Happy Goat Coffee is set to open sometime this year at Tunney's, Rideau, Hurdman and Blair. I suspect they will start setting up the kiosks this spring. 

Are you happy (no pun intended) with the choice of Happy Goat? Do you wish there was more variety along the line? Possibly more retailers, for example the empty space at Lyon's Podium entrance (or is that reserved for buskers)? How do you imagine the retail programming will expand post-Stage 2 and 3? At which stations along the O-Train network, existing and future, do you hope to see retail spots set-up? And how do you think the retailers will do in open stations, especially at Tunney's and possibly Hurdman, where I suspect the kiosk might be exposed to increment weather at times.

I had asked the city a week ago and here is the response I got, attributed to Pat Scrimgeour, Director, Transit Customer Systems and Planning.

"Since the announcement in September, the City of Ottawa and Happy Goat Coffee Company have been working together on the design and construction requirements for the four retail concessions at Tunney's Pasture, Rideau, Hurdman and Blair stations. Once more information is available, we will share it with customers, Council and the media."

So the opening I wouldn't say is soon but still to come in the near future. Last week I went by Tunney's and there is no activity at the future retail location.

On a sidenote, for Blair, Hurdman and Tunney's, the retail location is more obvious or easily recognized. For Rideau, I am not quite sure where it will be...

Any ideas?

Retail locations were outlined in a PDF the City had released last year:

https://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/documents/files/Lease_en_0.pdf

Rideau's Happy Goat will be on the Rideau Centre side of the concourse, between the elevator exit corridor and the art gallery corridor. 

We now know when to expect the Happy Goat kiosks at four Confederation Line Stations:

Happy Goat opening new café inside Centretown Staples co-working space

Happy Goat Coffee has opened a location inside Staples' newly renovated store at 403 Bank St. (Photo provided)

David Sali, OBJ
March 6, 2020

-SNIP-

In addition, the chain won a bid to operate kiosks at four stations – Blair, Hurdman, Rideau and Tunney’s Pasture – on the new Confederation LRT Line. It expects to open the first two outlets targeted at train riders by the middle of April, with the others expected to be ready for business by the end of May.

...

Now at 110 employees, Happy Goat expects to reach a headcount of 170 once the LRT kiosks are up and running at full capacity this summer. There’s a lot brewing at the chain’s headquarters on Laurel Street in Hintonburg, but Assad says he sees plenty of room for much more growth ahead. 

-SNIP-

https://obj.ca/article/happy-goat-opening-new-caf-e-inside-centretown-staples-co-working-space

That’s great news. Eager to see them open up. Hurdman and Tunney’s should be quite nice. The space at Rideau and especially Blair is more restricted so it will be interesting to see how flow around works out. 

I'm glad the City selected a local chain instead of an international brand like Tim Horton's or Starbucks. I do wonder how these kiosks will do in inclement weather (wind, rain, snow, ice storms), at least at Tunney's and Hurdman. Rideau and Blair could also be challenging due to temperature extremes (even if they are enclosed, the temperature can vary almost as drastically as the outdoors, maybe more - we shall see this summer). 

I'm not familiar enough with other systems to know for sure, but I don't believe variety is common anywhere else. I'm sure it's much easier to deal with one chain instead of multiple. The options for metro systems seem limited (dépanneur, coffee shop, newstand). 

I wish they could do something with the Podium entrance empty space; retail would be ideal, but I'd even appreciated benches, information displays or advertisement. 

No word yet on the retail plans for Stage 2, but I imagine the following station would be well served by such an addition: Trim (isolated), Place d'Orleans (major transfer station), Westboro (high ridership central station, a few blocks from retail main street), Lincoln Fields (major transfer station), Bayshore (already has Mac's?), Moodie (major transfer and isolated location) and Algonquin (major transfer and thousands of students coming in and out). Along Trillium, I would like to see something at Bayview, South Keys and Limebank (for those 12 minute transfers).

For Stage 2, I would like to see a little more variety (at least two different companies, one could be Happy Goat). 

 

8 minutes ago, Shane said:

That’s great news. Eager to see them open up. Hurdman and Tunney’s should be quite nice. The space at Rideau and especially Blair is more restricted so it will be interesting to see how flow around works out. 

That's a good point. Those lineups could intrude on the flow of hundreds of passengers getting off trains and buses all at once. 

The owner of Happy Goat Coffee was on CTV Morning Live. They expect to start construction on the Confederation Line kiosks within the next few days after a long delay due to Covid-19. 

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1975337&binId=1.1487308&playlistPageNum=1

Great news. Been hoping for an update on this for a while now. Glad things are still moving forward. 

The Transit Commission meeting this Wednesday has on the agenda Advertising in the Stations.... will be interesting to hear what becomes of that. Maybe an update on the retail as well.