Liquidation World

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• JT: it was also good ol' Bargain ?HArolds before Bargain Shop.....not sure if someone mentioned that alread, if they did sorry LOL!

• John, that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard. It wasn't the employees that hoarded the spaces; it was all the new customers that would have shopped elsewhere. It was a huge success!! Then, the city became greedy and wrecked it like it does everything else.

• Long gone Sammy. When I was a child my father would buy me a hot chocolate at the Kresge's counter. Funny how one remembers silly little things like that. While growing up on Pelissier we had a place called Sentry's a few blocks away on Dougall and it had a cafeteria too. You could pretty well get whatever you needed at Sentrys too. I think Woolworths on Ouellette was the last holdout of that era. The business that is in the old Woolworths on Ottawa street is supposedly somehow descended from Woolworths by way of the Bargain Shop that was there before? Only complaint is it's messy in there. Someone needs to straighten up the shelves more often.

• David it was well documented at the time that the "free parking" experiment was a failure for the reasons mentioned. As Shawn said, and I will too...... you'll never admit it. So I'll leave it that.

• Let me ask you something. What do you think would happen if Devonshire Mall set up parking tolls and charged everyone $2 every time they entered the parking lot? Do you think the parking lot would stlll be filled with cars and the mall filled with people? Maybe everyone would take the bus to the mall... Or maybe they'd just take their cars to another shopping district with free parking.

• Oh, and as for documentation. It's biased by political views. Say I'm a politician and want to justify putting parking meters back up and there's a few consulting companies in town. I tell the consulting company I'll hire you over someone else if you show why we shouldn't have free parking and justify our parking tax. Guess what they come up with? Enough said.

• David, you're not seriously claiming the downtown free parking experiment a sucess are you? It was the most colossal failure in recent memory.

  When it comes to paying for parking on Ottawa street, you have to ask yourself what you time is worth. For the 50 cents I have to drop in a meter on Ottawa St. to go to Canada Salvage, it's a great deal. I never have to park farther away than I would at the mall or any other of the sprawl plazas. I can usually see my car while I shop it's that close.

  I can drive to Ottawa St. park, run inside and make my purchase at Canada Salvage, get back in my car and go home much quicker than I can drive out to Home Deport and park for free. I personally don't mind paying 25 or 50 cents to do so. My time to me is better served by making my purchase and getting back to my repair project. I can save 15-20 minutes off my trip by paying 50 cents at a meter. Sounds like a good trade to me.

  Last year I needed a few new tires for my car. I drove over to the Firestone at Ouellette and Gilles. In less than an hour from arrival I was in my car driving home with the job done, without an appointment.

  Maybe I could have saved $15 or $20 by going to Canadian Tire or Sprawl-Mart or Costco, but by the time I was drving home, I guarantee my car wouldn't have even been on a hoist at one of the other places. The fact is at the end of the day customer service and convienece is better at the independant shops, but most people would rather drive 20 minutes more to park for free to save a dollar.

• Show me the article and I'll pick it apart. Was this stated by the Ottawa Street Business Association? All I could find in an Internet search are old council minutes that said the Ottawa Street Business Association paid $1,200 for free parking for their sidewalk sale on June 24, 25, 26, 2004. http://www.citywindsor.ca/DisplayAttach.asp?AttachID=834

• Ah, Ottawa street. My parents used to go to a bar (Kojak's?) there and then head over to the Chinese (Lee's Villa) restaurant next door at closing time. I used to get awesome egg rolls for lunch on Saturdays. I think my first ever suit was from Brotherhood. I remember buying Wildcat shoes from Diane's I think it was called. Then there was that sports card store and the owner was such a prick. I went to Freed's for my Assumption uniforms. Canada Salvage had lots of neat gadgets. Crescent Lanes was small and cozy, but now gone. Mr. Shishkabob was awesome until they won the best Gyro award and tripled their prices. Lanspeary park was cheap ice in the winter. I see they have a roof now! The last time I remember going down to Ottawa street was when Pillsworth's was there. No wait, my first date with my wife was at Toni Macaroni's and that was the last time I was down there. I haven't even stepped foot in the new Windsor Market yet. Wow, I forget a lot of the old business' that were down there before. Good memories.

• Phan, great memories... The sports card store guy was a prick... I remember he moved to Techumseh Rd. and his new sotre had a fire... I believe that he was charged with arson in an insurace scam...

  His brother had a sports card store on Wyandotte St. and was much nicer...

  Head back down to Ottawa Street and check it out, take your wife out for dinner, there's no end to good places down there to eat to suit all tastes and budgets.

  Lee's is now closed however...