Canadian Retail Thread

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by canarob

While the GTA has a few dead malls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeydale_Mall), I don't think it has as many compared to smaller metros because we have far fewer malls per capita. Aside from Vaughan Mills and an outlet mall that just opened in Halton, nothing has been built since the 80s while population has surged. Power centres have never really filled the gap, and pretty much every mall in the GTA is either renovating or expanding since most of these locations are considered prime.

Also, much of the space that would have been using for "traditional retail" is now "ethnic retail." Market Village in Markham used to be a "traditional mall," but it's been a "Chinese Mall" for many years. It's currently being redeveloped in an attempt to attract a mix of both types of retail, but presently these types of retail do not typically coexist. So, you end up with cities like Markham with 350,000 people with only one major traditional mall (Markville). I'm not sure this is something you would see elsewhere in Canada. From my experience, even cities with 100,000 people tend to have two traditional malls, even if one is a "dirt mall."

With all the high-end retail coming in, there aren't really any in Toronto or its suburbs east of the 404/DVP (i.e. Scarborough, Markham, Durham Region) and that area has at least 1.5 million people. Also I haven't heard anything of the east-end malls expanding greatly either. Are the demographics different in the eastern part of the GTA?