Canadian Retail Thread

[urbandreamer]

I think Leslieville area, Hamilton Mountain/Ancaster, Conestoga Mall, London and maybe in Barrie it could work.

I was listening to this country music station from Listowel, Ontario the other day when I was in Stratford area and kind of enjoyed it:
https://theranch100.com/

[cslusarc]

Retail-Insiders.com reports that Regina's Hudson’s Bay store is closing next year:
Hudson’s Bay To Exit Regina And Close Downtown Cornwall Centre Store In 2025 

[cslusarc]

Luxury beauty brand Clarins to pull out of Hudson's Bay stores in Canada

Also,

That 5-month long strike at Hudson’s Bay in Kamloops with assistance of a provincial mediator.

[ericmacm]

Freedom Mobile is expanding to Manitoba. Aggressively discounted plans are being offered for the first 6 months. They are also now starting to offer internet and TV packages in Ontario, Alberta, and BC.

Freedom Mobile has come a long way under Quebecor since they took ownership of it. The coverage areas of Videotron and Freedom have been merged together and they have started offering some really affordable plans that offer combined US and CA coverage. The Big 3 have had to step up their game on their offerings over the past year and the cost of data is going down fast.

From just a cursory search, the Q2 2023 data shows Rogers/Bell/Telus have approximately 10-11M mobile subscribers each while Quebecor has approximately 3.6M between both Freedom and Videotron. It is great to see the gap narrowing.

[Djeffery]

I was willing to give Freedom a look when I was searching new plans over Christmas. Had a look at their coverage map and was less than impressed. I live in Woodstock Ont, and we are in their 4G LTE zone. Meanwhile the sparsely populated farm country immediately east and north east of the city is in the 5G zone. This includes about 8 of the very few km of 401 that has 5G with them from Windsor to west of Toronto.

[ericmacm]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

I was willing to give Freedom a look when I was searching new plans over Christmas. Had a look at their coverage map and was less than impressed. I live in Woodstock Ont, and we are in their 4G LTE zone. Meanwhile the sparsely populated farm country immediately east and north east of the city is in the 5G zone. This includes about 8 of the very few km of 401 that has 5G with them from Windsor to west of Toronto.

That's my problem with them right now. The plans are great but the coverage doesn't work for me. If they had at least the 4G LTE MVNO coverage in rural areas I would be okay with it, but we aren't there yet. They are slowly rolling out their MVNO coverage in other parts of the country (just recently happened in Ottawa, and the Manitoba service will also be through MVNO) so I'm hoping that they can make some more progress on that front in the near future. The $35/mo 50 GB US-CA plan is really tempting.

[svlt]

I've wanted to join Freedom for more than a decade since they first launched as Wind mobile. I don't care for the fanciest or fastest speeds, but time and time again the big three Canadian carriers come up with an offer that's actually pretty decent. I'm paying $34 a month and I don't think shaving a couple dollars a month is worth it with Freedom to experience an outage or two once I travel out of a network area.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by cslusarc

Retail-Insiders.com reports that Regina's Hudson’s Bay store is closing next year:
Hudson’s Bay To Exit Regina And Close Downtown Cornwall Centre Store In 2025 

that sucks. Hudson's Bay has been quietly retreating its footprint in Canadian cities for decades now.

Death by Big Box Barf in the Boonies.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

that sucks. Hudson's Bay has been quietly retreating its footprint in Canadian cities for decades now.

Death by Big Box Barf in the Boonies.

Gotta follow the money.

I remember being bummed out when Eaton's was done. In Hamilton, Hudson's Bay took over the regional Robinson's chain. Which was also sad, but at least it kept the 'anchors' in the city... there is still one HB remaining, but I doubt it will be around for long.

And then we were down to Sears. But that departure has now allowed mall owners to rethink their retail space!

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by svlt

I've wanted to join Freedom for more than a decade since they first launched as Wind mobile. I don't care for the fanciest or fastest speeds, but time and time again the big three Canadian carriers come up with an offer that's actually pretty decent. I'm paying $34 a month and I don't think shaving a couple dollars a month is worth it with Freedom to experience an outage or two once I travel out of a network area.

I have been with Freedom since the WIND days. I'm mostly in downtown Vancouver, so YMMV but my experience has been pretty good. For years it was 2nd tier but still well worth the savings. Now my wife and I pay $75 after tax for 2 lines at 30gigs, more than we'd ever need, 5G, and we roam on other networks for no charge when we don't have Freedom service.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

that sucks. Hudson's Bay has been quietly retreating its footprint in Canadian cities for decades now.

Death by Big Box Barf in the Boonies.

It's not a downtown store but my guess is that the Hudson's Bay store near me at Les Promenades Gatineau isn't long for this world.

[MolsonExport]

Malls without department stores usually become malls depleted of high-end retailers, hastening the transition away from retail.

Does Gatineau have a second HBC store?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Malls without department stores usually become malls depleted of high-end retailers, hastening the transition away from retail.

Does Gatineau have a second HBC store?

No, it's our only one. Les Promenades also has a Simons, if you count that as a department store. It seems to be doing quite well. My wife and kids shop at Simons all the time, but almost never set foot in The Bay. So Les Promenades will probably be OK without it, if it closes. Even if it will be a huge hole to fill. (Probably spurring some non-retail development there eventually.)

