The doors are now open in Vancouver’s bustling Olympic Village.
This morning at 9 am, London Drugs will celebrate two important milestones, opening its 76th store in Canada and a particularly special address – 1622 Salt Street, Vancouver’s Olympic Village.
“Today is the day we open a new London Drugs store in one of the most beautiful city spaces in the world,” said Wynne Powell, London Drugs president and CEO. “Our 76th store is unique in a variety of ways, particularly its boutique feel and new store concept, customized specifically for the Olympic Village community. We thank the residents here for being patient and for collaborating in the success of our new store in this vibrant Vancouver neighbourhood.”
During the past year London Drugs staff began canvasing the Olympic Village, looking at the residential suites and learning about what products and services would best serve the burgeoning seaside community.
“We met with residents and we learned about what kind of appliance selections made sense; we became acutely aware of the variety of foods and household storage requirements, smart technological solutions and the community’s broad health and wellness needs,” said Powell.
“Today London Drugs opens its doors to become part of the increasingly vibrant community at The Village,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “The new store complements the existing retail mix, adds more convenience for local residents and improves walkability in this unique neighbourhood.”
The Olympic Village London Drugs is smaller in size than a typical London Drugs at 17,200 sq.ft., still containing the majority of departments of a standard London Drugs location. The main entrance into the cosmetics department is entirely new for a London Drugs store, followed by an open and integrated technological and electronics area. There is a full-service photolab, a pharmacy with a private consultation room and all of the high-quality household and food items customers expect to find at London Drugs.
“As a Vancouverite, seeing the growth of London Drugs from the corner of Granville and Georgia, where my mom would buy her hairspray, to its growth and opening today at the Village, it’s somehow very right that London Drugs should be that last missing link to the Village community,” said Bob Rennie, Principal, Rennie Marketing Systems.
BC-based and family owned and operated, London Drugs’ first store opened in Vancouver on Main Street in 1945. Since then, the company has enjoyed steady expansion with stores reaching as far east as Winnipeg.
At today’s opening day celebration, London Drugs COO Clint Mahlman announced that the Olympic Village store would achieve 95% waste diversion from landfills – three years ahead of a 2015 target.
London Drugs is a pioneer in waste diversion. The company has recycled more than 147,000 pounds of Styrofoam since 2007; the only retailer in Canada with a company-wide Styrofoam recycling program. Additional statistics include more than 99,000 pounds of plastic recycled each year, 9.9 million pounds of cardboard recycled and the list goes on.
“To date, we have diverted more than 42 million pounds of waste from going to landfills,” said Clint Mahlman, London Drugs COO and senior vice president. “It is thanks to the hard work of our staff and our recycling partners that we have achieved this success, and we are not done yet.”
The Olympic Village store grand opening also unveiled a new recycling program in partnership with recycler and upcycler, Terracycle and vendor partners Garnier and Nestlé. London Drugs will be the first major retailer in Canada to introduce recycling collection boxes at all of its stores for all beauty packaging and chocolate wrappers. The program encourages consumers to drop off their used beauty packaging and chocolate wrappers at collection boxes in London Drugs stores throughout British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. For every piece of used packaging received, $0.02 will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society. TerraCycle will recycle the waste into items like park benches and waste bins.
Earlier this year, the Retail Council of Canada awarded London Drugs the national 2012 Excellence in Retail Award for Corporate and Social Responsibility recognizing the company’s dedication to waste reduction.
“London Drugs’ commitment to its customers is the backbone of investing in programs that make a difference in the communities we serve,” added Mahlman.
The new Olympic Village London Drugs store will host grand opening festivities Friday August 31st and Saturday September 1st welcoming visitors to a “Party in the Plaza” with the London Drugs community trailer, a fun “Styrocycle”, entertainment and more.
