Canadian Retail Thread

[SpongeG]

Hema Bringing Discount Dutch Department Store To Canada This Fall

The first locations in North America are set to open in Ontario.
By Jon Rumley


MIKE KEMP/IN PICTURES VIA GETTY IMAGES
A sign for a Hema store is seen here in Birmingham, U.K. The low-cost retailer says it will soon be opening its doors in Canada.

It looks like Ikea might have some new competition in Canada.

Hema, an Amsterdam-based department store for “ordinary” people, announced Thursday it will be expanding to North America.

In a news release, the company said it will open its first standalone stores in Ontario along with shop-in-shops inside select Walmart locations this fall. Products will be available online for U.S. customers through Walmart’s website starting this summer.

The expansion into North America is a “historic step” for Hema, CEO Tjeerd Jegen said in a statement. Walmart’s general manager and head of marketplace called the low-cost retailer a “distinctive brand from Holland.”

...

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/hema-stores-opening-ontario-canada_ca_5d1e14e0e4b0f312568035f3

• Video Link

[SpongeG]

this is a good video about Heritage Mall

• Video Link

[SpongeG]

Once a retail shrine, flagship stores lose their shine

Anne D'Innocenzio
The Associated Press
Published Aug. 1, 2019

NEW YORK -- It used to be considered the retailer's crown jewel -- a large format store on a swank corridor that showed off the best of what a brand had to offer.

But now the so-called flagship store is disappearing from high-profile shopping thoroughfares like Manhattan's Madison Avenue and Chicago's Magnificent Mile because of skyrocketing rents and the shift to online shopping.

Over the last year or so, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Lord & Taylor and Polo Ralph Lauren have closed their flagship stores on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. Abercrombie announced in May that it was closing three more of its big locations -- an Abercrombie store in Milan, an Abercrombie store in Fukuoka, Japan and a Hollister-branded store in Manhattan's SoHo area. The announcement came after the teen retailer shut down flagships in Hong Kong and Copenhagen.

Other retailers are reimagining the flagship concept instead of abandoning it altogether. Nike, for instance, opened a massive store on Fifth Avenue late last year that doesn't have any cash registers. It lets shoppers see details of items displayed on a mannequin by scanning the QR code and then having those items delivered to a fitting room or a designated pickup spot. Levi Strauss & Co.'s new flagship in Manhattan's Time Square features larger dressing rooms with call buttons and tailors who can add trims and patches to customers' jeans.

Those still clinging to the old concept, however, are having a harder time. The latest victim could be Barneys New York, which opened its 10-story Madison Avenue store in 1993 and became a cultural icon in luxury shopping but now risks closure. High rents and a dramatic shift toward online shopping are pressuring it to evaluate restructuring options, including possible bankruptcy, according to a source close to the matter who asked to remain anonymous because the discussions are confidential.

Joseph Aquino, who runs his namesake real estate services firm, says the days of the shop-til-you drop mentality on Madison Avenue popularized by the HBO popular series of the 1990s "Sex in the City" are over.

"She was 45 and now she is 65... She isn't shopping like she was 45," Aquino said. "We are in the phase where a lot of younger shoppers don't want to go the high street. They sit around and buy online and that's what we are fighting against."

The concept of a flagship store is more than a century old and used to be limited to retailers' biggest store -- one in their first or most prominent location. But in the last 20 years, a flagship store frenzy took hold and retailers from Gap to H&M looked at them as a must-have shrine to their brands, opening multiple flagships in multiple locations. Not only that but they were willing to pay exorbitant sums of money to showcase their merchandise in luxury corridors.

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https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/busines...9GjLIN0Cwh7Ai-d9_Uk4WsF9ODKdmC8VvKMoW-kk

[wave46]

A lot of the glamour associated with shopping has dried up in the face of internet shopping.

In the past, one could only get some of these brands in the biggest cities in the country, so there was a novelty factor to it.

Today sits in front of me a machine that can get pretty much anything from anywhere delivered to my door. I can order a Gucci wallet in my pyjamas from Whitehorse.

About the only exception I can think of is clothes shopping because you actually have to try some stuff on before you buy it.

It also sort of highlights another weakness of the flagship store - they're just unpleasant experiences. They're crowded with tourists.

Then again, I'm not a shopper, so maybe my perspective is off.

