Canadian Retail Thread

[kwoldtimer]

How about a return to Canada by Marks and Spencer, or a foray into the market by a chain like Primark?

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by harls

Remember those Zellers locations that included a gross cafeteria-style restaurant? Complete with glass-enclosed smoking area? The only people that would be there were senior citizens. I'm pretty sure the minimum age to enter was 70.

I walked into the Zellers restaurant at London's Westmount Shopping Centre once over 20 years ago, and walked out in disgust. The place was full of dirty dishes stacked on the tables. The average age of the clientele there was about 85 with no one under 70.

I remember Woolco stores had cafeteria-style restaurants. The one at the late Oakridge Mall in London was called Strawberry Street. I remember going there once and really liking the food there, but the restaurant was almost always closed. Multiple times in a row I went in there, you'd see customers sitting in there eating and the staff just standing around at the counter and they'd tell you they were closed. As a 5-year-old I remember coming very close to throwing a temper tantrum a couple of times when they told me they were closed. Once Wal-Mart moved in and that space became McDonald's, it was open pretty much whenever Wal-Mart was open.

Side note: Belleville has an extremely depressing mall called Bay View Mall, which has Food Basics as an anchor. That mall is doing so badly that The Bargain Shop! failed there, closing last year. That mall's only saving grace is that it has an LCBO, albeit the tiniest one I've ever seen.

[Fischbob]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

Giant Tiger to me is a step above Dollarama and multiple steps below Walmart. I do occasionally set foot in the Kingston one that 1overcosc mentioned, but it's very much a working poor store. I would never buy groceries there, but I'd buy groceries at Walmart.

This is my impression of Giant Tiger as well. The one in Saint John is very downmarket.

[SpongeG]

i used to shop at bayview mall, i used to get groceries at the A&P that was there many decades ago

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

I have never heard of any of these stores.

i think they are only in small towns, very small towns

[waterloowarrior]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Few stores are as depressing as SAAN was:

or depressing (and stinky) as Field's

And this wretched place:

Can't forget Stedman's V&S Dept. Store

Don't forget BiWay!

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/merge...ead-1137651/2/

[Policy Wonk]

Originally Posted by esquire

That's certainly my impression. If Walmart is the supply depot for the working class, then GT is the equivalent for the working poor. Lots of one-off random items in there... I've even seen fake jerseys and fake designer-label stuff, like dead-on counterfeit Polo Ralph Lauren sweaters and whatnot in there.

I haven't stepped foot in one in more than a decade, but a friend in Ottawa dragged me to one to prove there was indeed something worse than the Zellers on Sparks Street. (which I had a long and hate-filled relationship with)

The selling of single rolls of toilet paper told me all I needed to know as did the mouse droppings on the shelves.

[Blader]

SAAN stores - I remember them in the early 60s - and never saw another until the late 90s in the Castleridge area of Calgary. They were a general merchandise store very popular post-war.
Interesting history.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAAN_Stores

[Policy Wonk]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

How about a return to Canada by Marks and Spencer, or a foray into the market by a chain like Primark?

Primark hasn't found a Canadian partner yet, they were contemplating four Canadian stores (Toronto, Mississauga, Ottawa and Montreal) along with their initial seven US stores.

The Weston's actually own Primark through several layers of convoluted investments.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Don't forget BiWay!

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/merge...ead-1137651/2/

Bi-Way...that brings back memories. Bought my first set of Pogs at a particularly small, gritty location in the basement of London's Galleria. It was true bargain basement shopping.

The only Stedman's V&S I've been to was in Gravenhurst, Ontario. It was a pretty messy store, but they had some great finds.

[casper]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

i think they are only in small towns, very small towns

I think they thrive in communities that are just not large enough to support a WalMart.

All the Northern brands in the same boat: http://www.northwest.ca/operations/canada.php

[Trevor3]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I walked into the Zellers restaurant at London's Westmount Shopping Centre once over 20 years ago, and walked out in disgust. The place was full of dirty dishes stacked on the tables. The average age of the clientele there was about 85 with no one under 70.

