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Target

I think Thorncliffe Park would be a good location for a Walmart as well, especially in close proximity to Costco, however it would be much too close to the Warden & Eglinton Walmart to be effective.

Not at all! There's plenty of space and people between the two for a Thorncliffe location to work just fine for Walmart.

Too bad.

42
 
re: Sony

No love lost - just what do they offer that requires shoppers to go to their store anyways? In fact, their sales are utterly useless (it's always a bad sign when you ask them about a product and they look at you like you're from Mars).

AoD
 
Not at all! There's plenty of space and people between the two for a Thorncliffe location to work just fine for Walmart.

Too bad.

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Isn't there talk of a Wal-mart in the Smart Centre development on north side of Wicksteed (across the road from the Leaside SmartCentre)?
 
Mergers and buy-outs seem to have wiped out so many chains. As soon as somebody makes a reasonably successful go of it in the segment they get bought out. There truly is a lack of choice, even with the illusion of choice à la Old Navy-Gap-Banana branding . Thanks globalization!

I wonder if Target's bail will have any effect on other foreign brands coming to Canada?
 
Actually, at 145,000 sq.ft, I wouldn't rule Canadian Tire out for the space either. We are building a 135k sq.ft flagship (our first ever flagship) in Edmonton as we speak. 145k for Toronto would be perfect for a second flagship store. We have a habit of making spur of the moment decisions when an opportunity is too good to pass up.
 
No thanks, not even for sentimental reasons. A poor shopping experience all around.

Agreed. Zellers was consistent in sucking hard. Stores that looked like a bomb had gone off in a warehouse, and still the same horrible inventory problems. Perhaps Canadians are more forgiving of that because we never expected Zellers not to suck.
 
*chuckle* I brought this up in the SmartCentre thread. They're building a 90,000 sqft Walmart as the anchor store at Leslie & York Mills. The Bayview-York Mills community is not pleased with it. Link for thread: http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showthread.php/9600-Best-Smart!Centre-in-Toronto

Again, I bring up the new Walmart Supercentre being developed in the Leslie & York Mills SmartCentre. I do think this Walmart location is slightly different in that it is multi-level with the Walmart being at the lower level, somewhat out of sight but still easily accessible. Based on the concept sketches, it doesn't look like it is as institutional and "in your face" as a typical big box plaza, say, along the Golden Mile, but I do still think it's out of place in this neighborhood. Anyway, check the SmartCentre thread for more on that one!

The local community's argument is a bit silly. It is not like Leslie/York Mills is some sort of dense and sophisticated urban nodes like Yonge/Queen or Spadina/Bloor. It is the middle of suburbs for Christ's sakes with buildings 200 meter apart from each other. It will "cheapen" the place? How can they decide what kind of retail should and should not be there when they don't own the land? If the locals are too rich, then a Wal-mart will be out of business, and if it can survive, it means Wal-mart has a reason to be there to meet the demand. Such snobbish attitude toward a retailer is laughable. Will a Canadian Tire or Costco store "cheapen" the area? They are not exactly more upscale.
 
Thinking about many of the Target locations in Toronto and the surrounding 905 regions; some malls will do okay, some will be royally screwed.

Were Target is located in first and second tier malls, such as Square One, Erin Mills Town Centre, Bramalea City Centre, Upper Canada Mall, and Pickering Town Centre, I think that the malls will be able to adapt. After all, they recently renovated and/or expanded. Though all of these malls (except Square One) still have a Sears store; when (not if) Sears winds down Canadian operations, they will be hit by a double-whammy.

Hardest hit will be third and fourth-tier malls like Shoppers World Brampton, Cloverdale Mall, Centerpoint, Sheridan Centre, Oshawa's Five Points Mall, where interested quality retailers will be hard to find and are too close to existing Wal-Mart locations. A Wal-Mart recently opened near Steeles and Kennedy, otherwise Shoppers World (which has lost much of its prestige; a friggin' Bad Boy moved in to where the demolished Bay store used to be) might have made sense for that retailer.

I think East York would be ideal for Wal-Mart; neither Gerrard Square nor Golden Mile are particuarly close; there's a large lower-income market very close by that won't likely be shopping at Costco.
 
I think East York would be ideal for Wal-Mart; neither Gerrard Square nor Golden Mile are particuarly close; there's a large lower-income market very close by that won't likely be shopping at Costco.

But Walmart is opening nearby on Laird. According to Google maps, that's only a 2.4 km drive away (between the existing Target and Walmart's soon-to-be Laird and Wicksteed location).

Mind you, I suspect that a good % of the population in Thorncliffe Park doesn't drive (correct me if I am wrong), and a 30 minute walk to the Laird Walmart might not entice them. But would Walmart open a store so close just to serve Thorncliffe?
 

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