Winnipeg Retail

[esquire]

Council's decision to get CentreVenture involved in hiring a consultant and putting out a request for proposals with respect to a downtown supermarket led to an interesting discussion on CBC Information Radio this morning.

Munther Zeid, whose family runs several Food Fare locations around town, said that he kicked the tires on the former Extra Foods store on Notre Dame after it shut down earlier this year. He said that he talked to some of his friends working for the parent company about it, and he backed off when they told him that the shoplifting rate for that location was on the order of about 10 per cent.

That is a mind blowing statistic when you think about it... basically for every 9 carts of food going through the checkout line, one is walking out the door without paying a dime. You can't make it work in a fairly low margin business at that rate... with a number like that it's amazing that there are any supermarkets in the inner-city area at all. I wouldn't be surprised if the Safeway nearby on Sargent had similarly horrendous shrinkage rates. Zeid said the average rate is closer to 1 per cent.

Anyhow, Zeid said he wouldn't open a supermarket downtown without a police presence provided by the City. Even though downtown and the West End are different retail markets, it's reasonable to conclude that shoplifting is still a big issue downtown (remember the Portage Place dollar store owner who said she loses $100,000 a year to theft?) so you need pretty deep pockets to handle those kinds of losses.

(Full CBC story here).

[cllew]

I don't know if its true but I have been told that the the Safeway on Sargent @ Maryland has a holding cell in the back area to hold shoplifters for the police.

I also wonder what the "shrink rate" is at the Osbourne Village store compared to other Safeway stores in Winnipeg as its on the fringes of the downtown area?

[cllew]

MPI Staff at City Place were advised that the retail mall is going to be starting renovations in the near future. Before the renovations start in full according to the notice, there will be test sections of flooring going down to check the floor colour and pattern styles.

I wonder how much this has to do with the Shark Club and its upscale Gaming Room opening up at City Place?

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by cllew

I don't know if its true but I have been told that the the Safeway on Sargent @ Maryland has a holding cell in the back area to hold shoplifters for the police.

I also wonder what the "shrink rate" is at the Osbourne Village store compared to other Safeway stores in Winnipeg as its on the fringes of the downtown area?

A friend of mine used to work there. He told me there was in fact a holding cell.

[GoJetsGo]

Originally Posted by cllew

MPI Staff at City Place were advised that the retail mall is going to be starting renovations in the near future. Before the renovations start in full according to the notice, there will be test sections of flooring going down to check the floor colour and pattern styles.

I wonder how much this has to do with the Shark Club and its upscale Gaming Room opening up at City Place?

Sounds like good news to me! Walking into City Place always feels like you have been transported back to the late 1980's and not in a good way.

As for your comment about the Shark Club, these improvements could also be related to all of the changes coming to the area. A quick list would include the new Centre Point development across from the MTS Centre, the Fortress Development on Graham, the street upgrades to the SHED, the MPI development in the parking lot next to City Place, and I am sure there are more. City Place could just be trying to time their improvements so that they can be finished by the time all of those developments are complete; that way City Place will be ready to capitalize on all of the new foot traffic generated from those developments.

My only hope is that Portage Place will soon follow suit!

[cllew]

City Place has been renovated at least once (new flooring, light fixtures etc) since it opened, I don't think that Portage Place has has a major renovation at all yet.

[Bdog]

Originally Posted by cllew

City Place has been renovated at least once (new flooring, light fixtures etc) since it opened, I don't think that Portage Place has has a major renovation at all yet.

That's because it was SO ahead of its time when it was built. No need to renovate, because the times are just finally catching up...

[GoJetsGo]

Originally Posted by Bdog

That's because it was SO ahead of its time when it was built. No need to renovate, because the times are just finally catching up...

I can still remember going to Portage Place to see "Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?" when I was just a kid in 1993. So much has changed since then, but the mall deçor is almost the exact same.

http://newspaperarchive.com/winnipeg...-10-30/page-11

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by GoJetsGo

I can still remember going to Portage Place to see "Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?" when I was just a kid in 1993. So much has changed since then, but the mall deçor is almost the exact same.

http://newspaperarchive.com/winnipeg...-10-30/page-11

Yes the interior hasn't changed too much since that time, the retail stores have.. Sad actually I enjoyed my time in that mall when it 1st opened, had a chance to be involved in a shoot called "Chilled in Miami" a while back. But any way I should move this to the Portage Place discussion if I start down this road..

[Shinook]

Can we perhaps take the grammar lesson (English and French) to the Western Expresso thread, please?

[trebor204]

Target opens two stores this Tuesday (Southdale and Kildonan Place)
Cabela's has its Grand Opening this Thursday.

[GoJetsGo]

Originally Posted by trebor204

Target opens two stores this Tuesday (Southdale and Kildonan Place)
Cabela's has its Grand Opening this Thursday.