I remember Woolco stores had cafeteria-style restaurants. The one at the late Oakridge Mall in London was called Strawberry Street. I remember going there once and really liking the food there, but the restaurant was almost always closed. Multiple times in a row I went in there, you'd see customers sitting in there eating and the staff just standing around at the counter and they'd tell you they were closed. As a 5-year-old I remember coming very close to throwing a temper tantrum a couple of times when they told me they were closed. Once Wal-Mart moved in and that space became McDonald's, it was open pretty much whenever Wal-Mart was open.

Side note: Belleville has an extremely depressing mall called Bay View Mall, which has Food Basics as an anchor. That mall is doing so badly that The Bargain Shop! failed there, closing last year. That mall's only saving grace is that it has an LCBO, albeit the tiniest one I've ever seen.

Our Woolco had one of those too, my grandmother (Dad's side) was a cook there. My Mom worked at the Metropolitan Store, which was a banner owned by SAAN, and was right next to Woolco in the mall so she'd go over there for her lunch breaks and is essentially how my parents met. Our mall was anchored by Woolco, with the Metropolitan (SAAN) in the adjacent slot. Bi-way was across the hall, and man was that store ever a dump.

We had a Zellers but it was a tiny stand alone building on Main Street, probably around 20,000 sq.ft. It eventually became Best Value and then Zellers Select but closed around 2003 when that banner was phased out. The building is now a Frenchy's liquidation outlet

There used to be a chain of stores similar to Giant Tiger in Newfoundland that was, oddly enough, called Target that used a red/white colour scheme. They had a 2-storey store here across from the mall.

[eternallyme]

Should we have a separate thread so we can speculate and see what happens just to the ex-Target locations? They do represent 133 stores and about 15 million square feet of retail space.

[MolsonExport]

I remember Bi Way. Always thought it an odd name for a store...seems a little too sexually suggestive.

And of course I remember Woolco, with a certain veneer of fondness for the wretched place it truly was. They would sell me cigarettes and copies of Penthouse or Club when I was 12 years old. Good times. Alan Thicke did a series of terrible commercials for the retailer back when Zellers was kicking Woolco's ass. I also remember Woolworths, Woodwards, K-Mart, Miracle Mart, and a bunch more besides. Fuck I am old.

• Video Link

[MolsonExport]

• Video Link

[miketoronto]

Canada had so much more of it's own identity back then. Too bad we sold out to the American's.

[Nouvellecosse]

Mike I really have to agree. I hear a lot of people complaining about some of the older stores like Zellers and wanting to see American chains come in and give what we've seen in the US. But why don't we see a desire for our own companies to provide Canadian stores that better serve the needs of consumers?

[esquire]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

And of course I remember Woolco, with a certain veneer of fondness for the wretched place it truly was. They would sell me cigarettes and copies of Penthouse or Club when I was 12 years old. Good times.

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Alan Thicke did a series of terrible commercials for the retailer back when Zellers was kicking Woolco's ass. I also remember Woolworths, Woodwards, K-Mart, Miracle Mart, and a bunch more besides. Fuck I am old.

That is classic! Back in the late 80s, Alan Thicke was THE big name in Canadian celebrities.

I remember getting dragged to Woolco as a kid in the 80s... even when I was 7 it felt like a noticeable step up from the local Zellers which was always a total shambles. It's amazing how far retail has come in the last 30 years!

On that nostalgic note, remember Consumers Distributing? Those stores took their merchandising model straight from the old-time government liquor control commissions. Go into the store that has no actual merchandise on display whatsoever, leaf through a catalogue, write what you want on a form, wait in line, give it to the clerk, they come back with your item. Are we 100% certain that Consumers Distributing wasn't really a division of the federal department of industry? Or at least a crown corporation? With that approach to customer service, it had to be!

[MolsonExport]

Who could (that lived during those times) forget Consumers Distributing? The closest thing to communism state stores that we ever had in Canada, next to the (still existing) Beer store (aka Brewer's Retail). Fill out your purchase slip from the catalogue. Bring it to the clerk and pay. Wait a year or three. WHOOOOSH! Out it comes on the conveyor belt.

Most famous item in the catalogue: "Personal Massager" (Vibrator/Dildo).


blogmiketoronto.com

[esquire]

Even the name had Soviet collectivist overtones.

"Why yes, we are the bureau responsible for distributing products to consumers and other members of the proletariat!"