The Retail Apocalypse

[christiesplits]

Flight Centre Shuts Doors at Locations Across Ontario

According to the TICO website, outlets including the GTA and Hamilton, have joined the list of Ontario-registered travel retailers and travel wholesalers that are no longer registered with TICO.

ca.travelpulse.com

Flight Centre has shut down more than a dozen outlets across Ontario since this summer, TravelPulse Canada has learned.

According to the TICO website, outlets including the GTA and Hamilton, have joined the list of Ontario-registered travel retailers and travel wholesalers that are no longer registered with TICO. In some cases, a closure may result in claims against the Compensation Fund.

 

[AlbertC]

Ben Sherman is set to leave the Canadian brick and mortar market as their Queen West store is closing in October. Their former Vaughan Mills and Square One stores have already closed.

Brief: Ben Sherman Exiting Canada, Tudor Opening 1st Storefront

Other News: Swarovski opens 1st 'crystal studio', OVO Opens in Ottawa, Duer expanding to the US, Hudson’s Bay partners with INLAND, Balzac’s Coffee Roasters opens two new locations.

www.retail-insider.com

 

[AlbertC]

Department stores' decade of decline

The coronavirus pandemic has worsened an existential crisis that deepened over the last 10 years.

Oct. 7, 2020

Department stores' decade of decline

The coronavirus pandemic has worsened an existential crisis that deepened over the last 10 years.

www.retaildive.com

Gen Z spending hits all-time low

Oct. 6, 2020

Dive Brief:

• Self-reported teen spending has fallen 9% year over year and 5% since this past spring, to $2,150.
• That marks an all-time low in Piper Sandler's semi-annual Generation Z survey, which the firm has conducted for some 20 years.
• According to the survey results, 48% of teens believe the economy is getting worse, a slight increase from the spring and 16 percentage points more than last fall. Nearly a quarter of the cohort reported that COVID-19 had hurt their ability to find work.

Gen Z spending hits all-time low

Piper Sandler found that nearly half of teens think the economy is getting worse and almost a quarter have had their work prospects affected by COVID-19.

www.retaildive.com

 

[AlbertC]

Luxury Apparel Retail in Canada Expected to Slow Amid Pandemic: Expert

October 14, 2020

Trendex estimates that the Canadian luxury apparel market will decrease by 16.8 percent in 2020 and increase by only 1.6 percent from 2019 to 2023 to $2.8 billion. The decrease of the Canadian luxury apparel market will be driven in 2020 by a 17 percent decrease in luxury women’s apparel sales while men’s luxury apparel will decrease by 16.2 percent. Purse sales will decrease by 16.7 percent.

Randy Harris, president and owner of Trendex North America, said much of the luxury apparel market decline this year is due to the absolute shut down of retail for about three months.

“But it’s also due to the lack of tourists that are coming into the country. The borders have basically been sealed for over six months now. So those high-end tourists from Asia for example are just not shopping in luxury retail stores,” said Harris. “You also have a reticence on the part of consumers right now to just go out and shop because they’re not sure if there is a second wave coming around the corner or not. So there’s a reluctance among a log to people I think to make a purchase.

“The thing that helps the luxury retailers in Canada right now and why they’re surviving is they’re backed up by ‘daddy deep pockets’. In other words, there’s nobody behind a Reitmans, there’s nobody behind a Le Chateau. But when you’re talking about Gucci in Canada if business is bad, rents have to be paid, their parent will take care of that. I think that’s what you’re seeing. Yes they will get through it but their sales will reflect what’s going on in Europe and around the world with the luxury market but it might even be affected more in Canada because of the tremendous decrease in tourists coming in.

“It’s really a shame that the industry has grown, matured, expanded over the last three or four years and in a sense ready to bloom this year and then all of a sudden it got the rug pulled out from under it through no fault of its own.”

Luxury Apparel Retail in Canada Expected to Slow Amid Pandemic: Expert

COVID-19 is slamming luxury retail and wiping out impressive gains in 2019, according to Trendex.

www.retail-insider.com

 

[AlbertC]

Gap Inc. exiting malls, to shutter 350 stores by 2024

October 22, 2020

The San Francisco-based retailer, which was for decades a fixture at shopping malls around the country, said Thursday that it will be closing 220 of its namesake Gap stores — or one-third of its store base — by early 2024. That will result in 80% of its remaining Gap stores being in off-mall locations.

As part of its restructuring, Gap Inc. said it also plans to close 130 of its Banana Republic stores in North America in three years.

The announcement made at a Gap Inc. investor meeting detailed a three-year plan that calls for closing what amounts to 30% of the company's Gap and Banana Republic stores in North America and focusing on outlets and e-commerce business.

