Yu Ding

Over the last two decades, the food retail market in the Toronto CMA has been in a dynamic period of change and restructuring. This study, through a case of Metro Inc., attempts to reveal the corporate restructurings of the major food retailers and their spatial distribution in the Toronto CMA, in relation to the local demographic changes. An assessment of the food market conditions in the Toronto CMA shows that the food market has more sales capability compared with the province average, and the food market share of the central city has been shrinking, due to population suburbanization. The spatial distribution of the Metro supermarkets largely matches the population distribution in the Toronto CMA. Metro used a series of growth strategies from 2001 to 2009 to accomplish its expansion and market penetration in the CMA, including merger and acquisition, banner consolidation, and development of private label products. It has also been trying to enlarge its market share in the inner suburbs and the outer suburbs to exploit market potential and to avoid competition. As regard to future expansion directions, the inner suburbs have shown more sales potentials but less competition than the central city, especially Vaughan, Brampton and Richmond Hill. "