The Metro Vancouver Retail Thread

[Waders]

Daiso will open a store at Metropolis LL across from Uniqlo. I think this will be the 2nd store in Vancouver?

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by C3YVR

Retail has held up far better here than in downtown Seattle, and it looks like Seattle retail is about to take another huge blow. Hudson Pacific looks to purchase the just renovated Pacific Place and will likely remove much of the retail.

www.djc.com/news/re/12148595.html

Wow - that used to be an upscale mall.

[jollyburger]

Everything moved to Bellevue.

[s211]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Everything moved to Bellevue.

It's a shame that Vancouver doesn't have a Bellevue equivalent. Nothing comes even faintly close.

[connect2source]

Originally Posted by s211

It's a shame that Vancouver doesn't have a Bellevue equivalent. Nothing comes even faintly close.

I'd much rather have a vibrant downtown retail scene which was have and Seattle does not.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by connect2source

I'd much rather have a vibrant downtown retail scene which was have and Seattle does not.

Well it exists for that reason but you would need to ask the OP what exactly he means by us not having a Bellevue.

Maybe it's a stretch but didn't our downtown sort of kill off whatever was left of the businesses around Main & Hastings?

[theKB]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Wow - that used to be an upscale mall.

The first time I visited it post pandemic I was shocked by what it had become. A few pop up businesses selling trinkets and trash with all the major tenants gone. Most of each of the floors are boarded up. Barney's closing probably did some good damage as an anchor tenant.

Din Tai Fung seems to still generate traffic but most of the restaurants are closed. I believe the movie theatre is still open. Its very depressing. As mentioned a lot of retail has moved to bellevue but even over there didn't survive. The bravern has lost a lot of tenants especially after Neimans closed their location there. Hermes, Gucci, Louis Vuitton are all still tenants (LV closed their downtown seattle store) and looking at the list I believe that development will come back especially with most tech companies requiring a presence in the office again.

It's interesting looking at retail in Seattle vs Vancouver. Obviously the retail rents and associated taxes are far lower than here. Vancouver is hugely dependent on money from China and other countries using Vancouver as a pied a terre to keep the luxury businesses booming whereas Seattle arguably has a lot of high paying jobs via tech so may not support as much of the luxury purchases. There is a lot of "old money" that came up during boeing, microsoft etc era that does support luxury business (whether it's goods, cars etc) but it nowhere near as strong as here.

All things considered looking at the buying in upscale retail you really can see a difference between Vancouver vs Seattle, Toronto, Chicago (just referring to cities I have been in recently). Seattle, Toronto, Chicago have far larger selections of business attire (suits etc) where Vancouver is largely focused on streetwear or more "loud" clothing items. You would be hard pressed to find a selection suits, dress shirts etc at the Holt Renfrew in Vancouver.

[SpongeG]

I went to that Seattle mall in December and it was very dead. The old Coach store looked like a Coach store but i think it was a store selling motorcycle fan-type garb. Like Harley T-shirts and that kinda stuff. Westlake Centre home to Zara and Saks off 5th was also not doing well compared to its past. Many empty spots. Nordstrom was doing well despite there not being a lot of foot traffic.

[SpongeG]

Allbirds is opening a store on West 4th. I know Seattle has an Allbirds at the University Village shopping mall. It looks to be their first store in Canada.

https://www.allbirds.ca/pages/stores

[s211]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Nordstrom was doing well despite there not being a lot of foot traffic.

That store is a shadow of what it used to be, unfortunately. Their Bellevue location was absolutely killing it in comparison, at least foot traffic wise.

[svlt]

Originally Posted by theKB

It's interesting looking at retail in Seattle vs Vancouver. Obviously the retail rents and associated taxes are far lower than here. Vancouver is hugely dependent on money from China and other countries using Vancouver as a pied a terre to keep the luxury businesses booming whereas Seattle arguably has a lot of high paying jobs via tech so may not support as much of the luxury purchases. There is a lot of "old money" that came up during boeing, microsoft etc era that does support luxury business (whether it's goods, cars etc) but it nowhere near as strong as here.

All things considered looking at the buying in upscale retail you really can see a difference between Vancouver vs Seattle, Toronto, Chicago (just referring to cities I have been in recently). Seattle, Toronto, Chicago have far larger selections of business attire (suits etc) where Vancouver is largely focused on streetwear or more "loud" clothing items. You would be hard pressed to find a selection suits, dress shirts etc at the Holt Renfrew in Vancouver.

