[Moncton] Retail Thread

[DyAm00394]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Small CF Champlain update.

1) - I bought something at the Just Cozy pop-up this evening, and I was chatting up the clerk on duty. She said that their lease this year will only be valid until the end of January. This is because there is a new permanent tenant moving into this space, and the interior fit-up is to begin in February. I tried to get her to tell me who is moving in, but she said she didn't know.
2) - As mentioned in a previous post, the Bentley location at CF Champlain is safe for now. There are no plans on closing this particular store as part of the current filing for creditor protection.
3) - Despite the recent closures of Regis Salon at both McAllister Place and Regent Mall, the location at CF Champlain remains open. There is even a "help wanted" sign in the window, which should be evidence that there are no imminent plans for closure.

Not sure if it was mentioned before but, apparently Cazza Petite will be leaving the mall in March 2020 to their new location on Paul street. (Same strip mall as Moores Clothing) according to someone on Retail Talk & Share NB.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

Not sure if it was mentioned before but, apparently Cazza Petite will be leaving the mall in March 2020 to their new location on Paul street. (Same strip mall as Moores Clothing) according to someone on Retail Talk & Share NB.

Not surprised by this news. Both their current and previous locations in the mall looked "pop-upish" to me. They didn't even bother wiring up their signs!

[Good2go]

Just walked over to the bank next door to City Hall. I estimate 50 people standing in line in the snow to get into the Lush tent. Line goes to the corner of Main/Botsford.

[MonctonRad]

- and the feeding frenzy begins.

You have to hand it to Lush, all the social media attention to this has been worth thousands of dollars in free advertising to them.......

[benvui]

Originally Posted by Good2go

Just walked over to the bank next door to City Hall. I estimate 50 people standing in line in the snow to get into the Lush tent. Line goes to the corner of Main/Botsford.

I drove by just after 1 and there were still people waiting outside to get in. It should be noted, the store is open, there are people inside, these are the people who can't fit into the store.

[drewber]

Originally Posted by Good2go

Just walked over to the bank next door to City Hall. I estimate 50 people standing in line in the snow to get into the Lush tent. Line goes to the corner of Main/Botsford.

But parking! But bad location! People will complain about everything but I am glad lush has a line up and hopefully they find a permanent spot on main for 2020

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Small CF Champlain update.

1) - I bought something at the Just Cozy pop-up this evening, and I was chatting up the clerk on duty. She said that their lease this year will only be valid until the end of January. This is because there is a new permanent tenant moving into this space, and the interior fit-up is to begin in February. I tried to get her to tell me who is moving in, but she said she didn't know.

Lush lol

[MonctonRad]

Line-up for Lush.


Photo from Councillor Greg Turners FB page.

[DyAm00394]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

3) - Despite the recent closures of Regis Salon at both McAllister Place and Regent Mall, the location at CF Champlain remains open. There is even a "help wanted" sign in the window, which should be evidence that there are no imminent plans for closure.

An update on this: Here's a picture of the salon currently (down below). Shelves are bare and only have a few stock on them. An employee (of one of the now closed locations) said their salon looked like this (pic down below) before theirs closed.


And here is what else that employee said on Retail Talk & Share:

as an employee we were informed that Regis Corporation was going to be taken over by The Beautiful Group and that is why we weren’t receiving anything due to Regis holding back our retail & stock. It has been like this since last February, we were all starting to get concerned and we had contacted our District Manager several times and nobody could give us any answers other than “everything was going too be ok.”
Which we all shook it off, come March we had receiving small orders of back bar products but still not enough to ensure our safety... it was a shock to us all and as of right now we still don’t have any answers why this happened so suddenly, mostly without any notice to us the employees.

Also, here is what the Master Stylist of the CF Champlain location commented:

we have been preparing and doing our own research on the whole situation. Right now is a waiting game to see what ends up happening with us. Most of us are preparing for worst case scenario!

