[Moncton] Retail Thread

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by L'homard

What's going on at the TD centre that you would call it a fiasco? I thought all was well there.

I wouldn't characterize it as a fiasco. However, there are a lot less people working at the center now. Original plans were that there would be approximately 1000 well paid employees working on site. This would have been a substantial benefit to the retailers in the mall. They did that large parking lot on the east side in anticipation of more workers on site as things ramped up, but there are very few cars parked there these days. A lot of people really enjoy the benefits of working from home, so I don't know if the TD center will ever have the impact it could have had.

It will be interesting to see what TD does going forward. Will they continue to pay the substantial leasing cost on empty space?

[L'homard]

I thought someone posted here that the TD initiative in the mall was "a fiasco" but maybe I read that somewhere else. If so, my humble apologies.
Having TD workers work from home instead of at the mall certainly doesn't qualify as a fiasco to me. If TD is happy and still hiring (and they certainly are hiring) then all is well in my opinion.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by L'homard

I thought someone posted here that the TD initiative in the mall was "a fiasco" but maybe I read that somewhere else. If so, my humble apologies.
Having TD workers work from home instead of at the mall certainly doesn't qualify as a fiasco to me. If TD is happy and still hiring (and they certainly are hiring) then all is well in my opinion.

The "fiasco" comment is in post #7138.

The TD corporate office is not a "fiasco", but, because of the pandemic, is a disappointment.

CF Champlain was expecting 1200 captive workers in the TD Centre, browsing stores during their breaks, and eating at the food court at lunchtime. Instead, almost everyone is working from home, browsing Amazon on their downtime, and eating a homemade ham sandwich at lunch - hardly the bonanza that CF was expecting.

I truly hope that the workers return once the pandemic is over..........

[L'homard]

Thanks, I failed to re-find the comment, ha ha.
Yes I suppose a fiasco is in the eye of the beholder.
I would prefer a healthier Champlain Place and CF I wish nothing but the best but they will be fine, eventually, or as fine as any mall can be these days, in my uninformed opinion.
I was worried TD was pulling out or was under some sort of duress, which to me would be far, far more troubling locally.

[jonny golden]

About a year ago, TD added an insurance department to the center, with 100 more jobs. This was above the original jobs in the finance department & contact center. They said at the time that this would fill some of the empty space at the center.

If it wasn't for Covid driving people to work from home, the 1000+ employees with direct access to the mall would have been a tremendous benefit to Champlain Place. That's a lot of disposable income no longer around.

[bridgeoftea]

Originally Posted by jonny golden

About a year ago, TD added an insurance department to the center, with 100 more jobs. This was above the original jobs in the finance department & contact center. They said at the time that this would fill some of the empty space at the center.

If it wasn't for Covid driving people to work from home, the 1000+ employees with direct access to the mall would have been a tremendous benefit to Champlain Place. That's a lot of disposable income no longer around.

The inside scoop seems to be a very very slow return to office. To give you an example my work(different company) has been pushing for office returns in Sept 21', Apr 21', Jan 21'. But it keeps getting pushed backed and delayed. Where as with TD, there's been no memos sent out saying a return to work date has been tentatively scheduled.

It seems like they might be waiting for a true "end of pandemic" before sending people back into office. Unlike other companies that are a little more desperate to get back.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by bridgeoftea

The inside scoop seems to be a very very slow return to office. To give you an example my work(different company) has been pushing for office returns in Sept 21', Apr 21', Jan 21'. But it keeps getting pushed backed and delayed. Where as with TD, there's been no memos sent out saying a return to work date has been tentatively scheduled.

It seems like they might be waiting for a true "end of pandemic" before sending people back into office. Unlike other companies that are a little more desperate to get back.

I hope so, because TD employees in the building would be such a boost for businesses in the mall.

The thing is that working from home is attractive for the majority of employees as well as the employer. When they announced the creation of the insurance department, Frank McKenna said that remote work would allow the bank to hire hundreds of more workers. He spoke about bilingual workers in the north of the province being a resource. So there is a real potential for more TD jobs in N.B. And the work from home model does create more job satisfaction & less employee absenteeism.

I think we'll see some TD staff coming back to the center, but my guess is that it will be a long time before there's 1000+ workers on site.

[Djeffery]

While it might be a loss to the Champlain retailers, is it really a loss for the area though? One man's pain is another man's gain kind of thing? People presumably aren't just banking more money because they don't work in a mall now.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

While it might be a loss to the Champlain retailers, is it really a loss for the area though? One man's pain is another man's gain kind of thing? People presumably aren't just banking more money because they don't work in a mall now.

True. And like Mr. McKenna said, having remote employees enables TD to create more jobs in the future, as they don't need office space for them. Nor do they have to be located in the Moncton area.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

While it might be a loss to the Champlain retailers, is it really a loss for the area though? One man's pain is another man's gain kind of thing? People presumably aren't just banking more money because they don't work in a mall now.

The TD Corporate Office was CF Champlain's first tentative step towards it's eventual evolution into becoming more of an integrated "experiential and commercial centre", with increased entertainment options, integrated office and commercial enterprises and on site residential towers.

