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News on retail chains (was: New Mall Retail)

Dane

Dane

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As much as i am fundamentally opposed to malls, in the harsh canadian winter they do provide a practical place to walk around and shop. I was strolling along through Yorkdale Mall yesterday when I saw a huge sign for... Michael Kors. which made me realize that there should be a thread about new developments in malls.

Opening soon to

Yorkdale:
Michael Kors (shouldn't he have a store in Yorkville first?)
Crate and Barrel

Eaton Centre:
Bowring Canada
Lettuce Eatery

Fairview mall:
Aritzia
Guess
Grill It Up
Payless ShoeSource
Spring Rolls
Tim Horton's
BCBG Max Azria
Bentley
Dynamite (New Concept Store)
Garage
Laco Sac
Lids
Little Burgundy
Mappins
Moneysworth & Best
SilverCity Cineplex Entertainment
Spring Rolls Resturant
Tip Top Tailors
Urban Behavior
Urban Planet
Zoam

Promenade Mall (Thornhill):
Coach
Aritzia
AeroPostale
Calvin Klein Underwear

Sherway Gardens:
(the website doesn't say)


So if you have updates, other news, know something I don't, post it! I'm very excited about having new stores open up! C&B, hurray!
 
Copy & Paste from my Mississauga Retail Post:

Square One (Mississauga)
BCBG Max Azria
Bebe
Coach
Okaidi
Spence Diamonds
Geox
Earls Bar/Grill
Running Room
Panera Bread
Boston Pizza

Erin Mills (Mississauga)
Aéropostale
 
Is anyone actually familiar with "Earl's" restaurant? It appears to be a chain but I haven't heard of them until they started renovating space for their opening at Square One. They have been working on it for some time now.
 
The Michael Kors stores piss me off. They're in MALLS in the SUBURBS. Ugh. There's one at Oakridge Mall here in Vancouver, and one at Rockland Centre in Montreal. Now Yorkdale. My finger spinnith in the air with utmost enthusiasm.

Regardless of my sarcasm and disdain for malls, I understand a Coach Store will be opening at Don Mills. Makes me wonder what other 'upscale' retail might open there.

I recall Galen Weston saying his Brown Thomas Irish department stores would always be "high street" locations. Good on him. Except he's got and has had a few suburban Holt Renfrew locations in Canada, and a suburban Selfridges in Manchester ;)
 
Observer Walt said:
Is anyone actually familiar with "Earl's" restaurant? It appears to be a chain but I haven't heard of them until they started renovating space for their opening at Square One. They have been working on it for some time now.
Click to expand...

Goodie Gumdrops. You're getting our Earl's. It's meh... moderately upscaleish but not really upscale chain of restaurants. Food is average. Nothing to get excited about. But hey they're expanding so good on them.

Earl's is the place to go when you're a heterosexual male trying to impress someone maybe, and want to spend a bit more money than your average restaurant. And perhaps watch a hockey game on a screen in the bar area. Or if you are an American tourist in Banff. Or fat. Or don't have enough imagination or effort to find an interesting and good restaurant.

They're from the West Coast, and here is their website: http://www.earls.ca
 
Re: upscale.

It's a two-way street: if a mall gets a new "upscale" store, it can also be a sign of the store itself going "downscale"...
 
All of the chain restaurants in BC - Earls, Milestones, Cactus Club have all gone up scale following relaxation of liquor laws (previously, restaurants couldn't serve alcohol to patrons unless they also ordered food) - after that, they all became dimly lit and very loungey in search of more drink sales. i.e. Earl's no longer has high chairs for kids - they're gone.
Earl's and Cactus Club are both known for their attractive waitresses (the food is better at Earl's, smallish portions, higher than average prices, but consistent quality)

Interesting that there are a number of stores that started out west in that Square One list:
Spence Diamonds
Earls Bar/Grill
Running Room
Boston Pizza
 
Blech Earls. We frequented Earls a lot when we were teenagers not knowing better in Edmonton.. the more I think of it, the more I despise that place. Chain-level food brought to you by servers who think they're the hottest sh*t because they were hired there (Earls is notorious for their "hot-only" hiring practices and blatant discrimination).

