Alston & Co is a Toronto-based market research firm built for the independent operator. We help GTA businesses compete with the kind of data that used to be reserved for national chains and corporate strategy teams — packaged for the way real owners actually work.
Our analysts live in the neighborhoods we research. We know the difference between a Queen West retail block and a Mississauga power center, and our reports show it.
Alston & Co started because too many great local businesses across the GTA were making six-figure decisions on gut feel — new locations, new products, new hires — while national chains a block away were using expensive consulting reports and Nielsen data to do the same math with a spreadsheet.
We saw an opening: take the same disciplined research process used by Bay Street firms, strip out the bloat, and price it so an independent owner can actually afford it. Under a week. Under a thousand dollars. No jargon.
Today we work with retailers, hospitality operators, service professionals, and franchise buyers from Etobicoke to Scarborough to Vaughan — every report grounded in real neighborhood data, not national averages.
No 45-day discovery phases. No 12-person Zoom calls. Just answers you can act on.
A 20-minute call to understand your business, your market, and the decision you're weighing.
Our analysts pull demographic, competitor, and consumer-behavior data specific to your postal codes.
We turn the data into a plain-English narrative, competitor profiles, and a prioritized roadmap.
You get the PDF plus a walkthrough call. Ask questions. Push back. Then execute.
30 to 50+ pages of analysis. Industry context, competitor profiles, customer segmentation, and a growth roadmap you can actually execute.
Five business days, standard. Markets move faster than quarterly reports — and so do we.
GTA-first. We ignore national averages when neighborhood data tells a sharper story.
GTA real estate rewards the people who see the block before everyone else does. Our mission is to put that visibility in the hands of independent operators, investors, and small firms — not just the institutional buyers who already have research teams on staff.
Every report we ship is built to answer one question: what should you do next, and why?
Every report combines four data layers so the recommendation isn't guesswork.
Historical sales, days-on-market, price-per-sqft, and inventory trends pulled at the postal-code level.
Municipal building permits and rezoning applications to spot supply changes before they hit listings.
StatsCan and census data mapped against your catchment — income, household size, migration flow.
A proprietary score combining walkability, transit, retail mix, and school catchments for each pocket.
Reports delivered to GTA operators and investors.
Active clients across Toronto, Mississauga, Markham, and Vaughan.
Client satisfaction rating on delivered reports.
Alston & Co was founded by experienced real estate analysts with backgrounds in urban planning, data science, and investment banking. We've underwritten deals at institutional firms, built demand models for municipal planners, and run the numbers on hundreds of private acquisitions — and we bring that same rigor to every report a small operator commissions from us.
Storefront operators evaluating a new location, category expansion, or lease renewal.
Restaurants, cafés, and boutique hotels sizing up neighborhoods and pricing.
Clinics, studios, and firms competing for a specific catchment.
Prospective owners pressure-testing a territory before signing a franchise agreement.
Grab a free sample report or start a full one — under a week.