Dead Malls of Canada

[GeneralLeeTPHLS]

I feel like the experience of Giant Tiger is pretty hit or miss (mostly miss)

Most of the time when I go to GT, the staff are either unfriendly or just uninterested at all in being there. It makes the whole place feel awkward and uncomfortable.

I find the products to be fine, better than Dollarama overall...but the staff somehow are a bit more depressed than at Dollarama.

[urbandreamer]

I miss shopping in small town Bi-Ways mid-1980s ha.

And Peoples Department Stores - probably where I spent the majority of my allowance.

[PEI highway guy]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Dollarama should be shittier than Giant Tiger but somehow it isn't. With Biway and the Bargain! Store gone (and with Fields going), Giant Tiger is to me a really shitty, depressing place.

Dollarama is at least relatively clean and organized. It is what it is: a great place to pick up 79cent chocolate bars, and some party supplies or cheap stocking stuffers.

Giant Tiger is so hit-or-miss (mostly miss). I don't get the concept. Seems to sell a mixture of Grade D food and distressed merchandise.

I can't prove my theory, however, I always felt Dollarama, Biway and Giant Tiger buys unsold stock from Walmart etc. at 20 cents on the dollar and puts a price tag on it. So when we buy from these stores we are buying the leftovers no one wanted at other establishments.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by PEI highway guy

I can't prove my theory, however, I always felt Dollarama, Biway and Giant Tiger buys unsold stock from Walmart etc. at 20 cents on the dollar and puts a price tag on it. So when we buy from these stores we are buying the leftovers no one wanted at other establishments.

If that's what works for the retailers and consumer market, no problem there.

[vid]

That's part of their stock. There are other discount stores that basically sell nothing but that kind of thing, buying whatever is left from store liquidations and selling it for slim profits. But a lot of the stuff Dollarama sells is ordered directly from the manufacturer to their specifications, especially the stuff they sell high volumes of like processed food, party supplies and crafts.

[YYCguys]

Hello! Could we please move general retail conversation to the Canadian Retail thread? This thread is about Dead/Dying Malls. Thanks!

[casper]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Dollarama should be shittier than Giant Tiger but somehow it isn't. With Biway and the Bargain! Store gone (and with Fields going), Giant Tiger is to me a really shitty, depressing place.

Dollarama is at least relatively clean and organized. It is what it is: a great place to pick up 79cent chocolate bars, and some party supplies or cheap stocking stuffers.

Giant Tiger is so fucking hit-or-miss (mostly miss). I don't get the concept. Seems to sell a mixture of Grade D food and distressed merchandise.

Who said Fields is going anywhere. I thought they were doing there thing in smaller rural communities.

What would be interesting to see if some of these deep discounts (Dollarama, Giant Tiger and Fields) can go into more urban markets and potentially become anchor tenents in some of these malls that are nearly dead.

IF not for the deep discounters, is there a retail solutions for these spaces at all?

[Loco101]

Cochrane, ON had a Bi-Way store that closed a couple of decades ago and the sign is still on the building today! https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.05888...2!8i6656?hl=en

[ssiguy]

It will be interesting to see what plays out in all these malls now that Sears is gone. That was the anchor tenant for many malls and begs the question will we see similar carnage like we did when Eatons closed it's door?

One thing that will be different this time however, is that many of the Eaton's stores were downtown in the classic "Eaton's Centres" but now the carnage is coming to a suburb near you.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

I miss shopping in small town Bi-Ways mid-1980s ha.

And Peoples Department Stores - probably where I spent the majority of my allowance.

We had Bi-Way. I remember there being a Peoples store in Rouyn-Noranda. Was that a Quebec-only store or was it in other provinces as well?

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Cochrane, ON had a Bi-Way store that closed a couple of decades ago and the sign is still on the building today! https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.05888...2!8i6656?hl=en

BiWay had a store in the basement of Galleria in London when that mall was at its worst in the mid-90s. It was cramped, but cool. I bought my first Pogs there.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

It will be interesting to see what plays out in all these malls now that Sears is gone. That was the anchor tenant for many malls and begs the question will we see similar carnage like we did when Eatons closed it's door?

One thing that will be different this time however, is that many of the Eaton's stores were downtown in the classic "Eaton's Centres" but now the carnage is coming to a suburb near you.

Some of the Sears locations were less than desirable. Westmount in London now has an abandoned Sears and an abandoned Target.

I think it's time to start over with that property. There's a lot of opportunity for mixed-use residential development there as infill, something London has very little of at this time.

As a side note, I had a dream about that mall last night. It was a happier time, 20 years ago, when it was packed. A distant memory now.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

Some of the Sears locations were less than desirable. Westmount in London now has an abandoned Sears and an abandoned Target.

I think it's time to start over with that property. There's a lot of opportunity for mixed-use residential development there as infill, something London has very little of at this time.

