Lee valley new store opening

Drew Watson

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2,070
Location
Salt Spring Island, BC Canada
Just getting a little excited as the new store is opening tomorrow morning here in Victoria. :thumb: Visions of tools that I want dancing in my head.:rofl: Doing up my order and checking it twice. Finding out whats is notty and nice. Geee just like christmas.lol Now if the package from John would just get here so that I can start on the orgin.:rolleyes:
 
I have already shortened my list of things that I am getting tomorrow as I started adding things up and blew the budget right out of the water.:eek: So some thing are just going to have to wait till next pay day. :thumb: Some things that I want LV doesn't carry and i have to think about a road trip to Seattle to visit Woodcraft.
 
No worries Stu. I will say hi for you. I really don't see this as being a dangerous situation as I already have most things fom LV that I want or need at the current time. Now if a Wood craft store, CMT and a Lie Nielson store would open up here then that would be dangerous. I see this as a wake up call to lots of the big box stores and hardware suppliers. I already have seen the expected change in them as they are carrying more in the way of speciality tools that you would find in LV ( not to the same volume or quality though). and where there was a House Of Tools down the street there will soon be a KMS Tools store. E.Roko just opened up last yr and that has already taken business away from Richeleu as their pricing is as good if not better than what LV can offer on some of their products. It all comes down to shopping around and who wants the business as to what deals are going to be out there. Most people that I know who are into the gardening like the LV stuff but all say how expensive it is as compared to other local stores. I am sure that they are still going to do well here as there are lots of people who are like sheep that are more into having something with the LV logo on it. I see it at the costco all the time.People do "all" their shopping there for groceries. Where I have found that shopping around I get better pricing elsewhere on most of my groceries and i can't justify the cost of the membership for the small amount of things that are cheaper there ( I still have my memeber card so i can go in and look around and snack) . The same I am sure is going to be the case with LV. With the global economy going the way it has I feel that lots of people are going to be re thinking what they want and need. I know that I have.
 
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Ok so you said it doesn't happen if there are no pics. So here are some pics.( ok having trouble with the file size, hope this works). I was there in line at 8:30am Store opened at 9. Said Hi To Robin Lee from Stu. Had a nice little chat with him and some members of the Vancover island wood workers guild. Not busy to start but boy that changed real fast. Robin said that he had not expected the turn out that did happen. I was the 5th one served and glad that I was. When I left they were serving #73 and I overheard one person stating they had # 158 and there were still more people coming into the store. Just a little overwhelmed.
 

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Drew, next time I am in Victoria I will check it out. 10 minutes to the store would be great. We are not that far away from the store in Vancouver, but the wait times at the border are a killer. You just have to plan to get up early so that you can get back before the border lines get too bad.
 
Well I stopped by the new store on the way home for the two things I had forgotten to get earlier. When I was there first thing this morning I was the 5th one served with the counter reading 26 ( I think) at 4:45 when I stopped in I was 725:eek:. Big first day for the staff :thumb::thumb::thumb:. They said there was a 2hr wait at one time during the day. :eek:
 
This is awesome news. My wife was just saying that she wanted to take the girls some place fairly close by for a "mini" vacation this summer. Now I know just the place! There's no need to mention that I may have an ulterior motive in mind... ;)

Actually, the last time I visited Victoria was when I was in the 6th grade (1977). I assume that apart from the recent Lee Valley addition, there's a number of other attractions worth seeing too. All I can recall from that long ago visit was the Empress Hotel and a wax musuem.
 
Great news Drew, I'm glad that the people showed for the opening, were there some great deals to get people in the store?

Cheers!

It was a fantastic turn out. Rob said that it was the largest turn out for an opening that he had ever seen. They had some work benches end to end in the center of the store and they kept bringing out products ( at a greatly reduced prices) all day long. After my initial purchase I discovered a stack of books all for 5.00 and under. Yea I bought some, but didn't have to get a number. Thank goodness as at that time there was a 1 hr wait. Just up to the till and slipped into the checkout line up. I could have stayed there all day just checking out the sales stuff, but I had things to do. All and all the staff did a fantastic job.
 
This is awesome news. My wife was just saying that she wanted to take the girls some place fairly close by for a "mini" vacation this summer. Now I know just the place! There's no need to mention that I may have an ulterior motive in mind... ;)

Actually, the last time I visited Victoria was when I was in the 6th grade (1977). I assume that apart from the recent Lee Valley addition, there's a number of other attractions worth seeing too. All I can recall from that long ago visit was the Empress Hotel and a wax musuem.

Peter there are lots of other attractions here with some great beaches and parks here and up island. If you like golfing we have some fantastic courses. Great diving and great lakes. Oh and an new LV store that I am sure will be a winner. I told Rob that with everyone not being forced to go to Van for the shopping just means more money to spend in the store. He laughed.
 
..some place fairly close by for a "mini" vacation this summer. ...
Actually, the last time I visited Victoria was when I was in the 6th grade (1977). I assume that apart from the recent Lee Valley addition, there's a number of other attractions worth seeing too. All I can recall from that long ago visit was the Empress Hotel and a wax musuem.

'98 was the last time I was there... And like Drew said, there are many great places to visit. I was trying to talk my wife into moving there at the time, and she wasn't keen on it (the opposite direction of where family was located) and I couldn't find a job anyways...

Victoria is a great town to visit. I enjoyed how the downtown was right on that bay. There are used bookstores and antique stores to visit. There are parks on the water. You can go out on whale watching rides or other boat trips. You can take a dray trip north and catch the ferry over to Saltspring island and tour around it. Or going the other way north there are various interesting things north. I recall that there is one interior park with giant trees to visit... I think that was on the highway that crossed over to Port Alberni?

And thats' far enough OT. ;)
 
Peter there are lots of other attractions here with some great beaches and parks here and up island. If you like golfing we have some fantastic courses. Great diving and great lakes. Oh and an new LV store that I am sure will be a winner. I told Rob that with everyone not being forced to go to Van for the shopping just means more money to spend in the store. He laughed.

Peter, if you want to stay at a nice quiet romantic place, check out Sooke Harbor House just up the coast (west side) from Victoria (one of our favorite places). I will second the fact that Victoria is a great place. The golf and the museums are great and of course there is always Victoria Gardens.
 
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