My favorite wine store (at least for now) is the Wine Rack, which sells exclusively Canadian wine. It is in the Square One mall's basement (far away from the madding crowd) and has a pleasant, open entrance, where wine samples are displayed.
Many stores (to be precise, many "high end" stores) are closing down in the mall, which had recently billed itself as the "luxury" shopping center for Southern Ontario. Other smaller and more exclusive stores like the Wine Rack are also losing customers, who prefer to go to the smaller neighboring towns.
Part of the luxury wing's revenue was to have been Chinese "money" from Chinese agents and home buyers who were to have "landed" in Mississauga.
The money never materialized.
The other groups were US shoppers who were stop by in Square One on their tours around the region, including the famous wineries to which the Wine Rack caters, and residents of the neighboring towns. They never materialized either, at least in the numbers expected.
I asked the saleswomen what the problem was.
"We don't have the demographics" she answered.
This was a clever way of saying "We are too multicultural." Or more bluntly: "Mississauga is too poor."
And in the coded world of Canadianspeak, this means "we are not white enough." Which has more cultural than racial connotations. White Canadians, mostly of Anglo ancestry, are more likely to buy wines, and Canadian wines, than other cultural groups.
"People would come over to ask for Italian wines ." "Not French?" I asked, slightly facetiously. It seems not.
Ontario wineries produce some of the world's best wines in that slim area around the Niagara Escarpment. This is quite a feat! The region's enologists are constantly searching for ways to improve on the wines. What an insult to these dedicated scientists to discount their works.
She will lose her job as a the manager of the store. "I will be laid off at the end of April - third week. They gave me a nice package."
But who wants a "package?"
A few days later, I said to her : "Move to Barrie. They have a Wine Rack there."
Unlike her usual talkative reception, she didn't say anything as I paid for the exquisite Late Autumn Riesling by Inniskillin, the famous Ontario winery. It was on a promotion for "$2 off."
"See you next time," I waved goodbye.