And the manager also just commented this:

we actually work here, and I'm the manager. The problem happening right now is not with the Regis corporation. It is with The Beautiful Group who, 2 years ago, bought all the mall brands of Regis/Mastercuts. And The Beautiful Group is owned by Regent who is a private equity firm of all lawyers. Basically: liquidate assets, pay debts, rebuild, rebrand. At this point, no one is safe. Most location closing have been doing so with only a day or 2 notice. Unfortunate. I also believe the non-payment of rent is due to the fact, if TBG does that, they are given the opportunity to re-negotiate leases and lease terms and get out of major penalty for bailing out of a lease early. I believe this was all planned ahead of time, but to be completely transparent even regional directors are not being given information of any of this happening. The lack of merchandising retail, in all honesty, is due to TBG buying our debts whe they bought us. So until they pay the debts to the warehouse, regular shipments of product for clients, will not continue. A lot of this information is just from myself and other Managers in other locations, going above and beyond our bosses and reaching out to merchandising...etc, demanding the truth. My best guess... they will either close all Canadian salons by Dec.31st, or a few choice salons will be safe... who ever proved their stat numbers in the previous years.

Last week, it was actually 9 Regis locations that closed and 2 Mastercuts locations in all of Canada... you can bet the conference calls were loud!!!

(The picture is from Retail Talk & Share NB).

[MonctonRad]

Wow, lots of detailed information there.

This is disturbing. Once private equity groups get involved in retail ownership, that's usually the kiss of death for the chain. These people are only interested in asset management and generating profit for shareholders, and have no real interest in the operational side of the business.

These are the same type of people who, over the last decade or so, have purchased most of the large department store chains on the continent, but not for the joy and challenge of retail management, and instead for the property value inherent in large footprint commercial buildings in the core of major cities. They sell these properties (which are usually the heart and soul of these retail chains) for billions of dollars, but weaken the chain immeasurably in the process. Equity managers don't care though. They've already made their profit, and if the retail heart is ripped out of middle America and small town Canada, and tens of thousands of employees thrown out of work in the process, then, well, that's just a "cost of doing business".............

Vultures.

So much for that "help wanted" sign in the window of the Regis Salon at CF Champlain.

[MonctonRad]

Bentley has emerged from bankruptcy protection (that was quick!)

https://www.retail-insider.com/retai...bpomNMWb4bEwOk

The above article from Retail Insider contains lots of interesting information.

- 90 stores will close, leaving 163 surviving locations.
- The casualties were mostly underperforming stores in markets where there were multiple locations (hence why the Brunswick Square location closed). The CF Champlain location is safe.

The next ‘new concept’ Bentley Leathers store will open next year at Avalon Mall in St. John’s, Newfoundland. It will be the only location in the city come next year, and will be positioned as a flagship. Bentley Leathers was founded in St. John’s in 1987 and is now headquartered in Montreal.

No news yet if the CF Champlain location will upgrade to a "new concept" store, but if this were to happen, it would likely mean relocating the store to a larger CRU within the mall.

[MonctonRad]

Latest rumour is that the recently closed GNC at CF Champlain will be replaced by another supplement store - Popeye's, relocating from the Codiac Plaza.

[PEI highway guy]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Bentley has emerged from bankruptcy protection (that was quick!)

https://www.retail-insider.com/retai...bpomNMWb4bEwOk

The above article from Retail Insider contains lots of interesting information.

- 90 stores will close, leaving 163 surviving locations.
- The casualties were mostly underperforming stores in markets where there were multiple locations (hence why the Brunswick Square location closed). The CF Champlain location is safe.



No news yet if the CF Champlain location will upgrade to a "new concept" store, but if this were to happen, it would likely mean relocating the store to a larger CRU within the mall.

BENTLEY IN SUMMERSIDE IS HAVING THEIR CLOSE OUT/LIQUIDATION SALE. The clerk I spoke to said the Charlottetown store will remain.

