it'll need a catchy name.

 

aastra?

 

(to be clear it won't be called "aastra".  i'm calling upon aastra for naming advice).

 

my airline might only serve expired food too.  but it'll do it on westbound flights that cross the international date line.  so by the time people eat it it'll be the previous day.

I presume you'll only be selling expired turkeys in you turnkey turkey restaurant ??

[Victoria Watcher]

I presume you'll only be selling expired turkeys in you turnkey turkey restaurant ??

 

i can't see why not.  with wellburns and now oxford soon closed it's a small but lucrative niche begging to be exploited.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 September 2020 - 03:39 PM.

[Kapten Kapsell]

Here’s an article- it looks like Louie declined offers from developers in order to keep it running as a grocery business: https://www.vicnews....3iW2QXAWvxNMLU#

[mbjj]

I will really miss Oxford. Been shopping there for forty years. It's the only grocery store both my daughter and I can walk to. They have some really good items and good prices. We buy cornish game hens for about $4, I think they're $12 at Thriftys. Oxford always catered to people who wanted smaller sizes of things, or maybe the produce wasn't the A selection but the B, but nothing wrong with it. We always buy our citrus fruits there. Is Root Cellar just produce? Do they have grocery items like paper products, detergent, frozen pizza etc? A lot of folks who don't drive go to Oxford. I can't see us paying any sort of premium price for fruit etc. Sigh....

 

I think the expired product thing is somewhat overblown. I have encountered no more expired items in Oxford than I have at Thriftys.

Edited by mbjj, 24 September 2020 - 05:59 PM.

[mbjj]

This is a positive thing for the neighbourhood ! It will be interesting to see how Mother Nature responds. Will the Louie family be retiring?

I think Cook St. village is becoming so trendy it has lost its useful services...bank, laundromat, we'll be losing Macs, now a reasonably priced grocery store. We'll be using our car more than ever to shop elsewhere whereas I would often walk up to Oxford. Been here for forty years and actually preferred the old Cook St. Village.

[rmpeers]

I will really miss Oxford. Been shopping there for forty years. It's the only grocery store both my daughter and I can walk to. They have some really good items and good prices. We buy cornish game hens for about $4, I think they're $12 at Thriftys. Oxford always catered to people who wanted smaller sizes of things, or maybe the produce wasn't the A selection but the B, but nothing wrong with it. We always buy our citrus fruits there. Is Root Cellar just produce? Do they have grocery items like paper products, detergent, frozen pizza etc? A lot of folks who don't drive go to Oxford. I can't see us paying any sort of premium price for fruit etc. Sigh....

I think the expired product thing is somewhat overblown. I have encountered no more expired items in Oxford than I have at Thriftys.

True enough. I have encountered a number of shockingly out of date items at Thrifty's, as well as some genuinely awful staffers.

Edited by rmpeers, 24 September 2020 - 06:08 PM.

[Kapten Kapsell]

I think Cook St. village is becoming so trendy it has lost its useful services...bank, laundromat, we'll be losing Macs, now a reasonably priced grocery store. We'll be using our car more than ever to shop elsewhere whereas I would often walk up to Oxford. Been here for forty years and actually preferred the old Cook St. Village.

I live within a short walking distance of Cook Street Village and I find the changes to the commercial tenant mix to be positive overall.  Keep in mind: 

• Some of the businesses that have closed fit larger patterns:  there are far fewer laundromats in operation today than there used to be, in part due to the growth of in-unit laundries, a trend that began to accelerate in the early/mid 1980s.  By the same token, banks and credit unions are also reducing the number of branches they operate as a large number of transactions are carried out online.  This isn't limited to the Cook Street Village:   Coast Capital Savings is closing its branch in James Bay later this year. 
• Some great food establishments have come to the Village over the last decade, including Big Wheel Burger, Prima Strada Pizzeria, Empire Donuts, and Thunderbird Chicken.
• Root Cellar will be able to offer more than just produce:  their butcher shop will be far more comprehensive than the current offerings of Oxford Foods, and they carry a variety of products (including some staples alongside hard-to-find items)

It's important to remember that the Louie family, operators of Oxford Foods, did not find a buyer who wanted to operate the grocery store 'as is.'  Margins are low in the grocery business, and most of the independent, small-format grocery stores that are thriving (Red Barn, Market on Yates, Old Farm Market, and the new Urban Grocer on Fort Street) have settled on a business model that puts less emphasis on staples.  This is largely due to fierce competition from bigger chain competitors and emerging online grocers like Amazon. By selling Oxford Foods to the Root Cellar, the neighbourhood gets to retain a small-format independent grocer (albeit one with a different operating model) and Ed Louie gets to enjoy his much-deserved retirement.

