Quote:
Originally Posted by LilZebra
Truviking is too young to remember, but once Unicity Mall (opened in 1975) St. Vital Centre (opened in 1979), the death knell for the downtown Hudsons Bay store began.
I remember our family going to the downtown Bay in the 1970s. If it were or weren't a doctor's trip, he'd drive us to The Bay parkade, walk down those stairs and cross the street to the Winnipeg Clinic. When I was about 10 or 11 or 12 my parents left me and my sister to the toy department all alone. We'd agree to meet inside the store by the parking kiosk where we came in. As GenXers there weren't as many kids like there are now. Those were the days!
But once the availability of suburban malls and "free parking" came to be, the people of the Greatest Generation (early 1900s), Silent Generation (1930s), Baby Boomers (1940s-1950s) didn't want to go downtown like they did prior to the mid-1970s here. Downtown became a place to go if you worked there or lived there. Not so much a place to shop. That's why the Boomers of the time thought of the failed Portage Place. They knew the ... was in.
Back then you could pay for your parking in the store or at the bottom of the ramp. The in-store kiosk parking thingy has be closed for decades now.
HBC (and Eaton's) used to have its own delivery trucks with its own staff. Now I guess HBC contracts out.
Things change. Accept change TV. The days of the downtown HBC store are numbered.
But now that suburban department stores are disappearing from the 'burbs, maybe 100 years from now we'll see a resurgence of the department store. Maybe in the 2110s the Eaton's and The Bay, or maybe something else, but the same concept of a multi-storey department store will come to be in downtown Winnipeg. I guess by then Winnipeg will have its very first subwway trains underneath Portage Ave. Better plan now for that TV.
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Sigh. The misconceptions continue.
The loss of significant retail downtown is not solely (or even partially) due to other shopping centres opening up in suburbia. If that were the case, then all or most major cities in Canada would have no retail left in their city centres, because we all know those cities have multiple suburban powerhouse shopping centres that compete with retail in the CBD. The "only in Winnipeg" negative, cynical stereotypical saying isn't going to cut it for this situation.
The loss of retail in our city centre has to do with socio-economic issues that plague the city, which started around 30-40 years ago and have been getting progressively worse. As soon as impoverished aboriginals started coming into the city en masse, and congregated in specific areas of the city (by choice or force), crime and neighbourhood deterioration had begun to increase dramatically.
But in saying that, people in this city have become psyched out about the city centre, and have been feeding off of eachothers fears that they will automatically be a victim of crime or literally die if they set foot in the city centre. Some people are actually stupid and gullible enough to believe that. When in reality it has never been this bad anywhere in this city. THIS is the reason significant retail is on it's last legs in our city centre. THIS is what needs to be address if we are to get to the core of the issue and have it resolved. But no one seems interested in doing so. As a result, my foolish fellow Winnipeggers will continue to cringe in fear of the city centre
