Canadian Retail Thread

[niwell]

My Father-in-Law who's a semi-retired GP doctor has told us about how one of his 3 kids (2 years younger than me) had a mild peanut allergy as a kid. He snuck in small amounts of peanut products fairly often and the allergy ended up going away by the time he was a teen. I'm sure that would be considered tantamount to abuse nowadays but it seemed to work!

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

That would come as a surprise to the vast majority of North Americans. Unless you mean dominant "ethnic" cuisine, and even then I suspect it would have been Chinese.

In the United States - and likely in much of English Canada - there was very little ethnic cuisine other than what you’d find in ethnic enclaves such as the Jewish delis in New York City, prior to the 1960s - our cuisine was very plain. English Canada perhaps more so as we didn’t have the Mexican influence parts of the US have long had. Julia Child is widely credited with introducing French cooking to the masses in the 1960s, when her local TV show in Boston went national. At the same time in Canada increased immigration from countries like Italy led to more diverse restaurant choices.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by niwell

My Father-in-Law who's a semi-retired GP doctor has told us about how one of his 3 kids (2 years younger than me) had a mild peanut allergy as a kid. He snuck in small amounts of peanut products fairly often and the allergy ended up going away by the time he was a teen. I'm sure that would be considered tantamount to abuse nowadays but it seemed to work!

My 16 year old niece has a peanut allergy and she has a peanut every day with supper. It's not intended to get the allergy to go away, but to hopefully reduce the serious effects if she inadvertently has peanuts somewhere along the way. Doctors prescribed this a few years ago.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Cows need to give birth to produce milk.

Moma cow is impregnated in the factory
Moma cow gives birth in the factory
Moma cow sees newborn calf taken away to never be seen again.
Moma cow is hook up to a machine for up to 2 years
The process repeats.

Any parent putting themselves in moma cow's hoofs would be devastated. Moma cow is a mom first and foremost. She feels that loss. It would implode the milk industry if people gave it some thought. I didn't think about it myself. I did know chocolate milk doesn't come from brown cows like many Americans believe.

Again, my child has a milk allergy so, naturally, it has come to my attention that milk products end up in the most obscure things. Why does a wax candle need to have milk in ti? That's the power of the lobby and industry.

That’s not really the way it works on most Canadian farms. The average dairy herd is only like 70-80 cows, and a cow ands its calves live together, though there is a period of separation shortly after birth (something about disease control). Factory-farm style dairy operations are not common in Canada, though PETA and similar groups tend to trot out the most horrifying images from the US when discussing the Canadian industry. The industry is also quickly moving away from tie stalls, which limit cows’ movements when they’re inside, to free stalls, which now make up more than half of farms. There are some bad-apple mega farms, especially in western Canada, but most are pretty comfortable places for cows, though this was less the case in the past.

[J.OT13]

Zellers restaurants coming back!.. as food trucks.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/zell...lgia-1.6249296

Seems this whole Zellers thing is being done half-assed.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Zellers restaurants coming back!.. as food trucks.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/zell...lgia-1.6249296

Seems this whole Zellers thing is being done half-assed.

You can smell the desperation.

[Coldrsx]

One more Bay (Londonderry) is closing outright in Edmonton.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by esquire

You can smell the desperation.

Just when it couldn't get more cringe.

[drew]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

My 16 year old niece has a peanut allergy and she has a peanut every day with supper. It's not intended to get the allergy to go away, but to hopefully reduce the serious effects if she inadvertently has peanuts somewhere along the way. Doctors prescribed this a few years ago.

This only works with very mild allergies.

My son has a more severe peanut/nut allergy and as per his allergy doctor this will likely never be an option for him.

It's more common to "grow out" of childhood dairy and egg allergies. For nuts, I believe the percentages are below 25%.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

One more Bay (Londonderry) is closing outright in Edmonton.

According to Retail Insider, they are also closing the Hudson Bay standalone location in Banff as well.

It certainly looks like all this fiddling around with a half assed relaunch of Zellers constitutes nothing more than a good case of deck chair rearranging on the Titanic.

[Coldrsx]

^that's annoying for I use that Bay for basics.

[casper]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

According to Retail Insider, they are also closing the Hudson Bay standalone location in Banff as well.

It certainly looks like all this fiddling around with a half assed relaunch of Zellers constitutes nothing more than a good case of deck chair rearranging on the Titanic.

I think the Zeller move makes sense. However they may only go part of the way.

Take all the non-higher end fashion move that into Zellers and compete against the discount department stores. Keep the higher-end fashion lines in Hudson Bay and go against Simpsons etc.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by casper

I think the Zeller move makes sense. However they may only go part of the way.

They are going about this in a half assed way.

What they should be doing is collapsing their Bay footprint down to about the six most prominent fashion malls in the country and converting every single other location into a rejuvenated Zellers concept.

Putting in little boutique Zellers shops into pre-existing Bay stores, and bringing back the Zellers restaurants as food trucks doesn't go nearly far enough.

[esquire]

It is amazing to see HBC starting to teeter on the brink.

