Retail
Nada has been providing package-free grocery items since it opened in Vancouver in 2015, but founders Brianne Miller and Alison Carr expanded into delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their partnership with Shift Delivery transports goods like flour, pasta and granola...
Like so many of us, Karen Hope and Monique Zizzy needed a drink when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of last year. Hope, who has a background in event planning, was working with a luxury tourism company, while Zizzy was...
Ring On It Devi Arts Collective was launched in 2013 by Bayoush Mengesha. The women-led Vancouver brand sells dainty, minimalist jewelry ideal for everyday wear. Each of their pieces is handmade using recycled or refined metals and ethically sourced gemstones, and...
Is there a B.C. industry more absolutely stacked to the wall with competition than the flavoured vodka soda market? Maybe, but there’s no denying that the hard-drink-with-low-calories game has more rivals lurking around every corner than a Batman comic. So why...
How many theoretical businesses have been launched by two friends sipping alcohol on a patio? Most of those ideas fizzle or are forgotten the next day, but Gabrielle Mustapich and Sheereen Price never let go of the light bulb that...
Herschel Supply Co. looked far and wide for its first-ever CEO, only to find the right person in its backyard. “We hired a New York–based search firm to go scout out the market,” says Lyndon Cormack, co-founder of the Vancouver-headquartered bag maker...
If you call your consulting company Retail Prophet, you’d better have something useful to say. Doug Stephens doesn’t disappoint with his third book, Resurrecting Retail: The Future of Business in a Post-Pandemic World. The Toronto-based retail futurist, who’s advised players ranging from BMW to Disney to Walmart, argues that the COVID shock has completely changed his industry. We asked Stephens how brands can survive and thrive in this hypercompetitive new landscape—and which B.C. retailers are ahead of the game.
Dan Burgar doesn’t think brick-and-mortar retail will ever disappear. But long before the COVID-19 pandemic furthered Amazon.com’s devastation of traditional business practices, Burgar was arguing that retail would be one of the many sectors disrupted by virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR). Having worked at various local tech companies, the Vancouver native...
The stock: Since Aritzia (TSX:ATZ) debuted on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges in 2016, the best time to buy its shares always seemed to be a year ago. If there was an exception, it came, well, a year ago, when...
Walk into the new MEC flagship store in Vancouver’s Olympic Village and you’ll spot a restored baby-blue Volkswagen microbus, an homage to the retailer’s first venue. Back in 1971, the original van would haul camping and climbing gear acquired at...