Winnipeg Retail

[CoryB]

^^ You need to realize that Retail Insider reports on several tiers of retailers and do some interruptive reading. Winnipeg is not going to see free standing stores for luxury brands like Vancouver, Toronto and even Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa might. So take those off the top. Next, the international brand new to Canada opening their first store would rarely open in Winnipeg they instead hit Vancouver and Toronto first. As a general rule a retail chain which might come to Winnipeg and is opening their first Canadian store is around two years from being in this market if they can find the right location. For most chains the "right location" means Polo Park, St Vital or Kenaston.

You also need to keep in mind Winnipeg is almost exclusively enclosed malls so shops that get reported as opening free standing stores elsewhere need to look elsewhere.

Now that you have shortened the list of who might be coming to Winnipeg and a rough timeframe on when we could expect them you can start hunting for potential spaces. There are typically three store sizes, <10,000 sq ft (aka most middle of the mall stores), 20,000 to 60,000 sq ft (junior anchors and big box store), and over 100,000 sq ft (traditional anchors). One of the challenges with Polo Park and St Vital is they have limited opportunities for the middle sized stores. Of the anchor sized stores the chains looking for space have strong reason to avoid Winnipeg (ie the failure of Holt Renfrew in this market). This means while Zara, Zara Home, Top Shop, Unliqo and others might be interested in the Winnipeg market now or in the near future there is no suitable space for them. This is also why it took so long for Forever 21 and H&M to open here.

[esquire]

^ You have to wonder how interested some of those mid-sized retailers really are... when Safeway and Zellers moved out of Polo Park, there was room for several to come in, but only a few did... H&M, Forever 21, and what, Urban Outfitters? The rest were all fairly small shops.

As for Retail Insider, that site is really more about being a fanboy for luxury stores ("Jean Paul Gaultier is coming to Bloor Street!!!!") than being a true picture of Canadian retail.

[CoryB]

^^ I think the controlling interest in Polo Park/Polo North/Plaza at Polo might have done more to restrict what can go where than interest from the retailers. You are going to have a heck of a time landing the Lego Store to a free standing spot in Plaza, especially without an anchor, but they would quickly jump at an opportunity to be in the redeveloped Zeller's space in the mall. In terms of Safeway moving out, most of that space ended up going to Forever 21. With H&M following quickly I wonder if there might have been a bidding war of sorts there. Also the boat anchor that is the Sears Polo Park location must be getting Cadillac Fairview to try and keep some chains on a short call list (ie Simon's and Zara).

[cheswick]

Michaels sign is going up on the former future shop on regent.

[horrorbro123]

Escents Is Coming To Polo Park

[vjose32]

Originally Posted by cheswick

Michaels sign is going up on the former future shop on regent.

Well nice to know what is finally going on there. Any movement on the new Dollarama next to Toys R Us?

Also noticed that the old Bargain Shop on Main Street is still sitting empty despite the fact that they did some demo there and redid the front exterior of the store. I read before in the Times that something was going in there, but nothing still and no word on what either.

[horrorbro123]

Laura Plus Is Moving Into Old Mexx Location At Polo Park

[trebor204]

Canadian Tire is moving into the Target location at Grant Park.
Its 1 of 12 stores across Canada that Canadian Tire acquired its leases from Target

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...mall-1.3063231

[Biff]

^^^ That is great news for one of the trickier locations. Sounds like a perfect fit.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Biff

^^^ That is great news for one of the trickier locations. Sounds like a perfect fit.

Agreed. GP was the space I expected to remain empty for a while as compared to the St. James location which is in Winnipeg's biggest shopping hub, and the KP location which is attached to one of the city's busiest malls.

I live in Riverview and I have to admit, I kind of like having a Wal-Mart on Taylor notwithstanding the unfortunate sprawliness of the whole development. It's like a bit of outer suburbia in my backyard, without having to travel to the edge of town. The Canadian Tire will be the same thing... I don't often go out to the one in Southdale unless I can't avoid it, but now I'm sure I'll drop by a little more often.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by esquire

Agreed. GP was the space I expected to remain empty for a while as compared to the St. James location which is in Winnipeg's biggest shopping hub, and the KP location which is attached to one of the city's busiest malls.

I live in Riverview and I have to admit, I kind of like having a Wal-Mart on Taylor notwithstanding the unfortunate sprawliness of the whole development. It's like a bit of outer suburbia in my backyard, without having to travel to the edge of town. The Canadian Tire will be the same thing... I don't often go out to the one in Southdale unless I can't avoid it, but now I'm sure I'll drop by a little more often.

Yeah, I live in River Heights. I avoid Kenaston South at ALL costs, and not having to go to Polo is nice also.

[wags_in_the_peg]

Remember that Canadian Tire owns Sport Cheq, Forzani, Atmosphere and Mark's Work Warehouse, so they may open a combination of stores

[Biff]

The other thing of note in that story.....I seem to recall all of the news outlets crying that the sky was falling and it could be years before these spaces would be filled here in Winnipeg. I know that still may be the case for the other three, but 1 out of four spaces spoken for under a month from when Target closed their doors is a pretty good sign.

[CoryB]

The news of Canadian Tire moving into Grant Park comes as a surprise.

On the new store versus replacement, looking at the two closest stores, Polo Park and Kenton, it is clear this would be a new store.

On the thought it could be one of their whole owned brands instead of the flagship chain that is doubtful. Based on past media coverage the brands operate mostly independent of each other. If the location was going to a different banner the article would specifically say which banner.

Overall this would appear to be a win for the area.

[cllew]

At times they do cluster, in Selkirk the Canadian Tire has a Marks store at the front driveway off of Manitoba Ave.

[CoryB]

There was actually some Canadian Tire stores that piloted the concept on having a Marks store within the larger store. Considering that was some time back, most stores have seen renos since and a wider rollout did not occur I would guess it wasn't viewed as a success. Being located in the same development is a different thing. For example Unicity has Sobey's, Walmart, Marks and Canadian Tire. That does not mean they are all the same company.

Canadian Tire, Parts Source, Marks and the Forzani Group mostly operate on the consumer facing side as completely independent. For example Sports Check doesn't hand out Canadian Tire money. The press releases also treat them as separate companies the majority of the time. A rare exception was the Olympic partnership that crossed banners.

[drew]

Originally Posted by CoryB

There was actually some Canadian Tire stores that piloted the concept on having a Marks store within the larger store.

Kenora has the CT and Marks combo.

[vjose32]

I'm surprised there is still a Sport Chek next to Northgate, never seems to be a lot of traffic there. Perhaps they will move it to the Future Shop location?

[CoryB]

Here is an interesting list on the top 20 malls in Canada based on sales per square footage.

Half the list is in Ontario, with BC and Alberta each having four malls make the list.

The final two malls include one in Laval (just outside Montreal) and Winnipeg's Polo Park.

In other words if you are a retailer looking for Canadian expansion Winnipeg is within the top five markets you are likely evaluating.

source

[Riverman]

I figured West Edmonton Mall would have made that list.