The hegemony of Shoppers Drug Mart in
downtown life took a sharp left turn this week with the announcement that
Loblaw intends to buy the pharmacy chain for $12.4 million.
While optimists are hoping for savings though
cost-cutting and perhaps loyalty reward synergies between the PC Plus and Optimum
programs, the merger will likely speed up the Shoppersization of urban life—big
generic chain stores gobbling up prime commercial space, squeezing out the
variety and whimsy that makes city life great.
Throughout Toronto’s condo boom, it’s been
clear that Shoppers Drug Mart is one of the top choices for anchor tenants in
new buildings. (Winners or Marshalls might also do in a pinch.) Of course, why
not? A pharmacy is a safer, quieter and less risky choice for storefront space than,
say, a nightclub, independent café or niche boutique. But safe choices in
retail tenants makes for bland and banal streetscapes. A 25-minute streetcar
ride down Queen West from Roncesvalles to University—Canada’s most vibrant
shopping street—showcases no fewer than four Shoppers Drug Marts.
Grocery stores aren’t particularly exciting
either, but they’re usually in oddball parking-lotted places or, in the case of
the two new flagship Loblaw—Maple Leaf Gardens and Queen West at Portland—imaginatively
tucked away into larger developments. Target—again, not a retailer known for
its beautiful properties but let’s do our best to muster some choices here—has so
far only opened stores on the fringes of the city. The chain remains virtually invisible
to downtowners. You can complain that Walmart hurts small independent shops,
but you can’t complain the stores are eyesores. So far, the retail giant’s only
central location is in a mall, though plans to open a new location near
Kensington Market are enough to send a chill up the spine of any flaneur.
Shoppers Drug Marts are much more in your
face. Small enough to eat up the best most high-traffic locations, big enough to squeeze out three
or four small boutiques once they set their sights on a property. Shoppers drug
Marts can make even the most unique neighbourhood feel like nowhere at all.
Surprisingly, Pharma Plus and Guardian drugs
have done little to take advantage of all the new retail space that’s come
available in central Toronto; the expansion of the Pharma Plus at Church and
Wellesley seems almost uniquely futile. Which means that the city is not merely
awash in new brightly lit pharmacies, but awash in a single pharmacy brand.
A Loblaw/Shoppers merger can only increase the
homogenization of our urban landscape. Unless other major retail
chains push into downtown—or unless landlords start making it easier for
independent stores to get leases—our corridors will be awash in
red and white façades, retail spaces that offer a little of everything except personality.
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