Canadian Retail Thread

[Coldrsx]

If true, absolutely MASSIVE for downtown Edmonton.


stacey brotzel ‏@staceybrotzel
#VisaGetReady RT YEG RETAIL NEWS! @ChuckClubine @TrikonGroup tells @ctvedmonton Macy's will move to WEM, Nordstrom eyeing up arena district

[DAVEinEDMONTON]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

If true, absolutely MASSIVE for downtown Edmonton.


stacey brotzel ‏@staceybrotzel
#VisaGetReady RT YEG RETAIL NEWS! @ChuckClubine @TrikonGroup tells @ctvedmonton Macy's will move to WEM, Nordstrom eyeing up arena district

I mentioned before that they Greyhound space in the arena district would be a great location for Nordstroms.

And if the Macy's rumor at WEM has any truth to it I would imagine it to be in the new area south of the waterpark that is going to be built...

[Coldrsx]

or Sears...

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Quite the opposite. Canadians are known for being doormats in the retail industry and we pay a heavy price at the cash register due to our cultural tendency to accept what ever people feed us. It's well known that there's a 'Canada premium'. We're charged more right off the bat because they know we'll just suck it up and hand over our cash.

i'm just thinking of comments on facebook, people complain about target excessively and say walmart is so much better, yet walmart canada sucks compared to the states, same goes for costco but people don't whine, i just can't understand the hate on for target in canada, people saying they want zellers back. And again target can only offer in canada what is available to them such as the vizio brand which only recently came on the market in canada. People whined about not getting the same pop selection at target canada as target USA. well if the brand isn't in canada such as sierra mist or vanilla coke etc. of course they won't be carrying it, they can onlyget what the suppliers have and there is a crap load of pop for instance not marketed or for the canadian market, people need to go to coca-cola and pepsi and hwine not about the store unable to carry them.

i agree we do get the shaft in selection and competitive pricing but often thats not the stores fault, brands and such have rights in countries and stores etc. for example bond fragrances used to be at holt renfrew in vancouver, they pulled out of that store and now the bay downtown is the only place to get it. Byredo pulled out of holt renfrew vancouver and the only place to carry it in vancouver now is want apothecary on south granville. That way these premium brands can get away with charging what they want since they don't allow competition between stores and that kind of market the prices are set anyway like apple products.

a lot of stores have improved their prices in canada, west elm, pottery bran, crate and barrel, target, williams sonoma, gap, old navy, anthropologie to name a few all have very fair pricing, at least in the cross border shopping i have done comparing prices. The states however does have much better sale prices on clearance stuff probably because they have more stock left over down there

stores that are bad are hollister, abercrombie & fitch, michaels, there prices are quite a big difference, espeically when the dollar was at par.

plus there are still tarrifs and duties on most things which have to be passed onto the consumer. I mentioned it before but only last year did the tarif on hockey equipment get reduced if not dropped, it came in at a time to protect canadian companies manufacturing hockey stuff but that all shut down and went south and they had nothing to protect up here in canada anymore.

but with the dollar below 90 cents these days and foreseeable future price differences are justifiable. I have noticed starbucks is pretty quick to go with the exhange rate, mugs when the dollar was higher in canada were basically priced 6.50 US $6.95 canada, now its like 6.50 us $7.95 canada

anyway i guess it stems from comments in general on facebook, people are still bitching about target and the poppy issue that was never an issue at all. cabelas in edmonton is going through the poppy fiasco now. people are calling for a cabelas boycott on misinformation

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

a lot of stores have improved their prices in canada, west elm, pottery bran, crate and barrel, target, williams sonoma, gap, old navy, anthropologie to name a few all have very fair pricing, at least in the cross border shopping i have done comparing prices. The states however does have much better sale prices on clearance stuff probably because they have more stock left over down there

stores that are bad are hollister, abercrombie & fitch, michaels, there prices are quite a big difference, espeically when the dollar was at par.

plus there are still tarrifs and duties on most things which have to be passed onto the consumer. I mentioned it before but only last year did the tarif on hockey equipment get reduced if not dropped, it came in at a time to protect canadian companies manufacturing hockey stuff but that all shut down and went south and they had nothing to protect up here in canada anymore.

but with the dollar below 90 cents these days and foreseeable future price differences are justifiable. I have noticed starbucks is pretty quick to go with the exhange rate, mugs when the dollar was higher in canada were basically priced 6.50 US $6.95 canada, now its like 6.50 us $7.95 canada

Target's bigger problem in Canada has been its inventory management. There have been a lot of stories of empty shelves in its stores, and I've seen it in my local Target too.

