Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
As someone who has worked, and at times lived downtown for a good chunk of the last 17 years, I can tell you that downtown retail has been only been trending in one direction: down.
There was a brief bump in the late 90s when CentreVenture first got established and helped to broker a deal to attract retailers like A&B Sound and Staples to downtown Winnipeg. But apart from that there has been a slow trickle of retail out of downtown to the point where it is no longer a standalone retail destination. I would argue that the MTS Centre has had zero effect on downtown retail - sports bars and restaurants yes, but not shops where one can buy non-food items.
As recently as a decade ago you could still do most of your shopping downtown if you wanted - these days, even if you try to shop downtown there are many things that you can just no longer find. Cityplace is all but dead as a general retail mall (there isn't even a clothing store left in there), and Portage Place is barely hanging in there as it becomes dominated by low-end closeout shops and cell-phone dealers. As we all know The Bay is basically on life support.
The only exception to this general trend is a slight increase in the number of niche boutiques in the Exchange District. It is possible that retail there could continue to grow as the population increases.
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Hudson Bay was once the apple of the retail world having been around in the retail business for the last couple hundred years. The Bay always had quality merchandise to sell to the public, where as Eaton's was always price based and offered similar quality for less. The fill-in retail stores of the Portage Avenue strip between Memorial and Main Street, Metropoltan, SS Kresgie's, Woolworths, Marks and Spencer, Holt Renfrew, Daytons, made up the balance of Winnipeg retail in the downtown area.
The niche stores that filled in the downtown retail catered to specific clientele by quality, type and price of goods, and everyone made good money. The reason being, over 75% of Winnipeg's work force, either worked downtown or passed through downtown during the day. The balance of the work force became associated with stores in their local area. For example, Northend people shopped the Selkirk Ave. and Main Street strips because of ethnic backgrounds ( Ukrainian, Polish, German, etc.), West End people were shopping Ellice and Sargent Strips were Italian, Greek, Portuguese, German, etc. French people shopped the Provencher Strip. Anglo Saxon people shopped the Osborne, Corydon, Pembina, strips.
The melding pot for all ethic groups was downtown. People ventured downtown because of the variety and the price of goods. Downtown prospered from the 1920's to the 1970's because of the influx of new immigrants to Winnipeg. Will it prosper again? Is anyone guess.
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