Market News

Grocers Hear the Call of the Mall?

Grocery retailers are considering returning to traditional shopping malls—according to a recent report in the Toronto Star. With the future of department stores or "anchor" tenants such as the Hudson\'s Bay Company and Sears uncertain, mall managers are looking at other possibilities for this "real estate." In the report, Paul Brundage, executive vice-president of real estate management at Oxford Properties—owner of a number of shopping malls in the Greater Toronto Area—said supermarket chains, for instance, are looking at getting back into malls. The report noted that Oxford Properties recently signed a deal with Loblaw Cos. Ltd. to build a grocery store on the lot outside of the Scarborough Town Centre. Source: Canadian Grocer E-Newsletter, April 7, 2006.