From my understanding, inventory at Target Canada is centrally controlled, with little or no input from local managers. One manifestation of this was seen in Windsor where head office decided their Target would carry Toronto Maple Leafs merchandise but not Detroit Red Wings merchandise - someone in their Mississauga head office with little knowledge of hockey or the world outside the GTA probably looked at a map and said, "hey, they're in Ontario, they must be all Leafs fans too".

Those inventory issues, I think, are much bigger problems than small pricing differences from Walmart. From my personal experience shopping at Target, their prices are pretty much in line with Walmart, and still much lower than some locally-owned shops selling the same products. One example: I picked up a board game at Target for $25 a couple weeks ago; it was the same price at Walmart, and that was $12 less than at a locally-owned games shop.

[softee]

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but Japanese retailer Muji is opening a store near Yonge and Dundas next month.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

i'm just thinking of comments on facebook, people complain about target excessively and say walmart is so much better, yet walmart canada sucks compared to the states, same goes for costco but people don't whine, i just can't understand the hate on for target in canada, people saying they want zellers back.

The reaction doesn't match the problem so there's something else at play. People are sick of being gouged at the cash register. People want the same treatment as Americans and Target represented the latest test of whether a US retailer would add a 'Canada premium'. When they charged significantly more for the same products, Target became everyone's punching bag. People's pent up anger at being fleeced year after year boiled over.

The excuse that the cost of doing business is higher doesn't square with the price gap no matter how profusely they try to convince us of that. We are being gouged and our Canadian politeness has now worn thin to the breaking point. This does matter. What's the point of increasing our standard of living if you just give those gains back at the cash register? Our politeness is costing us 5% or more of GDP every year. That's $90 billion+. This is a very big deal.

The reaction to Target is overblown, but precisely the type of rage that saw British consumers force retailers to lower prices. Now it's our turn. Retailers can either do better or get sent packing.

[caltrane74]

Eaton Centre Renovation

By me

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by isaidso

The reaction doesn't match the problem so there's something else at play. People are sick of being gouged at the cash register. People want the same treatment as Americans and Target represented the latest test of whether a US retailer would add a 'Canada premium'. When they charged significantly more for the same products, Target became everyone's punching bag. People's pent up anger at being fleeced year after year boiled over.

The excuse that the cost of doing business is higher doesn't square with the price gap no matter how profusely they try to convince us of that. We are being gouged and our Canadian politeness has now worn thin to the breaking point. This does matter. What's the point of increasing our standard of living if you just give those gains back at the cash register? Our politeness is costing us 5% or more of GDP every year. That's $90 billion+. This is a very big deal.

The reaction to Target is overblown, but precisely the type of rage that saw British consumers force retailers to lower prices. Now it's our turn. Retailers can either do better or get sent packing.

As I have some limited experience in retail sales, I can shed a small amount of light on why retailers sometimes charge more in Canada.

In some cases, the goods that are being sold in the United States have no wholesale distributor in Canada. That means that Canadian retailers are forced to import directly from the U.S. manufacturer, which charges massive shipping rates to Canada (typically a flat rate whether you're in Windsor or Iqaluit), and of course duties are charged. If I as a Canadian retailer sold said product at the same price as my American counterparts, I'd be losing money. If I'm a smaller business, I don't have the power to negotiate lower shipping rates, and if the manufacturer is smaller, they may not have the power to negotiate lower shipping rates with their carrier. My company sells one such product for $130 that we would probably be selling for $100 CAD if we were US-based, for those reasons alone.

My point is, retailers aren't always at fault. While duties and import tariffs are part of the problem, U.S. manufacturers and U.S. shipping companies are part of the problem. The product itself is the same price regardless of the location, but they will charge far more to ship from New York to Toronto than they will to ship from New York to San Diego.

[Nouvellecosse]

^ Agreed 100%. I really don't know why we would rely on retailers to be the great equalizers of regional marketplaces. Retailers buy products at wholesale prices from the manufacturers and distributors and sell them at a markup after providing a service to consumers in the form of distributing the products, providing information, and vouching for product quality. They're basically just brokers for consumer goods who work on commission. But the overall pricing for the products is based on what the wholesalers charge to provide the products or the shippers charge to distribute it rather than on retailer markup.

The pricing (in a properly managed company) will always be at the peak of a Bell Curve, where the y (vertical) axis represents the total profit, and the x (horizontal) axis represents the profit per unit. If the profit per unit gets too high, the sales volume will plunge due to the cost being too much for consumer to be willing or able to afford or due to a competitor selling at a lower cost. So overall profit would drop despite the high profit per sale. If the profit per unit is too low, there may be high sales but obviously the revenue is going toward expenses rather than profit. If the peak of the curve is a zero or negative number on either axis the product or service is likely to be abandoned. There are occasions where subsidizing one product will increase overall profits because of the effect on other products, or where short term subsidy acts as an investment toward future profitability, but that is the exception rather than the rule. And this rule applies universally as long as there is competition. Different rules would apply of course if there is a monopoly or illegal collusion.

