Winnipeg Retail
 

As the retail scene in Winnipeg is rapidly evolving with many new highend retailers moving to our city I thought a thread dedicated to such news is warranted.

H & M Coming To Winnipeg

Another sign retail is about to pick up. Clothing chain H & M has plans for a Winnipeg store. It will be the Swedish company's first location between Alberta and Southern Ontario. The company is currently advertising jobs available in Winnipeg on its website, including a manager. It has 18-hundred stores worldwide, in 33 countries.

source: CJOB

Asper Granted 12 Month Extension


A new home for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is still on track. David Asper, the man who plans to build a new stadium at the University of Manitoba Thursday announced he's been granted a 12-month extension by the Winnipeg Football Club to allow progress to continue on a new CFL stadium and companion retail development at Polo Park. Asper remains as confident as ever he can make it happen. The extension agreed to by all stakeholders follows the signing of letters of intent with two major U.S. retailers interested in anchoring what Asper is called The Elms Collection, a 650-thousand square foot upscale shopping destination to be constructed on the site of the current stadium. Once complete, the Elms will serve as the new stadium's economic engine to ensure the project is primarily paid for by the private sector and not taxpayers. Ken Hildahl, the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Blue Bombers said the organization remains behind Asper's plan, and dedicated to construction of a new stadium at the University of Manitoba. Asper says next steps will focus on finalizing lease arrangements with those two U.S. anchor tenants, and then launching an extensive marketing campaign to attract the supporting junior anchor and boutique retailers. He hopes the stadium can be completed by 2012.

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/9742/theelms.jpg

source: CJOB

For those wondering where the downtown retail news was ... I found one.

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Fight At Portage Place


Eyewitnesses say a fight over a cell phone may have prompted an incident just before 11 o'clock Thursday morning at Centre Court at Portage Place. One person had a pipe, another a knife. The fight was broken up quickly by security. Police were also called.


source: CJOB

Finally Winnipeg will establish itself within the high end retail market. A little bling in River City will be very nice.

I will be more than glad to see Winnipeg ditch its discount town image once and for all. No longer will people have to goto Minniapolis or Toronto to shop at some highend stores. Winnipeg is entering a new level of retail. :yes:

now all we need is a zara and we're set!

I was at a Zara location in Vegas in July, best mens store ever! best jackets!

I would like to see a Crate & Barrel and Williams Sonoma in Winnipeg

They have them in Calgary now..

Restoration Hardware, too...

At this rate, with attracting high-end retailers, we might end up having Jaguar, Bentley, and Maserati setting up shop here soon! :P

do they have Forever 21 yet in Winnipeg?

thats the newest "it" label in Canada - they are expanding like crazy with really big 20,000+ sq ft stores across the states...

its basically the US's version of H&M - fast cheap trendy fashion - the store in downtown san fran is 3 levels and has a decent selection of mens stuff

all my girlfriends are COMPLETELY obsessed with forever 21.. so if it came here, i'm sure it would make a killing - death to sirens! other than that, what would one think of a h&m branch into osborne to compliment american apparel someday? i can see osborne accomodating a boutique hotel and more destination retail...

My daughter (who works in a store in Polo Park) says that Forever 21 is definitely opening in Polo Park this year. She's excited because she orders a lot of stuff from them online right now.

for those that care Urban Barn is about to open another location in Polo Park area. on Ellice bw McD's and Robinson Lighting

the unfortunate part of this location is that they closed their location in Osborne Village and relocated there.

ohhh that is not good, i assumed it was another location

how is the IKEA coming along? is under construction now?

I don't know if anyone know this, but there is a new Asian supermarket called T&T Supermarket, being built near the corner of Notre Dame and McPhillips. I don't know when it's going to be open, but by the looks of the store, it looks like construction is just about finished, and set to be open very soon.

It's apparently a high-end type supermarket, similar to a Sobey's, Safeway, or Superstore.

I've been in the ones out west in Calgary and Edmonton, and they're very clean in there, very much like any other supermarket.

Never knew about this, are you sure?, where exactly is it located? landmarks, business's close by?

We've already got a Jaguar - Land Rover store.

The store isn't set to begin construction until 2011. The associated road work is set to begin next year.

Nothing yet .... there is a great deal of work to be done to clear the land and prepare it for its new use. I don't think we'll see any actual construction for at least a year. The scale of this development will be very large. The city will also start to upgrade Route 90 for the upcoming development.

Believe me I am looking forward to it.

Consumer confidence soars
 

[IMG]http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/578*175/confidence.jpg[/IMG]

Consumer confidence is at an all-time high in Winnipeg, and that has experts forecasting a merry Christmas for local retailers.

A new Jory capital/Winnipeg Free Press consumer confidence survey found 87 per cent of adult Winnipeggers are optimistic about the city's economic future.

That's 17 percentage points higher than it was a year ago, when the global economic recession was starting to take hold, and the highest it's been in the nearly 14 years since Probe Research began conducting the quarterly surveys.

What's even more encouraging is that 38 per cent of the 1,000 Manitobans surveyed also said they expect their own financial situations to improve over the next year.

