Retail News
 

Since there seems to be a retail boom happening in Hamilton I figured I create a separate thread. JYSK basically a smaller version of IKEA.

JYSK to open new store in Stoney Creek - Hamilton, ON - February 9th 2008

HAMILTON, ON, Dec. 18 /CNW/ - JYSK Bed - Bath - Home - The Scandinavian retailer with over 1,300 locations worldwide, will open its first store in Stoney Creek, Ontario, on Saturday, February 9th 2008, at 8:00 AM.

The 23,000 square feet store will be located in the Parkway Plaza - 200 Centennial Pkwy. Other major retailers in this shopping plaza are Future Shop and Food Basics.

There are currently 9 JYSK stores in Ontario and a total of 35 JYSK locations across Canada. The first Canadian store opened 11 years ago in Port Coquitlam. Since then, the company expanded rapidly and now has a coast-to-coast presence from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. In addition to the "brick-and-mortar" stores, JYSK ships anywhere in Canada from its Online store at www.jysk.ca

"At JYSK, customers will find all the furnishings they need for their home; from mattresses to towels, including linen and curtains. Duvets and quilts are a JYSK trademark as we are one of the world's largest buyers of these products. In our furniture department, people will find a large selection of Scandinavian-style beds, tables, bookcases, seating, and dining sets. We also carry a great assortment of patio furniture and seasonal items for the spring and summer, and because we buy large volumes around the world, we can offer our customers the lowest prices possible." stated Pablo Reich, JYSK's Chief Operating Officer who says the retailer is excited to now be part of the Stoney Creek community.

I was looking at their web site. They list the store as being in Stoney Creek. That plaza is in Hamilton. Always was. Just like the Home Depot on Centennial is listed as Stoney Creek but is in Hamilton. Ever since amalgamation, Stoney Creeks border has been creeping westward. Even the Canadian Tire at Nash and Queenston Rd is listed as 686 Queenston Road, Stoney Creek. This has been Hamilton since the early 60’s and was Saltfleet Township before that.

Just a little thing that bugs me.

yea, I'm not sure why they do that. Centennial Pkwy, north of Queenston is all in Hamilton's old boundary....the border shifts west to the corner of Queenston/Centennial, but no further.
Queenston west of Centennial is also Hamilton:

http://map.hamilton.ca/Static/PDFs/W...Councillor.pdf

These retailers want to pretend they're in Stoney Creek lol. Hamilton is just so undesirable.

The store in Windsor has survived now for a couple of years. The format is much smaller than Ikea obviously--they do sell unfinished furniture (I built and finished a hutch from there)--expect a store that is somewhat cluttered and has a blizzard of signage. Overall though they do run decent sales--and in addition to the usual offerings of furniture and linen they sell a lot of outdoor patio/bbq stuff for summer. Guessing they are occupying the late White Rose location?

They tore down the old White Rose store and the plaza. Only the grocery store, the Kelsey’s I believe and the Burger King where left. They built a new plaza behind the Kelsey’s and added to the grocery store a new building. Part of it is the Future Shop and next to it will be “JYSK Bed - Bath – Home”. It has a sign advertising its opening and looks like it will be a fairly large store.

Thanks for the update LikeHamilton--I'd completely forgotten that Future Shop had moved there. That's a cool Kelsey's--nice building--I remember when it was St. Hubert.

a friend who lives near Up. Gage and Stonechurch says rumour around there is that Starbucks is coming to the plaza at SW corner of that intersection.
I personally find that hard to believe considering there's nothing around there other than homes, but that's what he says the locals are all saying.

There was a crappy gas stn there b4 and a Big Bear Variety. The owner of the property completely redid the site into a small strip-mall. Not the type Starbucks likes to locate in. and considering there isn't really any density in that area, or much more growth, I find it hard to believe.

There is a newer set of low-rise retirement condos on the N-E corner, so a Coffee Time or something along those lines is more likely... Starbucks seems to cater to younger, "hipper" crowds... not the geriatric ones that Coffee Time n Co prefer.

hmmm, "a younger, hipper crowd"??
So I wonder what I am?
Young AND geriatric?? lol

HAHAHA I think everyone's a lil bit of both!! I catch myself saying, "Kids these days..." every now-and-then, too :s hahaha

check this out...these guys just moved their US headquarters to Portland and are opening their first US store in downtown Portland:

http://www.icebreaker.com/site/index.html

SWEET eh?
H&M also just announced a new store in downtown Portland...I guess if they are just getting there now, I'll have to wait quite a while before they come downtown here.

