The corner grocery store stands as a venerable urban landmark in cities across North
America yet the history of these businesses is often absent from the stories of our cities.
The neighbourhood of Grandview in Vancouver, Canada’s east side was, at varying
points in time, the site of many corner grocery stores. While some research has been
conducted on Grandview’s main street (Commercial Drive), a thorough investigation into
the corner grocery stores of “back-street” Grandview is needed. This paper attempts to
map out the neighbourhood’s old corner grocery stores and seeks to reveal the multiple
layers of history that lie beneath each building. To do so, the paper discusses the
changing pattern of grocery retailing in Vancouver from small independent corner stores
to large ‘modern’ supermarkets to argue that the demise of the corner grocery is a result
of these shifting consumer patterns. By investigating the history of these often-neglected
businesses, this paper argues that we can begin to see the changing shifts in
demographics that characterize Grandview today.Arts, Faculty ofGeography, Department ofUnreviewedUndergraduat