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Bloor-Yorkville Scene

Interesting. There was an article in this morning's Globe about the new HMV format, but it did not say where in Toronto the first one would be located.

HMV Music Stores playing a new tune (link)
MARINA STRAUSS

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

May 28, 2008 at 8:05 PM EDT

HMV Canada is branching out beyond CDs and DVDs to cellphones and iPods in a new prototype store that will help its customers hook up to the digital music that has stolen away business from traditional music retailers.

HMV, the country's largest music chain with 123 outlets, will unveil its “store of the future†in Toronto on June 17, modelled on an HMV test store in Britain. It features a wide range of premium technology products, including a significant Apple presence. The Canadian store, which will be the first of 20 more to be rolled out here this year, will have an interactive “hub†with six iMac computers and access to an array of entertainment and social networking sites. It will have gaming stations, books and “entertainment-focused mobile phones.â€

“We are moving with our consumers in terms of what forms of entertainment they choose to consume,†Humphrey Kadaner, president of HMV Canada, said in an interview.

Industry observers said that HMV had to broaden its offerings or risk seeing its customers head to Future Shop or Wal-Mart for their digital music purchases.

“It's a recognition that the market has changed,†said Larry LeBlanc, who writes a music industry publication called the LeBlanc Newsletter. “It's a recognition that people are interested in getting music in different forms. They [HMV] have to go to that market or they will be left behind.â€

Music retailers have felt the crunch of a rapidly changing listening and buying landscape. Late last year, Music World Ltd., the last Canadian-owned national music chain, collapsed into bankruptcy protection while Sam the Record Man closed its flagship in Toronto last summer.

The Canadian music industry has been hammered by a worldwide drop in music sales that has slashed the ranks of staff at music labels Sony BMG and EMI in the past year.

HMV, now the only remaining national music chain in Canada, has defied the troubled CD market by diversifying beyond music in a bid to cater to the purchasing habits of its core 14- to 24-year-old customer, Mr. Kadaner said.

Non-music products, including video games that were launched last year, now account for about 55 per cent of HMV's sales and could reach 65 per cent by year-end, he said. Three years ago those products made up only between 20 and 25 per cent of overall sales.

The new store will underline the transformation, although all the merchandise, including the books, are tied to some form of entertainment, he said.

It's part of a wider turnaround effort at British parent HMV that appears to be resonating with customers. For the 16 weeks to April 26, the group's total same-store sales grew 10.1 per cent, HMV reported earlier this month.

It said its prototype “next generation†store, which was refit last September, enjoyed a 25-per-cent lift in same-store sales and will be rolled out at other locations.

Duncan McKie, president of the Canadian Independent Record Production Association, said HMV is taking a cue from the youth market that it caters to. “They're in the [music] content business and now they want to be in the technology business. They ultimately want to be in both. … There's a limit to how long CDs will be around. You have to sell the medium itself in order to sty in the game.â€
 
I didn't think much of the third and fourth floors of the renovated Harry Rosen when I dropped by on Saturday. The floors look like engineered hardwood rather than solid, the colour palette of finishes is timid everywhere. The view from the big new window shows the worst new building in the neighbourhood.

Holts had a sale, but not on the grey D&G deep v-neck sweater I covet. A couple of striped bowties caught my eye.

N()IR didn't have any interesting signature pieces on display. Normally, you can count on them.
 
Oh. My. God.

Wow. Labels 4 Less moves next to Tiffany & Co. What's next. Wal-Mart takes over 100 Bloor W? ;)

The evolution of Bloor: From Mink Mile to discount aisle

DEIRDRE KELLY

June 7, 2008

Is Toronto's Mink Mile in danger of losing its sheen?

A Labels 4 Less outlet opened yesterday at 83 Bloor St. W., the gilt-and-marble retail palace that once housed Toronto's first stand-alone Versace boutique.

The new discount shop is the latest purveyor of cheap chic to move to Bloor Street, where affordable clothing chains have, in the past few years, begun to muscle out the strip's traditional high-end stores.

"There goes the neighbourhood," declared Julie Enfield, executive director of Ports 1961, a prestigious Canadian fashion house nestled among international brand-named boutiques such as Gucci, Prada and Chanel on Bloor.
More Arts Stories

Barry Weinberg, co-owner of the exclusive Max Mara boutique, also located a few doors down from Labels 4 Less, echoed Ms. Enfield's sentiments.

"The perception is that Bloor Street is becoming like the Eaton Centre," he said. "It used to have a Bal Harbour feel - it was Canada's mecca of luxury. The arrival of a Labels 4 Less just seems to undercut what Bloor Street has historically been all about. It's creating an uneasy feeling for the other retailers on the strip."

