Specialty Retailer

More than a year after winning the chance to open one of Ontario's first cannabis stores through a provincial lottery, Lisa Bigioni has walked away from her Niagara Falls pot shop.The store had become like a second home and it was painful to leave, but Bigioni wanted to make good on a deal she signed with a large cannabis brand that helped get her shop up and running under the tight deadlines set by the province.“(Choom Holdings Inc.) offered a whole bunch of expertise that I needed after the lottery, but then in exchange for that, they said, 'we'd like to buy your store when the time is right.' The time came and there was a great deal on the table, so here we are,” said Bigioni, who sold to the Vancouver-based company in April for $2 million in cash and $2 million in common shares.She's using the proceeds to open her own Stok'd cannabis store chain.The Alcohol and Gaming Corporation of Ontario, which oversees cannabis retailers, couldn't say how many of the first lottery store winners are still associated with the shops they opened, but The Canadian Press has counted several that have changed hands _ and experts say more are likely to follow.Such sales are being replicated by several of Bigioni's 24 fellow lottery victors from round one, who were not allowed to sell their stores until last December, and 42 from a subsequent lottery.Fire and Flower (which recently co-located two stores with Circle K) has already scooped up two stores in Kingston and Ottawa, High Tide landed two in Sudbury and Hamilton and Canopy Growth Corp.

At 181, Nova Scotia’s Frieze and Roy is celebrated as Canada’s oldest general store Everybody in the community of Maitland, NS, roughly 90 kilometres from Halifax, knows that you can get potato chips, lottery tickets, and even maple syrup at Frieze and Roy.

New rules restricting the sale of most flavoured vape products have come into effect in Ontario.The rules mean most of the products can now only be sold at specialty vape and cannabis retail stores, which serve customers 19 and older.Products with menthol, mint and tobacco flavours are exempt from the new regulations, which came into effect July 1.READ: Ontario agrees to delay enforcement of new vaping rules The regulations also mean vapour products with nicotine levels higher than 20 milligrams will be limited to specialty stores.Those shops will also no longer be allowed to have indoor displays that are visible from outside.Health Minister Christine Elliott unveiled the long-anticipated package of measures in February after expressing concern for months about youth vaping.The measures banned the promotion of vaping products in convenience stores and gas stations earlier this year.

The Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing says the number of workers Ontario breweries employ has tripled in the last decade.

C-stores across the province are preparing for new amendments to the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, which brings with it more restrictive rules for operators when it comes to the sale of vaping products.The following regulations come into effect July 1, 2020: The sale of flavoured vapour products will be restricted to specialty vape stores and licensed cannabis retail stores.

Small businesses are hoping for promised rent relief from both landlords and government as the COVID-19-related shutdown drags on and their bills pile up.The urgency comes as some landlords have already started issuing eviction notices for businesses that didn't pay April rent, while those who were able to pay are stressed about the months to come."We don't want to be closed, we're forced to be closed...but we're still every single day racking up costs,'' said Barb Bushe, who co-owns The Point of Light gift shop in Newmarket, Ont.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday his government is working on on a program to help businesses and commercial landlords cover their rents for at least three months.

Ontario's Ministry of Health is hitting pause on a series of new vaping regulations that were to come into effect on May 1.The implementation of the new regulations, which have far-reaching effects on the convenience sector, will now be delayed until July 1, giving all parties time to make adjustments while also dealing with the business impacts of COVID-19.“We commend the Ontario government for listening to our concerns regarding the May 1st deadline to remove vaping products from our stores which was not feasible or in the public interest,” says Anne Kothawala, president & CEO of the Convenience Industry Council of Canada.

Major commercial landlords in Canada are offering rent deferrals to tenants as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to close their stores.RioCan, Choice Properties, and CT real estate investments trusts all said last week that they were working with tenants who need support because of the financial challenges brought on by the outbreak.Loblaw landlord Choice Properties REIT said it would grant 60-day rent deferrals on a case-by-case basis for “qualifying'' small businesses and independent tenants.“We understand and acknowledge the extraordinary financial pressures on parts of our tenant base, especially on independent and smaller businesses,'' said Choice chairman Galen Weston in a statement.Choice REIT, which holds 6.1 million square metres (65.8 million square feet) of leasable space across 726 properties, says it has also withdrawn its 2020 outlook because of the uncertainty around the duration and impacts of the pandemic, but that it is well-positioned to weather the volatility because of its high proportion of necessity-based retailers.RioCan, which has about 3.6 million square metres of leasable space over 220 properties, said it was offering an automatic 60-day interest-free rent deferral for independent commercial tenants who have asked for relief, to be paid back over a year.“We are committed to supporting all of our stakeholders through this difficult time,'' the company said in a release.Canadian Tire landlord CT REIT said it was “committed to working with those of our tenants who need our support,'' but did not give specifics on its relief plans.The company said tenants representing about 6.2% of its annual base rent are currently not open or operating, and that tenants representing about 2.8% of annual base rent didn't pay their full rent on April 1.CT REIT, which holds 2.5 million square metres over 350 properties, says that tenants representing a further 33.5% of its annual base rent are operating on a limited basis, including 132 Canadian Tire stores that are now only serving customers through curbside pickup or online.The deferral options come after the retail segment of commercial real estate saw a huge drop in April payments after many stores and restaurants were forced to close.Payments range significantly between real estate companies, but CBRE vice chairman Paul Morassutti said that anecdotally he's hearing from large mall owners that only about 15 to 30% of retail tenants paid rent for April.“When you sell stuff, or when you sell food or cut hair or whatever, if nobody's allowed to go out, you know, it's devastating.''He said the scale of the issue meant that almost all landlords had given some sort of rent deferral.“I think every landlord in Canada, with the exception of maybe a bunch of small ones, are showing flexibility, because they have to, they have no choice.''The rent issue on the commercial side was largely on the retail sector, with office, industrial and even multi-family holding up relatively well, he said.Rent payments could be a bigger issue in May with a full month of business disruption on top of the half-month of March, but government programs should also have rolled out by then to give some cushion, said Morassutti.Government programs could help soften the blow, but the key issue is how long the outbreak and the forced business closures to fight it drag on.“I would think most restaurant owners would tell you they've got about a month or two of cash flow to get them through a crisis, many of them not even that much.