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Deadpool

It's Deadpool for Great Canadian News

Posted by Tim / December 30, 2008

23 Comments

Great Canadian NewsWalking by the corner of Queen and Spadina today I was shocked to see the Great Canadian News has abandoned ship. The popular magazine store had been at this spot forever and was my go to hangout when waiting for the Queen streetcar that never comes.

Peering inside the front door all I could see were some empty shelves. The whole place has been cleared out - and the sign is gone. I can only think that its destiny has YARCSOQ (yet another retail chain store on Queen) written all over it.

Anyone know what happened here? When or why this location of the Great Canadian News closed its doors?

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23 Comments

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Rajio / December 30, 2008 at 10:12 pm
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I guess it was a misnomer then.
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Internet reader / December 30, 2008 at 10:23 pm
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The market for purchasing two-week-old "news" at $5.99 per issue (disclaimer: issue contains mostly ads) is drying up.

For some reason, people prefer to pay nothing for their 10-minute-old news via the internet.

Who knew?
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steph / December 30, 2008 at 10:27 pm
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oh goodie, more room for starbucks
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sniderscion / December 30, 2008 at 10:45 pm
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Great Canadian News *IS* a retail chain store. Individual locations are mostly (possibly all) franchised. It already was a YARCSOQ; and will probably be replaced by another YARCSOQ.
Another Deadpool entrant which seems really odd is the Cinnabon location in the Toronto Life centre-it had a Bailiffs notice on it tonight when I went past. Didn't have time to grab a shot unfortunately.
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sniderscion / December 30, 2008 at 10:47 pm
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In retrospect I see you ask why "this location" closed down which means I misread it the first time and thought you didn't realise it was a chain. My apologies
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kayp / December 30, 2008 at 10:48 pm
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I was walking down Queen st yesterday and they were packing up all their stuff. They were moving out everything..guess you caught em a day too late.
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dyee276750 / December 30, 2008 at 11:16 pm
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I confess I went there regularly on my lunch break to kill time or get out from the cold and i would flip through the expensive brit music or lad mags and read the articles i wanted to read but would never consider paying more than the $12-15 for them. I probably wasn't the only one that did this and the place was never busy. Then again, even more sadder is that another faceless chain store will open up there.
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jamesmallon / December 30, 2008 at 11:38 pm
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I can't think of a reason to be on Queen to notice... What a used up location.
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bonbon / December 31, 2008 at 01:26 am
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Appears that Cinnabon hadn't been paying their rent to the tune of $144,000 (re:the baliff's notice), which would explain their disappearance.

As for another retail store on Queen -- here's a thought to make the literature scene on Queen a bit more brighter. Pages has rent issues? Doesn't the city own the market down the street? Currently home to empty food stalls? Why not turn the place into a city co-op, and let Pages be the anchor tenant.
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kit / December 31, 2008 at 02:34 am
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Been there forever?

When did you move to the city...8 years ago?
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Dave / December 31, 2008 at 08:32 am
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I asked the store owner and he said his lease was up...in other words the landlord increased the rent an exorbitant amount?
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Ryan L. replying to a comment from dyee276750 / December 31, 2008 at 08:37 am
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Great Canadian News <b>IS</b> a faceless retail chain. I've seen <i>dozens</i> of these around the city.
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Heather / December 31, 2008 at 08:40 am
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There's been some pretty significant turn over on that stretch of Queen this past year.

I'm still mourning the passing of Stem.
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boozzzer / December 31, 2008 at 08:56 am
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...forever? Smart furniture was in that location FOREVER. The horseshoe has been there forever, not this magazine shack.
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bxm / December 31, 2008 at 09:16 am
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re: Cinnabon in Toronto Life Square.

I've also noticed that Koryo went out of business in the food court, and I wouldn't be surprised if more fail in the near future.

Has anyone noticed that at lunch time the 3rd floor food court seems packed with people (mostly Ryerson students), but there's almost never a line more than a couple people at any given restaurant? It seems that it's a popular hang-out place and people stay there for quite a while (a given for a lot of places popular with students), but don't order much food.

And the basement is also pretty empty at most times.
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steph / December 31, 2008 at 09:41 am
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any noticed that SOMA Lounge has also joined the pool, it was a queen and Broadview. It too has a bailiff note i hear.
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Shaun Smith / December 31, 2008 at 10:51 am
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Probably more Queen West landlord greed. It's the new business strategy of putting your tenants out of business.
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Hamish Grant / December 31, 2008 at 12:12 pm
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Well, the GCN shop was there since at least the mid 1990's - I lived at that intersection during that time and I remember the day it opened. So yeah, at least 10-14 years at that location. Not bad, really, for a franchise. Remember that 10-14 year is like, more half the entire life of many of the readers of this site.
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John / December 31, 2008 at 01:38 pm
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Tear down a wall and expand the Horseshoe. Everyone wins.
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AK / December 31, 2008 at 03:18 pm
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Another one to go down in the area is the Frescos at King and Spadina, with their not-so-appetizing-looking prepared meals. Didn't even last 6 months!
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skeets / January 4, 2009 at 08:46 pm
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that space used to be pool tables and the kitchen of the horseshoe. remember? souvlaki one dollar!
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jen / January 5, 2009 at 10:48 am
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It's hard to lament the passing of this store when there are several other places to get magazines along that strip (back of Lettieri, Pages, Chapters etc.). I have lived and worked in the area for 5+ years and can count the number of times I went in on one hand. I subscribe to any magazines I'm regularly interested in anyway...WAY cheaper. With the internet I'm surprised that any magazine store can stay in business...I figured it was the snack foods where they made the real money.

Lots of empty storefronts on both Queen and King these days...
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Me / January 7, 2009 at 03:43 pm
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No biggie. If you're buying print on Queen, support Pages!
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