Not necessarily... H&M is a Euro store that is newer to the North American market (within the last couple of years). Some major malls don't even have a store, and most major malls didn't get one until very recently.
I don't know much about H&M's finances or whatnot, but from the looks of it, they're on some sort of a fairly big expansion process (into NA anyway).
So it may be sooner than later... if ECDEV can somehow manage to woo them into our market, it'd be great... ESPECIALLY if they carry their men's line in our downtown store! (I know I'd be there!)

me too....a full H&M store downtown right at King/James would do awesome....check out all the young people yesterday lining up for a bus ride to Limeridge and coming back down with bags...there's a huge student/young person population living downtown and is on the increase. EcDev should really go after these guys. It would only take a few new 'known' stores to start turning the tide downtown - H&M, Winners, HomeSense and maybe Indigo. To go along with already existing Le Chateau, Moda Classica, Urban Planet, Sirens...places that young people are always shopping in. I was surprised when walking by yesterday how jammed Jackson Square looked from the King/James entrance. and most people had bags. I wonder how sales were...I assumed it would be dead. Once London Tap and Williams open downtown people will be able to make an afternoon of it with shopping/dining/market/library/books etc.... we're getting close, but need a few major new stores to kickstart more momentum.

by the way, does anyone know who the contact person is at EcDev to email about retail suggestions?? I'm assuming that Coalmine will know. I'd like to drop them a line.

EcDev is getting a new staff.

Eastgate Mall owner hopes to fill The Bay's spot soon

February 12, 2008
Steve Arnold
The Hamilton Spectator

A well-loved department store name will disappear from Hamilton's east end by the end of March.

The Hudson's Bay Company has confirmed its store at Eastgate Square will close March 22, affecting more than 80 jobs and leaving only the chain's Lime Ridge Mall store.

Katherine Raso, senior manager of public and corporate communications for the chain, confirmed the decision yesterday, adding most employees will be relocated to other stores in the company.

"We're closing the Eastgate location March 22 -- it was a smaller location and the property was leased," she said in an e-mail.

"The company made a strategic decision to not renew the lease and felt that our customers would be best served through our other larger locations in the area."

In addition to The Bay, HBC also operates Zellers and Home Outfitters locations in this area.

"There are just over 80 associates at the Eastgate location and the company is doing its best to relocate associates to other Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitters locations," Raso said. "Prospects for relocation at this time look very good."

Losing The Bay will leave a major hole in Eastgate's landscape -- a hole the mall owner said it hopes to fill by the end of this month.

"We have a conditional arrangement with the Bay to surrender its lease by the end of next month and by the end of this month we should be in a position to announce a replacement tenant," said Don Burton, executive vice-president for retail of Redcliff Realty Management. "We're hopeful that things will come together by then."

As the Bay leaves one Redcliff property, Sears is looking for a new location for the store it will close sometime this year at Centre Mall, which is in the early stages of a $100-million redevelopment. Neither Burton nor a spokesperson for Sears, however, would confirm the chain will relocate to Eastgate.

"Nothing's done until it's done," Burton said. "Would we like the opportunity to get Sears at Eastgate? Yes. We're certainly hopeful."

A new retail name is also coming into the city -- electronics retailer Best Buy is in the early stages of opening a huge new store in the Meadowlands Power Centre in Ancaster. The project is expected to create up to 150 full- and part-time jobs during the off season, "and it will swell up dramatically around Christmas," said Geoff Stollery, senior real estate manager for Best Buy and Future Shop.

The new store will be in the same location as the Meadowlands' current Future Shop -- it's moving to the Wal-Mart power centre in the south of Ancaster.

Stollery explained that Best Buy, which currently has its only area store in Burlington, has been looking to break into the Hamilton market for several months.

"Timing is everything. We went after the GTA, then the larger markets in Canada and now we're going after the secondary larger markets," he said. "We've been looking for awhile and effectively had to create our own opportunity."

While he was coy about the cost of the new facilities, Stollery said the "many seven figures" price tag represents "a very serious economic commitment we're making in Hamilton."

Other locations could be coming in the future, he said, although the Centre Mall isn't on Best Buy's radar.

this has to be the worst kept secret in town. Redcliffe owns both properties and is taking Sears out of Centre Mall. Gee, I wonder where they are going?? haha.

I still haven't heard anything about this so-called 'major tenant' for Centre Mall. anyone else?

