Downtown Grocery Needs Targeted By 7-Eleven

When it comes to downtown grocery: retail space can be very expensive, grocery only runs a 1-2% profit margin, and delivery of goods to the store can be a cumbersome process. It’s no wonder in a recent interview Ken Barnes, regional development director for 7-Eleven indicated Toronto’s booming condominium market is pushing the need for more convenience stores.

With the lack of full feature supermarkets (even micro grocery stores – those under 5000 s.f.) there is definitely room for a full on assault by the quick-stop developer.

The problem will be that convenience stores have half the number of “heart-healthy” foods as neighborhood grocery stores, and only one quarter of a supermarket.

This lack of access to healthy food for heavily urbanized (and Calgary has a core with not even a single micro grocery store open late) citizens has been blamed for rise in obesity and general health issues for urban dwellers.

It can be hoped that there’s some nice individually packaged bananas at least in these shops.