News   Oct 08, 2024
 147     0 
News   Oct 08, 2024
 396     0 
News   Oct 08, 2024
 306     0 

News on retail chains (was: New Mall Retail)

Retail Insider has an article about Uniqlo opening 3 more stores in the GTA. But at the end it quotes someone that a major international retailer is entering the Canadian market. So here is my wish list: Galleries Lafayettes, Seko, Selfridges or Brown Thomas from Ireland.

Just saw that one of them will be at Heartland Town Centre in Mississauga
 
Last edited:
Retail Insider has an article about Uniqlo opening 3 more stores in the GTA. But at the end it quotes someone that a major international retailer is entering the Canadian market. So here is my wish list: Galleries Lafayettes, Seko, Selfridges or Brown Thomas from Ireland.

It will not be any of the above. Wrong market segment for most of those, its not a luxury brand.

Primark would be brilliant...unfortunately the Weston's don't need anymore of our money.

Its not them either.

***

And no, unfortunately, I can't share who it is at this point.
 
Just saw that one of them will be at Heartland Town Centre in Mississauga. Guess that is why the location at Square One disappeared.
Wdym? I just checked both the Square One website and Uniqlo website and that location is listed on both.
 
The Pusateri's store at Bayview Village is temporarily closed, and its future looks uncertain:



Excerpts from the article:

Just four months after closing their 20-year-old Yorkville spot, upscale Italian grocer Pusateri’s might be facing new troubles with its Bayview Village location now shuttered.

Though Pusateri’s has yet to comment, insiders tell Streets of Toronto that the place is now locked up tight. An Instagram comment on Pusateri’s most recent post also hints at trouble brewing:

“What happened to your Bayview Village store,” the comment reads. “I and other shoppers were shocked to see it closed and empty.”

“… Several factors [are] driving a shift in the retail landscape, which impacted this property,” Pusateri’s marketing head, Paolo Pusateri, told Grocery Business magazine about the Yorkville closing.

The plan, he said, was to zero in on their three remaining spots — Avenue Road, Bayview Village and Eaton Centre — while also launching a new 10,000-square-foot store in Little Italy this spring. But with radio silence on that new location for quite some time, the question now looms: Will this store ever see the light of day?

We contacted Bayview Village Guest Services to inquire about the status of Pusateri’s and were informed that they are currently unsure of its status.

“We are still trying to reach someone from Pusateri’s. “For the time being, the store is temporarily closed.”

The announcement of the Little Italy location was met with great excitement, marking Pusateri’s return to its roots. Originally slated to open in the summer of 2023, the fine food store has faced ongoing delays. Despite the high hopes and anticipation, the company has remained tight-lipped about the reasons for the more-than-a-year-overdue opening.
 
The Pusateri's store at Bayview Village is temporarily closed, and its future looks uncertain:



Excerpts from the article:

Just four months after closing their 20-year-old Yorkville spot, upscale Italian grocer Pusateri’s might be facing new troubles with its Bayview Village location now shuttered.

Though Pusateri’s has yet to comment, insiders tell Streets of Toronto that the place is now locked up tight. An Instagram comment on Pusateri’s most recent post also hints at trouble brewing:

“What happened to your Bayview Village store,” the comment reads. “I and other shoppers were shocked to see it closed and empty.”

“… Several factors [are] driving a shift in the retail landscape, which impacted this property,” Pusateri’s marketing head, Paolo Pusateri, told Grocery Business magazine about the Yorkville closing.

The plan, he said, was to zero in on their three remaining spots — Avenue Road, Bayview Village and Eaton Centre — while also launching a new 10,000-square-foot store in Little Italy this spring. But with radio silence on that new location for quite some time, the question now looms: Will this store ever see the light of day?

We contacted Bayview Village Guest Services to inquire about the status of Pusateri’s and were informed that they are currently unsure of its status.

“We are still trying to reach someone from Pusateri’s. “For the time being, the store is temporarily closed.”

The announcement of the Little Italy location was met with great excitement, marking Pusateri’s return to its roots. Originally slated to open in the summer of 2023, the fine food store has faced ongoing delays. Despite the high hopes and anticipation, the company has remained tight-lipped about the reasons for the more-than-a-year-overdue opening.

That's good news! This is a company that price gouged hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes during the first COVID lockdown, until the media got hold of it, then they claimed the pricing was a "mistake" lol

Good riddance Pusateri's! You won't be missed!
 
I'm calling it now - their bizarre choice of a high end store on middle class College street in Little Italy will never open. Such a stupid choice.
 
Canada's Couche Tard, owner of Circle K convenience stores has made a bid to buy Japanese based 7-11.


Couche Tard is already huge with 14,000 locations, but 7-11 is larger in location count (by quite a bit) at 85,000 around the Globe. The former, however, has the larger market cap.

Together, they would operate ~100,000 convenience stores and be the undeniable global behemoth in that space.

****

Quick thoughts:

1) There's an odd moment of nationalism when one thinks of having a global giant headquartered in your country. But that doesn't make this a great idea.

2) I don't see how this can't suppress competition and favour a more oligopolistic world in retail.

3) Its far from a given this will go ahead, takeovers of Japanese companies by foreign interests are rare, both Japanese business culture and the state tend to frown on such. Couche Tard's last big play was for
French grocer Carrefour, and France ultimately made clear that it would not be allowed.
 
Last edited:
Canada's Couche Tard, owner of Circle K convenience stores has made a bid to buy Japanese based 7-11.


Couche Tard is already huge with 14,000 locations, but 7-11 is larger in location count (by quite a bit) at 85,000 around the Globe. The former, however, has the larger market cap.

Together, they would operate ~100,000 convenience stores and be the undeniable global behemoth in that space.

****

Quick thoughts:

1) There's an odd moment of nationalism when one thinks of having a global giant headquartered in your country. But that doesn't make this a great idea.

2) I don't see how this can't suppress competition and favour a more oligopolistic world in retail.

3) Its far from a given this will go ahead, takeovers of Japanese companies by foreign interests are rare, both Japanese business culture and the state tend to frown on such. Couche Tard's last big play was for
French grocer Carrefour, and France ultimately made clear that it would not be allowed.
Some things I've seen on this:
  • Much of this Japanese company's business is not related to 7-11, so they may make part of a deal that 7-11 is simply a spin-off and the rest is sold off in Japan to satisfy the Japanese.
  • Apparently this company has already been under activist shareholder pressure to separate 7-11 from the rest of their Japanese business activities too.
  • A big hurdle may be US regulators since like Dollar Stores, Convenience Stores have in the past decade come under much more scrutiny as they start to make up noticeably more of the food service and grocery network, especially in urban low-income neighbourhoods and in rural or isolated towns, and a combined 7-11 with Circle K in the US would have overwhelming market share in the space.
 

Back
Top