RTH it is sort of funny how they are playing coy about Eastgate--I'm guessing that HBC has made the request to avoid the appearance that Sears is "replacing" or "taking over" the location--which it is in essence doing--but you can understand for competitive reasons why The Bay would want to avoid this appearance. The demographic in that end of the city continues to change and I would guess Sears will do better there as they are in more product categories (like hardgoods) and have a slightly lower price-point. They'll likely do a nice job outfitting the store--their new locations with the full Lands End "store-within-a-store" concept look great. Amazing though, as Department Stores go, no one has yet touched Eaton's last interior layout at Lime Ridge for attractiveness and functionality.

Haven't heard anything about the "major tenant" for the Centre--I frankly think it's a bit of a ruse--and likely the "big" announcement will be another poorly kept secret--such as the fact that the Real Canadian Superstore is opening it's "first" location in Hamilton.

The Loblaws superstore is most likely the as-yet-unnamed destination store referred to in previous posts.

oooh, exciting.

I'm basing my guess on the fact that they haven't officially come out and said "yes, this will be an RCSS location"--it's a decent enough store, but I agree with your assessment, it's not exactly something to set your hair on fire for.

In all fairness, Redcliffe described it as a destination store, and GCSS is as much a destination retail store as say Costco or WalMart.

Is Superstore a 24 hrs grocery store like Sobeys? I know a few people that go to Grimsby for the Superstore. Superstore will do really well in Hamilton.

SteelTown, RCSS is what I'd call "hypermarket-lite"--it's an effort by Loblaw to move closer to the Wal-Mart Supercenter concept. It is full-service grocery as well as small appliances, housewares, linens, health and beauty--and most recently, private label clothing under the "joe fresh" brand. They run with price-points lower than whatever the traditional Loblaw format is in a given market (Fortinos in your case, Zehrs in mine) thanks to an agreement with the UFCW that allows them to hire non-grocery employees at a lower wage scale. Not aware of any that operate 24 Hours--Hamilton's Victorian business hours laws would prevent that anyway considering the general merchandise (non-grocery) in the format.

None of the Loblaws formats offer 24hr shopping, at least not in Ontario. However, they probably could if they wanted to, seeing as both Sobey's and The Barn both already operate 24hr here.

The Sobey's at Ancaster is open for 24 hrs which is helpful as I've gone 1am to Sobey's before lol.

I think the Wal-Mart Supercentre at Ancaster just recently started to open 24 hrs as well. So I was wondering if the Superstores is 24 hrs or will it be going 24 hrs as well.

King West Barn is 24-7 along with Upp James Mohawk.

The Barn and A&P in Dundas are both 24hr as well. Why they're both 24hr I don't know. Since The Barn in Dundas switched to 24hr it's been declining. Lineups at the checkouts, subpar produce and now Fortino's is cheaper on a lot of items. I wish they'd cut their hours back to normal and put more into their service, quality and pricing like they used to. It's completely dead after 9 anyway.

Wal*Mart is moving to 24 Hrs at a number of locations--I know Ancaster was initially prevented from doing so by a by-law limiting the types of businesses that can remain open 24/7--that may have changed.

markbarbera is correct--Loblaws has generally not operated 24 Hr stores.

None of the Walmart stores in Canada have gone to year-round 24hr operation. A select group operated round the clock last December, and the Ancaster location was one of them. Walmart has yet to make a final decision on year-round 24hr operations. Should they decide to move ahead with it, the Ancaster store is certain to be among the stores doing so, along with the Upper James store once its renovation to the new format has been completed.

Following the success of 24 hour operations over the month of December, Wal*Mart Canada announced in January that it would move to year-round 24 hour operations at 25 stores across Canada. The Wal*Mart store in my neighborhood is among these, I assure you, as a shift worker I have taken advantage of the convenience more than once. You may not always agree with me, but have some faith that I know what I'm talking about when I post facts/information here.

For confirmation of this story you can follow this link to a Globe & Mail article dated January 7.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl.../lifeMain/home

Stealing a page from the Trolleybus links provided, here is a classic early 80s shot of Eastgate, showing the soon to be former Bay location under it's original lineage.

http://www.trolleybuses.net/ham/htm/..._198409_ss.htm

I stand corrected on the 24-hour Walmart availability. I was not aware that they had started testing the extended hours in stores beyond the Christmas rush.

dang, not much has changed down there.
It kills me seeing the fabulous trolley network we had. Dumb city.

The signs on the buildings have changed--I guess that's about it--the view today would be quite similar.

Losing Robinson's was a shame--it was Hamilton's own, founded and bred here.

