There are lots of questions about two new retail buildings under construction in Kelowna. One is at the Orchard Park Shopping Centre site in the main parking lot where the restaurant chain Milestone’s is building a completely redesigned food and beverage experience. The motivation behind the new brand direction is to provide a hip and contemporary setting, yet bring a warm friendly feeling to the new location.

Up the street there is action at the Central Park Power Shopping Centre as a new store is being built right behind the Best Western Inn as part of the Canadian retail chain Golf Town. It is Canada’s largest golf retailer with over forty stores across the country. The new superstore is part of the continued expansion. More stores are planned for across Canada. Golf Town was founded in 1999 with average size stores of 18 to 20 thousand square feet of space. You can buy, learn and improve your golf game right on location...

The lady who lives and breathes sustainability, Joanne de Vries
has her second Breakfast of Champions scheduled for Tuesday, November 25th at the Habitat, 248 Leon Avenue at 7am. Cost is $35 plus GST. Call 250-766-1777. There is a full line up of presenters...

Why is it when you mention Celine Dion’s name so many Canadians turn up their noses? Are they nuts? This woman, more than anyone else in the business, is a superstar. Her record sales in Las Vegas were outstanding for four years. I never had one person come back from Las Vegas that saw the show ever say anything bad about it. Now she is on a world tour and the Canadian portion of the tour is just SRO. In Edmonton the other night there were 16,800 in the audience. She has sold over 200 million albums in her career...

What will happen next at The Conservatory building site in Kelowna’s Glenmore Valley? It is all in the court's hands now but one thing that is very important is that the building has to be wrapped for the winter weather or there is going to be some major damage down to the finished work inside the building. The courts will make a decision and you would have to think that the builder Vic Van Isle Construction would be the best bet to save the situation if they are interested. A special report on the value of the property today has come down and that will determine whether this project can be sold or become a rental property in the future. The gardens have to be considered as well for the future if some of the original depositors remain in position...

With the loonie all over the place after an all time high of $1.10 just a year ago, retailers just were not sure what the Christmas season would bring this time out. The world market place certainly has some problems that affect all of us. Prices on some items are going to be the best ever. Marina Strauss in her column in the Globe and Mail quoted the president of the Retail Council of Canada Diane Brisbois. “In this type of economic climate, retailers know that it would be very difficult to raise prices to at least pick up some of the losses. That will have an effect on retail margins no questions about it.” Lower fuel prices are going to help because it changes the mood of the shoppers so everything isn’t always negative. . .

Out just a few weeks and already the government is talking changes in the Do-Not-Call List. At last count there were well over three million on the list already. Now they are talking about opening it up to some more political parties who would be allowed to call. I can’t believe this legislation is so difficult. What did the Americans do to make this work so easily? The new opening could be to fringe political parties who want your vote. At the present time you can expect calls from registered political parties, charities, polling companies, businesses with products or services you inquired about in the past six months and businesses you have had a relationship with in the last eighteen months. I certainly have heard from readers about all these exceptions. The CRTC also wants a solution to this three-year life to the registration. The commission is also trying to balance employment issues (call centres) and the rights of sellers. Who have I left out that can’t call anymore? No one...

The additions to the Wal-Mart stores in the Interior will take place in 2009. Of course the rumour last year was that work would start on the addition to the Kelowna store in September. There are construction problems for everyone these days. With the opening of the Supercentre across the lake being so successful it means a further change in the grocery industry in this country and the consumer is the winner in the end. The retailer now has thirty-nine Supercentres in Canada and will have 59 by the
end of 2009. It certainly is making it interesting. Just look at the positive changes made by the Overwaitea Group with their Save-On-Foods store in the Mission. Norson Construction did a beautiful job on the remodel of the store...

Let's talk about voting in the Civic election and what kind of choices you are going to make. Because of the huge line-up of candidates for the council positions you have got to do some homework. First and foremost realize that you do not have to vote for eight just because there are eight positions to be filled. I very rarely vote for the full slate because there are just not the numbers I would feel comfortable with operating our billion dollar industry.

Some of those people on that list are scary and I don’t want them messing with my city. Read as much as you can and ask questions as these can be very difficult choices. Be cautious and make your votes count for the right reasons, not just because there was a space to fill. Be careful, it’s all about our future.