There is a paradox behind Bloor's changing storefronts: Rents on the stretch between Yonge and Avenue have become so high that the kind of independent boutiques that gave Bloor its cachet in the first place can't afford to stay.

Take Indiva, the expensive Indian fashion store that vacated 83 Bloor St. W. late last month to make way for Labels 4 Less. Indiva's owner, David Anselm, said rent at the 12,000-square-foot location was $85,000 a month.

When the high Canadian dollar, construction on Bloor Street and a brutal winter combined to drive down his sales in the past year, he had no choice but to move around the corner to a 3,000-square-foot location on Yorkville Avenue, he said.

Space on the Mink Mile goes for an average of $198 per square foot, according to a Cushman & Wakefield LePage report released last year.

The price seems to be rising: Bloor Street retailers interviewed this week said today's price is closer to $300 per square foot.

Ida Lipreti, a spokeswoman for Labels 4 Less, said selling designer labels for reduced prices is the only way for independents to survive on the new Bloor Street. "With H&M, Winners and Zara now on the street, you have to be competitive," she said.

Ms. Lipreti works for George Elian, a veteran retailer who operates other fashion stores in Yorkville, including Noir and V Hazelton, and holds the lease on 83 Bloor St. W.

"You have to know how to sell luxury for less," Ms. Lipreti continued, while a Labels 4 Less staffer wielding a black marker slashed the price of a $495 Valentino Jeans denim jacket to $195. Disco music thumped in the background.

"It takes a lot of ingenuity, a lot of know-how, to be 60 to 80 per cent lower than retail. Bloor Street won't be disappointed."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080607.INDIVA07/TPStory/TPEntertainment/Ontario/
 
vancouverguy_76 said:
Wow. Labels 4 Less moves next to Tiffany & Co. What's next. Wal-Mart takes over 100 Bloor W? ;)

The evolution of Bloor: From Mink Mile to discount aisle

DEIRDRE KELLY

June 7, 2008

Is Toronto's Mink Mile in danger of losing its sheen?

A Labels 4 Less outlet opened yesterday at 83 Bloor St. W., the gilt-and-marble retail palace that once housed Toronto's first stand-alone Versace boutique.

The new discount shop is the latest purveyor of cheap chic to move to Bloor Street, where affordable clothing chains have, in the past few years, begun to muscle out the strip's traditional high-end stores.

"There goes the neighbourhood," declared Julie Enfield, executive director of Ports 1961, a prestigious Canadian fashion house nestled among international brand-named boutiques such as Gucci, Prada and Chanel on Bloor.
More Arts Stories

Barry Weinberg, co-owner of the exclusive Max Mara boutique, also located a few doors down from Labels 4 Less, echoed Ms. Enfield's sentiments.

"The perception is that Bloor Street is becoming like the Eaton Centre," he said. "It used to have a Bal Harbour feel - it was Canada's mecca of luxury. The arrival of a Labels 4 Less just seems to undercut what Bloor Street has historically been all about. It's creating an uneasy feeling for the other retailers on the strip."

There is a paradox behind Bloor's changing storefronts: Rents on the stretch between Yonge and Avenue have become so high that the kind of independent boutiques that gave Bloor its cachet in the first place can't afford to stay.

Take Indiva, the expensive Indian fashion store that vacated 83 Bloor St. W. late last month to make way for Labels 4 Less. Indiva's owner, David Anselm, said rent at the 12,000-square-foot location was $85,000 a month.

When the high Canadian dollar, construction on Bloor Street and a brutal winter combined to drive down his sales in the past year, he had no choice but to move around the corner to a 3,000-square-foot location on Yorkville Avenue, he said.

Space on the Mink Mile goes for an average of $198 per square foot, according to a Cushman & Wakefield LePage report released last year.

The price seems to be rising: Bloor Street retailers interviewed this week said today's price is closer to $300 per square foot.

Ida Lipreti, a spokeswoman for Labels 4 Less, said selling designer labels for reduced prices is the only way for independents to survive on the new Bloor Street. "With H&M, Winners and Zara now on the street, you have to be competitive," she said.

Ms. Lipreti works for George Elian, a veteran retailer who operates other fashion stores in Yorkville, including Noir and V Hazelton, and holds the lease on 83 Bloor St. W.

"You have to know how to sell luxury for less," Ms. Lipreti continued, while a Labels 4 Less staffer wielding a black marker slashed the price of a $495 Valentino Jeans denim jacket to $195. Disco music thumped in the background.

"It takes a lot of ingenuity, a lot of know-how, to be 60 to 80 per cent lower than retail. Bloor Street won't be disappointed."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080607.INDIVA07/TPStory/TPEntertainment/Ontario/
Click to expand...

