The Metro Vancouver Retail Thread

[Tetsuo]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

That was always the plan. Sears Canada was dead when they bought it.
Never a happy day to see an old retailer like Sears die, but retail is a dynamic business and it happens.

Just — to see the super nice and friendly "lifers" lose out, there are some employees at the Metro location that still remember me from when I was a child in the 90's.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Nordstrom is wanting to go private, is that a strategy better for a business like a department store? no stock holders to answer to and they can ride the flow better? Simons seems to be better off being privately held.

Yes, "unlocking shareholder value" is just code for sucking the life out of a company.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

They sold it in 1994 when they started their death spiral.

Originally Posted by SpongeG

it's now called "Willis Tower"

Haha, thanks guys. There goes Sear's cash cow.

The trouble with mainstream American retailers is that they focus too much on the shareholders rather than customer base. The stores and ambience are so crappy yet they expect to make a profit? I only remember worn-out carpet, dirty display cabinets and forlorn-looking staff the last few times I went to a Sears. I think the problem is that they were overly ambitious and opened too many stores at the same time to flood the market, with the result of not having enough funds to update them all. Surprisingly, the stint at the downtown Vancouver store (now Nordstrom) started out great. I remember they had nicely-dressed customer reps (sales people), but over time, this too became mediocre.

So far, Simons in West Vancouver is still very nice: good customer service with nicely attired sales people, and great retail ambience. Proud it's a Canadian company. Would suggest they incorporate a food centre (couple of different eateries, like snack/ice cream/dessert or full menu restaurants, rather than just a cafe) in their future stores to help pull in more traffic. Unfortunately at the moment, the only other western Canadian store they are opening is in Edmonton. Downtown Vancouver just doesn't have a new mall for them to fit in. Hope this will change with the new retail opportunities at the Post Office or the Bay Parking.

[officedweller]

Looks like the 2 empty retail units on Robson (B-mobile and clothing store) in the FutureShop/Best Buy building are being combined into one larger unit.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Vin

Haha, thanks guys. There goes Sear's cash cow.

The trouble with mainstream American retailers is that they focus too much on the shareholders rather than customer base. The stores and ambience are so crappy yet they expect to make a profit? I only remember worn-out carpet, dirty display cabinets and forlorn-looking staff the last few times I went to a Sears. I think the problem is that they were overly ambitious and opened too many stores at the same time to flood the market, with the result of not having enough funds to update them all. Surprisingly, the stint at the downtown Vancouver store (now Nordstrom) started out great. I remember they had nicely-dressed customer reps (sales people), but over time, this too became mediocre.

So far, Simons in West Vancouver is still very nice: good customer service with nicely attired sales people, and great retail ambience. Proud it's a Canadian company. Would suggest they incorporate a food centre (couple of different eateries, like snack/ice cream/dessert or full menu restaurants, rather than just a cafe) in their future stores to help pull in more traffic. Unfortunately at the moment, the only other western Canadian store they are opening is in Edmonton. Downtown Vancouver just doesn't have a new mall for them to fit in. Hope this will change with the new retail opportunities at the Post Office or the Bay Parking.

this is from a few years ago, there was a render for a simons store in south surrey at Morgan Place, I think the suburbs will get the stores not downtown, park royal serves the downtown people and it looks like most of their stores are more suburban locations in malls.




https://www.jka.cc/projects/public-hospitality/morgan-place/

Morgan Centre

Project Description

Master planning, Programing, and design for a residential and commercial development at the prominent Morgan Creek neighborhood at South Surrey, BC.

The key tenants included 140,000 sq ft Big Box store, 50,000 sq ft Whole Food store, and 35,000 sq ft Pet Store. There is also a 65,000 sq ft Office building, 50,000 sq ft of retail space for smaller tenants and 2- pad building including a drive-through McDonald’s.

[osirisboy]

^^A little off topic. Would be great to see 20th go over 99 as shown above, and to eventually get the 24th interchange done

[flipper316]

Ugh more depressing big box stores with giant parking lots. Especially in that area where there's already lost. Why didn't they just build one giant mall instead of strip malls all over.

