Winnipeg Retail

[horrorbro123]

Also W.K. Chan Jewellers Has Finally Reopening Polo Park Location

[CoryB]

Mexx filed for bankruptcy today. That along with Smart Set closing all stores will see some units opening up in the new year. Not sure who wil be looking for space yet.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Not to mention that the customer service at Rona is bad on an otherworldly level.

It amazes me how Home Depot can staff competently in nearly all their departments, and yet you walk into a Rona, and if you're able to even find anybody, they never know a thing about their department or trade...

LOL! I hear you, Rona is a complete joke, once ordered and paid for shingles for my garage was assured they were in stock, borrowed a buddies 1/2 ton truck an hour later, drove to Rona to pick up the shingles only to be told the item was out of stock and had been for a few weeks.

[bomberjet]

I went to Rona a month or two back. Couldn't find anyone to help me with the insulation. All the individual bundles were still strapped together and stacked up. I got fed up, went to the tools aisle and got a set of shears. Ripped them out of the package to cut the metal bands myself. Bunch of bums.

I'll tend to go to Rona as it's Canadian. Home Depot's American.

[Riverman]

When Rona opened they had a terrific variety and stock of fasteners. I was doing a lot of metal fabrication at the time and was buying all of my hardware there. The stock started to go for crap shortly after so I went back to buying at Adams Supply.

[cllew]

Originally Posted by trebor204

Good News!
It looks like the Bargain Store by the MTS Centre is closing down.
Hopefully they replace it with a restaurant or sports bar or SHED related.

Just saw in the Canstar Times local news insert from the Free Press at work that the Bargain store location at 1467 Main St is also closing down as of Jan 21/15.

Apparently from what I found online, the chain has been in financial difficulty since 2013 and is restructuring.

[esquire]

Another one bites the dust in Portage Place... this time it's Argento on the second floor. The western end of the mall is really drying up.

[Simplicity]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Mexx filed for bankruptcy today. That along with Smart Set closing all stores will see some units opening up in the new year. Not sure who wil be looking for space yet.

Are they closing stores yet or are they trying to restructure and recapitalize first?

EDIT: Yeah, just protection at the moment, but it doesn't look good given the parent company is leading the charge. Obviously there are large fundamental issues. If I were Smart Centres, I'd be shitting a brick. Reitmans and Danier are both at the brink and Mexx just entered. In Lindenwoods alone, that's three potential long-term vacancies in one strip...

[blueandgoldguy]

I always thought Mexx did reasonably well in the past - stores seemed reasonably busy. Guess that's not the case. Well, that and I'm only basing it on the few stores I've been in.

[horrorbro123]

WOW MOBILE BOUTIQUE Has Open First Winnipeg Location is St Vital Centre Maybe Will Added Second Location In Polo Park Shopping Centre

[esquire]

The Free Press says that the River City Sports mega-outlet on Sterling Lyon has closed. Apparently they were bleeding money for a while.

[horrorbro123]

Maybe Pro Hockey Life Will Replace River City Sports In Seasons of Tuxedo

[Boreal]

Originally Posted by esquire

The Free Press says that the River City Sports mega-outlet on Sterling Lyon has closed. Apparently they were bleeding money for a while.

Sadly, I am not surprised at all. That was a massive outlet with large (mega huge) aisles, leading to poor space utilization, without a product line that commands incessant hordes of shoppers willing to pay silly markup (think, Apple Store).

River City Sports really appears to have abandoned the model that made them successful when they gave that outlet a go.

Not to mention, online buying will only continue to eat away at market share.

[Jammon]

They needed to use a Scheels concept where it's not just local sports teams, but a large selection across all sports. It would have helped if they also sold equipment. I went there once thinking I could buy a good baseball bat (not from Canadian Tire's crappy selection) and they didn't sell anything useful. It was doomed from the start.

[CoryB]

I actually went to the River City at Seasons after Christmas last year looking for a specific item that was in stock however the size I wanted was not. The size I wanted was available from their website though.