That's five percentage points higher than a year ago.

It's also substantially better than the results from a recent Conference Board of Canada survey, which found only 28 per cent of Canadians thought they'd be better off financially a year from now.

Probe Research president Scott McKay and University of Manitoba marketing professor Rob Warren said those kinds of confidence numbers should keep the cash registers humming during the upcoming Christmas shopping season.

"When people are confident, not only about their existing income but also their longer-term income, they'll spend more money," Warren said.

"To have Winnipeg consumers feeling that strongly about the place where they live has got to be good news (for retailers)," McKay said. "It's got to be good for everybody."

Although the survey found rural Manitobans weren't as upbeat -- only 79 per cent of them said they were optimistic about their community's economic outlook -- McKay and Jory Capital CEO Patrick Cooney blamed that on the cold, wet weather this past spring and summer, on weak commodity prices and on the financial crisis within the local hog industry.

Luke Nolan, owner of The Haberdashery Guys & Girls store on Albert Street, said he was already feeling pretty good about his retail prospects for this Christmas.

And now he's feeling even better after hearing the latest consumer-confidence numbers.

Nolan said he's also found consumers tend to spend more freely if they're feeling good about the local economy.

"And I think this area (the Exchange District) is also getting busier," he said.

"So I think this Christmas will be good."

Probe also asked Manitobans how confident they were the Canadian recession is now behind us, and three out of five (59 per cent) said they thought it was. McKay said that's likely another reason why Winnipeggers are so upbeat about the future.

Another was the fact Manitoba wasn't as hard hit by the recession as most other parts of the country, he said.

"I do believe that most Manitobans never thought we were in a recession here..."

While a majority of Manitobans think the Canadian recession is over, Jory's Cooney isn't one of them.

He said consumer and government debt loads are still way too high and Canada's leading trading partner -- the United States -- is still in a lot of economic trouble with a weakening currency and rising unemployment rates.

"We're not out of woods yet, by any means," he said.

It's right behind the McDonald's and Burger King there. It's a bit hidden, since they're in the way.

That's actually a Lucky supermarket, a franchise Asian market based in Alberta, but I know T&T/Loblaws has intentions on opening up in Winnipeg.
http://www.luckysupermarket.ca

Get all your Asian needs on Mcphillips
-Youngs Trading
-Van Loi
and now Lucky Supermarket

don't forget china town

T&T is something else. It would do well here, I think.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up!

Either way, more competition for the Asian markets here, and appropriately located too.

i have a friend that works at the starbucks that had to be moved for h&m at polo park.. apparently they moved for nothing because h&m is no longer opening in the mall. wonder if they're not pursuing winnipeg anymore or they got lured somewhere else? my friend wouldn't say. the website still says they're hiring so i'm hoping he just heard wrong!

perhaps they are moving into the old a&b sound building on donald and portage?

^ why do you put these seeds of hope in me...

cause its what i do

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if the government in this town was hip and serious about revitalization at all, they would bend over backwards to get them to set-up on portage downtown!

^^^Agreed. That would be an anchor like no other for retail on portage avenue. Hell, I would open up a clothing store next to it to just get the overflow.

I would really be surprised if H&M pulled their plans for Winnipeg. Their clothes just seem to fit what all the kids are wearing nowadays in Winnipeg (I even have some H&M stuff and I'm not really that "trendy" or anything)

It would definitely "fit" them. :P

Yes it would be a good fit, but would they be as profitable as they would in Polo Park? I hope they are still considering a Winnipeg store. Jeff's comment frightened me.

I don't think that location in the (Polo Park) mall really suits them. It's not on the main traffic area of the mall. I'd like to see one in Portage Place though. Not going to happen as long as it's still a gang and drug dealer hangout. Clean up the area and maybe the people and retailers will come. Make it a (safe) destination. It could be so much.

They still are, there are job listings for the Winnipeg location still on their website. I guess no one knows where its going to be and when? (Hence the discussion)

I heard today they're coming to Polo Park, along with Forever 21.

cake clothing is also opening in polo park...hopefully this doesnt spell the end of their exchange district store....

damn, with all of these huge chains coming to winnipeg, there'll be no reason to ever go to grand forks/fargo/minneapolis anymore.

o well just means the money stays kinda more so local in pying some peoples wages

St Vital i think, and i believe it is just a temporary x-mas store.

I can't believe they could afford Polo Park rents over the long term.

Is something happening in the Dreman Building on Portage? Soup Pierre gone, Second Cup gone ... did they jack up their rents or is there a larger tenant moving in? I don't know how a Second Cup couldn't make a go of it.

Teresa, the super-awesome-but-way-too-happy barista who worked there says they just never got enough business. But it is odd that both Second Cup & Soup Pierre closed within a week of eachother.

(btw, if anyone else misses Teresa, she's now at the Starbucks in the Radisson)

hmm we should had a ssp meet in the 12floor restraunt in the radision or something

Just thought this belonged in the retail thread, since this will become the largest retail development in the city.

It is going to be HUGE.. makes the massive Ikea look like a normal store.