Canadian Retail Thread

[SpongeG]

haha

[Policy Wonk]

Rumor: Look for another rebranding of The Source By Circuit City stores and a new larger format store rolling out in Western Canada.

[DHLawrence]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Rumor: Look for another rebranding of The Source By Circuit City stores and a new larger format store rolling out in Western Canada.

Ah, they finally realized the new name stinks?

[craneSpotter]

Toyota announces Scion coming to Canada

Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post
Published: Sunday, October 19, 2008

Link - http://www.financialpost.com/news/story.html?id=891897

TORONTO -- Toyota Motor Corp. is bringing its Scion brand to Canada, saying the timing is finally right as consumer appetite gels for smaller, fashionable cars.

The automaker will launch the brand, which targets affluent urban youth, starting in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in 2010, said Stephen Beatty, managing director of Toyota Canada Inc.

"Obviously we're pretty pumped about this," Mr. Beatty said in an interview Sunday.

As recently as this summer, Toyota denied it was making plans to introduce Scion to Canada despite having filed trademark applications with Industry Canada to use the name. The company had previously said that Canada does not have the same demographic strength in urban areas to justify the costs of marketing and supporting Scion vehicles.

But an even greater shift towards smaller cars in Canada brought on by a rapid climb in gasoline prices earlier this year has changed the equation, Mr. Beatty said. Scion's target market, the so-called "echo generation" or Generation Y, now represents roughly 24% of Canada's population, he noted. They are the children of baby-boomers, born anywhere between 1976 and 2001...

[SteelTown]

Canadian Tire store in Welland to sell food

October 28, 2008
The Canadian Press, 2008

Canadian Tire is planning to open two experimental stores in Ontario that will offer an expanded variety of food and other consumable items as part of a new product assortment.

The two stores, which will be in the Niagara region city of Welland, Ont., and the Ottawa suburb of Orleans, will test a new retail concept called the "smart store."

Canadian Tire spokeswoman Lisa Gibson said the stores will open in mid-November.

She said convenience food items, such as bread and milk, will be one small part of the new concept, which will offer one-stop shopping for customers.

"Our research tells us that (selling food items) will probably increase customer traffic to the store and certainly if someone's in buying other items, if they need milk or bread, it's a great opportunity to purchase it there," Gibson said.

When pressed for details about what other products would be offered at the new stores, Gibson declined to be specific.

Most Canadian Tire stores already sell some consumables, such as cleaning products and laundry detergent, as well as snack food items like pop and chips.

However the iconic retailer is best known for selling a range of sporting and outdoors goods, household small appliances, gardening products, automotive parts and, increasingly, clothing and footwear.

Gibson said the new stores will expand upon the products already available.

[harls]

I imagine it would be somewhat unappealing to buy groceries at a place that smells like rubber.

[mmmatt]

Moncton is getting the first H&M clothing store east of Quebec in the coming months ...supposedly before even Winnipeg gets one (or at least thats what our local paper said, dunno sometimes with them haha).

[bigcanuck]

Originally Posted by harls

I imagine it would be somewhat unappealing to buy groceries at a place that smells like rubber.

But your loaf of sourdough bread could also be used to check the pressure in your tires as well as tighten a light bulb safely.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

Rumor: Look for another rebranding of The Source By Circuit City stores and a new larger format store rolling out in Western Canada.

finally

there was rumour a while ago that they would open some Circuit city stores in Canada

some competition for best buy/future shop

[SpongeG]

Metro H&M to open in spring

It's official. Clothing store H&M, the international success story many consider the Ikea of fashion, is coming to Metro Moncton.

For many Atlantic Canadians, a trip to Montreal or Toronto or New York is not complete without a pilgrimage to H&M, whose innovative fashions offer exceptional quality at reasonable prices.

By next spring, the H&M experience will be available here, the Swedish company's first in Atlantic Canada. The retailer's Canadian spokeswoman Emily Scarlett confirmed yesterday what the Times & Transcript's Sleuth reported October 11, that the retailer was coming to Metro.

Scarlett wouldn't, however, say whether it would be in the newly renovated Champlain Mall or the soon-to-be-built Mapleton Fashion Centre. Construction of its foundations got under way in the past few days.

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) was established in 1947 and today there are 1,600 H&M stores in 29 countries. Regular viewers of Sex and the City know H&M as a long favourite shopping destination of Carrie Bradshaw and her fictional friends, and many a Maritimer has sought out store outlets in other parts of North America and Europe. There are also H&M stores in Japan, China and the Middle East.

The first H&M in Canada opened just in 2004, but already there are now 43 stores in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

While even big city Winnipeg has yet to land an H&M, Metro Moncton's reputation as a central shopping destination for an entire region seems to have carried the day in the company's decision to locate its sole store east of Quebec here.

The company's clothing collections are created by its own designers, pattern makers and buyers. H&M has a wide product range that is divided into a number of different concepts for women, men, teenagers and children.

It prides itself on trying to find a good balance between modern basics, current fashions and high fashion.

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.co...article/462449

[SpongeG]

Toronto is getting the First North American store for Bench clothing from the UK http://www.bench.co.uk/

they are also getting TNA - from Vancouver http://www.tna.com/

and Abercrombie Kids http://www.abercrombiekids.ca/kids/index.html

[vid]

Isn't H&M the one the uses slave labour?

I got my computer from Future Shop and its almost five years old, still doing OK. (Knock on wood..)

It's 256MB Ram, 2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4, 40GB hard drive with CD Rom, and came with a monitor, wired and wireless mouse and keyboard. (The keyboard stopped working, the wired mouse died about two years ago and I now use the wireless one.) It cost just under $1,200 at the time. Probably could have gotten the same thing (in November 2003) for about $800 if we were smart. We were going to get a "custom built" $600 computer from a place that just opened next to Future Shop (at the time, it's about 5.5 years old now.) but it was closed when we went there, so we tried Future Shop instead. Also, Purolator screwed up our delivery and it ended up sitting in a wear house on the waterfront for three days.

(I mentioned that because I read this and didn't realize I found that on Google and not the forum until after I hit enter. )

[SpongeG]

futureshop - i know the guy was really trying to get me to buy the extended thing but i never did - he seemed kinda irked that i didn't i said i would come back in a week and get it - lol he said i had a week to decide

my friend worked there once they promise the world - the day after boxing day they laid him off and a few other dozen i suppose

[MolsonExport]

H&M...I don't see what the big deal is. Reminds me of a "Le Chateau".

[harls]

^ it's got some pretty good kids clothes... better than the generic asexual Zellers or Wal-Mart garbage. My wife wishes a location to open in Ottawa. I can't stand shopping, so I'm indifferent.

[Biff]

I guess i feel the same way about H&M as people do about IKEA. I was in a monstrous store in Chicago and thought everything in here was crap. Four floors of stuff and everything looked like it would fall apart or rip just taking it off the hanger.

[kirjtc2]

I was in one at a mall in Boston...spent 5 seconds and walked out.

Then again, I get half my clothes at Winners.

[SpongeG]

it just means your city has "arrived" to get an H&M

sort of like when a neighbourhood gets a starbucks

[Denscity]

"they are also getting TNA - from Vancouver http://www.tna.com/"

Didn't know TNA was from Vancouver the whole time i lived there. Makes sense though as they seem pretty good at making yoga style pants, second only to the original yoga pant maker, Vancity's Lululemon.

[SpongeG]

yah TNA stands for Talula National Athletics... its an offshot brand of Aritzia

and Aritzia just opened its first US store in Chicago