When I was a kid, department stores were the main event when it came to retail. Eaton's, The Bay, Sears, Simpsons... then you had junior department stores like Woolco, Zellers, K-Mart. Those were the mainstream places to go, it's where seemingly everyone did their shopping save for a small percentage at the very top and bottom of the socioeconomic food chain.

Soon, once Hudson's Bay bites the dust (or becomes a Toronto-Montreal-Vancouver only downtown boutique), the only retailer left in that space will be Walmart. It's an incredible change over the course of 30 years.

[casper]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

They are going about this in a half assed way.

What they should be doing is collapsing their Bay footprint down to about the six most prominent fashion malls in the country and converting every single other location into a rejuvenated Zellers concept.

Putting in little boutique Zellers shops into pre-existing Bay stores, and bringing back the Zellers restaurants as food trucks doesn't go nearly far enough.

I agree.

The food think I don't understand. Your either being like Ikea where it is dirt cheap and a way to get people into the store. That was the old downtown department store model where the cafeteria was on the top floor. Alternatively they have more sq footage than they need, locked into a long-term lease and its a way of filling the gap.

Woolworth Canada managed to transform itself into Footlocker (and a few other more minor shopping mall brands). We will see if The Bay can also pull off such a transformation.

[Coldrsx]

Reclaiming 'the spirit' of the shopping mall.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/br...-shopping-mall

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

According to Retail Insider, they are also closing the Hudson Bay standalone location in Banff as well.

It certainly looks like all this fiddling around with a half assed relaunch of Zellers constitutes nothing more than a good case of deck chair rearranging on the Titanic.

My recent experiences at the Bay were horrible. We were looking for towels. The mall closed at 9:00. We went once thinking that we had time because it was only 6:40. Suddenly an announcement came on the speaker that they were closing at 7:00 and staff began circling us like buzzards to leave. No help was offered. We ended up not finding what we needed and left empty handed. A week later we returned as we had no luck finding decent towels elsewhere and the standalone entrance into the mall was locked before 6:30. We got in when someone opened the door to leave but the gates were half closed. Upon arriving at the right section a middle aged woman snarkily told us they were closing and we had to hurry. Over half an hour before 7:00. We had both young kids in tow and clearly were shopping with purpose. Not even a "Can I help you?" The most basic retail etiquette there is. I won't be returning anytime soon.

[casper]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

My recent experiences at the Bay were horrible. We were looking for towels. The mall closed at 9:00. We went once thinking that we had time because it was only 6:40. Suddenly an announcement came on the speaker that they were closing at 7:00 and staff began circling us like buzzards to leave. No help was offered. We ended up not finding what we needed and left empty handed. A week later we returned as we had no luck finding decent towels elsewhere and the standalone entrance into the mall was locked before 6:30. We got in when someone opened the door to leave but the gates were half closed. Upon arriving at the right section a middle aged woman snarkily told us they were closing and we had to hurry. Over half an hour before 7:00. We had both young kids in tow and clearly were shopping with purpose. Not even a "Can I help you?" The most basic retail etiquette there is. I won't be returning anytime soon.

When I was a first year university student, I had a part-time (weekend job) stocking shelves in the Bay in downtown Vancouver toyland. Great experience learning about the dynamics of kids and parents especially around Christmas. Every Saturday morning for the 30 minutes before the store opened there was a staff meeting on each floor. The floor manager had his 15 minute training session on customer service or whatever it was that week.

If we were out of stock on something we were trained to offer to call around for the custom and have it held at one of the other bay stores or even to call over the Eaton's across the street. Not offering to help a customer would have been a major issue. Tossing them out 30 minutes before closing as well.

Today. I don't know what training they do but I find the same indifference when I go into their store.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

My recent experiences at the Bay were horrible. We were looking for towels. The mall closed at 9:00. We went once thinking that we had time because it was only 6:40. Suddenly an announcement came on the speaker that they were closing at 7:00 and staff began circling us like buzzards to leave. No help was offered. We ended up not finding what we needed and left empty handed. A week later we returned as we had no luck finding decent towels elsewhere and the standalone entrance into the mall was locked before 6:30. We got in when someone opened the door to leave but the gates were half closed. Upon arriving at the right section a middle aged woman snarkily told us they were closing and we had to hurry. Over half an hour before 7:00. We had both young kids in tow and clearly were shopping with purpose. Not even a "Can I help you?" The most basic retail etiquette there is. I won't be returning anytime soon.

That's one of the worst retail service experiences I've ever heard. Walmart level or worse. The Bay used to be at a high standard. Which Calgary location(s)?

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by esquire

It is amazing to see HBC starting to teeter on the brink.

When I was a kid, department stores were the main event when it came to retail. Eaton's, The Bay, Sears, Simpsons... then you had junior department stores like Woolco, Zellers, K-Mart. Those were the mainstream places to go, it's where seemingly everyone did their shopping save for a small percentage at the very top and bottom of the socioeconomic food chain.

Soon, once Hudson's Bay bites the dust (or becomes a Toronto-Montreal-Vancouver only downtown boutique), the only retailer left in that space will be Walmart. It's an incredible change over the course of 30 years.

Are you MikeToronto in disguise