{"id":2860,"date":"2011-09-19T08:30:46","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T15:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=2860"},"modified":"2013-01-21T07:19:24","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T15:19:24","slug":"price-points-p2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/","title":{"rendered":"Price Points: P2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where is this?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s two parking levels under\u00a0the street\u00a0at 605 Expo Boulevard (map here<\/a>). \u00a0It’s under the downtown Costco, which in turn is under two more levels of parking, which\u00a0in turn is\u00a0under\u00a0the 900-unit Spectrum Towers – a part of the Concord Pacific development between the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts.\u00a0 Looks like a good set for some dystopian movie of an underground city – an updated THX 1138.\u00a0 \u00a0(Look it up.)<\/p>\n

But why is there an underground\u00a0parkade\u00a0at all?\u00a0 A typical Costco\u00a0is\u00a0in a\u00a0stripped-down big box off a suburban interchange, surrounded by acres of asphalt.\u00a0 Costco doesn’t do urban.<\/p>\n

Until here.\u00a0\u00a0This was the first, because\u00a0the company was determined to get a foothold in the City of Vancouver, and was prepared to build it in a mixed-use development, tucked below grade next to the Stadium SkyTrain station.\u00a0 And it would\u00a0charge to park there, even for its own customers!<\/p>\n

The City wasn’t going to entertain new free-standing big boxes, \u00a0nor could the land prices justify surface parking.\u00a0\u00a0 Negotiations, as I remember them, were amicable.\u00a0\u00a0Vancouver welcomed\u00a0a lower-priced alternative to the high-end grocery stores on the downtown peninsula, and Costco was willing to\u00a0try something different.<\/p>\n

You could say it was\u00a0in 2006<\/a> that the Big Box\u00a0was tamed – a precedent that was applied on the other side of the Cambie Bridge, where the slope between the two Canada Line stations is a\u00a0conga line of\u00a0 large-format retailers in mixed-use complexes.<\/p>\n

Here are some questions I’d love to have the answers to.<\/p>\n

How profitable is this store?\u00a0\u00a0 (Did it meet Costco’s expectations, and how does it compare\u00a0in revenue to the standard store?)<\/p>\n

Has Costco done this anywhere else – or is it\u00a0a one-off?<\/p>\n

And how do customers get there?\u00a0 Mythology would have it that people have to drive to a wholesaler.\u00a0 You can’t put 50 rolls of toilet paper in your paniers.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet the bike rack is full, people do buy in backpack quantities and clearly come by SkyTrain.\u00a0\u00a0I wonder what their modal split is – and whether it’s changing head office’s assumptions.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where is this? It’s two parking levels under\u00a0the street\u00a0at 605 Expo Boulevard (map here). \u00a0It’s under the downtown Costco, which in turn is under two more levels of parking, which\u00a0in turn is\u00a0under\u00a0the 900-unit Spectrum Towers – a part of the Concord Pacific development between the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts.\u00a0 Looks like a good set forContinue reading “Price Points: P2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11232],"tags":[299],"class_list":["post-2860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-price-points"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPrice Points: P2 - Spacing Vancouver<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Price Points: P2 - Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Where is this? It’s two parking levels under\u00a0the street\u00a0at 605 Expo Boulevard (map here). \u00a0It’s under the downtown Costco, which in turn is under two more levels of parking, which\u00a0in turn is\u00a0under\u00a0the 900-unit Spectrum Towers – a part of the Concord Pacific development between the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts.\u00a0 Looks like a good set forContinue reading "Price Points: P2"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-19T15:30:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T15:19:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/021.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gordon Price\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gordon Price\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/\",\"name\":\"Price Points: P2 - Spacing Vancouver\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/021.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-19T15:30:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T15:19:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/2ccd924eaf8e2cb7e72ac13004526550\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/021.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/021.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/19\/price-points-p2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Price Points: P2\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Vancouver\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Vancouver Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/2ccd924eaf8e2cb7e72ac13004526550\",\"name\":\"Gordon Price\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b36df5afca7a760172ea9cbe8e7222ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b36df5afca7a760172ea9cbe8e7222ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gordon Price\"},\"description\":\"Gordon Price is the Director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University. 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