Long Branch is a neighbourhood located in south Etobicoke, Toronto. The area has been through some challenges, with nearby big box stores on the Queensway wiping out a lot of the smaller shops located on Lakeshore Road. Plus the transition from manufacturing to gentrification has also created a neighbourhood in transition.
Business clusters are interconnected businesses which operate in a complimentary fashion to one another. Walking around the neighbourhood, you notice some interesting business clusters which seem to be surviving by working around the typical big-box offering. What follows is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek look at what Long Branch has to offer from that perspective.
One cluster of businesses has been what I call the motorcycle-tattoo-leather area, right around the local Tim Hortons. The centrepiece of this cluster used to be a Harley shop called Wildside Motorcycles, which unfortunately moved in 2013. Typical clients in this cluster are tattooed bikers, either riding in on their hogs or (if they live closer) walking their Rottweilers and stopping off for their double-double at Tim Horton’s. It will be interesting to see if this cluster survives, though, with Wildside Motorcycles moving out. Other businesses which complimented Wildside was the Great Canadian Tattoo Company and Terez Custom Leather. Optimistically, those businesses will continue to keep their clientèle, but I can see that removing Wildside may catalyze their closure, much like letting the air out of a balloon.
Another cluster is what I will gently dub the “beauty hair salon cluster” which is simply because of the insane number of beauty parlours, hair salons, nail care and some spin-off businesses which include beauty supply stores and the like. There is a hair styling school near Kipling-Lakeshore, and as you go further west, there is no lack of hair salons to choose from (see map). This is because labour, in the form of student hairstylists, is cheap and that gluts the market. To be fair, further east near south Mimico has an even greater concentration.
This all sounds painful, there are signs that things are looking up. A is Starbucks moving in two blocks from my house. Now, when I get caffeinated, I am pretty equal-opportunity in that I’ll go nearly anywhere. However, I’m sure there is a “Starbucks Indicator” that says something about neighbourhood gentrification based on if a Starbucks is present or not. So say what you will about Starabucks, but if they are willing to hang their shingle in Long Branch, then that’s a vote of confidence.
Clusters I wish we had? My wish list is for something more interesting to go in beside the Home Hardware, that is to say, something else with a DIY aesthetic, like a Maker Space. Maybe even some kind of French-language cluster of daycares and book shops.
