Winnipeg Retail

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by esquire

I'm not sure what the other stores are like, but the St. Vital and Polo Park locations are generally not bad. Sears is not really to the same level of, say, The Bay in terms of overall organization, but I'm not sure I'd throw it in the same category as Winners.

Originally Posted by BAKGUY

You gave up long ago so that does truly not make u a maven on what is occurring now. I find very good value for basic and working apparel there in fact. Actually, as compared to years ago, quite a bit of their product is fairly stylish and some great sale prices along with some of he new cut pricing.

The store that I have had issues with is Sears at Polo Park. Maybe things got better but considering the overall issues Sears is having I doubt it since the root of the issue to start with was a lack of staff, especially staff that actually cared about the store. It wasn't just sizes being without any organizational scheme but that you might be looking through a pile of clothes for the right size and it was be randomly intermixed with other product so the sign at the top advertising a sale may or may not have applied to what you found.

Also saying that I gave up years ago doesn't make me a "maven" on what is happening now actually lacks insight into Sears problem. I am exactly their target demo and used to shop there all the time. My wife used to buy clothes there too but has long stopped looking as well. If Sears truly wants to recover and turn around it needs to look at why it lost its loyal customers and how to start trying to win them back. Going full on off price seems more like excepting your fate and trying to make the most of it rather than fixing the issue.

In terms of going full Winners -- Sears would actually need to find staff that at least have some desire to try and sort clothing into an organizational scheme since about 80% of the stuff there is actually where it is supposed to be and that is only a level of organization that Sears can currently dream about.

[BAKGUY]

Originally Posted by urban recluse

bring back eatons!

I wish..... AMEN!!!!!!!!

[BAKGUY]

Originally Posted by CoryB

The store that I have had issues with is Sears at Polo Park. Maybe things got better but considering the overall issues Sears is having I doubt it since the root of the issue to start with was a lack of staff, especially staff that actually cared about the store. It wasn't just sizes being without any organizational scheme but that you might be looking through a pile of clothes for the right size and it was be randomly intermixed with other product so the sign at the top advertising a sale may or may not have applied to what you found.

Also saying that I gave up years ago doesn't make me a "maven" on what is happening now actually lacks insight into Sears problem. I am exactly their target demo and used to shop there all the time. My wife used to buy clothes there too but has long stopped looking as well. If Sears truly wants to recover and turn around it needs to look at why it lost its loyal customers and how to start trying to win them back. Going full on off price seems more like excepting your fate and trying to make the most of it rather than fixing the issue.

In terms of going full Winners -- Sears would actually need to find staff that at least have some desire to try and sort clothing into an organizational scheme since about 80% of the stuff there is actually where it is supposed to be and that is only a level of organization that Sears can currently dream about.

I have recently shopped a few times the past 12 months @ Polo Park and it has been neat and orderly. That wsa my experience.
I was not a shopper there in the past but lately I given it a chance.
I find very good value.
A couple times an Eastern European lady named Mila gave me service I would not have expected there and I would say ask for her if you go back.
I wsa just there twice within a few days and it was also neat and tidy like I found last fall and late summer.

[vjose32]

Apparently Gamespot is closing like 200 stores worldwide, wonder if any EB Games will be affected. I think the one on Ellice isn't very busy.

[jmt18325]

Originally Posted by vjose32

Apparently Gamespot is closing like 200 stores worldwide, wonder if any EB Games will be affected. I think the one on Ellice isn't very busy.

I really don't see the point of that one when Polo Park is so close.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by BAKGUY

I have recently shopped a few times the past 12 months @ Polo Park and it has been neat and orderly. That wsa my experience.
I was not a shopper there in the past but lately I given it a chance.
I find very good value.
A couple times an Eastern European lady named Mila gave me service I would not have expected there and I would say ask for her if you go back.
I wsa just there twice within a few days and it was also neat and tidy like I found last fall and late summer.

Likewise though I don't think I met Mila.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by jmt18325

I really don't see the point of that one when Polo Park is so close.

There's one on regent pretty much across from kildonan place which has one.

[buzzg]

I've had nothing but the best experience with HBC. Free shipping online with $99 purchase. Have had to return and exchange stuff in-store before with absolutely no issue. Before Topman officially opened, they had their core 3 styles of suits and would get you to try on to find your cut/size then buy online as the website had way more patterns and colours. It's great.