Department stores are of course a dying breed everywhere. We used to have a Sears at Les Galeries de Hull. That left a huge hole and the entire mall suffered. The space has been partly filled by L'Aubainerie (affordable clothing retailer) but now there are plans to gradually demolish that mall segment-by-segment, replacing most of the mall retail footprint with residential.

[MolsonExport]

ah, well that is a good consolation prize (Simons, of which sadly, there are none in London...we have two HBC locations towards the North-South ends of the city). Our "third" major (double storey) mall, Westmount, died a quick death once it was vacated by Sears (at one end) and Target (formerly, Zellers) at the other end. It now specializes as a place for Seniors to do their daily 'mall-walking' programs. The second floor is 100% bereft of retail; the first floor is perhaps 25% occupied with shitty retail (no chains, other than the local sort, and Tims/Bulk Barrel). Our "fourth" multi-storey mall started dying in the 1990s (it was a downtown, Campeau-corp mall, with very upscale stores when it opened), and became a sad ghost town after the Department stores (first Eatons, then the Bay) left. It now looks like this:

[zahav]

I hope the Bay stabilizes again, they had a decent period before Covid where it seemed to be not sinking quite as much, they had some forward momentum, moreso than lots of other department stores in North America. But not it seems full steam back, to avoid implosion. Losing so many locations in the prairie cities is sad, for them to have no stores outside Saskatoon is weird, their history was so tied to the prairies (not in the best way sadly, but still). They will have 1 location in all of SK. Yet somehow they have 3 locations on Vancouver Island, and 4 in the Okanagan still. They have to just be watching leases as they come up and use that as their guide? Sad

[ericmacm]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

I have been with Freedom since the WIND days. I'm mostly in downtown Vancouver, so YMMV but my experience has been pretty good. For years it was 2nd tier but still well worth the savings. Now my wife and I pay $75 after tax for 2 lines at 30gigs, more than we'd ever need, 5G, and we roam on other networks for no charge when we don't have Freedom service.

I had also been with Freedom since WIND up until probably 5 or 6 years ago. It worked fine when I lived in Mississauga as a teenager, but when I moved to Windsor for university the service just didn’t work in the rural areas where I was doing my co-op terms and had to switch. I am looking forward to switching back in the future.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by ericmacm

I had also been with Freedom since WIND up until probably 5 or 6 years ago. It worked fine when I lived in Mississauga as a teenager, but when I moved to Windsor for university the service just didn’t work in the rural areas where I was doing my co-op terms and had to switch. I am looking forward to switching back in the future.

I ended up going back with Bell (mainly because I was taking a plan that came with a new phone and they were strangely enough the easiest to deal with online with my EPP. I was with Telus and even as a current customer, I had to jump through hoops with the EPP). I ended up switching one of my kids' phones over to Public Mobile, which is Telus, and got him on a 50 or 60 GB Canada/US plan for $34/month. He hasn't had any issues, and since my other kid and my wife aren't on contract anymore, I'm debating switching them over as well.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

I was willing to give Freedom a look when I was searching new plans over Christmas. Had a look at their coverage map and was less than impressed. I live in Woodstock Ont, and we are in their 4G LTE zone. Meanwhile the sparsely populated farm country immediately east and north east of the city is in the 5G zone. This includes about 8 of the very few km of 401 that has 5G with them from Windsor to west of Toronto.

Originally Posted by ericmacm

That's my problem with them right now. The plans are great but the coverage doesn't work for me. If they had at least the 4G LTE MVNO coverage in rural areas I would be okay with it, but we aren't there yet. They are slowly rolling out their MVNO coverage in other parts of the country (just recently happened in Ottawa, and the Manitoba service will also be through MVNO) so I'm hoping that they can make some more progress on that front in the near future. The $35/mo 50 GB US-CA plan is really tempting.

I've been with Freedom for almost a decade, and I spent a lot of time out camping, hiking, etc. in very rural areas (ie. north of Hwy 7 in east-central Ontario) and honestly, the phone works perfectly fine out there.

The rural coverage is pretty seemless. Since the Videotron takeover, Freedom plans don't have any extra fees for going out of their service areas like they used to.

[Maldive]

39 of an eventual 50 foodie vendors and the market are now open at The Well.


The Well | 174.03m | 46s | RioCan | Hariri Pontarini l nearing completion/market opens


Justelena

The Wellington Market (nicknamed “Well Fed”) just opened a couple of days ago with 38 of an eventual 50 vendors offering myriad options to foodies, and it’s already a big hit.


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Free samples were everywhere.


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Smaller vendor spots are also included for entrepreneurial foodie start-ups.


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The Pier Bar.


UT

Isabella sold out her beloved donuts in no time.


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rdaner

RyanD

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

I have been with Freedom since the WIND days. I'm mostly in downtown Vancouver, so YMMV but my experience has been pretty good. For years it was 2nd tier but still well worth the savings. Now my wife and I pay $75 after tax for 2 lines at 30gigs, more than we'd ever need, 5G, and we roam on other networks for no charge when we don't have Freedom service.

Having been with Freedom a few years ago I was shocked at how poor their coverage was in many areas of Metro Vancouver. Maybe it’s improved.