Edited by Kapten Kapsell, 25 September 2020 - 07:00 AM.

[LJ]

i might open a food store that ONLY has expired products.  i'll buy inventory from the big chains at cents on the dollar.

 

it'll need a catchy name.

 

aastra?

 

(to be clear it won't be called "aastra".  i'm calling upon aastra for naming advice).

 

my airline might only serve expired food too.  but it'll do it on westbound flights that cross the international date line.  so by the time people eat it it'll be the previous day.

How about "Eating History?"

 

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12077068/

[qv]

I will really miss Oxford. Been shopping there for forty years. It's the only grocery store both my daughter and I can walk to. They have some really good items and good prices. We buy cornish game hens for about $4, I think they're $12 at Thriftys. Oxford always catered to people who wanted smaller sizes of things, or maybe the produce wasn't the A selection but the B, but nothing wrong with it. We always buy our citrus fruits there. Is Root Cellar just produce? Do they have grocery items like paper products, detergent, frozen pizza etc? A lot of folks who don't drive go to Oxford. I can't see us paying any sort of premium price for fruit etc. Sigh....

I think the expired product thing is somewhat overblown. I have encountered no more expired items in Oxford than I have at Thriftys.

Root Cellar has good prices on a lot of produce. Definitely better than Thriftys. They're not an all-in-one shop, though. You won't go there to buy toilet paper or giant bags of flour.

[zoomer]

I live within a short walking distance of Cook Street Village and U find the changes to the commercial tenant mix to be positive overall.  Keep in mind: 

• Some of the businesses that have closed fit larger patterns:  there are far fewer laundromats in operation today than there used to be, in part due to the growth of in-unit laundries, a trend that began to accelerate in the early/mid 1980s.  By the same token, banks and credit unions are also reducing the number of branches they operate as a large number of transactions are carried out online.  This isn't limited to the Cook Street Village:   Coast Capital Savings is closing its branch in James Bay later this year. 
• Some great food establishments have come to the Village over the last decade, including Big Wheel Burger, Prima Strada Pizzeria, Empire Donuts, and Thunderbird Chicken.
• Root Cellar will be able to offer more than just produce:  their butcher shop will be far more comprehensive than the current offerings of Oxford Foods, and they carry a variety of products (including some staples alongside hard-to-find items)

It's important to remember that the Louie family, operators of Oxford Foods, did not find a buyer who wanted to operate the grocery store 'as is.'  Margins are low in the grocery business, and most of the independent, small-format grocery stores that are thriving (Red Barn, Market on Yates, Old Farm Market, and the new Urban Grocer on Fort Street) have settled on a business model that puts less emphasis on staples.  This is largely due to fierce competition from bigger chain competitors and emerging online grocers like Amazon. By selling Oxford Foods to the Root Cellar, the neighbourhood gets to retain a small-format independent grocer (albeit one with a different operating model) and Ed Louie gets to enjoy his much-deserved retirement.

 

Brilliant summation - thank you.

[johnk2]

We started shopping at Oxford 20+ years ago when we had homestay students and there were savings to be had. I like Thrifty's for meat, fruit and veg and I'm willing to pay for more freshness and quality. But I don't want to pay 30% more for an everyday packaged product like a can of tuna.

That said, we still go to Oxford now and then (cat food!) We noticed months ago that the meat counters were pretty bare, the weekly ad in the T-C disappeared and the store had a very tired air and never crowded.

My take is that CSV has changed from having lots of lower-income retirees to more of a hipster and upscale demographic.

An independent conventional grocery store is a dying business.

Tom Louie is no fool. The land is worth a bomb so why sell if you can set up a very nice income stream while still owning a choice location?

Root Cellar will be a perfect fit in CSV.

[spanky123]

^ I think you are right. Although I still see a lot of lower income folks in the neighbourhood, I also observe more and more younger singles walking their meticulously pampered mini-pin or other "snack" sized dog every day as well.

Edited by spanky123, 25 September 2020 - 09:08 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

any word on a new grocery store where the post office was on fort street?