Loved the trolley system when I was a kid--would get my dad to stay behind them on Queenston and King so I could watch for sparks.

Canada's government is too busy spending on arctic sovereignty and the northwest passage to invest in commuter transit that makes sense.

For some reason it is more important to ship things through 100 meters of ice than to develop rapid transit in places where people actually live. It will be nice to be in New York for the next few months.

We need to protect our Northern-Sovereignty, you know!
I hear the penguins & polar bears are developping some WMDs? hahahahaha

as for Eastgate, the general area's view hasn't changed much (I see it e-v-e-r-y day ugh) but the main entrance to the Mall certainly has changed! The new angled-glass wall entrance, the new beauty of a transit terminal and the covered walkway up the that gorgeous new entry-way! Those trees to the east of that bus in that pic however (http://www.trolleybuses.net/ham/htm/..._198409_ss.htm) are still just as tall! hahaha That's what happens when you plant trees in new developments! No soil to grow in... sadly :(

yea, I'm impressed with that transit terminal. Only thing I would have done differently is to extend the covered walkway right to the mall doors and use some longer shelter/terminal structure like the ones on McNab downtown instead of a whole pile of those individual bus stops that only hold 5 people.
Other than that, it's great. And I'm sure they'll evaluate, get some feedback and improve on that design for future terminals at Limeridge, McMaster, Centre Mall and elsewhere.

I actually prefer that they have several stand-alone shelters rather than one long roof over my head. ESPECIALLY during the winter months when it's FREEZING!

I use this new terminal every day and it's fantastic. The buses run in-and-out smoothly, cars are prohibited from entering unlike the last one Eastgate had, and there is ALWAYS either a King or B-Line waiting. Sometimes there are even 3 King's lined up.

I also like how the (West-Bound) B-Line's stop is on Queenston so it can get people off, on, and leave without having to wait for a signal (buses now have merging right-of-way by law although there are still some people who wont let them in). It works great.

sounds good. Yea, I guess there's some truth to having smaller shelters instead of huge ones.
the new one at King and Dundurn is a complete joke. The other night during that blizzard the whole inside of the shelter was being filled with snow. There are openings on all 4 corners of the shelter!! what's the use in that?
It's a shame that McMaster is screwing over the B-Line just as it was starting to be looked at as a true rapid transit option in the city with more enhancements coming. Maybe they are worried about losing some of their hig-priced parking business. idiots.

The Eastgate covered walkway doesn't actually seem to offer any protection from the elements. It seems to be little more than decoration.

Many people on here refer to the service as the B-Line, but as far as I know, it is the Beeline Express. I tend to think of the B-Line being a Vancouver thing!

McMaster has very reasonable parking rates in comparison to other area universities, especially given that its lots are pretty well full up. York University, for example, has many, many more free parking spaces at any given time than does McMaster, but its parking rates are several multiples of the Mac rate.

It used to be the Beeline. Now it's the B-Line. Take a look at any of the signs at all the B-Line stops.
I think the full name is B-Line Express.

Ah. Well, now it is in line with Van City.

The naming convention was switched over earlier this fall when service hours were extended. The full name is indeed B-Line Express. I suppose they changed it in anticipation of future LRT/BRT lines that will adopt a similar naming convention (A-Line, C-Line, etc.).

yea, as far as I know it has/had nothing to do with Vancouver. The name change was done in order to more easily allow us to develop new lines like matt mentioned.

I have yet to stand under it during a rain storm, but would personally prefer to be in a shelter if it happens to be pouring! But as far as I can tell, the area under the tarp is generally dry when the surrounding area is wet.

And ya, as for the name, I don't like it. B-Line ughghhh. I'm so old school and miss my Beeline Express :( I remember the old "label" on bus stops had buzzing bees on them! But now I have to suck it up and refer to it as the B-Line.

I'll be happy once there's an A-Line, C-Line, X-Line and whatever else can be developed. AND when the B-Line actually runs full hours, 7 days a week.

Man, I've been noodling around downtown checking out various retail spaces, and I gotta tell you. We have a TON of potential downtown for a great retail vibe. We all know about the streetfront potential. 3 new spaces are opening up soon - Foster Building, new City Building and Terraces on King.
But I've started to realize the great opportunities that exist in our little arcades - Lister, Connaught Corporate Centre, Terminal Towers, Right House. Man, these buildings are so cool and unique. No reason why we can't attract some great anchors in Jackson Sq and on King Street and have these arcades filled up again with great shopping/dining.