Winnipeg Retail

[Jeff]

they'll prob be easier to fill if they're subdivided.. retail insider said london drugs would be a good fit for some of these locations. i could see the bed bath and beyond location being a good candidate for another one of those.

[cslusarc]

Originally Posted by Jeff

they'll prob be easier to fill is they're subdivided.. retail insider said london drugs would be a good fit for some of these locations. i could see the bed bath and beyond location being a good candidate for another one of those.

The ex-Arena site @ CF Polo Park would benefit from a London Drugs. Winnipeg needs at least 2 more of London Drugs

[wags_in_the_peg]

I'm shocked that London Drugs has never added more than 1 Winnipeg location. Out West they are commonplace in every neighbourhood.


City Province / Territory Number of Locations
Vancouver British Columbia 13
Calgary Alberta 7
Edmonton Alberta 6
Victoria British Columbia 4
Burnaby British Columbia 4
Surrey British Columbia 3
Saskatoon Saskatchewan 3
Regina Saskatchewan 2
Richmond British Columbia 2
Nanaimo British Columbia 2

[esquire]

^ Yeah, it's weird that after all these years they have just one store in Manitoba. You would think Winnipeg could support 3 more locations easy, and Brandon could support one too.

[cllew]

Years ago there was talk of London Drugs moving into a freestanding building on the north west part of Kildonan Place parking lot (towards The Chamois) but nothing ever came of it.

[CoryB]

Without getting deep into speculation and looking up possible replacements for bed Bath and Beyond and Buy Buy Baby, it is fairly obvious that Shoppers has mostly moved out of enclosed shopping malls to free standing units or mini-anchors with external access in shopping malls. Despite this it continues to hold down a major presence in Polo Park mall. Perhaps the CF/Shindico owned property with Bed BB will see Shopper finally move out of the mall into a larger free standing space? That would leave the vacant mall space that is easier to split into smaller units or could free up space for something like Zara or Uniqlo that are more obvious mid-sized stores missing from the market.

As for London Drugs, the higher profile St James and St Matthews corner being held down by Buy Buy Baby feels appropriate. It also might be a good location for a second Seafood City if the same was the correct size.

It is also notable that the St James site and the Polo site seem to be leased through different companies which may create competition for for potential new tenants.

[michelleb]

It was a strange move for Shoppers to leave 412 Graham at Kennedy to move into Portage Place, where they don't control their hours. Theft must be a nightmare.

[cslusarc]

Originally Posted by michelleb

It was a strange move for Shoppers to leave 412 Graham at Kennedy to move into Portage Place, where they don't control their hours. Theft must be a nightmare.

.

I cannot remember shopping @ Shoppers when it was located @ 412 Graham. That ex-bank location was probably too small for the beauty, general merchandise and grocery component Shoppers' Drug Mart wants to currently offer.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by michelleb

It was a strange move for Shoppers to leave 412 Graham at Kennedy to move into Portage Place, where they don't control their hours. Theft must be a nightmare.

At the time 12 or so years ago it made sense, Portage Place had some extra space (the giant HMV that used to be there had closed) and it was probably seen as a step up from the somewhat cramped Graham location. Portage Place hadn't bottomed out yet, so it still had some appeal.

[zalf]

It seems Pastry Castle on Edmonton is merging their baked goods business into the neighbouring Dan's Cafe, and converting the to an Ethiopian grocery store.

[bomberjet]

Canadian Tire on Regent looking to expand and reno. Getting rid of the gas bar. Which I actually use all the time.

http://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/perm...(RM)ETC-16.pdf

[cllew]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Canadian Tire on Regent looking to expand and reno. Getting rid of the gas bar. Which I actually use all the time.

http://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/perm...(RM)ETC-16.pdf

I wonder with the number of other gas bars (at least 6) in the near area the financial return to Canadian Tire is better with an expanded store?

It could also be the existing u/g tanks and piping are due for renewal and they don't want to pay for the new environmental standards for gas bars.

[LTC321]

Why do we only have three Costcos?....and they're so congested!

Also, Regina moved their Costco down the road a couple of km's and it's great!

[WinCitySparky]

Originally Posted by LTC321

Why do we only have three Costcos?....and they're so congested!

Also, Regina moved their Costco down the road a couple of km's and it's great!

Yeah I was there on the way through last August and the gas bar is absolutely massive

[esquire]

Originally Posted by LTC321

Why do we only have three Costcos?....and they're so congested!

The inconvenient short hours and massive congestion at the stores is why I couldn't be bothered to renew my membership.