[MonctonRad]

Cineplex has been bought out by an American corporate giant - Cineworld

https://deadline.com/2019/12/cinewor...it-1202809965/

It will be interesting to see how this affects the two Cineplex complexes in Moncton, but I have a bad feeling about this. The Cineplex at CF Champlain is doing well, but the Cineplex at Wheeler Park is hurting, and needs to be upgraded or replaced. We had been hopeful Cineplex might do something with the old Costco site, but with this acquisition, any thoughts of this might just fly out the window.

At least Cineplex was Canadian, and the managers knew where the Maritimes were. As management gets ever more distant, the ability of the managers to ignore the Maritimes gets greater and greater.........

[DyAm00394]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Cineplex has been bought out by an American corporate giant - Cineworld

https://deadline.com/2019/12/cinewor...it-1202809965/

Wow. I really hope this doesn't mean the plans for the SJ theater expansion/renovation is put on the back burner. (The theater is suppose to expand shortly after Mark's moves to McAllister Place in March 2020). But I feel like it would be put on the back burner unfortunately.

[Taeolas]

Those are my fears as well. Hopefully they keep enough Canadian management to not forget about the Maritimes. But as is, the 4 NB theatres probably just dropped even lower on the upgrade schedule, despite the fact we're in desperate need for renovations and expansions.

Hell, I don't think the Freddy cinemas have been changed other than equipment upgrades since they were built. (Oh wait, they added seat numbers so they could do assigned seating in most of the screens recently.). And that was literally decades since those screens were built.

CBC Article on the buyout

And to be clear, it is a UK chain, not an American chain buying out Cineplex. Which may be better or worse. Better in that they are more likely to keep a solid Canadian management for the Canadian operations. Worse in that they are less likely to be aware of Canadian issues in general than an American company might (due to proximity)

They do own Regal Cinemas in the States, so probably Cineplex management will be rolled into Regal's management. So yeah I guess it basically makes it quasi-US based now. Especially in light of this:

"Our immediate post-acquisition objectives will be to combine Cineplex with our U.S. business," Chairman Anthony Bloom said.

[MonctonRad]

Indeed, that quoted statement in your post was the most alarming part of the entire article.

[DyAm00394]

Here is another article: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...-billion-deal/

Cineplex will continue to have a head office in Toronto, Mr. Greidinger said, but some operations will be shifted. "Some things are local and have to stay local," Mr. Greidinger said. "... There will be, for sure, things that will be run from Knoxville, there will be things that will be run from Toronto. At this stage, it's too early to say."
Not all of Cineplex's management team will be staying with the company, he added, though he did not specify who would depart.
"We would like to keep part of the management with us," he said. "Some people have other plans already that we know, about their future."

I also found this interesting:

Cineworld’s ownership could significantly shift the way that people pay for movie tickets in Canada. The company is planning to launch a subscription service charging a flat monthly fee for unlimited movie tickets, within roughly six months of the deal closing. Its Regal chain launched this service, called Unlimited, in the United States in July. While there are surcharges for premium-format films such as 3D, IMAX and 4DX, the subscription service boosts premium box office revenue because a few dollars extra is a small psychological leap once customers have already paid for a subscription, Cineworld CEO Moshe Greidinger said on a conference call to discuss the deal on Monday.

[MonctonRad]

The Globe & Mail article details the amount of additional debt Cineworld is taking on to finance this takeover. I imagine priority #1 will be to reduce this accumulated debt before investing in new infrastructure (except in selected markets).

I doubt we will see any serious investment in the Moncton Cineplex cinemas for the next decade........

I think any dreams we may have had for a Rec Room and/or an IMAX have just been tossed out the window.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

Wow. I really hope this doesn't mean the plans for the SJ theater expansion/renovation is put on the back burner. (The theater is suppose to expand shortly after Mark's moves to McAllister Place in March 2020). But I feel like it would be put on the back burner unfortunately.

I don't see why this would be the case. Being bought out by a company does not inherently mean that all projects are put on pause or canceled outright only to be eventually restarted again down the line.

The negativity is strong in this thread right now, that's for sure.