As a side note, I had a dream about that mall last night. It was a happier time, 20 years ago, when it was packed. A distant memory now.

Whatever Happened to Westmount Mall? The rise and fall of London's coolest mall...



Westmount Mall

what the hell are they looking at? all the closed storefronts? the dialysis centre?

[MolsonExport]

jasoncheese

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Whatever Happened to Westmount Mall? The rise and fall of London's coolest mall...

That article didn't really answer the question it posed. The mall would have been fine had the City of London not zoned massive expanses of land south of Southdale Road as commercial. I knew Westmount was dead as soon as the LCBO opened its new location in the big box desert circa 2003.

[megadude]

Well Westmount just got bought for $31.5m by Kingsett, which I believe is the biggest private equity real estate firm in the country. I interviewed there three years ago for a job similar to what I'm doing now, just a little bit more responsibility. And it pays WAY more than what I make now.

The firm I'm at does deals with them from time to time, but we only hold minor stakes in these properties, in which they are the majority owner. However, this is not one of them.

I've never been to Westmount, so I can't relate to the previous posts. I've only been to Masonville.

Not sure how they're going to bring back life to this mall, but this is good news for the area.

[SpongeG]

With sears gone from Nanaimo North Town Centre, an already dead mall will be deader. They replaced the target with a Lowes. They do have a popular movie theatre, but there is a mall about 5 minutes north, woodgrove centre, which also has a movie theatre and woodgrove has better highway access.



It is owned by Shape, the same group behind Brentwood and Lougheed in Vancouver so it could see a residential redevelopment, but the housing market doesn't seem to be doing much in Nanaimo.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

That article didn't really answer the question it posed. The mall would have been fine had the City of London not zoned massive expanses of land south of Southdale Road as commercial. I knew Westmount was dead as soon as the LCBO opened its new location in the big box desert circa 2003.

This raises an important question that I think I've kind of touched upon before: what is the role in government in all of this?

Is it simply to not get in the way of development and allow all of it to happen if boxes X, Y and Z are checked off on some form they have? Even if it means cannibalizing other areas (that can sometimes be aesthetically desirable or significant)?

Or do they have a role in determining what type of city we end up with, what it will look like, etc.?

Because what we are still seeing in lots of (most?) places is basically little regard to the latter point.

Land gets rezoned at the request of developer A, who then builds newer and cheaper spaces that is offered to retailer B who vacates his space (that he's been renting for years from developer C) just up the road.

I realize this is capitalism and free enterprise at work but lots of capitalist free market countries don't nec essarily let their cities develop in this cannabalistic way, and as a result don't have pock-marked decayed, gap-toothed commercial strips like we do.

A few weeks ago I was in an Ottawa suburb and looking for a Beer Store to return some bought-in-Quebec wine bottles for the Ontario refund. Yeah, I know that's cheating.

Anyway, I went to where I thought the Beer Store was (it had been there for years) and found out it had moved about 800 m to a brand new strip mall that had been built over the past few months in the middle of what was once I imagine to be a cornfield.

The other strip mall space, now left vacant (and one of an increasing number of vacancies in that strip mall that's barely 20 years old) wasn't any less spacious or easy to access for customers. In fact, the new location is further away for most people and doesn't have that many people living near it. Yet.

[TorontoDrew]

That looks like the inside of the mall in Sechelt.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by Acajack

This raises an important question that I think I've kind of touched upon before: what is the role in government in all of this?

Is it simply to not get in the way of development and allow all of it to happen if boxes X, Y and Z are checked off on some form they have? Even if it means cannibalizing other areas (that can sometimes be aesthetically desirable or significant)?

Or do they have a role in determining what type of city we end up with, what it will look like, etc.?

Because what we are still seeing in lots of (most?) places is basically little regard to the latter point.

Land gets rezoned at the request of developer A, who then builds newer and cheaper spaces that is offered to retailer B who vacates his space (that he's been renting for years from developer C) just up the road.

I realize this is capitalism and free enterprise at work but lots of capitalist free market countries don't nec essarily let their cities develop in this cannabalistic way, and as a result don't have pock-marked decayed, gap-toothed commercial strips like we do.

A few weeks ago I was in an Ottawa suburb and looking for a Beer Store to return some bought-in-Quebec wine bottles for the Ontario refund. Yeah, I know that's cheating.

Anyway, I went to where I thought the Beer Store was (it had been there for years) and found out it had moved about 800 m to a brand new strip mall that had been built over the past few months in the middle of what was once I imagine to be a cornfield.

The other strip mall space, now left vacant (and one of an increasing number of vacancies in that strip mall that's barely 20 years old) wasn't any less spacious or easy to access for customers. In fact, the new location is further away for most people and doesn't have that many people living near it. Yet.

Westmount Mall was right smack dab in the middle of where people live. The big box development to the south is not. You can't walk to it.