St. Albert residents no doubt noticed the attractive “wayfinding” signs recently erected by the city. Long overdue, as visitors to St. Albert who aren’t accustomed to the preponderance of street names and lack of numbers likely have at least a little bit of difficulty getting around.
Those darn St. Albert trolls have surfaced, however. Particularly on social media, it seems the critics feel the city has committed some sort of cardinal sin by including certain business names on the wayfinding signs. Prominent among them are the Enjoy Centre, featuring Hole’s Greenhouse, and Apex Casino.
The inference made is ridiculous. There’s nothing wrong with major attractions that happen to be businesses appearing on wayfinding signs. Hole’s Greenhouse is an attraction to gardeners and yard enthusiasts not just from the capital region, but from across the province, and plenty of communities would love to have a business like this bringing in visitors. Same goes for Apex, which is a destination in and of itself, plus the facility has a meeting room that many organizations make use of for important events that visitors may be attending.
It’s not setting any kind of precedent either. There are West Edmonton Mall signs posted all over Edmonton directing visitors to “for-profit” businesses, so St. Albert is not doing anything out of the ordinary. It benefits the community when St. Albert’s important attractions, including major businesses, are promoted and not hidden.
Not on Target?
Target’s entrance to Canada, including St. Albert, didn’t go exactly as the large American corporation planned. It’s a shame too, because St. Albert Centre is better with a store like Target.
Earning the ire of consumers not just here but across the country for lack of stock and higher prices than Target stores south of the border, the chain has been putting in extra effort to win customers back by promising more products, better selection and, as widely discussed this week, lower prices. Lower than Walmart, even. That’s excellent for all consumers in the community.
Target, located in St. Albert Centre shopping mall, is a major anchor for the shopping centre that’s been part of the city for decades. The mall needs popular, healthy anchors to draw customers who also shop at secondary stores in the mall. The mall competes not only against other major retailers such as Walmart and Costco, but against big box stores and shopping centres in Edmonton.
Target could and should be a major draw for the mall, making it an even more interesting and vibrant place to shop and keeping our shoppers here in St. Albert instead of spending their money in Edmonton.