The era of the regional shopping centre anchored by department stores, with intervening corridors lined by specialty boutiques has essential come to an end. Retail is now dominated by e-commerce, big box power centres and outlet plazas. The mall needs to be reinvented to survive.

1) - integrated office/commercial space will help to support the remaining retailers because their employees will roam the mall corridors on their breaks, purchasing goods and services and patronizing food courts and restaurants. This is what the TD Centre was supposed to do.
2) - integrated residential again provides a captive market for the remaining retailers as the apartment dwellers will more often than not stay on site to obtain goods and services. I could easily see a few residential towers cropping up on the CF Champlain parking lot in the next decade, with direct mall access.
3) - to replace department stores as anchors, modern shopping centres will turn towards entertainment options as replacements. Food halls (upscale food courts with improved ambience and better and more exotic food options) are becoming popular. Sophisticated entertainment centres like Playdium are important in the future of the mall concept. Theatres (including IMAX) could be integrated too, as well as full service restaurants. People need to have a reason to visit regional malls, especially since big box stores like Costco have stolen the show otherwise.

There will always be shopping in "shopping" malls, but in the future, malls will have to learn to be attractive to everyone, and to broaden their appeal. Curiously, CF Champlain was ahead of the curve with Crystal Palace, but let that slip away when they leased the space to Bass Pro Shops (although Bass Pro is an experiential retailer in it's own right). It's too bad that the old Crystal Palace building wasn't directly connected to the main mall. With Bass Pro, Chapters and the Cineplex Cinema, it would go a long way towards rejuvenating the main mall.

[MonctonRad]

Job adverts are appearing for Take It Outside and The Trail Shop, opening soon in the Granite Centre.

https://ca.indeed.com/jobs?q=Retail&l=Moncton%2C%20NB&sort=date&vjk=7c8131aeeca5eb80

The expected date of employment is February 21st, but, presumably the actual opening dates for the stores will be later, as these employees have to be trained, and will have to oversee stocking and start-up of the stores. I would expect these stores will likely open in early April.

[MonctonRad]

A long time ago (in the prepandemic era), RW&Co, had been rumoured to be moving to this space in CF Champlain as a general reorganization of the south wing of the mall necessitated by the loss of Sears as an anchor tenant.



A source recently advised me that this move may be on the table again.

The four units adjacent to the current RW&Co location are also apparently being vacated to allow for consolidation to form a new anchor retailer, rumoured to be Old Navy. If this is this case, does this mean that the current RW&Co will also be consolidated for Old Navy.

Personally I don't think so. Old Navy stores typically are 15,000 sq ft, and, the addition of the RW&Co space to the mix would total over 18,000 sq ft.

I think this would mean (1) that the space is not being consolidated for Old Navy, but another retailer, or, (2) more than one retailer is involved in the reorganization.

Again, in the prepandemic era, other new to market retailers had been planning to move into CF Champlain, including Torrid and Mountain Warehouse. Could one of these two stores be considering the current RW&Co space???

I have no inside information, and this is pure speculation, but I think we might see two new retailers in the south wing of the mall this year, and my guess is Old Navy and Mountain Warehouse.

Time will tell............

[MonctonRad]

Apparently renovations are now underway in the Trinity Drive Superstore. This apparently will include the colocating of a new Starbucks kiosk in the store.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Apparently renovations are now underway in the Trinity Drive Superstore. This apparently will include the colocating of a new Starbucks kiosk in the store.

Renovations at the Main Street store should be starting soon as well. Both stores will be getting a Starbucks.

[trekkie001]

I might be seeing things, but are they repainting the city murals at the Trinity Superstore by the frozen food? Or is the mural the existing one from the time the store opened?

[MonctonRad]

Welcome to the forums.

Sorry, I don't shop at Superstore, so I can't offer an opinion.

In other news, Simply for Life (a natural food shop) will be joining Take it Outside and The Trail Shop in the new retail plaza on the south side of Granite Drive.

https://simplyforlife.com/

It's good to see this strip filling up. Having retailers there will build momentum for the future.

[Taeolas]

As for the Superstore murals, they all had localized murals 2 or 3 renovations ago. If it's like the Freddy stores, they were mostly covered up in the switch to Orange.

The murals might have been partially revealed again with the newer update, but they'll probably be painted over or otherwise recovered. The current Superstore design (as seen in Freddy on Smythe street) doesn't really have a place for the Murals.

[trekkie001]

Too bad. Those murals were nice.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by trekkie001

Too bad. Those murals were nice.

Yeah the murals haven’t been there in well over a decade.

[MonctonRad]

Lots of furious messages back and forth today with different contacts regarding the consolidation of space in the south wing of CF Champlain.

It would appear that the consolidation of the four storefronts between Just Cozy and Marie Claire is all but confirmed. There is indeed a new large retailer coming.

One informant who claims to have seen some drawings however had information that would tend to make Old Navy an unlikely candidate for this new store.

If his information is correct (and I cannot vouch for the reliability of what he told me), then the new tenant will not be Old Navy, but an even more exciting retailer.

Between two sources today, I have a new list of possible tenants (two to be precise) that would be bombshells for CF Champlain. I think it's too soon however to spill the beans as to what I have been told. The information could still be wrong, and only one of these two people is potentially correct.

In either event however, the shoppers of southeastern NB will be very pleased.