What does DTK need?

[the_conestoga_guy]

Yeah it's not that I think we absolutely need mainstream corporate businesses all over downtown but they are strong businesses because they offer consumers easy access to goods and usually at cheap prices. There are always alternatives but sometimes what people need, they know they can walk right into a HomeSense, Zara, Canadian Tire, Starbucks, H&M etc and get it. It just offers people more convenient shopping opportunities and can likewise draw people downtown. If Karen and Ken need a new drill and set of car mats for their car and a downtown Canadian Tire is closer than going out to Weber & Forwell Creek Road in Waterloo then that's great. So they go down and get what they need. Then they might decide they're hungry or want a coffee so they wander around and discover a good local restaurant. Then perhaps they notice a bookstore and decide to go check that out. And maybe it's a hot day, so they pick up some ice creams and a cold drink and sit in a park for an hour.

Supporting small businesses is great and definitely preferable, but major chain stores are also necessary. A good downtown should have a good balance between the two. There are many reasons why you need a good mixture. For example not all people can afford to shop for groceries at a place like Marché Leo's and would prefer a FreshCo or Food Basics. Not all people have the patience to discover and shop at small local places, so knowing you can walk into a Canadian Tire to get a specific thing is easy. Or maybe teens going to school only have a bit of money for lunch, so a 3 dollar burger from McDonald's makes more sense than a 6 or 7 dollar burger from Union Burger or some even more expensive place.

Of course getting such places to open up in urban areas is economically risky. For example IKEA only opens stores somewhere if there are certain thresholds met (population being the main criteria), so it is a bit of a waiting game for us at the moment. However I'd still love to see some bigger stores open locations up downtown. Tim Horton's did and it's doing really well. Subway has a shop downtown too and they seem to have been successful. Starbucks is even planning to come back and IMO their coffee is junk compared to some of our great local cafes, but other people enjoy it so they decided to reopen.

Specific to the point about a hardware store, I'm excited to have the new MUT running directly from the Central Station to Swanson's Home Hardware.

It's obviously not as convenient for most of downtown's residents compared to a Canadian Tire built on the Charles Street Terminal land (for example, not recommending this). But I do think it will be beneficial, especially because walking along Victoria (the usual route) is genuinely horrible.