Canadian Retail Thread - Page 146

ccw219 · #**2901** Posted **Sep 24, 2013, 5:44 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Downtown malls stink in medium-sized cities. You need a critical mass of office workers + residents as well as a large enough attraction. Why on earth would suburbanites want to travel to a downtown mall and pay to park if only getting access to the same store assortment as they have at the nearby suburban mall with free parking?

While a critical mass of office workers and residents have their effect, I'm not sure that this is entirely true. Regina and Saskatoon for example have their most vibrant shopping centres downtown. Each city may be too unique for this type of generalization. For example, Edmonton's downtown retail would probably look entirely different without West Edmonton Mall. Robson Street takes much of this role in Vancouver due to a unique climate.

City management and property management seem to be the most important factors.

eternallyme · #**2902** Posted **Sep 24, 2013, 1:35 PM**

http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterlo...dollar-stores/

That was the source of the article I found on cheap-level retail in the US. It suggested that they could have 40,000 dollar stores from the major companies alone (cannibalizing each other). If converted to Canada, that would be about 4,000.

SteelTown · #**2903** Posted **Sep 24, 2013, 1:40 PM**

Calvin McDonald, CEO and President of Sears Canada is resigning. He did a great job turning around Sears.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/41...a-ceo-resigns/

kwoldtimer · #**2904** Posted **Sep 24, 2013, 2:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Calvin McDonald, CEO and President of Sears Canada is resigning. He did a great job turning around Sears.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/41...a-ceo-resigns/

Wonder how many millions he'll walk away with.....

SpongeG · #**2905** Posted **Sep 24, 2013, 4:35 PM**

Vancouver has a lot of dollar stores - only two chains are true dollar stores dollar tree and dollarama - most of the others sell crap priced well beyond a dollar such as $49 items - they put dollar in the name but its just all junk

isaidso · #**2906** Posted **Sep 24, 2013, 5:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Calvin McDonald, CEO and President of Sears Canada is resigning. He did a great job turning around Sears.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/41...a-ceo-resigns/

By turning around you mean from a success to a complete mess? Wish I could be paid millions to ruin big companies. He must be laughing all the way to the bank.

isaidso · #**2907** Posted **Sep 24, 2013, 5:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by vid

Thunder Bay has 6 or 7 Dollaramas now, the two that are set to open in a few weeks are occupying spaces that have been vacant for 5 or 6 years. One is part of the revitalization of a dead mall, the other is in a lower income part of downtown. It's a pretty useful store once you get past that fact that it's owned by Bain Capital.

Dollarama is actually one of this country's most valuable retailers. It has a market cap approaching $6 billion.

SteelTown · #**2908** Posted **Sep 24, 2013, 5:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by isaidso

By turning around you mean from a success to a complete mess? Wish I could be paid millions to ruin big companies. He must be laughing all the way to the bank.

The Sears in Hamilton got a complete makeover and apparently the model will go nationally.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/22...rs-thumbs-up-/

Ramako · #**2909** Posted **Sep 27, 2013, 3:05 PM**

Big news everyone... Tim Horton's is coming to CityPlace! It's all coming together now.

SteelTown · #**2910** Posted **Sep 27, 2013, 3:07 PM**

Yesterday I noticed a redbox was installed at a Tim Hortons. Think it was get a coffee and free movie.

eternallyme · #**2911** Posted **Sep 27, 2013, 9:18 PM**

The smaller cities seem to get little mention, but I wonder what will happen to the retail scene in them? In greatest question is malls - including dominant ones - in the mid-sized cities (say, from 100,000 to 500,000). I know the Retail-Insider site has had little in the way of news from the mid-sized cities.

It appears unlikely they will go upscale themselves (even in the US, they have shied away from even the mid-sized cities from my view) or will they wither on the vine, since the middle seems to be weakening and collapsing?

miketoronto · #**2912** Posted **Oct 2, 2013, 12:49 AM**

Kingsmills in downtown London, Ontario is up for sale. It is one of the last family run department stores in the country. It has been in business and operated by the same family for 148 years. Sadly the current member of the family who is running the store wants to retire.

