Canadian Retail Thread

[SpongeG]

nordstrom rack won't be opening for a while in canada

Canada Will Have to Wait for Nordstrom Rack

By Adam Levine-Weinberg | More Articles
March 25, 2014 | Comments (0)

Canada represents a huge opportunity for luxury retailer Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN ) . The company will make its first foray into that market later this year and plans to open six full-line department stores there by early 2017. These stores will be located in six of the top 11 malls in North America in terms of sales productivity.

Nordstrom also plans to bring its off-price Nordstrom Rack stores to Canada. However, it has now pushed back the Canadian debut of Nordstrom Rack from 2015 until 2017. Entering the Canadian market more slowly is probably a wise move because of the operational complexity of launching in a new country and Canada's sluggish economic growth -- a harsh lesson that Target (NYSE: TGT ) has recently learned.

Slowing down the Canadian expansion

Eventually, Nordstrom plans to open up to 10 full-line department stores in Canada along with about 20 Nordstrom Rack off-price stores. So far, it has selected sites for the first six full-line stores. Nordstrom will open its first Canadian store in Calgary this fall. This will be followed by new stores in Ottawa and Vancouver next year, and three Toronto-area stores that will open in 2016 and 2017.

Nordstrom originally planned to roll out its Nordstrom Rack off-price brand on a similar timetable. However, management realized that its existing growth plans were creating enough complexity that it would be (small-f) foolish to force the expansion pace. (Nordstrom is also in the midst of a four-year plan to double its Nordstrom Rack store base in the U.S.)


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http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/25/canada-will-have-to-wait-for-nordstrom-rack.aspx

[mersar]

Noticed last night that the former Future Shop on Macleod Trail in Calgary is set to become our first Marshall's and the third in Alberta. No mention on their website but there is a sign out front.

[davidivivid]

The big real estate investment firms are outbidding themselves in Quebec City in the retail market.

A few weeks ago, Oxford Properties announced that it would invest $150M in order to add about 150000s.f. of retail space at their Gallerie de la Capitale shopping mall, bringing the total retail space to more than 2 million s.f..

In response, Ivanhoe Cambridge announced yesterday that it would invest tens of millions of dollars to modernize and expand its Place Laurier/Place Ste-Foy shopping mall, following an expansion which took place in 2010.

Well, today, Oxford Properties responded by announcing that it will invest not $150M but $200M in its Quebec City shopping mall.


Keep the investments coming!

http://www.lapresse.ca/le-soleil/affaire...iser-laurier-quebec-et-place-ste-foy.php

http://www.lapresse.ca/le-soleil/affaire...rpresse_B13b_actualites_606_section_POS3


http://www.lapresse.ca/le-soleil/affaire...yberpresse_B9_affaires_3004_section_POS1[/QUOTE]

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

Bullshit. Germans dress like Europeans. And I don't think Canadians dress badly, just differently.

Gotta love how every time we discuss anything remotely "Canadian", if it's not like Europeans, it's labelled "bad" by so many.

"Canada has no clothing/culture/music/TV/whatever of its own!" "Um, but what about this?" "Europe's is better!!", or "That's just American!".

Lulus, like it or not, are just about the most Canadian thing to emerge in the past decade. They might be the single biggest visual indicator of which country you're in, in North America. And what do we do here? Whine about them because they're not as sophisticated as every-possible-public-surface-is-my-ashtray-Paris.

[esquire]

^ Not to wade too far off topic here, but only the most committed relativist could argue that Canadians dress just as well as Parisians do. Maybe Europe outside the capitals is not that much different than what you see in Canada (although yoga pants are still a bridge too far), but in places like Paris, people dress better period.

The North American vernacular is more about comfort and function (appeareance be damned) while in Europe you see way more emphasis on elegance and form.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Oh no...

lululemon is returning to St. John's with another summer pop-up store downtown for their second time.

I don't mind the yoga pants but the lack of lululemon sports wear and the over-abundance of high heels is how I tell Newfoundlanders from Maritimers. I hope that stuff doesn't get popular here.

Until now, it's safely been only available at one fitness store.

Just wait til you get the two combined.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Not to wade too far off topic here, but only the most committed relativist could argue that Canadians dress just as well as Parisians do. Maybe Europe outside the capitals is not that much different than what you see in Canada (although yoga pants are still a bridge too far), but in places like Paris, people dress better period.

The North American vernacular is more about comfort and function (appeareance be damned) while in Europe you see way more emphasis on elegance and form.

And again, you're making the assumption that "elegance and form" is better than "comfort and function". ie: the way the Euros do it is better.

No one will argue that we don't dress to the European standard of fashion, as well as they do. We look like slobs by their standards. Then again so do most cultures. It's a big reason most countries were considered to be filled with "savages" by the big colonial powers.

Having recently once again had a European co-worker go on another 15 minute rant about the atrocity that is women who wear pants and/or flat shoes to work, I'm kind of tired of this idea that there's one single absolutely best way of doing things that everyone should follow. But then again, I'm a heretic in a way. I don't find the stick-thin "fashion" that comes out of Europe all that aesthetically attractive in the least. Guess that makes me a pretty committed relativist.

Paris, incidentally, is a dirty shithole with sand/gravel sidewalks on their most famous road, dogshit everywhere, and cigarette butts filling the gutters. These are not exactly the best people to use as an example of keeping up appearances. I'm sure Parisians wear some really fashionable shoes wading through the feces however.

