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Sears Canada (1952-2017)

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London does have a population with money to spend - it is a centre for regional business, as well as academia and health, but it's not not that big. As far as being a regional centre, Southwestern Ontario towns and cities have been hard hit by de-industrialization, so there's not really a big market for a Nordstrom. And some of that market will continue to shop in Toronto or in Troy, Michigan. An upgraded Hudson's Bay would probably do. With UWO nearby, Simons might be a better fit for Masonville.
 
A coworker is leaving to go work for Sears. This is in IT. They are apparently planning to upgrade most of their back end systems. This new project team is even being kept separate from the rest of Sear's head office staff at another location.
 
Two interesting articles. This one popped up on the Globe site yesterday:

Sears Canada looking for ‘complementary’ retail partners
Marina Strauss, The Globe and Mail, 27 April 2016

And this one was listed on Retail Insider this morning:
Sears Canada is trying to radically reinvent itself with new leadership, culture and technology
Hollie Shaw, Financial Post, 27 April 2016

Looking for retail partners to occupy space in Sears stores would seem like a winning strategy for Sears, given that it would be an inexpensive way for them to get brands in their stores that would attract new customers.

It will be interesting to see if they can pull it off. The main problems seem to be twofold. Sears has unloaded some of its best locations - for example, in Toronto, they can no longer offer prospective partners Yorkdale, Toronto Eaton Centre or Sherway (or even STC, given that IIRC Sears sold an option on that space) - would Fairview be enough to attract partners that would make a meaningful difference? Second, if the effort is intended to draw traffic to the rest of the Sears store, the rest of the store needs to be appealing. All this talk of reinvention by Sears executives, but investment in stores does not seem to be something they are pushing.

Funny that the Globe article mentions Sears' deal with Primark in the U.S. northeast. That deal was nothing like what HBC did with Topshop or Kleinfeld. Sears basically unloaded a bunch of space at key malls by subleasing space to Primark, with Primark in a number of cases taking entire floors of the old Sears store (at King of Prussia, Sears left the mall entirely because it was able to sublease the rest of the space to Dick's). Primark stores have separate entrances with no internal connections to the Sears store, and unlike the HBC/Topshop arrangement in Canada, one cannot use one's Sears card at Primark or buy Primark clothes on the Sears website. To the average shopper, Primark is simply a store that happens to be next to/above/under the Sears. I haven't seen any information (has anybody here seen anything), but I doubt Primark is pulling customers into Sears store. The Primark deal is just another aspect of the Sears fire sale. It's actually more similar to the HBC/Target deal for the Zellers leases than it is to anything other department stores have been doing with in-store boutiques.

As for all the talk about IT improvements, sounds good, but wonder why they took so long. At one point, they were the only major bricks-and-mortar retailer in Canada with a substantial online sales channel. Now they are eating HBC's dust (not to mention Walmart's).

I am also a wee bit skeptical of all this talk of theirs of "fresh blood" (having your top execs continually abandoning ship, not to mention widespread layoffs, tends to get you there, but doesn't make it a positive process), moving key departments all to one floor (again, easy to do when layoffs decimate the ranks), and of a "refreshed" store concept (which requires investment, but they're still cutting $100 million to $127 million this year alone). Seems like a lot of positive spin, and only time will tell if there is any substance to it.
 
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All I can say about Sears is LOLOLOL... #sorrynotsorry
 
I've bought more from Sears website than I ever have in their stores. I just bought a KitchenAid Classic Stand Mixer for $229.00 and got a $50.00 discount as the purchase was over $200.00, plus free shipping. It's regularly $449.00.
 
I can't imagine Nordstrom in London was ever seriously a thing. Cadillac might have tried flogging it to them, though.

Cadillac selling Promenade Mall is not a huge vote of confidence in that mall. Time will tell, though.

Maybe not a Nordstrom, but perhaps Nordstrom Rack? I could see sorority girls from Western shopping there. :)
 
Apparently they plan on opening as many as 20 Nordstrom Rack outlets in Canada. While I doubt we'll see mainline Nordstrom stores outside Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal areas (those first four cities already have such stores opened or opening) any time soon, Nordstrom Rack would presumably extend beyond those areas.
 
Simply put, Uncle Eddie is the worst CEO in corporate America. Obviously the shareholders are his cheerleaders, but make no mistake about it the guy is a prime example of how corporate greed can cripple a company.
 
Simply put, Uncle Eddie is the worst CEO in corporate America. Obviously the shareholders are his cheerleaders, but make no mistake about it the guy is a prime example of how corporate greed can cripple a company.

The downsizing of Sears Canada office staff continues. From a reliable source, Sears is in the process of vacating the former fourth floor of Eatons with staff being moved into new more 'streamlined' space (ie less sq ft per person, and shared workspaces).

They apparently retain the favourable lease terms on said space, so I assume, but can't confirm they'll be subletting in the future, unless CF has a way to bring retail to the level that makes sense.
 

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