Very true. People that actually dress for work in Vancouver are not buying luxury suits - a fair bit do dress that professionally (I really think it's optional and at their discretion to look fancy, in that they just want to but is not required by their work or office) but many seem to have picked theirs up from Indochino or maybe Club Monaco. For the most part it would be sport coat and alternate trousers, or maybe a full suit but no tie.

I wonder where on the formality spectrum Vancouver's work attire would land - maybe a touch more formal than the more laid back tech sector of Silicon Valley or Bellevue, much of that being the self imposed vainglorious realtor suits - but still a far, far cry from anything on the east coast from Toronto to Atlanta.

[s211]

^ Don't cheap out on a suit, guys. The ladies can tell the difference from a mile away!

[Vin]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I went to that Seattle mall in December and it was very dead. The old Coach store looked like a Coach store but i think it was a store selling motorcycle fan-type garb. Like Harley T-shirts and that kinda stuff. Westlake Centre home to Zara and Saks off 5th was also not doing well compared to its past. Many empty spots. Nordstrom was doing well despite there not being a lot of foot traffic.

I'm surprised people still go to Seattle.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by s211

^ Don't cheap out on a suit, guys. The ladies can tell the difference from a mile away!

Any suit still looks much better than hoodies, baseball caps, and bare-armful of tattoos: the de facto fashion trend of Vancouver.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Vin

I'm surprised people still go to Seattle.

Well clearly not everybody is obsessed with going to malls. There might be other reasons for going to Seattle - what's more interesting is why Seattle is doing so poorly, and Vancouver's retail is the most resilient in Canada?

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Well clearly not everybody is obsessed with going to malls. There might be other reasons for going to Seattle - what's more interesting is why Seattle is doing so poorly, and Vancouver's retail is the most resilient in Canada?

Probably a far more tech-oriented city than Vancouver, with Amazon and Microsoft HQs in the region, which would translate to far more on-line shopping.
Regarding resiliency, Vancouver didn't have the prolonged shutdowns that Toronto had.

[SpongeG]

After downtown we went to University Village, it was very busy despite being after 6 pm and all the stores were closed but all the brands have a presence there, Aesop, CB2, Apple, Lucid Motors, Allbirds, Anthropologie, Gap, Sephora, Shake Shack, Pottery Barn, Madewell, RH etc. Basically, all the stores that would have had a store in Pacific Place downtown Seattle.

I went to Bellingham this past sunday, Bellis Fair mall is really bad, in 2019 was the last time I went and they still had a lot of stores like Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap etc. And in 2022 there are more empty spots than ever, Hollister gap etc all closed down.

We went to Burlington which seems a recent addition, it's like Winners if you're not familiar, but the store is portioned off to have a smaller footprint and the merchandise was pretty low compared to the stores I've been to in Seattle or California. It doesn't seem like the Canadians have returned to pre-covid levels.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Well clearly not everybody is obsessed with going to malls. There might be other reasons for going to Seattle - what's more interesting is why Seattle is doing so poorly, and Vancouver's retail is the most resilient in Canada?

From what I can see online, Vancouver has twice the population density of Seattle. Considering that we're talking about Bellevue as a shopping destination and the demise of downtown Seattle, maybe the hollowing-out of downtown while Vancouver's core continues to add population has something to do with it.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

From what I can see online, Vancouver has twice the population density of Seattle. Considering that we're talking about Bellevue as a shopping destination and the demise of downtown Seattle, maybe the hollowing-out of downtown while Vancouver's core continues to add population has something to do with it.

I don't go downtown in Vancouver enough these days so I don't know how to compare but in our, Seattle visit in December there were a number of people living in tents right in the downtown core many of the traffic islands had tents on them and people living in tents in closed down shops entry ways etc.

The area that is South Lake Union has a lot of new residential buildings and Amazon is very close by. That area had fewer homeless and more people out and about, with Whole Foods, Sephora, Shake Shack, West Elm, etc it seemed ok and less intimidating perhaps.

Shopping in Bellevue is nice cause everything is in one spot pretty much and it has everything from Leica to Nordstrom, Uniqlo and Zara. Louis Vuitton has a store in Bellevue, they closed the downtown Seattle store, not sure when that happened.

[theKB]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Shopping in Bellevue is nice cause everything is in one spot pretty much and it has everything from Leica to Nordstrom, Uniqlo and Zara. Louis Vuitton has a store in Bellevue, they closed the downtown Seattle store, not sure when that happened.

During Covid - suit supply is taking over the space.

If Brentwood ever gets fully done you could see them taking on a similar position of Bellevue to Seattle.

I still question how Brentwood is rolling out with this sort of half finished setup with so many empty spaces. There is a novelty factory of going there but it really doesn’t have much when you actually get there with only a few stores open. The old mall is unbelievably depressing.