From Versace to cheap junk.. There goes the neighbourhood...
Can't these garbage stores go on another street BUT on Bloor.. I swear, there should be a bylaw prohibiting garbage (imagine the crafty logo of labels 4 less! on that building custom made for Versace) from ever setting foot on the mink mile. Horrible.
 
urbandreamer said:
^Oh please. If you can afford to shop on that strip you can afford NYC or London or Paris. Besides, I predict Bloor West's expensive shops will eventually relocate around Freedville, with some even moving up to Yonge and Eglinton area.
Click to expand...

No, Yorkville will always be Yorkville, but the problem is Bloor will lose its status. I don't see Chicago (good example) having crap on their miracle mile... In fact, the selection of boutiques there is truly astounding. While most blockbuster labels on Bloor (Hermes, Prada, Gucci, Chanel, etc) have exapanded or are currently expanding/renovating is a good sign they're there to stay.
I predict after Bloor's makeover, the rents will go up so high that this cheap crap will have no choice but to move to a less stellar street.. Yonge would be great.
 
Status, schmatus (shmattas?).

Funny how nobody's pinpointed Winners as the harbinger of it all...
 
adma said:
Status, schmatus (shmattas?).

Funny how nobody's pinpointed Winners as the harbinger of it all...
Click to expand...

Winners has minimal street presence and it doesn't sound as gauche as 'Labels 4 (note the 4 and not for making it automatically 'cool') less'. This garbage is going into one of the most prime locations on the strip, in a building that shouldn't hold anything less than.. well a Versace.
 
From Versace to cheap junk.. There goes the neighbourhood...
Click to expand...

At the moment, Bloor St. is such a mess, whatever 'cachet' the street is supposed to have , is a thing of the past.

They really need to commence and complete the Bloor St. revitalization ASAP, especially the portion between Yonge and Avenue Rd.....
 
I hear they're opening a pawn shop at 144 Bloor Street West in the former Grand & Toy location, and that Honest Ed's will open a Satelite location on the first and second floors of 101 Bloor West once Cole Haan closes.

Ok I'm joking. But I am alarmed to see Labels 4 Less move into 83 Bloor. Many fine streets in many fine cities seem reserved for exclusively 'posh' shops... I'm thinking Goethstrasse in Frankfurt, Avenue Montaigne in Paris, Sloane Street in London, Kohlmarkt/Graben in Vienna, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. It shocks me that Canada's Mink Mile seems to be going mid-scale (Sephora, Mendocino, Puma, Roots, Wms Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Zara, H&M, etc.).

I think if Cumberland Street behind Holt Renfrew were developed, with Holt's having a Cumberland Street frontage, it could become a 'Rodeo Drive' of sorts. This would go hand-in-hand with the proposed redevelopment of Cumberland Terrace (please god hurry that up) and the tear-down of the parkade and office tower on the north side of Cumberland Street. Given the placement of the new Four Seasons project, the block north of Holt's between Cumberland and Yorkville are ripe for upscale residential and commercial development.
 
It shocks me that Canada's Mink Mile seems to be going mid-scale (Sephora, Mendocino, Puma, Roots, Wms Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Zara, H&M, etc.).
Click to expand...

Why would that shock you? Since when isn't every upscale shopping district littered with these corporate chain monstrosities?

You have no-one to blame but but the consumer, and most of them are dunces. Same reason HMV is catering to them, instead of trying to educate them. That's why they are selling ipods (if you own one, or god forbid, have it attached to your head 24/7...throw it away NOW ya dumb dunce)
 
I hope they will be priced out of the market ASAP... I can't imagine that store (if anyone has been inside it's pretty swank) with cheap densely packed garbage.

This revitalization couldn't come faster.
 
I predict Bloor West's expensive shops will eventually relocate around Freedville, with some even moving up to Yonge and Eglinton area.
Click to expand...

well alot of the fancy shops are now going in at Yorkdale Mall.... (as horrible as that sounds)

their opening a Tiffany's a Ralph Lauren Black Label, and they already just opened a MIchael Kors, so we'll see where the luxury market goes.


and Bloor street has never been that posh... we have ery few luxury designer stores here in Toronto, not nearly enough to fill the stretch from Yonge over to Avenue (as unfortunate as that sounds) so comparing Bloor St. To the Magnificent Mile, or (which has a Gap, H&M, and the like) or Fifth Avenue, or Avenue Montaigne, is simply preposterous.

This store taking such a prominent location is unfortunate, seeing as its a "lost opportunity" but I dont think it has a negative effect on everything else thats in the neighbourhood. Will Tiffany's close down now that Labels 4 Less is next door? I think not.
 
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