Edmonton's #1 Magazine Store to Reopen

[jon]

The 102 year old HUB Cigar Store is set to re-open in mid-May, after a four month closure. They claimed the title of largest selection of magazines in Edmonton from Mike's Newstand, when Mike's closed at least 20 years ago now.

[jon]

Edmonton icon Hub Cigar will reopen this month
By Lewis Kelly, edmontonjournal.com
May 1, 2012 1:02 PM

EDMONTON - New ownership at Hub Cigar and Newsstand will reignite a century-old venture on May 12 with a soft launch preparatory to a grand opening sometime afterwards.

“We’ll be open one way or the other on May 12, working the bugs out of it, but the official opening will be a little bit later,” said Hal Roseberg, one of the new owners.

The iconic Old Strathcona business, which first opened in 1910, moved to a new location after it burned to the ground in 2005. Ken Knowles owned Hub for 44 years and sold it to Roseberg along with Hub employees Steven Cleall and Don Kung in 2007.

Cleall bought Kung and Roseberg out of the business in 2009, but sold to Roseberg and a new group of owners this year. Cleall suffered from health problems that made running the business difficult, and the business locked its doors for several months earlier this year.

“I was trying to sell the business for Steven Cleall, and I had no bites on it,” said Roseberg. “Whoever was interested seemed to have fallen by the wayside. I just sort of felt bad. I don’t know why, but I felt some responsibility. I didn’t want Hub to become another distant Edmonton memory.”

Roseberg feels the magazine business will remain viable for five to 10 years, despite the increasing role of digital technology in media consumption of all kinds.

“I think there’s still a market for printed media. If you’re in the bathtub, you don’t want to have your laptop sitting on your chest,” he said. “I think anybody that’s over 30, probably, still likes to have some magazines coming around.”

The date of the grand opening depends on when shipments of new publications and cigars arrive. Roseberg plans to continue Hub’s strategy of stocking esoteric and difficult-to-find publications and update the store with framed art on the walls and tables for customers near the front of the store.

“Hub’s got a pretty dedicated clientele,” he said. “I just thought, you know, it’s worth giving it one more go before I’m satisfied it’s not going to work.”
lkelly@edmontonjournal.com
Twitter.com/LewisHKelly
ref. - http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business ... story.html

[PMC]

The 102 year old HUB Cigar Store is set to re-open in mid-May, after a four month closure. They claimed the title of largest selection of magazines in Edmonton from Mike's Newstand, when Mike's closed at least 20 years ago now.

Anybody know if Billy's News continues in Calgary. Was a great place for major city papers, european magazines...

Do they hide tobacco sales in Alberta... here in B.C. they make the retailer hide everything that relates to tobacco... I am assuming someone believes out of sight is out of mind. I wandered into a store in Victoria that once was considered the place for good cigars & pipe tobbacco, and none of it could be open for viewing, but in the glass case in front of me, were 30 different knives that I could carry if truely paranoid

[jon]

The 102 year old HUB Cigar Store is set to re-open in mid-May, after a four month closure. They claimed the title of largest selection of magazines in Edmonton from Mike's Newstand, when Mike's closed at least 20 years ago now.

Anybody know if Billy's News continues in Calgary. Was a great place for major city papers, european magazines...

Do they hide tobacco sales in Alberta... here in B.C. they make the retailer hide everything that relates to tobacco... I am assuming someone believes out of sight is out of mind. I wandered into a store in Victoria that once was considered the place for good cigars & pipe tobbacco, and none of it could be open for viewing, but in the glass case in front of me, were 30 different knives that I could carry if truely paranoid

No, tobacco is in plain sight here in Alberta.

What Alberta did do about 5 years ago is tighten up on drug and/or grocery stores selling tobacco. They were still allowed to, but the restrictions were strong enough that it made more business sense to just not carry it. At least for London Drugs and Save-On Foods.

[PMC]

London Drugs sells tobacco here, but hides the same behind cabinate doors. All the retailers hide it, the small places using a curtain.

I would expect a drug store to sell nicotine in any form, from patch to leaf... but then LD sells many things.

Here under B.C. goverment support, the nicotine patch can be had free if someone wants to quit.

[isthisthingon]

Do they hide tobacco sales in Alberta... here in B.C. they make the retailer hide everything that relates to tobacco... I am assuming someone believes out of sight is out of mind. I wandered into a store in Victoria that once was considered the place for good cigars & pipe tobbacco, and none of it could be open for viewing, but in the glass case in front of me, were 30 different knives that I could carry if truely paranoid [/quote]



[color=#4000FF]No, tobacco is in plain sight here in Alberta. What Alberta did do about 5 years ago is tighten up on drug and/or grocery stores selling tobacco. They were still allowed to, but the restrictions were strong enough that it made more business sense to just not carry it. At least for London Drugs and Save-On Foods.[/quote][/color]

That answer is the epitome of inaccuracy. In Alberta, convenience stores must cover up their tobacco products with rolling cabinet doors or similar devices. Stores that sell prescriptions within their main business area (grocery stores, drug stores, club stores, some department stores etc) cannot sell tobacco products. The laws of hypocrisy finally caught up with them.

And that's apparently that! All the important areas of radio have now been covered: burger chains, magazine stores, tobacco sales and US television ratings.