Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 46

GROCERY DISRUPTION

VAN STOLK
TAKES RETAIL
TO THE LAST
FRONTIER
PETER van Stolk manages to speak
Speaker at RCC's upcoming
softly and loudly at the same time.
His voice is soft, measured, al- STORE 2017 warns grocers to
most monkish. But the message he reimagine the grocery shopping
has for grocers comes through loud experience to keep customers
and clear: You can't play by the old
coming back.
rules if you want to survive in the
new grocery market.
BY ROBERT PRICE
"If you judge the future based on
the past," he says, "it's going to be whacked."
van Stolk popped onto the scene in 1987 as owner of Jones Soda, a beverage company as famous for its marketing as it is for its beverages. Today, van Stolk runs Spud.ca, a grocer specializing in home delivery, and Be
Fresh acres and Organic Acres, the brick and mortar elements of van Stolk's
spudly urban strategy-an essential component of the strategy since, as van
Stolk explains, "the retail store won't go away."
The physical store won't go away, but it will change profoundly as a new
set of consumers with different needs and values come to outnumber older,
more traditional consumers. These new consumers have different ideas
about how they treat the environment, use their time, and feed themselves.
They live different lives, too, especially in urban centres where condo living
determines a lot about how Canadians shop.
"We have to look at how we fit into their lives, not how they fit into ours,"
van Stolk says, because when it comes to shopping, customers care about
what's good for them.
In the grocery sector, the change will be digital, the same as with every
sector, van Stolk says. Grocers need to prepare for the blight-and huge opportunity-that will come.
"No question about it," he says. "A change is coming and it's coming fast.
The last frontier is grocery."

46 |

CANADIAN RETAILER

| THE FOOD & GROCERY ISSUE


http://www.Spud.ca

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017

Publisher’s Desk
Retail Currents
Under the Banner
Retail: At Issue
The Finalists Are
Launching Strellson's North American Expansion
Entering the Great White North
Food for Thought for Canadian Grocers
A Real Mouthful
Curating the Grocery Experience
Breaking the Chain
Van Stolk Takes Retail to the Last Frontier
Advertiser’s Index
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - intro
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - cover1
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - cover2
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 3
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Publisher’s Desk
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 5
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Retail Currents
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 7
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 8
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Under the Banner
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Retail: At Issue
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 11
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 12
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 13
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - The Finalists Are
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 15
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Launching Strellson's North American Expansion
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 17
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 18
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 19
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Entering the Great White North
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 21
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 22
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 23
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Food for Thought for Canadian Grocers
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 25
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 26
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 27
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - A Real Mouthful
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 29
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 30
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 31
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Curating the Grocery Experience
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 33
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 34
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 35
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 36
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 37
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 38
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 39
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Breaking the Chain
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 41
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 42
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 43
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 44
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 45
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Van Stolk Takes Retail to the Last Frontier
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 47
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 48
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - 49
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - Advertiser’s Index
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - cover3
Canadian Retailer - Spring 2017 - cover4
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