Halifax Retail

[terrynorthend]

Originally Posted by dtown

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitche...ener-1.3332494

looks like IKEA is beginning its coast to coast expansion...but according to the article for now the first stores will be Kitchener, Whitby, London, Windsor and Quebec City.

To be fair, these are some of the small format pickup stores that Ikea announced they would start opening quite a while ago. Although they didn't give specific locations right away, it was suspected these stores would be setup close to larger fulfillment stores.

The interesting news is the recent announcement that they will open ten new full stores over the next 10 years. That's what is likely to open up here. The question is how soon?

[bluenoser]

Sobeys unveils new look in Upper Tantallon store

http://thechronicleherald.ca/busines...antallon-store

I'm not a fan of the name or the look but oh well!

[Aya_Akai]

Originally Posted by bluenoser

Sobeys unveils new look in Upper Tantallon store

http://thechronicleherald.ca/busines...antallon-store

I'm not a fan of the name or the look but oh well!

They didn't bring the "silver" look here to NS like in that picture above. It's basically the exact same red brick storefront with a smaller "Sobeys" wordmark and the little green "Extra" below it.



It's quite a nice format, I really hope to see more changes to our stores around here compared to what we've had for the last.. forever- basically. They're making big changes as far as layouts and formats for stores out west (and have for a while) and I'd really like to see some of that style brought back out east to freshen up the look to stores around here and let people experience something different.

[IanWatson]

So I get the sense from the article that this new format is supposed to be on the upscale side of things. But man, that "extra" sign screams everything but "upscale". It makes me feel like the store is a Food Basics*.

*Not that there's anything wrong with Food Basics, just that I imagine that's not the image they're hoping to project.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

So I get the sense from the article that this new format is supposed to be on the upscale side of things. But man, that "extra" sign screams everything but "upscale". It makes me feel like the store is a Food Basics*.

*Not that there's anything wrong with Food Basics, just that I imagine that's not the image they're hoping to project.

I agree - the font/colour/etc. all look budget and not upscale. Maybe they're trying to say that it's "more than you have come to expect in terms of selection and service, but still great value?"

Seems like it needs a stronger brand.

[bluenoser]

IKEA to make announcement in Halifax Friday

http://thechronicleherald.ca/busines...halifax-friday

No word on whether this means pick-up location or full store (or just announcing that the company is doing really well, ha)...

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by bluenoser

IKEA to make announcement in Halifax Friday

http://thechronicleherald.ca/busines...halifax-friday

Obviously no word on whether this means pick-up location or full store (or just announcing that the company is doing really well)...

I am guessing that, since he will be making the announcement with our mayor (who tends to maintain a low profile), that it will be a full store.

[bluenoser]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

I am guessing that, since he will be making the announcement with our mayor (who tends to maintain a low profile), that it will be a full store.

That makes sense. And it would seem a bit much for the president to come out and announce a little pick-up location.

[teddifax]

Fingers crossed....

[terrynorthend]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

I am guessing that, since he will be making the announcement with our mayor (who tends to maintain a low profile), that it will be a full store.

Well this is certainly good news, and long awaited. I think we can all agree with most certainty that this is a new store announcement. As to the question of what format, and where, well for now that's just speculation.

I'm going to give the edge to large format, given our distance from the nearest established market, the announcement last year of a plan to launch 10 more full-sized footprints, and rumours that have circulated in the local business community recently and in the past. But Ikea is a strange monkey (see what I did there?) and they can be hard to predict. It could very well be a small format pick-up store, either as a done deal, or as a bell-weather for future expansion to full size in Halifax. Regarding the media circus Friday, I wouldn't jump at that as an indicator, as the president was on hand and did hold a press-conference for both London and QC's pickup store announcements last year.

Where will they build? Best money is on Bayer's Lake or DC. Between those two, its anyone's guess. Having the press event in Halifax might be a guide (I'm sure DC would prove fantastic hosts for the press event if they were getting the store), but St. Mary's Boat club is an odd spot. It doesn't go all the way to saying "We are coming to Bayer's Lake!".

Wherever they choose, I'm sure it will be a new, stand-alone build. That's Ikea's style. They are not going to re-purpose a K-mart->Zellers->Target, or a Rona in the far flung back reaches. (It seems people keep suggesting Rona to me, because it's BLUE?! Ikea is NOT going to move to a building because it happens to already be "almost" the right colour!) They will want highway exposure, if not actual highway access. (Especially if its a large format). The large format stores are ENORMOUS. 300,000 + square feet. That's more the 3x the size of the Canadian tire in DC, or almost half the gross leasable area of Mic Mac Mall.

Whatever it is, I eagerly await Friday's announcement

[Dmajackson]

My hunch is if it is a full-size store it will be built in Dartmouth Crossing. Specifically it will be located north of Wright Avenue adjacent Highway 118 and next to Cabela's (to be be built this year). This land was just rezoned to industrial use and it is easy to get to from in and out of town especially compared to Bayers Lake Expansion.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

My hunch is if it is a full-size store it will be built in Dartmouth Crossing. Specifically it will be located north of Wright Avenue adjacent Highway 118 and next to Cabela's (to be be built this year). This land was just rezoned to industrial use and it is easy to get to from in and out of town especially compared to Bayers Lake Expansion.

This seems plausible. Its got to be either there or the BL expansion.

[essaysmith]

Originally Posted by teddifax

Fingers crossed....

Not that I want it to happen, but I think it would be really funny if the announcement is that they are putting a store in Moncton.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by essaysmith

Not that I want it to happen, but I think it would be really funny if the announcement is that they are putting a store in Moncton.