The moves come as Gap and other clothing retailers are trying to reinvent themselves during the pandemic, which forced many non-essential stores to temporarily close in the spring and early summer. The lockdown of the economy led many shoppers to shift more of their spending to online, which many experts believe will be permanent.

“We’ve been overly reliant on low-productivity, high-rent stores," said Mark Breitbard, CEO of the Gap brand, which was founded in 1969. “We’ve used the past six months to address the real estate issues and accelerate our shift to a true omni-model."

But the company plans to add more of its thriving low-priced Old Navy and Athleta stores. Executives said that Old Navy, Gap Inc.'s biggest business with annual sales of $8 billion in its most-recent year, is forecast to grow to $10 billion by early 2024. The plan is to open 30 to 40 new stores in the next three years. Old Navy now has about 1,200 stores.

Athleta, which sells activewear, is forecast to double in revenue to $2 billion in that time frame. It has about 200 stores in the U.S. Its goal to have roughly 300.

Gap Inc. exiting malls, to shutter 350 stores by 2024

NEW YORK — Gap Inc. is moving away from the nation’s malls.The San Francisco-based retailer, which was for decades a fixture at shopping malls around the country, said Thursday that it will be closing 220 of its namesake Gap stores — or one-third of its store base — by early 2024. That will...

ca.finance.yahoo.com

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

As expected:

Clothing retailer Le Chateau obtains CCAA protection, plans to close its doors

MONTREAL - Le Chateau Inc. says it is seeking court protection from creditors to allow it to shut down and liquidate its assets.

www.thestar.com

AoD

 

[Towered]

As I mentioned earlier, once they went away from the styles that made them unique and edgy in the 90's to become just another vanilla chain with boring clothes, the slow decline set in. A lot of companies and brands seem to forget why they became popular in the first place and ultimately pay the price.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

As I mentioned earlier, once they went away from the styles that made them unique and edgy in the 90's to become just another vanilla chain with boring clothes, the slow decline set in. A lot of companies and brands seem to forget why they became popular in the first place and ultimately pay the price.

They probably fell into the "we have to expand our market reach to grow" trap.

AoD

 

[AlbertC]

As a Gen Y'er, Le Chateau has been an irrelevant brand for well over a decade and more now. For me they've always felt like a filler background store at every mall, that you don't go to and weren't sure if they do enough business to get by.

 

[gabe]

I'm a Gen Y'er too, The Le Chateau of the 90s didn't sell generic office wear like they do today. I bought some shirts for my nephew last year at Le Chateau. He needed office appropriate clothes for his new job. Those shirts are now collecting dust in his closet, as he works from home now. Really there is nothing in Le Chateau for men under 30.

 

[Johnny Au]

For anyone born after 1985, such as myself (being born in 1988), Le Château nowadays is for job interview clothes and nothing more.

 

[toaster29]

It definitely was popular for 90-95 born girls to buy their prom dresses from, earlier than that, maybe not so much. I think it was bigger in the smaller areas that didn't have the bigger/more popular stores.

 

[Towered]

It definitely was popular for 90-95 born girls to buy their prom dresses from, earlier than that, maybe not so much. I think it was bigger in the smaller areas that didn't have the bigger/more popular stores.

They had a pretty good selection of alternative clothes in the 90's that you would not be able to find at other mainstream chains. That was their niche. Once they went away from that it was curtains.

 

[syn]

Unfortunate to see another successful Canadian company close. I like what Le Chateau has now - some good basics for men at reasonable prices.

 

[AlbertC]

NYX Cosmetics Exiting Canadian Stores

L’Oréal-owned NYX Cosmetics is shutting all of its Canadian stores after entering the market in 2015. It will result in more vacancies at a challenging time for the retail industry.

NYX Cosmetics opened its first Canadian store in 2015 at Square One in Mississauga. A second store opened at 363 Queen Street West in Toronto which was followed by a storefront at CF Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto. In 2016, NYX opened stores at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto as well as at CF Rideau Centre in Ottawa. In May of 2017, NYX opened its first Vancouver store on Robson Street which it shut earlier this year. The expansion continued with a store at West Edmonton Mall in June of 2017 and more stores opened after. NYX already closed several of its Canadian stores permanently prior to the announcement and as of today the company operates 10 stores in the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa, London, and Vancouver.

BRIEF: NYX Cosmetics Shutting All Stores in Canada, Second City Comedy Relocating to the Danforth

Other news: Bayview Village goes virtual for the holiday season, Arc'teryx launches first Icon store in the US, Bluebird Self Storage expands within Ontario.

www.retail-insider.com