The Quebec-based grocery-store chain will spend about $15 million on the new 100,000-square-foot Montreal location in an effort to fill online orders more efficiently. It will absorb orders currently filled at three Montreal hub stores, which also serve regular customers, starting summer 2021. (The Globe and Mail)

Talking point: The pandemic has created a meteoric rise in online shopping adoption and demand from consumers. In its latest quarter, Metro, which operates hundreds of food and pharmacy stores mostly in Quebec and Ontario, saw online food sales grow 160 per cent year over year. Last week, Canada’s largest grocer, Loblaw, reported a bump of 175 per cent. That growth prompted heightened investment in online services. Metro CEO Eric La Flèche said, “We think we’ll be in good shape to serve the growing demand more efficiently than we are today with our hub store model in the city of Montreal, where there’s more demand.” He also said Metro will likely build such a facility in Toronto in 2022.