We’ve often thought that one of the greatest “city-killers” is a political and bureaucratic situation where regulations curtailed entrepreneurial growth. In the food-service industry, often these regulations were justifiably focused on food safety issues. But the world has changed. Toronto, the world’s most ethnically diverse city, has finally found another way to embrace and celebrate the best of its diverse population—mobile food trucks. In the spring, the city loosened its strict rules on food trucks that previously hindered the growth in this industry.

Run by entrepreneurial chefs that are in different locations on different days, food trucks offer a wonderful array of tasty and imaginative food. Clean standards are guaranteed by their more formal prep-kitchens situated in industrial buildings. The fee is steep at $5,000 per year and trucks must be parked 50 metres away from established restaurants—or rent from parking lots. Nevertheless, a food truck offers a budding chef a relatively low start-up cost and a chance to test a concept before investing into a brick and mortar restaurant. And, with the advancement of social media, mobile apps and the internet, these entrepreneurs now have the necessary tools to reach and interact with a greater number of consumers (even without having a permanent location). Mobile apps such as Toronto Street Food App and Toronto Food Truck App provide location information, photos, news and events for Toronto’s food trucks. Many independent food trucks have their own website and active Facebook and Twitter pages.

Whatever the pros and cons, downtown workers and residents of Toronto enjoy this delight for the eyes, taste buds—and wallet!

Resident of Toronto or visiting soon? Be sure to check out Toronto’s Food Truck Alley, inspired by Hamilton’s Food Truck Alley—created for food truck lovers by food truck owners. They are open every week, Wednesday to Friday, located at the corner of Queen Street East and Jarvis Street. Here are a few vendors that you may have the pleasure of running into.

The Feisty Jack – British comfort food. They plan to open their first brick and mortar location soon

Steel Cut Coffee – premium espressos, tea and baked goods

Curbside Deliciousness – gourmet homestyle cuisine

Real Estate & Community Master Planning

Your vision for a thriving business is integral to any economic infrastructure; your customers are at the centre of all planning and decisions. Creating a clear and concise roadmap that factors every facet of the customers’ experience is crucial for success. Your plan must consider vendors, tenants, landlords, developers, government agencies, and other facilities that your retail space will benefit or affect. Your collaboration with the JCWG team will ensure a detailed master plan that includes clear objectives supported by extensive research that considers every component of your business community.

Resources and Techniques:

Retail demand calculations
Trade area analysis
Market gaps and opportunities
Zoning and space requirements
Retail supply audits
Trade area psychographics and demographics
Pedestrian and traffic counts

Expert Witness & Advisory Services

There are many moving parts in a customer-centric business, and you may encounter legal setbacks and disputes at any stage of your business journey. Your collaboration with the JCWG team will provide you with expert reports and testimony in trials and hearings while advising legal counsel to ensure that you have the necessary resources required to manage and support litigation impacting every aspect of your case.

Resources and Techniques:

Discovery
Expert report preparation
Trial testimony
Business strategy review
Determination of damages

Concept Development & Space Planning

Concept Development services include background research, branding, right-sizing, capital budgeting all the way to detail design. JCWG can work from an idea or join a design process to enlighten, validate and support implementation. A vacant property can also be best filled from a concept development exercise.

It may be your idea, our research results, or both. Once a potential retail concept is identified is needs to be developed and validated. The JCWG team has the capacity to develop the concept characteristics from aesthetic & functional planning, design standards, location requirements, capital requirement and validation through demand, trade area and benchmarking analysis.

Resources and Techniques:

Functional planning and programming
Concept design and development of design standards
Detailed design services including base building requirements
Marketing plan and strategy execution
Management and staffing selection
Tenant mix and product curation
Short term and long term KPI definition and monitoring
Operational audits
Expertise sourcing and partnering
Site selection, design development and project enduring, operations human resources, start up inventories, and capital costing
Physical programming and concept design

Branding & Marketing

Winning brand equity must happen on so many platforms in today’s retail world with a consistent message and quantifiable return. JCWG understands comprehensive internal and external brand messaging that identifies the uniqueness and market advantage of a retail busines. Your collaboration with the JCWG team will strengthen your marketing strategy to build stronger connections with your audience through your brand.

Resources and Techniques:

Brand assessments
Unique selling proposition, noble purpose, and differentiation authentication
Brand and marketing implementation
Communications plans
Insightful transition to row market share from research
Customer feedback and product evaluation

Research & Insights

The amount of data available to customer-centric businesses can be overwhelming. Understanding the metrics’ influence on strategy is imperative to success. An experienced eye can save a lot of time and misguided investment to provide relevant and actionable insights.

The JCWG project team collaborative approach provides access to unparalleled experience to mine and capitalize on.

Resources and Techniques:

Custom market studies and benchmarking
Market sounding and listening
Case studies
Global resources through our International partners, The Ebeltoft Group
Demand assessment and market share analysis
Daytime population data, tracking, and analyzing where consumers are and when
Quantitative consumer data gathering, both published and unpublished, from various external sources and our personal database gathered from industry projects
Qualitative data gathering and insights
Interviews (consumer and executive), focus groups, online surveys, and social listening
Employee and customer motivational metrics
Research validation and interpretation to insights

Retail Strategy

JCWG supports retail-related businesses with a proprietary approach that is based on a strategic model developed through nearly 50 years of experience guiding clients. Retail strategy must translate vision into a plan which addresses the client’s resources to implement. JCWG focuses on delivering strategies with vision and is supported by a ‘nuts and bolts’ approach to operationalizing. JCWG applies strategic thinking processes and market research to develop or revitalize your strategy.

Resources and Techniques:

Definition and prioritization of client goals, needs and wants
Thought starter and results oriented workshops to enhance planning team input and integration of JCWG research and expertise
Current situation snapshot, trade area analysis, market gap, and competitive audits (physical and digital)
Tenant and product curation, clustering, and right sizing
Tailored processes to match client cultural, operational, and financial needs
Productivity metrics and comparisons
Active, fun, and energized learning, sharing, and strategizing experiences
Financial modelling incorporating research findings
Risk analysis and mitigation
Threat and opportunity analysis
Omnichannel platform harmonization
Stakeholder and financing approval support

Vibrant Cities Celebrate the Unusual

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