I am very much looking forward to having Target in Canada. I was a Zellers shopper and I miss having an alternative to Wal-Mart as a one-stop shop (apart from Costco). The only thing I really did not like about Zellers, that I am sure will be improved with Target, is the check-out process.

At Zellers, you would often have to wait for somebody to fill out paperwork for an HBC Credit Card or HBC Rewards Card in front of you while the clerk would just stand there and watch. If there were only two or three people in front of you, the check-out could take upwards of fifteen minutes.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by GoJetsGo

I am very much looking forward to having Target in Canada. I was a Zellers shopper and I miss having an alternative to Wal-Mart as a one-stop shop (apart from Costco). The only thing I really did not like about Zellers, that I am sure will be improved with Target, is the check-out process.

At Zellers, you would often have to wait for somebody to fill out paperwork for an HBC Credit Card or HBC Rewards Card in front of you while the clerk would just stand there and watch. If there were only two or three people in front of you, the check-out could take upwards of fifteen minutes.

I hear ya. I know at least at the Bay employees had to meet quotas for the number of people they signed up for those cards.

Passed Target in KP on the bus this morning around 8am. There were already quite a few people there. I wonder if they'll be openign that early daily?

[DavefromSt.Vital]

There were sign-up computer kiosks at the East York Target during their soft-opening. Don`t know if they will be permanent.

[SpongeG]

target in the states is usually open 8 am - 10 pm i imagine they will keep the same hours here in canada

[Biff]

The family and I went by the KP Store last night. Though it was my own fault for expecting it to be like a Super-Target, I/we were very underwhelmed. It seemed very small and the grocery section was tiny and kind of laughable. Much better than Zellers but i don't know how good they will do until they start rebuilding with Super-Targets.

.........on the flip-side, how smart was Wal-Mart's move to expand most of their stores to SuperCentres timed with the openings of the Target's. I am a huge Wal-Mart hater but i find the new SuperCentres to be much nicer than the new small Target's. My bet is you will see Target expanding or building new stores in very short order.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Biff

Much better than Zellers but i don't know how good they will do until they start rebuilding with Super-Targets.

Originally Posted by Biff

My bet is you will see Target expanding or building new stores in very short order.

Am I the only person that thought it was a little odd that they have only formally announced three Targets for the entire Winnipeg market - Kildonan Place, Southdale and Grant Park which will open later this year?

There is of course the "worst kept secret" that a store is about 99.9% confirmed for the northwest corner of the old stadium site. This is almost certainly be the first Super Target in the Winnipeg market.

Westport Festival which is about 1 km west of Unicity seems like a prime location for another new-build Super Target. Being a new development it needs an anchor tenant and it would keep with the distribution pattern that Walmart followed.

I fully expect a new build Target somewhere on Kenaston, perhpas in the Ikea/Seasons of Tuxedo development. This one is a little harder to make a definitive call though as the Kenaston Walmart was essentially a relocation of the Grant Park store.

Taking a bigger guess here but Murrary and McPhillips was under serious consideration for the Walmart that ended up at McPhillips and Court. with the announced expansion of Chief Pegius Trail essentially coming right along the site now this could work out as a location for a northwest/Garden City area Target build.

The Kildonan Place sotre I could see considering a new build to the north on the Shindco land or perhaps build on the Kildonan Place land from the mall enterance near the movie theather filling in the space behind the existing store then demolish the current store.

In terms of a Southdale/St Vital expansion or new build I have no solid suggestion due to the space restrictions. For an idea how tight the available space is in that market, this is the only Walmart of the six operating in Winnipeg to not have moved to a new purpose built store. Perhaps something new near Lag and the Perimeter along with Superstore and/or Lowes?

[cheswick]

So it turns out the 3 retail unit space on the second floor of Portage Place is becoming an "Ardene Concept Store". Ardene already holds the largest retail unit on the main floor of the mall, which was semi-recently expanded. Unclear if this is then a whole new store or jut a relocation from their current space.

Beats another office.

[rypinion]

Originally Posted by cheswick

So it turns out the 3 retail unit space on the second floor of Portage Place is becoming an "Ardene Concept Store". Ardene already holds the largest retail unit on the main floor of the mall, which was semi-recently expanded. Unclear if this is then a whole new store or jut a relocation from their current space.

Beats another office.

I was just coming here to say that. Will be interesting to see what happens with the main floor unit - I imagine the main floor unit wouldn't be vacant long (don't think there's many/any others?) if it is in fact a move.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by rypinion

I was just coming here to say that. Will be interesting to see what happens with the main floor unit - I imagine the main floor unit wouldn't be vacant long (don't think there's many/any others?) if it is in fact a move.

I think the only unit vacant on the main floor is on the corner across from HMV / by the lotto vender.

It seems the main level has always been more robust for retail.