[esquire]

^ You can argue that maybe the way we do it is better for our climate, or the way our cities are laid out, or for how much we time and money we are willing to spend on putting ourselves together, or for our environment, or whatever.

What you cannot argue, I'm afraid, is that the average North American looks better than the average Parisian.

(And coincidentally, I just came back from a trip to Paris and can definitely confirm that your idea of the dogshit and cigarette butt levels on the streets is vastly at odds with reality.)

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by esquire

What you cannot argue, I'm afraid, is that the average North American looks better than the average Parisian.

By Parisian standards, I cannot. You're right.

I think someone dressed like they typically do would look absolutely ridiculous in half of this country, half of the year. But I also think berets look ridiculous year-long, anywhere. I guess I just have wrong tastes by the universally accepted standards.

(And coincidentally, I just came back from a trip to Paris and can definitely confirm that your idea of the dogshit and cigarette butt levels on the streets is vastly at odds with reality.)

Experiment for you: go to Google. Type this in, without quotes. See what it auto-completes for you: "Paris dog"

Then once you see the first suggestion (presuming it's consistent for everyone), check out the first half-dozen links. Paris is well-known worldwide for having a dogshit problem. Even the government acknowledges that it's out of control. Hell, they used to have fleets of cleaning vehicles just to deal with the problem. Today they use CCTV and fines, to varying degrees of success.

The cigarettes mostly just disgusted me because it seems you can smoke anywhere in Paris. Every one of the "sophisticated" little cafes and bistros were surrounded by a haze of smoke. It was like going back to the 1970s. EVERYONE smokes there. And they look like shit doing it. And I say this as someone who actually has a lot less of a problem with smokers than the average person in Canada, these days. Well ok, the sand pathways down the Champs were covered in butts as well, but even though I've shown this to people on Streetview, for some reason 3/4 of the tourists that visit don't even remember the sand being there. So I'm not surprised people don't remember the butts.

[miketoronto]

One can dress nice and still be comfortable. Nice clothing need not be uncomfortable.

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by esquire

^What you cannot argue, I'm afraid, is that the average North American looks better than the average Parisian.

Depends on which part of "North America." I was just visiting my mom in Griffith, Indiana as a side trip during 12 days in Montreal and holy hell you traverse a lot of, um, LOOKS going from Calgary to Montreal to one of the most depressed parts of the US rustbelt.

I found the men in Montreal to be fashionable, absolutely, with scarves for days (even on a humid 26 degree day- that struck me as more insane than anything else) and aggressively skinny for the most part. In that part of the south suburban Chicagoland- my God, it was People of Walmart and just outrageous amounts of morbid obesity. I don't mean fat- I have nothing against beefy boys- I mean circus sideshow, TLC medical documentary morbidly obese. But I'd never use that as a standard for "North America."

[esquire]

^ The key word is "average". I saw people in the provinces of France who would probably rank among the worst dressed people of small Minnesota farm towns that I've been through. By the same token, there are people in North America who are hard-core fashionistas - with the up-to-the-minute information available at your fingertips, a hardcore fashionista living in Brandon can put together the same looks seen in Europe if they want to.

I am really talking about the averages... i.e., what does the average Parisian, or even Frenchman/woman wear when going to the supermarket as compared to the average Canadian or American. Even in fashionable North American cities like Montreal or New York, the average tends to look worse than what you'd see over there.

[caltrane74]

Jasonzed has posted some of the construction work at Square One Mall in Mississauga as they get ready for new retail tenants. From UT

[Innsertnamehere]

There was an article in the star on how Hudson's Bay has more than doubled it's sales over the last year. $880 million to $1.85 billion.

[SFUVancouver]

^ Wow. Good for them.

I spent about $1,200 at The Bay over this last year and none the previous year. I like their men's section in the downtown Vancouver store and choose to shop there vs their Richmond Centre location that is actually much closer to me.

[SpongeG]

the bay has become a really nice place to shop, especially the downtown vancouver store, the service has really improved a lot too

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

the bay has become a really nice place to shop, especially the downtown vancouver store

You've been to all of them?

I was in The Bay downtown Calgary on a Tuesday at around 2pm and the place was packed. I had no idea it was that popular- at lunchtime, yes, you cannot move in the stores in downtown Calgary on a weekday lunch hour, but this should've been the quietest part of that day.

Also Winners on Stephen Avenue KILLS. They do huge business, even on Sundays. In downtown Calgary.

[memememe76]

Doesn't the Downtown Calgary Bay have a cafeteria/restaurant? I would imagine a lot of office workers would go there for lunch.

[VIce]

Originally Posted by memememe76

Doesn't the Downtown Calgary Bay have a cafeteria/restaurant? I would imagine a lot of office workers would go there for lunch.

Its directly adjacent to Scotia Centre's food court, but it doesn't have any food outlet of its own I don't think.

[OTSkyline]

The Bay, with renovations and improved service/offerings has the opportunity to become a big success (a-la Macy's or Saks in the states).

I was going to say something like "YAY for success of a big canadian retailer" but weren't they bought out by some company in the states or something? Nothing is big, successful and canadian.. other than Tim Hortons and Giant Tiger