[connect2source]

Amazon buying Whole Foods for 13.7B, perhaps they can turn things around.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/amazon-whole-foods-1.4163661

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by connect2source

Amazon buying Whole Foods for 13.7B, perhaps they can turn things around.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/amazon-whole-foods-1.4163661

Crazy, I wonder if Canada will get any Amazon goodies out of it. Usually Amazon Canada is months if not years behind US Amazon on features. I wouldn't be surprised if they just unceremoniously closed the non-US locations either.

Whole Foods being so cagey on the Lonsdale location, i.e. removing signage while still saying it's going ahead, makes more sense now.

If I worked in a grocery store this would scare the — out of me.

• Video Link

[LowerLonsdaleMike]

Now you're just jumping to conclusions about shuttering the doors on all Non-USA Whole Foods locations. Canada has some of the highest grossing stores for Whole Foods. The West Van location was/is consistently the top producing store worldwide. The fact that Amazon has bought them, has done nothing but secured a solid future for Whole Foods stores and perhaps we'll see prices drop a bit.

[HelloKitty]

And then now that they acquired Whole Foods' distribution network... perhaps it can become a drop off/pickup point for online purchases too from amazon.ca./.com etc.

It's not exactly the stores itself only that's valuable to amazon, but also that distribution network. No need for them to start from scratch with little skillset on running bricks and mortar grocery stores.

See some points here:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-in...qid=a3e36af6-ba2c-4974-b7ef-b380b90eece3

On another note, since we're on the topic of amazon... I notice that even without Prime subscription, my online order/s from them gets delivered within the Prime window instead of a few more days later. Teehee!

[SpongeG]

has the gap on robson closed up now? is it boarded up for muji yet?

[connect2source]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

has the gap on robson closed up now? is it boarded up for muji yet?

Just walked past, opened and no sign of shutting down yet. I really hope Muji makes huge changes to this — building, they're known for their design so I can't see them slapping on an awning and leaving this 80's stucco piece of garbage.

[Conrad Yablonski]

Originally Posted by connect2source

..... I really hope Muji makes huge changes to this — building, they're known for their design so I can't see them slapping on an awning and leaving this 80's stucco piece of garbage.

I'm not disagreeing but the sort of huge change you're looking for takes a long time to be approved by the CoV unless you want it 'fa$t tracked' and even then.....

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by LowerLonsdaleMike

Now you're just jumping to conclusions about shuttering the doors on all Non-USA Whole Foods locations. Canada has some of the highest grossing stores for Whole Foods. The West Van location was/is consistently the top producing store worldwide. The fact that Amazon has bought them, has done nothing but secured a solid future for Whole Foods stores and perhaps we'll see prices drop a bit.

I was just expressing some concern based on how Amazon treats Canada in general, not jumping to conclusions. Your vision of the future sounds lovely, but you don't know it's gonna end up like that any more than I do.

[HelloKitty]

Originally Posted by Pinion

If I worked in a grocery store this would scare the — out of me.

And if I worked for (not in) a grocery store, I would be quite interested to move to WholeFoods/Amazon. Lol!

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by HelloKitty

And if I worked for (not in) a grocery store, I would be quite interested to move to WholeFoods/Amazon. Lol!

I wouldn't, they're a terrible employer by most accounts, and will be aggressively looking to eliminate your position as quickly as possible - no matter how high up the chain you are.

[HelloKitty]

Originally Posted by Pinion

I wouldn't, they're a terrible employer by most accounts, and will be aggressively looking to eliminate your position as quickly as possible - no matter how high up the chain you are.

Really? Even Amazon Canada? I know of that article (NYT? I forget now) published some years back on what a horrible workplace culture it has in the US. I wonder if it's similar here. But I guess that's for another discussion thread.

[SpongeG]

yeah i've heard bad things about amazon as an employer, i have a friend in seattle who works for them and he has had some troubles with things there

[SpongeG]

Kiehls is opening in Coquitlam Centre next t the MAC cosmetics that just opened.

2017-06-21_12-02-51 by snub_you, on Flickr