The store is said to still do good business even as downtown London continues to stuggle in the retail department. Kingsmills actually expanded their store a few years ago and is well known for their furniture and home section.

kevinbottawa · #**2913** Posted **Oct 2, 2013, 7:26 AM**

Here are some updated renderings of the Rideau Centre expansion in Ottawa.

There's also a video.

• Video Link

isaidso · #**2914** Posted **Oct 2, 2013, 8:32 PM**

That's much better than what's there now.

LeftCoaster · #**2915** Posted **Oct 3, 2013, 7:21 PM**

The parking lot? Yeah I should hope so.

Those can't be that updated since they still say Howell's. Howell's is the in-place name for what is now going to be a flagship Simons

jay2018 · #**2916** Posted **Oct 3, 2013, 7:28 PM**

While i am happy about the Rideau Central upgrades but with Bayshore under going major expanson plus Landsdown which will have 300,000 sq feet of retail and the new outlet mall were talking about tons of new retail spaces that concerns me a bit.

waterloowarrior · #**2917** Posted **Oct 3, 2013, 10:21 PM**

Giant Tiger up for sale
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...ticle14685324/

MP Scott Reid is the son of the founder Gordon Reid

kwoldtimer · #**2918** Posted **Oct 4, 2013, 12:42 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Giant Tiger up for sale
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...ticle14685324/

MP Scott Reid is the son of the founder Gordon Reid

I did not know that. For some reason I had always thought that Giant Tiger was a franco-Ontarian owned chain. Learned something new today.

SpongeG · #**2919** Posted **Oct 4, 2013, 4:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by eternallyme

The smaller cities seem to get little mention, but I wonder what will happen to the retail scene in them? In greatest question is malls - including dominant ones - in the mid-sized cities (say, from 100,000 to 500,000). I know the Retail-Insider site has had little in the way of news from the mid-sized cities.

It appears unlikely they will go upscale themselves (even in the US, they have shied away from even the mid-sized cities from my view) or will they wither on the vine, since the middle seems to be weakening and collapsing?

Ft St John in NE BC, population of about 20,000 or so is getting a Winners and another big box store in their mall - the mall once housed safeway and zellers as anchors in the 80's, i don't know when zellers shut down but it was split into a number of stores, staples, dollarama and a big sports store and the safeway moved out of the mall and opened next door and the old spot became a multiplex theatre - the winners and i think its a petsmart, are being added onto the mall next to the staples

the rest of the mall is just typical small town stuff

Taeolas · #**2920** Posted **Oct 4, 2013, 6:37 PM**

Woodstock, New Brunswick (town of around 5000 people, but more or less the service-hub for the Saint John River between Grand Falls and Fredericton), tried to build a downtown mall in the 90's, with office space upstairs. It never took off, and now it's pure office space, with the Service NB (Licensing offices) in the retail space now.

It's main mall, Carleton Mall, is anchored originally with a Sobeys at one end and the Met (followed by SAAN) at the other end, and some smaller stores in the middle, including Shoppers Drug Mart and Canadian Tire as a satilite store.

It did well for a long time, but now it's looking really rough. Canadian Tire built a new store slightly further away (store is still too small for what they serve but that's another issue), and Sobeys expanded into the area the old Canadian Tire was, pulling Shoppers with it. Then the Met and SAAN closed up.

Now the mall has a biggish Sobeys and Shoppers at one end, each with effectively outside entrances only (Shoppers is basically in the old space of Sobeys, technically they have inside entrances but it's more of a glassed in patio than a mall hallway), and the Brick has taken over much of SAAN's old space, but with only an outside entrance. The inside section is all but dead now, especially since KFC has moved out (to a new restaurant in a minimall/gas station hub at the highway). CIBC is basically the only tenet of note left in there, and I wouldn't be surprised if they're looking to either take over the middle or build new. (They're the only CIBC branch in the town and they've been there for 30+ years now; all of the other banks and the Credit Union have changed locations at least once over the same time)