So in other words, if an American retailer decided to charge more than it needed to, a competitor would under cut it and people would simply buy at the cheaper store.

There comes a time when we must accept that different countries with different economies will have... differences.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by isaidso

The reaction doesn't match the problem so there's something else at play. People are sick of being gouged at the cash register. People want the same treatment as Americans and Target represented the latest test of whether a US retailer would add a 'Canada premium'. When they charged significantly more for the same products, Target became everyone's punching bag. People's pent up anger at being fleeced year after year boiled over.

The excuse that the cost of doing business is higher doesn't square with the price gap no matter how profusely they try to convince us of that. We are being gouged and our Canadian politeness has now worn thin to the breaking point. This does matter. What's the point of increasing our standard of living if you just give those gains back at the cash register? Our politeness is costing us 5% or more of GDP every year. That's $90 billion+. This is a very big deal.

The reaction to Target is overblown, but precisely the type of rage that saw British consumers force retailers to lower prices. Now it's our turn. Retailers can either do better or get sent packing.

yeah for sure

the problem is people don't know how the whole system works, they say we have free trade blah blah the dollar is at par etc. but tariffs and brokerage fees still exist on pretty much everything imported into canada

we also tend to bend over and just take it because for some reason we want what the americans have and their lifestyle

i guess i find the way canadians react to a lot of things shocking or just like really? like in one breath they say i hate target, i will only buy canadian and than they say in the next i am just going to stick to waLmart

what does buy canadian mean nowadays anyway? its all manufactured in china anyway

[Policy Wonk]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

In some cases, the goods that are being sold in the United States have no wholesale distributor in Canada. That means that Canadian retailers are forced to import directly from the U.S. manufacturer, which charges massive shipping rates to Canada (typically a flat rate whether you're in Windsor or Iqaluit), and of course duties are charged.

If a retailers supply chain is based on drop-shipping from US distributors directly to your stores or customers and paying the associated courier brokerage rates they need to fire somebody (or everybody involved) immediately.

People selling shit at mall kiosks have this figured out.

An enormous amount of Canadian bound merchandise goes though one enormous building in Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati. Canadian retailers (and businesses in general) have US suppliers deliver their merchandise to this logistics company. They then fill up ground and air freight containers bound for various Canadian regions and their in-house customs broker clears them at an imperceptible rate relative to FedEx and UPS. Once in Canada small shipments are turned over to Purolator for delivery and large ones put on trucks and into the retailers own supply chain.

[J.OT13]

Nordstrom Ottawa Rideau Centre

Originally Posted by citydwlr

Nordstroms' Mackenzie King façade:


[source]

[Nouvellecosse]

Looks like that will turn out beautifully!! Too bad none of the Bay store look anything like that.

[ScreamingViking]

Just saw this:

• Video Link

[miketoronto]

Whats up with Yorkdale? I know it has a couple different stores than other malls. But I could not believe the traffic there on a Sunday.
I had bought something at Holt Renfrew downtown, and wanted to return it, and happened to be passing Yorkdale. Just stop in for 5 minutes and return it you say? Wrong. It took an hour to do this little task, as it took over 30 minutes to get through the traffic in the parking lot and surrounding streets, plus find a parking spot.
They actually have traffic cops directing traffic in the parking lot. Something I have not seen in other malls.
It is a nice mall. But man, don't people do anything else but shop .

[Dwils01]

Parking has always been bad at Yorkville ever since I was first there in 2001. That's why I always take the subway when going to Yorkville.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

If a retailers supply chain is based on drop-shipping from US distributors directly to your stores or customers and paying the associated courier brokerage rates they need to fire somebody (or everybody involved) immediately.

I must correct one detail - there is one Canadian wholesaler we can get this particular product from (an American company), and that's where we order from. However when you're a small online retailer with limited storage space for inventory, you're limited in your negotiating power, especially when you're dealing with specialized business products that have no suitable substitutes.

[caltrane74]

A few Malls in Toronto are undergoing major renovation

Mississauga - Square One
Eaton Centre
Yorkdale
And

Yonge Eglinton Centre on the Yonge Subway Line and future Eglinton Crosstown LRT/Subway line

Picture from this morning

[caltrane74]

Yorkdale Mall Renovation





By me