If they were going to build in Moncton, the news conference would be in Moncton.

Besides, when they interviewed Mayor Savage on the TV yesterday, he looked like the cat that swallowed the canary.........

The most Moncton can expect would be if they announced a pick-up store here at the same time.

[Keith P.]

I am shaking my head at the amount of play a rather dumb blog post from a certain cycling activist and hipster "urbanist" is getting, even featured in today's C-H, calling for a location downtown on an upper (or at least second-floor) level for the new Ikea. He seems to confuse lease rates and available building stock in d/t Toronto, Vancouver and NYC with those here. He also obviously has no knowledge of retail - no retailer wants to be on a second floor, as it kills trade from passersby. And Ikea is by nature a big-box retailer, selling a good number of large, heavy items, despite this writer's call for the use of "cargo bikes" to transport purchases. It really is ridiculous and it is unfortunate he seems to have a very effective publicity machine.

At some point you just need to say, "C'mon, don't be an idiot" and move on.

[curnhalio]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

I am shaking my head at the amount of play a rather dumb blog post from a certain cycling activist and hipster "urbanist" is getting, even featured in today's C-H, calling for a location downtown on an upper (or at least second-floor) level for the new Ikea. He seems to confuse lease rates and available building stock in d/t Toronto, Vancouver and NYC with those here. He also obviously has no knowledge of retail - no retailer wants to be on a second floor, as it kills trade from passersby. And Ikea is by nature a big-box retailer, selling a good number of large, heavy items, despite this writer's call for the use of "cargo bikes" to transport purchases. It really is ridiculous and it is unfortunate he seems to have a very effective publicity machine.

At some point you just need to say, "C'mon, don't be an idiot" and move on.

At 300,000 sq ft for a full size store, it would take up almost the entire downtown!! I must get in contact with his drug dealer...

[Drybrain]

Large-format retail can work in urban areas. Quinpool Centre is a pretty bad design, but it fits a large grocery store and a Canadian Tire into an urban environment. It's easy to imagine how it could be improved. A better example is Pete's, which manages to fit a lot square footage into a mixed-use building without a parking lot.

And there are a lot of examples of successful large-format stores on multiple storeys, including second and third storeys, in lots of cities, so street-level presence isn't a must, especially for a destination retailer.

All that said, IKEA is a whole different beast than even a Costco or a Walmart. The showrooms alone are larger than most large-format stores, and then there's the warehouse. Parking is critical, because people are picking up large items. There's a reason why even in cities like Toronto and Vancouver, IKEA is exclusively in big-box locations. (Technically, you could put a full-sized IKEA in the Robie/Young area, but that would entail some significant demolition of existing buildings, and say goodbye to ever infilling that area with residential/commercial uses).

If this is a full-sized IKEA, it's not going to be built downtown, and it's not because the city is somehow failing on the urban front. With a few exceptions, suburban locations are IKEA's business model, for now at least. There's not a single urban IKEA in Canada, and if they ever build one, they aren't starting here.

I also assume that IKEA is looking at the entire highway 102/103 corridor as potential customers, and southeastern New Brunswick, so putting it downtown wouldn't make any sense, from that perspective.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Large-format retail can work in urban areas. Quinpool Centre is a pretty bad design, but it fits a large grocery store and a Canadian Tire into an urban environment. It's easy to imagine how it could be improved. A better example is Pete's, which manages to fit a lot square footage into a mixed-use building without a parking lot.

Those are fractions of the space Ikea typically requires. Can you imagine that downtown? Without any parking and warehouse space? No.

And there are a lot of examples of successful large-format stores on multiple storeys, including second and third storeys, in lots of cities, so street-level presence isn't a must, especially for a destination retailer.

In the old days downtown department stores were almost always multiple floors, with elevators and then escalators. That was due to the cost of real estate. But even then, they had a significant street presence, with display windows and often entrances on multiple streets if the took over a corner or an entire block. He is talking of something resembling the ill-fated Cleve's experiment on SGR from the 1990s, with a doorway leading to an upstairs store only, which almost put them out of business. More recently The Brick in BLIP suffered a similar fate with a similar design. It is not a coincidence - it is bad retail design to do that.

I am getting sick of seeing this guy mouthing off at every opportunity advocating for idiotic urbanist theories.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Those are fractions of the space Ikea typically requires. Can you imagine that downtown? Without any parking and warehouse space? No.

Read on, Keith! I agree that IKEA needs more space than that. just saying that large format can work on multiples levels, in an urban environment. I agree IKEA is too big though.

[curnhalio]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Those are fractions of the space Ikea typically requires. Can you imagine that downtown? Without any parking and warehouse space? No.



In the old days downtown department stores were almost always multiple floors, with elevators and then escalators. That was due to the cost of real estate. But even then, they had a significant street presence, with display windows and often entrances on multiple streets if the took over a corner or an entire block. He is talking of something resembling the ill-fated Cleve's experiment on SGR from the 1990s, with a doorway leading to an upstairs store only, which almost put them out of business. More recently The Brick in BLIP suffered a similar fate with a similar design. It is not a coincidence - it is bad retail design to do that.

I am getting sick of seeing this guy mouthing off at every opportunity advocating for idiotic urbanist theories.

I wonder how SleepCountry is doing in its new second floor digs on SGR. I'm as big a fan of urban-format retail as the next guy, but some stores are just meant to be out on the outskirts on large pieces of land. But that doesn't mean they all have to be.