Toronto Eaton Centre (Ongoing Renewal) | ?m | ?s | Cadillac Fairview | Zeidler

Skeezix said:
True enough. Eaton's was criticized for letting its stores get tired, but Sears puts them to shame on that front.
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Wasn't Eaton's already acquired by Sears when they moved upscale and refreshed their stores? Would have been nice if they had been able to stick with that strategy, with retail trends afterwards splitting into high and low ends. Sears instead just continued aiming for the middle class consumer who no longer exists.
 
Sears problem is that their stores look like ultra low end retailers but they charge mid range prices, not that mid range pricing no longer exists. Mid range priced goods have moved into smaller, but more diverse selection of retailers.
 
bcx said:
Wasn't Eaton's already acquired by Sears when they moved upscale and refreshed their stores? Would have been nice if they had been able to stick with that strategy, with retail trends afterwards splitting into high and low ends. Sears instead just continued aiming for the middle class consumer who no longer exists.
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I wasn't talking about the 7-store mini "eatons" chain that Sears owned, but pre-bankruptcy Eaton's. Eaton's was, haphazardly, investing in its flagship stores, but even Eaton's suburban locations didn't get as dumpy as what one often sees at Sears these past few years. Eddie Lampert has reduced investment in existing stores to a much greater degree than the Eaton brothers ever did.

Not sure the eatons experiment ever had much of a chance.
 
And yet it was when Eaton's decided to go from being a middle-of-the-road retailer to a higher-end clothing retailer that their long, slow decline turned into a nosedive. They successfully alienated what remaining customers they had, without attracting any new ones. Turned out their new target demographic was either already well-served elsewhere, or simply not great enough in number to sustain a large national chain.

Sears quickly discovered that although Canadians very much liked the idea of Eaton's, they weren't much interested in actually shopping at one.
 
The framing above the old SEARS is looking like another media tower, independent of the store that will go below it.

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Speaking of which, Uniqlo has finally put up ads for their Eaton Centre store, yet just months away from completion of this expansion, there's still no word on who will occupy the third high profile retail location facing into Yonge-Dundas Sq.

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In retrospect, that space could have been used as the Eaton Centre media tower that would have enabled them to preserve the old green house atrium, open to the sky above.

I don't trust Cadillac Fairview to do the right thing but somewhere in an alternate universe, they built the media tower on the corner over the old SEARS and restored the Eaton Centre greenhouse atrium with the H&M entrance inside the open atrium where the terrace cafe, police station and TD bank used to be.

20120210-EatonCentre-Postcard
 
MetroMan said:
In retrospect, that space could have been used as the Eaton Centre media tower that would have enabled them to preserve the old green house atrium, open to the sky above.

I don't trust Cadillac Fairview to do the right thing but somewhere in an alternate universe, they built the media tower on the corner over the old SEARS and restored the Eaton Centre greenhouse atrium with the H&M entrance inside the open atrium where the terrace cafe, police station and TD bank used to be.

20120210-EatonCentre-Postcard
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And the circular retail space is one element that should have been replicated - it adds a lot to visual interest if properly arranged.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
And the circular retail space is one element that should have been replicated - it adds a lot to visual interest if properly arranged.

AoD
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Would have been nice if CF had recreated the circular space, and a circular media screen above. But that probably would not have passed a cost-benefit analysis.

I recently read somewhere that many of the commercial real estate companies are majority-owned by pension funds and are therefore disproportionately risk-averse.

During my last visit to Toronto, I noticed there was a new LED screen on Yonge, almost directly facing the entrance between Nordstrom and Roots. But that screen appears to lack content and was advertising for customers. It would appear the economics for sustaining street advertising is not very compelling in Toronto.
 
I believe that screen is for the Footlocker and Vans stores that are directly underneath. I don't think I've ever seen any third party ads there...
 
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