MEC London Ontario - Opening Non-Update

Disregard the following stuff, because London MEC is open as of Dec 1, 2011. Thanks to Mike M who left me a comment letting me know. If you want to check it out, you can click here for my info on location.

Hey there. Just a quick note to all you people who are landing here looking for info on the Mountain Equipment Coop opening... I called MEC and they still don't have a hard opening date for the store. The signs say "Late November" but I got the feeling from the guy I talked to that it may be postponed a little.

Staff are on site and inventory is going in but that is all the detail I could get for now. For every scrap of information I've posted so far, you can click here.

Important unconfirmed non-update update: Anonymous has commented that "the buzz is Sunday, Dec 4th". As of Dec 1, MEC is open! Thanks to Mike M in the comments for the heads-up.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

London Ontario MEC: Signs of Life

Since I continue to see a surprising number of people visiting this blog thanks to having googled after info on MEC here in my home town, I feel that an update is warranted.

I've been swinging by the as of yet unopened Mountain Equipment Co-op store here in London Ontario once in a while to see what, if anything, was up. After several weeks during which all was quiet on the MEC front (storefront, that is), there are now signs of life. Very green window coverings are proclaiming that the store will open in Late November. Knowing how such things sometimes go, I'm not holding my breath.

As you can see, there's some signage and they've plastered over the scars from the previous store's signs up top. Those green things have been there for at least a week, but this time when I swung by, there were contractors on-site. I stopped short of taking their picture through the window because I figured they might find that a little weird, haul me inside and question me under the glare of a trouble lamp and with threat of nail gun. Maybe I should have though, because if they chose to speak to me I could have at least thanked them for removing that ominous demising wall.

For every single scrap of London MEC info or oddness that I have posted so far, click here.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Lack of London Ontario MEC News Creates WTF Moment

I swung by the retail units that will be occupied by Mountain Equipment Co-op last week to see how things were coming along. There wasn't much to see, really. No signage, no fixtures, just some empty cement-floored retail space.

Being a very nosy individual, I stuck my nose up to the glass and saw that the wall between the two units had been removed, so I guess that's good. Disappointed that there wasn't much to see, I turned my attention to the building permit posted on the glass. Upon doing so, a word I had never seen before caught my attention. Apparently the wall that had been removed was a "demising" wall:

I don't know about you, but a demising wall sounded like bad news to me. Of course, "demising wall" has a nice innocuous, almost boring meaning:

A wall used jointly by two parties under easement agreement, erected upon a line dividing two parcels of land, each of which is a separate real estate entity; a common wall.

The tenants of 4A and 4B put up a demising wall to divide their previously contiguous apartment.

source: urban dictionary

Unfortunately, the seeds of a WTF attack had been sown the instant I read that page. I mean, what would a demise-ing wall look like? Could people really live with one?

Rantwick visits Mom and Dad in their new condo.

No wonder detached dwellings cost more.

R A N T W I C K

London Ontario's Mountain Equipment Co-op: Location and Jobs

While perusing my web stats, I noticed that quite a few people who landed on my recent post about MEC were looking for the store's planned location. It is in "Wellington Commons", which means, in localese, "near the PetSmart and Pizza Hut down on Wellington near Exeter". Being a slightly Obsessive and Curious sort, that much info wasn't cutting it for me. So I called up MEC and they were kind enough to give me the exact location, which information I transformed into the handy map below:

Since I am a member of the mec co-op, I also received an email from them about hiring people for the store:

MEC is looking for a Store Manager, Team Leaders, and Front-line Staff for our new London location. Know some excellent people for these roles?

As a member and part owner of MEC, you have a say in how the business operates. If you know someone (why not you?) that would love to surround themselves with good people and great outdoor gear, encourage them to apply today.

The way I see it, if you live in London Ontario and are reading this blog, you are "excellent people". If you, in addition, would love to surround yourself with good people (and who except anthrophobes wouldn't?) and great outdoor gear (and who except hylophobes wouldn't?) I am hereby encouraging you to apply today by providing this link to MEC's current job opportunities. When I followed the link myself (being the Curious type mentioned above), I was greeted with this:

New Bike? Wah? Needless to say, this image interested me beyond easing my mind about where the missing half of the woman from my email's face had gone. It turns out that MEC offers its Full and Part-Time employees (sorry, no joy casual workers) "Interest-free computer, bike, or boat loans". My mental image of new employees being issued new bikes was dashed. Still pretty cool though, if you ask me.

Well, that's it. Hopefully I can now move on to addressing something else, like my self-diagnosed Porphyrophobia. I know I have this fear, because one time about fifteen years ago Mrs. Rantwick was awakened by me banging around in our bedroom closet, sleep walking. She turned on the light and apparently there I was in the closet with a wire hanger in my hand. When discovered thus, I said "this will help in the battle against Oprah." Pretty weird, I know. True story though, and it obviously means I once suffered from porphyrophobia and probably still do, right? Right.

Diagnosis: Pal.

R A N T W I C K

PS - Don't go down to that planned MEC location and expect to find anything. I've been by and there's no sign of activity at all yet.

Good News Bad News - Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) Coming to London Ontario

The good news: I am very happy. MEC is opening a store here in London Ontario. Mountain Equipment Co-op is a store very much like REI in the United States. I just read a snippet about it in the London Free Press here. Some of the comments about the article questioned why MEC would open here since we have a very good outfitters called Novack's downtown. I like Novack's too, but they don't do bikes. Which leads to the bad news...

I fear that the wide variety and lower prices on bicycle accessories offered by MEC could be bad news for my favourite local bike shops. Quality isn't always as high, but they do sell some good brands like Planet Bike that are harder to find in Canada, and their cheap house brands of cycling clothing are pretty popular too. I have no idea how much of a lbs's profits come from clothing and accessories like fenders, racks, lights, etc. but this can't be good. MEC expanded into selling bicycles as well a couple of years ago which is also troubling.

I'm torn. Selfish me is happy. Unselfish me is a little worried for the local shops. Time will tell, I guess.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - Thanks to lots of people ending up on this looking for London MEC info, I have collected everything I have written or learned about it here.