Are corner stores a thing of the past for Calgary — or is a renaissance around the corner?

Convenience stores fire nostalgia.

For kids, they stand for independency — the freedom of a number one one dollar bill spent. For adults, a fail-safe for the forgetful, where last-minute ingredients save a recipe.

It feels like these shops are always there when needed, but the reality is that corner stores are disappearing from major cities — unable to contend with economics, building regulations and the changing face of convenience. 

Calgary has seen many of its original corner grocers in its oldest inner-city communities sold, some never to reopen. 

But things may be turning a corner. 

While nostalgia isn’t a business plan, small-format retail is having a moment across the country partially due, as some industry watchers suggest, to Canadians’ desire for retail close to home, a sense of community as the country densifies. 

Data from commercial real estate services company Altus Group show demand on the rise in cities like Vancouver and Toronto.

Small-scale retail — shops under 5,000 square feet — made up about half of Calgary’s retail transaction volume last year, as investors looked to transform properties from parking lots to high-density mixed-use shopping centres. 

At the same time, city planners are breaking barriers to development — last year, Toronto opened the door for retail in residential areas again.

“If you can grab a coffee, pick up something on your grocery list, or drop off a package during your lunch break, the time saved becomes this massive luxury,” Altus Group senior research analyst Jennifer Nhieu said. 

But is it enough to stop what the Convenience Industry Council of Canada sees as a downward spiral? 

“Canada is kind of an outlier. In the U.S. You're seeing new stores,” said Sara MacIntyre, the council's Western Canada vice-president. 

The group’s data show that nationally, an average of 11 convenience stores close down every week.

MacIntyre says foot traffic is down, which for some urban stores has led to safety concerns, driving some closures.

It’s hard to pinpoint when Calgary corner stores went from golden age to decline.

In the 1920s, an ad for “Gold Dust” washing powder lists more than 50 grocery and department stores in Calgary. A Calgary Herald story from the 1970s suggests at that time the city had about 350 independent grocers — and “most of them” were in trouble. 

“I jokingly say, these things are like museum pieces. It's like going to Heritage Park,” Yousef Traya said. €œWe’re a dying breed.”

In the '80s, when Traya was about five years old, his family took over Bridgeland Market. He said they became the fifth owners to run the shop as a community grocer.

He remembers the shop’s early struggles in the 1990s, the competitive prices from Safeway, Co-op, and what he calls the “evil Superstore” and its no-name brands.

Bridgeland Market owner says grocery business has ups and downs

To make it through, his store adapted. Back then, they started carrying lottery tickets and cigarettes. Those days are behind them. But now? The fight for relevancy is getting more complicated.

The City of Calgary said zoning rules make it difficult to track how many small grocers have disappeared over the years, but said there’s no doubt the number of businesses in Calgary’s residential neighbourhoods has gone down over the last century.

Calgary, like many Canadian cities, saw many of its inner-city corner stores built before it had zoning rules. The city’s first zoning bylaw passed in 1934.

City planner Ostap Fedynets said back then, corner stores were allowed every four to five blocks in historic neighbourhoods.

But the building boom from the 1900s had already come and gone. By the time the city’s next boom came, after the Second World War, people weren’t shopping around the corner anymore — they were living in suburbs and driving to get their groceries in bigger stores.

In the 1950s, development rules shifted too, writing retail out of communities. The city approved a neighbourhood plan, and also brought in on-site parking rules.

These two changes, Fedynets said, led to a proliferation of strip malls and also meant that residential areas were seen as a place for homes, schools, churches and playgrounds — not retail.

Some of the city's oldest corner grocers — the few still operating today — were built before those economic and development hurdles existed.

Mddl co-founder Alkarim Devani said cities are still handcuffed by these types of decisions. His company works with municipalities and everyday people to bridge the gap between single-detached homes and apartment building development.

“When our zoning permissions changed and we said, we want residential here, we want commercial here, we want high-rise here, there was no integration,” Devani said.

General Block, a project in Bridgeland, was a prime example of modern-day retail returning to residential. Devani remembers the pushback when his then-development firm RNDSQR brought the project forward.

Businesses bring traffic, and there were worries about adding density to the area.

“No one's going to want to live around this,” Devani said, remembering pushback from residents. 

Now, it’s a popular ice cream stop, and Devani describes the building as a community staple. He points to other businesses becoming similar anchors in communities like Altadore and Marda Loop. 

Fedynets said the city is in the process of rewriting its development rules. Tackling some of these historic barriers to small-scale retail is on the docket. It’s something people are looking for in their community. 

“Businesses that are not just about buying a product,” Fedynets said. €œIt's more about the experience. It's more about growing that sense of community.” 

Store owners are up against the changing reality of convenience itself.  

With Uber Eats, DoorDash and Instacart, shoppers have anything they could want in the palm of their hands and don’t need to walk to the corner anymore. 

Traya, in Bridgeland, thinks staying on top of his business means literally living upstairs — and being a part of his community is what gives him an edge. 

“What we used to carry that was unique, now everybody carries. So you have to go above and beyond to stay relevant, which is challenging,” Traya said.

While they aren’t open 24-7, in a way Traya is always there, even on Christmas Day when he’s closed. 

“Someone's forgotten butter or cream,” he said. €œI just throw the keys off the balcony and say, here's the key to the back door.” 

His personal touch isn’t easy to replicate, but it’s a business model consumers overwhelmed with choice are looking for and one even big corporations and developers are looking to tap into. 

Reporter

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