It really felt like they could make better use of their available space to be more of a working warehouse. Picture a blend of the current retail structure and what Consumers used to be. Instead of having a rack of 30 shirts with five different sizes you have maybe five shirts each a different size. When a customer finds what they want on the floor it is quickly picked from the warehouse backend and given to them.

I really think over the next few years companies that move to a hybrid model like that and fulfil online orders from local warehouse and quickly get the product into your hand will benefit hugely long term.

[vjose32]

Isn't there a potential plan for Target and Lowes at McPhillips and Chief Peguis? Also I noticed some work is going on at the old IGA in Maples, should add to the Youngs Market speculation for sure

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by vjose32

Isn't there a potential plan for Target and Lowes at McPhillips and Chief Peguis? Also I noticed some work is going on at the old IGA in Maples, should add to the Youngs Market speculation for sure

After it was announced the store was closing and a date made public a "for lease" sign went up. Then before the store closed it was changed to "leased" and the store closing date was moved up almost a month.

On a different note, I am surprised that with nearly a year notice at least five of the spaces in the Polo Park expansion into the Zeller's space are vacant or filled with temporary outlets.

[biguc]

Originally Posted by CoryB

I actually went to the River City at Seasons after Christmas last year looking for a specific item that was in stock however the size I wanted was not. The size I wanted was available from their website though.

It really felt like they could make better use of their available space to be more of a working warehouse. Picture a blend of the current retail structure and what Consumers used to be. Instead of having a rack of 30 shirts with five different sizes you have maybe five shirts each a different size. When a customer finds what they want on the floor it is quickly picked from the warehouse backend and given to them.

I really think over the next few years companies that move to a hybrid model like that and fulfil online orders from local warehouse and quickly get the product into your hand will benefit hugely long term.

Funny, I was going to post something similar a few days ago. You're right, of course. Electronics stores, in particular, would really from this model--smaller retail spaces with nothing but display models and one local DC shipping the items to people the same day. If drone shipping actually does become a thing, the system only gets better. I also like the prospect of compact, urban retail spaces being able to provide the selection og big box stores.

Anyway, with these recent closings in the area, does anyone else get the feeling seasons of tuxedo is going to bomb?

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by biguc

Anyway, with these recent closings in the area, does anyone else get the feeling seasons of tuxedo is going to bomb?

Seasons of Tuxedo has been bombing for at least a year now, likely longer. The number of "first to market" retailers in phase 2 is telling in itself. They seem to be struggling to find even well established retailers with a local presence willing to move into the section that hosts the MTS Wireless store. This drives that home.

Next to River City Sports was supposed to be a second phase of similar outlets that has yet to start construction. All talk of the purposed water park financed entire with private money, thought to be Great Wolf Lodge, has disappeared. The movie theater? Well AMC exited Canadian operations and those plans evaporated. The promised "home improvement store" next to Cabela's? I am not sure what is happening there but given Lowe's Canadian headquarters a call and ask. That is without even starting the discussion on how the upscale open air mall in phase 3 on the north side of Sterling Lyon has morphed into an outlet mall, likely swallowing the promised grocery store with it.

There is some upside though, the promised opportunity to stay on the site is shaping up nicely although being apartments and condos instead of the originally envisioned hotels your stay might be a little longer than planned. That is okay though as once you are tired of eating at Ikea there are lots of fast food restaurants on the site to keep you feed until that grocery store opens.

[esquire]

Probably not so much a bust as a case where it's going to take a lot longer than initially envisioned to materialize. Makes you feel good about all the money the city spent on building up the roads around there, eh? By the time the development is built out it'll be time to replace the infrastructure.

The original vision for the upscale outdoor mall north of Sterling Lyon has been downgraded to some sort of pseudo-outlet mall. Its projected opening is in 2017. The south side of Sterling Lyon is supposed to be more conventional big-box stores, but it does seem that the SW quadrant of the city is pretty well covered already... there probably aren't many potential tenants who aren't already located closer to McGillivray or at Polo Park.