Sears at Polo has been a mess every time I've gone in there. Dirty and unorganized; never any staff working. The only thing I've gone there for in the last 5 years is a belt and luggage, because it was 80% off. When I went to buy the suitcase the 90 year old cashier had no clue how to even use the POS system and it took about half an hour with no one else in the store.

I feel like everything in there is right from a LL Bean or JC Penney catalogue, absolutely no clothing in there for me (25 year old guy).

[SpongeG]

Sears new strategy looks like it might be better, carrying basics and all in house brands with a mix of discounted designer brands, sort of a similiar thing that Simons does albeit not selling discounted clothes, but the bulk of their clothing is trendy in house brands.

I always thought it was weird that they removed so many items like TV's from their main stores and moved them to fewer Sears Home locations.

[CoryB]

Re Gamestop/EB Games.

Part of the plan is to convert some stores to focus heavily on non-gaming items, aka collectables, like Funko Pop. Considering the Polo Park EB Games is getting close to 50% Funko and 50% games now I would imagine it is trending towards a conversion. Basically have the hot gaming items of the moment (ie top 10 style) and leave the deeper gaming market to Ellice.

It is also important to note that the financial statement that this information came from predicts overall organization sales to be essentially flat for the next fiscal year and same store sales to likely see a decline. They also make forward looking statements that they see declines as an ongoing future trend.

Simply put the brand is definitely distressed right now and trying to take some early steps to correct things. That said though when lots of stores are staffed with a single person a lot of times it is going to be very difficult to drive additional savings on the labour costs side so something else is going to need to give.

In terms of local closures in addition to Polo Park/Ellice and KP/Crossroads I would think the Taylor Ave Gamestop and Selkirk (town) EB could both be at risk.

[blueandgoldguy]

Whenever I have been in EB Games at Polo Park there are usually 2 or even 3 people working. The store itself always seems relatively busy.

It's not surprising they are forecasting declining year-over-year sales. With each passing year, there will be more gamers opting for digital purchases of games over physical copies. If Microsoft had followed through with the implementation of their idea in preventing the purchasers of physical copies of Xbox One games from sharing them with friends and families once those games were initially installed, and had Sony (maybe even Nintendo) had co-opted this idea, it would have been the death of EB Games. They do rely on trade-ins and second hand game sales for a significant portion of their business and that market would disappear overnight.

[trebor204]

Found the Outlet Collection of Mall Stores:


https://www.outletcollectionwinnipeg...25&bounds=-100

[esquire]

Originally Posted by trebor204

Found the Outlet Collection of Mall Stores:


https://www.outletcollectionwinnipeg...25&bounds=-100

Good find. Scrolling over the map, it looks as though a lot of spaces don't have tenant names to show. Are they just slow in updating the map or are they going to open the mall with a substantial number of vacant units?

[CoryB]

Just got a tip that The Source will be rebranding as Bell MTS, likely on April 1.

Also with two MTS Connect locations, a Bell store, The Source, a Virgin kiosk and a Wireless Wave kiosk Bell will be operating six different locations in Polo Park selling wireless phones/service. I can't see that continuing for too long. Converting the MTS kiosk to Xplornet would likely make sense to offload at least one of the locations.

In terms of the Outlet collection site, if you use their interactive mall map you can see a couple sections of the mall are still mostly void of tenants. This effectively confirms that not everything will be opening on May 3. It is still unclear if there will be a scheduled "wave 2" of openings where a bunch of stores all open on a single date or if they will gradually open. Just guessing but it could be that non-anchors wanting their own crews to come in and build the store interiors aren't getting access to locations early enough to hit the May 3 date with those are opening having interiors built by site trades.

It is also likely worth pointing out that the "leaked" construction diagram showed Coach in a prominent position opposite the food court in the middle of the complex but the official site now shows Roots in that location. This seems to confirm that either the leak was inaccurate/made up or some significant changes occurred since it was leaked.

[Jammon]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Just got a tip that The Source will be rebranding as Bell MTS, likely on April 1.

Also with two MTS Connect locations, a Bell store, The Source, a Virgin kiosk and a Wireless Wave kiosk Bell will be operating six different locations in Polo Park selling wireless phones/service. I can't see that continuing for too long. Converting the MTS kiosk to Xplornet would likely make sense to offload at least one of the locations.

