Want that familiar smell of old stuff but in a shiny new space? Well you are in luck, a new Value Village in the former Bedford Commons Future Shop has a grand opening on Thursday!

OK I was wrong it seems the Indigo is NOT going in the redeveloped Target part of Mic Mac Mall. However previously mentioned Winners will be moving in that area, and sending the HomeSense to Dartmouth Crossing where Future shop was and entering the Atlantic market for the first time is France based sports retailer Decathalon will be opening in fall of 2020



Christmas Discounters has opened their seasonal stores in Amherst, Bridgewater and Truro and they will be opening soon in Cole Harbour by the WalMart (instead of Bayers Lake this year)

The Holiday Inn Express is now open in Burnside on John Savage near the sports fields

There is a store with a self explanatory name called Discount Appliances now open in part of what used to be the Mitsubishi dealer at 230 Wyse Rd

The Treats in Bayers Road Professional Centre is closed , just seemed abandoned like they walked away,

The Bedford Commons location of Bouclair is closing this weekend.

The Barrington St location of Uncommon Grounds has been sold and is currently being renovated into “something new”. The original South Park location and seasonal Public Gardens to remain Uncommon Grounds

Build-A-Block a store specializing in LEGO retail and hosting party events has shuttered its doors in Lower Sackville in statement on Facebook they said “Until I can figure out what the long term plans are, I will be operating as an online store with local pick-up and delivery and I will look at the options for offering mobile birthday parties and events. Please bear with me in this time of transition”

If you are looking for the Quinpool location of Bi-One , you don’t need to look very far they have just moved directly across the street from their original location.

Atomic Cafe on Quinpool closed this week.

The small coffee shop was owned by Brian and Karen Larter and set up inside Pro Skates at 6451 Quinpool Rd. at the beginning of summer 2018.

“A combination of factors this summer created a small perfect storm for us,” Brian Larter explained as the reason for closing the business.

Larter said it was in part a lack of experience in the coffee trade. For example, they had invested in what they thought were eco-conscious cups and lids, which were not allowed in the compost stream and paid an unnecessary premium for “green washed” marketing.

“Combine mistakes like this with an incredibly poor summer due to construction on Quinpool, which brought our sales down 30 per cent, it was just a tough decision for me and my wife to make,” he said.

“Combine this with a three-year-old in daycare part-time I just couldn’t commit more of my personal time to the business. We couldn’t risk our family going further in debt and the need for our staff to move on (completely unrelated) it was just the right time to make a change for us.”

I then asked Larter what they had learned from the experience.

“We learned an incredible amount of the coffee world locally and globally. We really wanted to bring a moral and ethical option to Halifax when it came to coffee and we feel we succeeded at that. We feel our coffee choices were right and we had some pretty good coffee going between Anchored and Bows and Arrows,” he said, adding, “We learned a lot about construction and how it can just pop up with little to no notice and you just need to accept that that’s how the city works. Communication between the city and the businesses in it drastically needs to improve.”

Though not everything is bleak for the entrepreneur, he emphatically stated: “We will be back. Going to take a year, wait to see the little guy is in school and I can devote more time to the idea. I am not sure what incarnation we will create, but we will be back.”

In the meantime, he will concentrate on some other businesses, like focusing on the plans for the return of ice pops bicycle Glory Pops next summer, which he owns with Jacqui Keseluk.

Larter is also a part owner of Click Productions which offers an array of photography, graphic design and social media management, and Click Booth, a travelling event photo booth. He will also be launching a new business with his wife called Rituall, which Larter describes as “An esoteric spin on self care and bath products.”