Though they did have one of the best patios on Jasper Avenue.

---

Woodbine Live! Wouldn't really be a mall.. more of a pedestrian-friendly outdoor power centre.
 
Blech Earls. We frequented Earls a lot when we were teenagers not knowing better in Edmonton.. the more I think of it, the more I despise that place. Chain-level food brought to you by servers who think they're the hottest sh*t because they were hired there (Earls is notorious for their "hot-only" hiring practices and blatant discrimination).

Though they did have one of the best patios on Jasper Avenue.
Click to expand...

Ha ha, 299. I can totally relate to that, having spent a summer in Edmonton. I didn't know they only hired people (women, I assume?) of a certain level of attractiveness but it does make sense. Most of their servers were hot in a heavily-made-up and well "endowed" sort of way.
 
Upper Canada Mall (from their Web site):
Opening in MARCH
RUDSAK

APRIL
LULULEMON
OKAIDI
TOWN SHOES

MAY
BCBG MAX AZRIA
M.A.C.

JUNE
BANANA REPUBLIC
SEPHORA
GUESS

AUGUST
HOLLISTER
AEROPOSTALE
RK
FCUK

Opened from November 2007:
PURDY'S
H&M
SPORT CHEK
FOREVER XXI: SECOND STORE IN ONTARIO!
AERIE: FIRST STORE IN CANADA!
STANCE: FIRST STORE IN CANADA
BUFFALO
MEXX/MEXX KIDS
TRISTAN
OPUS FASHIONS
COSTA BLANCA
NINE WEST
RW & CO.
LUSH
YOUR GOOD HEALTH

How did Newmarket get so trendy to get so many Canadian debuts/seconds?
 
Mapleview Centre: Opening soon
Banana Republic
Dukes Northshore
Guess
La Senza Express
La Senza Spirit
R.W. & Co.
Markville Shopping Centre: Recently opened
Lush
Banana Republic
Dekao
Satisfashion

Yorkdale Shopping Centre: Opening soon
Michael Kors (April 2008)
Crate & Barrel (September 2008)

Toronto Eaton Centre: Opening soon
ecco
M.A.C.
Vaughan Mills: Opening soon
Marciano

Recently opened
Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein Underwear

3 new Banana Republics in such a short period of time to only six in Toronto right now (7 if you include the men/women stores in Eaton Centre as separate)...
 
samsonyuen said:
How did Newmarket get so trendy to get so many Canadian debuts/seconds?
Click to expand...

I suspect that Aurora's growth is the biggest influence.

And I wonder if they're expanding or just replacing half the stores. I remember when Upper Canada Mall was filled with a good percentage of, frankly, white trash shoppers. That impression seemed to noticeably fade in only a few years and last time I was there it seemed like a normal suburban mall, almost like a Fairview.
 
Best to look at it in terms of Newmarket ingraining itself as the hub of northern York Region--that is, as an entity oddly separate from the GTA proper...
 
That's certainly true. It's funny how Aurora allies itself completely with Newmarket and has almost no ties to Richmond Hill, as if it thinks it's more of Newmarket's twin town than a suburb of Toronto that way. The electoral riding reinforces this.
 
scarberiankhatru said:
That's certainly true. It's funny how Aurora allies itself completely with Newmarket and has almost no ties to Richmond Hill, as if it thinks it's more of Newmarket's twin town than a suburb of Toronto that way. The electoral riding reinforces this.
Click to expand...

Isn't that just geography? Richmond Hill's centre of gravity is towards the south end of town, just north of Thornhill. Aurora's centre of gravity is quite a ways north -- you have to go up through all of Richmond Hill and Oak Ridges (technically part of RH, but historically distinct) to get there. And then you're almost in Newmarket.

Besides, Aurora and Newmarket are historically part of the same local calling area, and neither are part of Richmond Hill's. If I remember right, only Oak Ridges numbers (773) got local calling both north to Aurora/Newmarket/etc and south to Richmond Hill and Toronto proper. (That may have changed in the last few years; I don't know. Anyone?)
 
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