[mintzilla]

^although i also prefer to try on clothes before buying it, a large number of people simply order multiple sizes and styles and ship back the ones they dont like for a refund.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by mintzilla

^although i also prefer to try on clothes before buying it, a large number of people simply order multiple sizes and styles and ship back the ones they dont like for a refund.

What a waste of resources (and carbon footprint).

I absolutely detest online shopping.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

What a waste of resources (and carbon footprint).

Agree. God forbid that you'd actually have to walk somewhere to get a product. Perhaps the next generation will just lie on a couch for 90 years and have things brought to them. It's not much of a stretch.

[WhipperSnapper]

There are many green aspects to online shopping. You can find things the average store wouldn't carry. You know beforehand if it is in stock or not. You are often buying directly from manufacturers. The lack of middle men is cheaper and more efficient and quite a few manufacturers produce to order. There's no overstock. There's no walking or driving around from store to store.

People do go overboard as they do with everything. Buying stuff to return later is wasteful in any situation. Contractors are horrible at buying too much and they aren't buying online. It's 2019. Anyone that isn't taking advantage of this resource is being foolishly nostalgic.

[zahav]

I think online does have a good purpose and ease for some people, but like many others on here appanrently (I am surprised actually) I also don't like online shopping, I like trying on and picking up my clothes. I want to see furniture in person a lot of the time, and same with household goods. I'd rather wander thru Home Sense or Winners (within reason lol I also don't care for 3 hours in a store either..). But ya online hasn't roped me in. I have a Shoppers across thr street and hit up my 20x points events etc. and it is very convenient so I don't need door delivery. One of my friends in rural NS orders everything online though, she'll get a giant delivery box for toilet paper only! Not my style lol but I'm also not in the middle of nowhere rural town either so I can't preach to others habits

[wave46]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Agree. God forbid that you'd actually have to walk somewhere to get a product. Perhaps the next generation will just lie on a couch for 90 years and have things brought to them. It's not much of a stretch.

I don't see internet shopping replacing grocery shopping or many household shopping items.

I do see it taking a chunk of things that otherwise would require me to make a trip to a bigger city. As per my example, would me making a trip to Toronto to buy a Gucci wallet (I don't really want one, but that's beside the point) be more wasteful than having it shipped to me via courier? (presumably with a bunch of other packages that are coming to my city anyway).

The exclusivity of 'luxury consumption' is certainly diluted when anybody anywhere can order something. That's sort of the point I was making. My other observation is that no one really gives a hoot about most 'luxury brands' aside from the initial observation.

Internet shopping is good for obscure items. I like that I could find a factory-new seatbelt latch for my old car online, or a SIM card tray for a phone that hasn't been produced in years.

[Djeffery]

Carbon footprint? Lol. Purolator is coming to my street anyway. Certainly a smaller footprint than me driving 15 minutes to the mall, and god forbid, 30 minutes across town to their other store if the first doesn't have my style/size in stock.

[MonctonRad]

Carbon footprint in the sense that many courier delivered items purchased by online shopping are expedited and therefore travel on carbon intensive cargo aircraft rather than most hard goods delivered to a store, which reach their destination by truck. Internet shopping is not "carbon neutral".

Other problems with online shopping:

- Issues around delivery of the goods to a home during the daytime when everyone is at work.
- Consequent theft of said goods.
- All of the pointless returns when you receive the goods and they aren't quite as pictured on the web page, or with clothing, the wrong size.
- Hollowing out the retail sectors of smaller regional cities.
- Consequent job losses, especially for less well educated individuals with few options.

Internet shopping is not a panacea. It can be useful for rare luxury goods not otherwise available in your area, or for unique items, but that is just about it. I would rather support my friendly local retailer, thank you very much - he needs the money more than Jeff Bezos does..........

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Internet shopping is not a panacea. It can be useful for rare luxury goods not otherwise available in your area, or for unique items, but that is just about it. I would rather support my friendly local retailer, thank you very much - he needs the money more than Jeff Bezos does..........

That's great. But the guy delivering the Amazon package is also a local job, as are the jobs of the people in the warehouse unloading the tractor trailer, which is also delivered by a local worker. Most of whom make more than retail wages.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Carbon footprint in the sense that many courier delivered items purchased by online shopping are expedited and therefore travel on carbon intensive cargo aircraft rather than most hard goods delivered to a store, which reach their destination by truck. Internet shopping is not "carbon neutral".

