Canadian Retail Thread

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This will probably go nowhere fast, but what the hell...

Mike, I get what you're saying but I don't think the situation is as dire as you make it out to be.

Cities as large as Toronto are simply cannot function efficiently if everything is located in one area (the downtown core or elsewhere in the region). It just congests everything and Downtown Toronto is already seeing that, which is why the GTA is starting to develop more secondary nodes for employment. Not everyone wants to live in Downtown Toronto and they shouldn't have to suffer the consequences with a hellish commute. Some people like North York and shouldn't have to deal with a lack of amenities because some holier-than-thou wants everything downtown - end of story.

Downtown Toronto can still be the key destination, and I think it still is overall, but it is unrealistic to have it remain the only important commercial node in the GTA. Even New York doesn't have everything located in Manhattan nor Chicago in the Loop nor London in the City or Westminster. Downtown will likely remain the key destination because it has the cool chain stores that Yorkdale and Sherway Gardens and Square One may also have, but it also has the bulk of the cool non-chains in places like Trinity-Bellwoods, the Mirvish Village, Cabbagetown, Greektown, and the Beaches. People go to Toronto for the urban experience downtown, not for more suburbia.

Keep in mind, in spite of Nordstrom opening in Square One or Holt Renfrew opening in Sherway Gardens, Downtown Toronto has never been so alive and is still currently where so many want to be, hence the enormous construction boom. There is more to Downtown Toronto than upscale chain clothing stores.

How has Downtown Calgary lost out to Chinook? The Core is a marvelous downtown mall, far nicer than the Eaton Centre or Rideau Centre. Chinook still gets the international chains first (except for big box stores), but this is nothing new in Western Canada. Downtown Calgary hasn't been the primary retail destination in the city since probably the '60s. Likewise for Edmonton and Winnipeg. It's just how things are here. Malls are lucrative and our downtown malls were never as successful as the big Ontarian ones (except for the Core, and only since the recent reno).

I highly doubt many successful chains would've stuck to Downtown Toronto or Ottawa without those malls, as it was what was de rigueur in 1973. Only over the past 15 or so years have chains started opening again on streetfronts in urban locations. Toronto had a huge helping hand due to a larger critical mass of people compared to Calgary, as well as a successful downtown mall that could easily spill out onto the street. The retail cores of the Prairie cities have undergone great transformations over the past decade, but they aren't riddled with chains like Yonge St or St Catherine Street, for the most part. I'm fine with that, as well as the fact that our downtowns will likely never be the main retail destination of our cities. We're competing with the West Edmonton Malls of the world, after all. Jasper Ave in Downtown Edmonton may have a Lululemon, American Apparel, Le Chateau, and Forever 21 in a decade, but West Ed and Southgate will still be the key retail destinations, in addition to Whyte Ave (for an urban environment) and South Common (for the big boxes).