It's time Toronto allowed world class transit retail
Pandemic bankruptcies create unprecedented opportunity to do something better
It's a tough time to be in the news and magazine business. It’s an even tougher time trying to sell newspapers and magazines to transit commuters. After two pandemic years with nearly no commuters to sell to, ridership still hasn’t returned to normal volumes. Such is the woe of Gateway Newstands, the company that won commercial rights to operate news stands inside Toronto’s subway system. It filed for bankruptcy protection in April.
What’s bad news for Gateway, and probably other transit-retail shops, could be a boon for Toronto commuters. Before pandemic struck, 1.8 million people rode the TTC on busy workdays. Another 271,000 people rode GO trains and buses each day in the before times.
That’s two million consumers, stomping through TTC and GO stations to board trains, streetcars and buses. Stations that are largely sterile, often cavernous, tiled spaces bereft of creature comforts save for the occasional flogger of newspapers, magazines, chips and gum.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Imagine stepping into a TTC or GO station and finding it animated with smart retail shops and kiosks you actually want to shop from. Boutiques offering goods and services you need in a place you have to be anyway.
Imagine grabbing a gourmet-quality takeout meal while waiting for your train or ordering ahead and having it ready to pick up as you leave the station. Or dropping your clothes off at a cleaner’s in the morning and picking them up on your return. Having your car washed and detailed in the commuter lot while you take transit to work. Shopping for groceries, getting your watch or phone repaired. All this should be possible at more locations in the transit network. If you have to be there anyway, it may as well be enjoyable and convenient.
For years, TTC managers tried to divine what retail would be best for each station and then signed long-term contracts with individual vendors, allowing them small slices of space here and there for a meagre share of their profits. As Gateway learned, there often weren’t any profits to share.
This could be a golden time for commuter retail.
Toronto owns hundreds of thousands of square feet of space in and around its transit stations. Metrolinx owns even more in its GO network. Properly managed by a creative, savvy retail operator, this space could make commuting a convenient pleasure and generate a tidy stream of revenue to help fund transit.
The TTC doesn’t have the skills to maximize this opportunity and it shouldn’t waste effort trying to develop those competencies when it could more quickly and easily partner with existing businesses that do. It should negotiate a master retail license with a business partner that specializes in marketing and managing retail spaces. The people who manage shopping malls come to mind.
Mall owners specialize in understanding consumer behaviour and creating retail spaces enjoyable to shop in. They know how to put the right retailer in the right space to drive revenue – and how to dump or move underperforming shops when consumer interests change. Imagine what they could do with a captive market of millions of daily consumer visits.
It’s time to re-imagine spaces inside and around our transit stations, parking lots and other properties as prime retail space that sees millions of consumers per day walk through them. An imaginative company could turn the TTC and GO systems into a distributed “transit mall” that makes the lives of millions of commuters a little bit easier and a little bit brighter. At the same time, putting dollars into our transit system to keep it running. Taking transit doesn’t have to be just a chore.
Wouldn't it be nice.
The obstacle is that city councillors like Brad Bradford (who sits/sleeps on TTC committee) doesn't have the time, savvy or interest to do anything other than plan the next bike lane. This woke group of delusional do-gooders needs to be voted out and replaced with people who prioritise to everyone's benefit. If you read Bradford's 'newsletters' they are stuffed full of what community is celebrating a holy day and where he's been to pick up garbage and nothing about how to make the TTC a better service, more efficient or improve cashflow.
Having just got back from NYC, you could add 'tear apart and fix the Toronto taxi industry' on the list of things that need to be done here. Go to cities like NYC or London England, hire a taxi and be overwhelmed with the superior comfort, service and even safety.
Toronto has so much potential, but we need major turnover on council.