By Hedy Korbee
The largest retailer in Birch Cliff, D.O.T. Furniture, is closing its Kingston Road store on September 23rd and moving to a new location with a larger showroom.
The property has been leased to Dollarama which will be renovating the interior and opening a dollar store on the premises in January.
D.O.T President Tony Niceforo says the store is relocating because the current location has two major drawbacks:
“There’s a few things that create a problem for us over there. One of them is that we find it’s a bit small for us…and we’d like to have more furniture in the store. Furthermore our deliveries come by trailer loads and it’s hard to get around the back and difficult to load from the front.”
More walk-in traffic for Dollarama?
While some Birch Cliff residents will likely welcome the addition of Dollarama to the neighbourhood, others might be dismayed that a furniture retailer is being replaced by a store selling low-end household goods.
This is not lost on Niceforo who owns the property and leased it to Dollarama. He says D.O.T. had no choice and he honestly believes that a dollar store will improve the retail landscape in Birch Cliff. What Dollarama will generate, according to Niceforo, is walk-in traffic because the chain anticipates 400 customers per week compared to 20 cusomters per week for D.O.T.
D.O.T. Furniture
“I think it will improve the neighbourhood, I really do. Because what really improves neighbourhoods to me is walk-in traffic. If you’ve got walk in traffic, there’s bistros, there’s niche shops, and there’s vitality,” Niceforo says.
The lack of walk-in traffic is what caused the lovely tea room Rosemary & Thyme to close last month after five years in business. Niceforo points to Queen Street East as an example of what could happen in Birch Cliff:
“The niche stores will come if the traffic is there. The traffic will come if the niche stores are there. I think Dollarama is big enough and recognized enough so that it will become a leader in the area.”
So who will the customers be? Nicefore maintains that the customers who frequent dollar stores are often the same customers who shop at small trendy stores in places like Leslieville and the Beach.
“Have you ever been in Dollarama? I think I’m better off than most people in the
city. Why do I go to Dollarama, why does my wife go into Dollarama? Because they have given us the things that have an attraction at a price that you say “how can you not buy it?”
Niceforo, who started working in retail as a teenager and founded D.O.T in 1995, says that times have changed since the days when people turned up their noses at a dollar stores because they sold “junk”. Dollarama, with 780 stores across Canada, is an industry leader, Niceforo says, and people should give it a chance.
“Before they get upset about Dollarama, wait and see what they bring. For people that know Dollarama they will understand. The people that have never heard of them, they’ll be surprised.”
Loblaws on Kingston Road. Courtesy of Scarborough Archives
Loblaws used to be on Kingston Road
While many Birch Cliff residents will likely give Dollarama the benefit of the doubt, many might be yearning for the good old days (before superstores) when Kingston Road was anchored by a local Loblaws store. For those who are newer to the neighbourhood, it’s hard to imagine there was a time when the grocery store was within walking distance.
When D.O.T. patio took over the anchor location several years ago, there was relief in the community because the location was an eyesore for a long time.
(Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story indicated that DOT has 1,000 stores in Canada. This was amended to 780 after we received an email from DOT pointing out the error on Feb. 22, 2013)
I am very excited that there will be a Dollarama at Warden/Kingston Road – fantastic news! Finally a store that I regularly shop at that I can walk to. I do hope and think that it will help to revitalize the sad, sad strip of Kingston Road in the Birchcliff neighbourhood. I would love to be able to go for a walk and pop into local stores for my shopping needs. To other potential retailers out there – how about a produce store? … a dinner restaurant (where families can go)? …coffee shop?…clothing store?
In fairness, there are other businesses in the area that are an asset to the neighbourhood. We need more (especially for regular shopping needs) to have a vibrant and thriving shopping district that will attract regular shoppers.
I know many of my neighbour friends have also commented on how they would like to be able to shop at neighbourhood “walk to” stores.
I greatly miss Rosemary and Thyme and hope that they will soon re-open (in the Birchcliff neighbourhood). My daughter and I went there for lunch every week!
I’m reading the comments with a friend of mine regarding the dollar store that’s coming to our area.
Our jaws are dropping at the idea that a dollar store is going to uplift and revitalize our area.
We need a nice restaurant, a book store, coffee shops, places to walk to! Not a Dollar Store!
This Kingston road strip is an area that needs to improve to match the quality of the neighborhoods.
A Dollar store drives it more downmarket.
I totally agree with Susan about what we need in the area and while DOT was pretty stagnant and i was excited to see what would move in next… a dollar store? I truly hope it will attract the smaller retailers as hoped.
I remember this was Loblaws for years! Shopped there as a kid! Since then it’s been kind of eclectic…but the ladies above are absolutely right. Having grown up on Kalmar (Mom still lives there), this neighbourhood was very vibrant. You could do all your shopping on that “strip”. We had a Woolworth’s kind of store, restaurant, Hunt’s Bakery, Pharmacy, TV store (where Wimpey’s is now, jewellery story…lots of places. We never shopped anywhere else for anything at anytime of the year…including Christmas! Hopefully someone will take this project on and clean up the neighbourhood!!! The government isn’t going to do it, that’s for sure. Very sad to go for a walk now!
Amazing post. Before, I used to wonder about what would be done with spaces on the Kingston Road strip. I also used to wonder about the history of our community. Birch Cliff News gives me all of this information and more — and the commenters supplement your information so well! It’s lovely to have their insight and yours.
I have mixed feelings about a Dollarama coming in. I’m not anti-corporation, but I think a grocery store or something else of higher quality would be much better. However, as you and the commenters point out, maybe the Dollarama will lead to some much needed revitalization of Kingston Road!
I also lived on Kalmar beside Carroll in fact. My Mom worked at the Loblaws store for many years and then worked at the T/D bank beside it.. As Carroll said, we used to be able to do all our shopping on that Kingston Rd strip. My first job was in the Stedmans 5 to $1 along there,there was Duckworths I think it was called in the laneway. It was a hair dressing salon. Morleys (I think it was called)was near the Beckers and had a laundramat at the back of it. There was a jewellery store, Hunt’s Bakery was such a good place to buy fresh bread and goodies, and there was a really nice gift shop that I used to shop in for Christmas gifts for years. I still have a wall plaque that I bought there in 1967. I can’t remember what the store was called but I thought it was so classy. I live 2 hours away now and don’t get back there often but the first time I did return “home”, I was distraught seeing how the strip had gone downhill. It looks very junky now. I agree with Ashley that another grocery store would be good in there again. It’s a shame when things change like that and not for the better. We have Dollaramas here and they are a good store to buy very affordable things in. No quality but good prices. I buy greeting cards, gift bags, bows, that kind of thing in there all the time now. And you can get some really nice wine glasses for $1 each.It is certainly worth a look for sure.
Marilyn and Carroll paint such a lovely picture of what the retail strip used to look like in Birch Cliff. I went by Rosemary & Thyme today and was sad to see it boarded up. I’ve been told by a couple of people that the landlord may be renting it out to tenants, which is a big problem on the strip. At the same time, you can’t entirely blame the landlord for trying to make some money. If only BIrch Cliff’s retail area was large enough to have a BIA! As for the Dollarama, I admit I was caught off guard when the President of D.O.T.’s response to the question was: “Have you ever been to a Dollarama?” I haven’t been to a Dollarama but I have been to many a dollar store in search of certain items, including just last week when I needed to help my son get equipped for his first apartment. We’ll have to see what kind of walk-in traffic gets generated and hope that it’s enough to revitalize.