Toronto non-mall retail (Odds & Ends)

[adma]

For those of you following the changes in the PATH stores, it looks like the store in the TD Centre recently vacated by Grand and Toy (although they've moved elsewhere in the centre for now) along with the adjoining couple of stores is now slated to become a Shopper's by summer. That means the existing Shoppers should be vacating--wonder if that's where the Grand and Toy will eventually go?

Also, the La Senza is now closed.

And I just noticed the Royal Bank Plaza La Senza is also gone...

 

[bAuHaUs]

Sears: Why you won’t find toys in the new look Sears
Published On Wed Mar 14 2012
Francine KopunRetail Reporter
After less than a year at the helm of Sears Canada Inc., CEO Calvin McDonald revealed a new look for the iconic retailer on Wednesday – fewer items, more space, more fashion, same value pricing.
“We’re catering to a newer customer who is a bit more modern,” said trend director Cynthia Florek, decked out for a tour of the spruced-up Yorkdale location in a colour-blocked dress in blue, black and white that sells for $69 at Sears.
In a sluggish retail market teeming with competition and more to come this year and next, Sears is shedding what doesn’t work while trying to crack new markets.
It’s pumping up fashion, including designs by Jay Manuel, the creative director and judge on America’s Next Top Model, and an area called the Trend Zone, with the latest styles, replenished monthly and aimed at a younger market – the 20-35-year-old woman.
“We want to react closer to the market,” said McDonald.
Prices remain low - prom dresses sell for $49-$99.
At the same time, Sears is paring down. It has more than 90 active private label brands. McDonald says he wants to reduce that by 30-40 per cent this year.
It’s also getting out of toy nooks in stores, concentrating instead on selling toys via catalogue. It’s paring down greeting cards. It’s getting out of video games. It’s getting out of hand tools and focusing on power tools.
The appliance department at the Yorkdale Sears has been enlarged, with wide-open aisles, careful lighting and 40 per cent more product. There are 30 per cent more mattresses on display – 40 in all – backed by a 60-day price-protection guarantee.
Ed Strapagiel, executive vice-president of the consulting research firm KubasPrimedia, said Sears is facing stiff competition on virtually every front, from cheap-chic retailers Zara and H&M to Canadian Tire, Best Buy and Future Shop.
It’s about to get worse. After buying up to 200 Zellers stores in Canada, Target sold 39 to Walmart and Walmart hopes to have the new locations up and running before Christmas.
“We’ve got a weak market and the only thing that is increasing is the number of competitors…someone is going to lose that’s all there is to it,” said Strapagiel.
The first Target stores are scheduled to open in March.

 

[FAC33]

And I just noticed the Royal Bank Plaza La Senza is also gone...

Yep, that went around December of last year. There's an artwork store there now.

 

[Vellore]

I apologize if this has already been dealt with here or elsewhere. Does anybody know if there is any truth to word that the Walmart at Highway 7 between 400 and Jane (by the new terminus of the Spadina subway) will be closing, to be replaced by an outlet at Weston and Major Mackenzie?

 

[AlbertC]

HomeSense to open at 80 Spadina.

http://www.blogto.com/arts/2012/03/will_the_arrival_of_homesense_revive_80_spadina/

 

[grey]

and an area called the Trend Zone, with the latest styles, replenished monthly and aimed at a younger market

ROFL

They're so clueless.

 

[DTowner]

ROFL

They're so clueless.

No kidding! I hope they put signs up that actually say "Trend Zone" and have images of funky kids and smiling white people. It will be totally amazing/horrific. Eaton's tried to up-scale their market with their Aubergine campaign in the 90s and that went nowhere fast. I'm glad Sears is on its way out (only a matter of time) but I am worried as to what will take its place.

 

[grey]

They should make a Trend Zone sign using the font from Power Rangers.

 

[adma]

Either that, or make it retro in a way befitting its name, i.e. cater to kids who think 70s/80s mass fashion is kewl, like, totally rad...

 

[ACT7]

http://www.mpdclick.com/mudpie/action/viewNewsItem?contentItemId=1701084

Exerpt...

ted baker up by 15% thanks to internatio​nal impulse

22/03/2012

“This has been a very exciting year for the TedBaker brand. We have further developed our presence in established markets withnew stores in Europe, the US and Hong Kong and laid strongfoundations tosupport growth into new markets in 2012 with the recent openings of our firststore in Japan and an opening in Korea as well as exciting new openings plannedin London, Fifth Avenue, New York, Toronto, Canada and China later this year,”summed up Ray Kelvin CBE, Founder and Chief Executive.

 

[androiduk]

Long time Yonge & Isabella retailer Morningstar has signs up saying they're moving and the store is for lease.

 

[androiduk]

Porsche Design has window posters up advertising their upcoming store at Bay/Bloor.

 

[samsonyuen]

Queen West

G-Star Raw is moving into the old Xbox space on Queen West. So I guess no Microsoft store...

A&W is opening where Gorilla Monsoon is (as well as the old Moe's space at Yonge and Eglinton).

Banh Mi Boys reopens today after their soft launch and a couple of months of renovations.

 

[adma]

Just noticed today that the mega-Rexall at the Richmond-Adelaide Centre is now open...

 

[samsonyuen]

Dollarama

How Dollarama turns pocket change into billions

http://http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/how-dollarama-turns-pocket-change-into-billions/article2384867/

Still, challenges in the marketplace are looming larger for this singular company. Some analysts say that Dollarama is getting close to saturating the market. And there’s a new U.S. competitor in town—Dollar Tree (DLTR-Q94.490.040.04%), a much larger company that in 2010 established a beachhead by buying 86 Dollar Giant stores in Ontario and the three westernmost provinces.

Gonthier shrugs off concerns about saturation. Different numbers tell you different things, he says. In Quebec, there are 229 Dollarama outlets, roughly one for every 35,000 people. Apply that ratio to Canada as a whole, he argues, and there would be 950 outlets rather than less than 700. “And we’re still opening stores in Quebec.â€

Wong’s other dark cloud is competition, and in particular the advent of Dollar Tree Canada, which has ambitions of opening 1,000 stores. The two chains will be competing for spaces of roughly 10,000 square feet, and the overall retail real estate market is tight, with a 1% vacancy rate. There’s also, of course, the battle for customers. Dollar Tree is transforming the Dollar Giant outlets it bought last year into stores that, at first glance, look very much like Dollaramas—right down to the bright green colour scheme. But Dollar Tree’s maximum price is just $1.25, a reflection of the buying power of a U.S. parent that has four times the revenue of Dollarama.

“I’ve tried to use the science that exists today,†says Rossy, especially as it relates to a location’s customer catchment area. But out on the streets, it’s often a matter of instinct and seizing opportunities. In downtown Toronto, for example, Dollarama will soon open an outlet on King Street West, amid glitzy new nightclubs, restaurants and condos. And yet there is already a Dollarama just two blocks away, and it’s not a welfare crowd lining up at the cash—the manager says many of the trendy restaurants buy their wineglasses there. Both stores are in basements—cheaper than a ground-level location.

Where's this location?