Other problems with online shopping:

- Issues around delivery of the goods to a home during the daytime when everyone is at work.
- Consequent theft of said goods.
- All of the pointless returns when you receive the goods and they aren't quite as pictured on the web page, or with clothing, the wrong size.
- Hollowing out the retail sectors of smaller regional cities.
- Consequent job losses, especially for less well educated individuals with few options.

Internet shopping is not a panacea. It can be useful for rare luxury goods not otherwise available in your area, or for unique items, but that is just about it. I would rather support my friendly local retailer, thank you very much - he needs the money more than Jeff Bezos does..........

[someone123]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Other problems with online shopping:

- Issues around delivery of the goods to a home during the daytime when everyone is at work.
- Consequent theft of said goods.
- All of the pointless returns when you receive the goods and they aren't quite as pictured on the web page, or with clothing, the wrong size.
- Hollowing out the retail sectors of smaller regional cities.
- Consequent job losses, especially for less well educated individuals with few options.

Amazon has gone downhill and has become filled with poorly made garbage or outright counterfeits, fake reviews, and unpredictable pricing. It seems like online retail has a big problem with discovery of the smaller high-quality retailers, while all of the bigger sites/markets get swamped with garbage.

If you go to Best Buy there's a relatively low chance that the Apple cable you found is actually fake and is going to fry your phone, and it's unlikely that your grocery store will secretly try to charge you $9999 for your dish soap one day.

[CityTech]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

That's great. But the guy delivering the Amazon package is also a local job, as are the jobs of the people in the warehouse unloading the tractor trailer, which is also delivered by a local worker. Most of whom make more than retail wages.

Not to mention all the engineers and IT workers online shopping needs.

The jobs argument against online shopping makes no sense. Local stores only generate shit jobs that pay minimum wage. The data shows that small/local businesses are shittier employers who pay less and provide fewer benefits than large corporations. I dunno why we worship small business so much in this country. Its madness.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by CityTech

The jobs argument against online shopping makes no sense. Local stores only generate shit jobs that pay minimum wage. The data shows that small/local businesses are shittier employers who pay less and provide fewer benefits than large corporations. I dunno why we worship small business so much in this country. Its madness.

And it makes little sense to try to preserve jobs that are no longer needed due to changes in the economy. Retail has evolved rapidly since at least the 1930's when instead of going to a supermarket people went to a number of small stores where shopkeepers picked out every item for you behind a counter. There is a huge drop in the amount and skill of labour required by that shopkeeper model and the megastore model, even before we start talking about online retailers.

Some retail experiences are fun but most of it is a chore most people would rather not have to do. And the warehouse and delivery jobs will eventually be fully automated. Keeping people in those jobs artificially is like forcing farms to work with teams of oxen. The key is to focus on giving people a good standard of living (which may mean opening up new service jobs and other industries, but should also mean less work for everyone), not keeping old jobs around.

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by CityTech

Not to mention all the engineers and IT workers online shopping needs.

Except those are not local jobs, unless they are.

The jobs argument against online shopping makes no sense. Local stores only generate shit jobs that pay minimum wage. The data shows that small/local businesses are shittier employers who pay less and provide fewer benefits than large corporations. I dunno why we worship small business so much in this country. Its madness.

Yes. It's madness to support employment of a large segment of the population (minimally educated, minimally skilled) that is otherwise unemployable.

Everyone expects to be a VP.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

Except those are not local jobs, unless they are.

Yes. It's madness to support employment of a large segment of the population (minimally educated, minimally skilled) that is otherwise unemployable.

Everyone expects to be a VP.

Indeed. Statistically half the population has an IQ less than 100. Not everyone is cut out to be a computer coder or a software engineer (let alone a rocket scientist or brain surgeon). A future where 50% or more of the population is unemployable could be a very sad and dangerous place.

We make service workers unemployable at our own peril.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by someone123

Amazon has gone downhill and has become filled with poorly made garbage or outright counterfeits, fake reviews, and unpredictable pricing. It seems like online retail has a big problem with discovery of the smaller high-quality retailers, while all of the bigger sites/markets get swamped with garbage.

If you go to Best Buy there's a relatively low chance that the Apple cable you found is actually fake and is going to fry your phone, and it's unlikely that your grocery store will secretly try to charge you $9999 for your dish soap one day.

Yea that's the problem I find with Amazon is there is just too much stuff and too many retailers/sellers who sell their stuff through Amazon. You can find the same item that can range in price from $7.00 to $70.00 depending on the seller. It's just gotten too overwhelming and impossible to find something without 60+ pages of results.