If they don't want to build more stores, I don't get why they don't make more use out of the ones they do have by extending their hours a little. 10 pm would make a massive difference.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by esquire

At the time 12 or so years ago it made sense, Portage Place had some extra space (the giant HMV that used to be there had closed) and it was probably seen as a step up from the somewhat cramped Graham location. Portage Place hadn't bottomed out yet, so it still had some appeal.

To be fair the HMV in Portage Place seemingly opened as a larger relocation of the high traffic CityPlace location, which oddly wasn't closed down. It was originally planned as a bit of an event space hosting record signings, midnight launches, etc but that never really panned out. I could be wrong but fairly certain that after the store they opened they expanded at least once opening a smaller side store that came off the main mall entrance that was most recently between Shoppers and Staples.

As the music industry shifted in the later 90s HMV started scaling down the store, mostly giving up some backroom space and pulling in one of the walls on the main store. It wasn't overly obvious but was definitely a sign of things to come.

Around the time of the Shoppers relocation it would seem that HMV must have come up for another lease renewal and wanted to again reduce the amount of space they had in the mall. Instead of reconfiguring in the now Shoppers location they moved to a new location near center court where they operated for another 5+ years until the full chain went bankrupt.

As for Shoppers, the location on Graham had actually started as an independent pharmacy. It wasn't until after the Portaqe and Smith Shoppers relocated to Henderson Hwy in East Kildonan that the chain was left without a presence in downtown outside of Winnipeg Square. That void opened the opportunity for the independent Graham pharmacy to join the chain. The location on Graham though was too small to keep with store standards prompting the move to Portage Place. For about five seconds after Shoppers moved they did have their street facing door open and I believe it even had a cashier for a time. That was before the store realized why none of the other Portage Place shops made active use of their street facing doors, including the one HMV had before they moved out of the space.

[cllew]

Looks like we don't have to worry about Nordstrom's coming to Winnipeg.

CBC is reporting today that they are closing down all 13 Canadian stores by late June and eliminating around 2500 jobs.

Like Target a few years ago Nordstrum said it does not "see a realistic path to profitability for the Canadian business"

[Winnipegger]

Originally Posted by cllew

Looks like we don't have to worry about Nordstrom's coming to Winnipeg.

CBC is reporting today that they are closing down all 13 Canadian stores by late June and eliminating around 2500 jobs.

Like Target a few years ago Nordstrum said it does not "see a realistic path to profitability for the Canadian business"

Common theme. Seems that between outrageous mortgage payments from rising interest rates, lower wages, high-ish income taxes, and high food costs, Canadians in general are becoming too poor for most luxury goods. Not enough money left over at the end of the month to justifying buying $200 shirts and pants.

Of course there are exceptions: Canada seems to have two groups of above-average middle class households that can afford luxury goods:

1) Boomers who bought their houses before 2001 and have paid the original mortgage, and now the value of their home has increased by 5 to 10 times the original purchase price, giving them access to HELOCS. This demographic would rather spend their excess cash on boats, RVs, Mustangs, and trips to Florida instead of buying luxury furniture or clothing. You can find this group across most major cities, but they are a dwindling number.

2) International students who bring in significant wealth from overseas. This is the group you'll find at the luxury stores in Toronto and Vancouver, but their number too small to sustain retail operations as we've seen with the closures.

After that, of course there are the 0.01% who have a tonne of disposable income, but again, too small a number to sustain luxury retail across Canada.

Canada lacks an "in-between" mid-life, high-income demographic that would be the main target for these stores. Sure, Vancouver and Toronto have a lot of 30 and 40-something high income earners from tech, law, and finance, but the vast majority of this group is too burdened with paying $2,500/month rents on skyboxes at Young and Bloor, $1,000 month lease payments on Audis, and then being broke at the end of the month after spending their remaining income on Skip/DoorDash/groceries to care too much about whatever luxury clothing brand is hot these days.

This group is much bigger in the states, and much more dispersed. If I was a luxury brand, the U.S. would be my main target obviously. Canada would be a tiny afterthought given the lack of disposable income in this country. Rents, housing prices, and food prices are way too high in this country and there isn't anything reasonable any one person can do about it.

[pegcityboy]

Also Canada is edging towards 40 million people where as the United States has 330 million and definitely has an upper class and lower class and middle class is disappearing quickly .

[thurmas]

Americans earn 23% more on average than Canadians so they have more disposable income for items than we do. Most items are cheaper to buy in the u.s. as well only real cost issue for Americans is their health care costs through their various health plans.