In terms of the Outlet collection site, if you use their interactive mall map you can see a couple sections of the mall are still mostly void of tenants. This effectively confirms that not everything will be opening on May 3. It is still unclear if there will be a scheduled "wave 2" of openings where a bunch of stores all open on a single date or if they will gradually open. Just guessing but it could be that non-anchors wanting their own crews to come in and build the store interiors aren't getting access to locations early enough to hit the May 3 date with those are opening having interiors built by site trades.

It is also likely worth pointing out that the "leaked" construction diagram showed Coach in a prominent position opposite the food court in the middle of the complex but the official site now shows Roots in that location. This seems to confirm that either the leak was inaccurate/made up or some significant changes occurred since it was leaked.

It's interesting when you look at the original list of stores that were "leaked".

I wonder if a lot of these companies backed out or if they were basing this list on other outlet malls in Canada. But you can see a huge difference.

Adidas
Aldo
American Eagle
Banana Republic
Below The Belt
Boathouse
Brooks Brothers
Browns
Buffalo
Calvin Klein
Children's Place
Coach
Corning Ware
Converse
Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW)
Disney
DKNY
Eddie Bauer
Famous Footwear
Foot Locker
Fossil
Gap
Guess
Haggar
Hot Topic
J. Crew
Jack & Jones
La Vie En Rose
Lacoste
Levis
Lucky Brand Jeans
New Balance
Nike
Nygard
Oakley
Old Navy
Puma
Reebok
Roots
Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH
Soft Moc
Sketchers
Tommy Hilfiger
Ugo
Vans
Volcom
Zumiez

[laumag]

[QUOTE=Jammon;7754767]It's interesting when you look at the original list of stores that were "leaked".

I wonder if a lot of these companies backed out or if they were basing this list on other outlet malls in Canada.

I have been sort of monitoring Jobs on line for the Outlet Collection. I compared my list to the list on the current new Outlet Collection Winnipeg web site and it appears that the 45 stores that were announced earlier in anticipation of the job fair last weekend are probably not quite ready to physically occupy space for the May 3rd Opening. My list total now which includes the Store Directory on line etc. equals 60 of which Michael Kors, Addidas, Lucky Brand, Naturalizer, Lids, and Sephora do not appear though actively seeking employees. I would assume that there will be more to come, probably when Winners is ready in September. The restaurant list is included in rented space. It totals roughly 17 at this point.

[vjose32]

They already have the MTS stores, why would they need The Source? But hey if they want to waste their money who am I to stop them.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Just got a tip that The Source will be rebranding as Bell MTS, likely on April 1.

Also with two MTS Connect locations, a Bell store, The Source, a Virgin kiosk and a Wireless Wave kiosk Bell will be operating six different locations in Polo Park selling wireless phones/service. I can't see that continuing for too long. Converting the MTS kiosk to Xplornet would likely make sense to offload at least one of the locations.

In terms of the Outlet collection site, if you use their interactive mall map you can see a couple sections of the mall are still mostly void of tenants. This effectively confirms that not everything will be opening on May 3. It is still unclear if there will be a scheduled "wave 2" of openings where a bunch of stores all open on a single date or if they will gradually open. Just guessing but it could be that non-anchors wanting their own crews to come in and build the store interiors aren't getting access to locations early enough to hit the May 3 date with those are opening having interiors built by site trades.

It is also likely worth pointing out that the "leaked" construction diagram showed Coach in a prominent position opposite the food court in the middle of the complex but the official site now shows Roots in that location. This seems to confirm that either the leak was inaccurate/made up or some significant changes occurred since it was leaked.

So what happens to all The Source locations that aren't in Manitoba? That doesn't make too much sense. You'd think it would be smarter to just buy out all the independently owned MTS Connect stores...

... speaking of that, what happens to all the licensed MTS Connect stores? Is Bell going to allow that model to exist or with they have to pay out the owners?

[Wolf13]

Well...

Save-On in the news today with the Freep claiming unprecedented success for the store, particularly the delivery. Apparently delivery sales have grown quicker here than anywhere else!

Furthermore, they claim to want to add 12, TWELVE stores.

3 points:

1) Heavens to Betsy, one better be downtown
2) This might be oversupply for the market
3) Which leads me to believe they may buy up the odd existing store from a struggling competitor.

Regardless, good for Save-On, the Northgate mall, and hopefully, for downtown.

[esquire]

^ I was at the Grant Park Co-op yesterday evening and it was DEAD in there. Surely those stores are performing below expectations. Even Safeway is kicking their ass when it comes to price. I have to wonder how long they'll hang in there... with what is it now, 3 measly stores you have to wonder if it's worth the trouble for them.