Canadian Retail Thread

[esquire]

^ One of my high school teachers liked to tell a story about insisting on being served in French at the Emerson, MB port of entry... he had to wait a half hour while some off-duty staffer who could speak French drove in from Saint Jean Baptiste.

Personally, I don't know that I'd get that insistent about proving a point with border guards!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ One of my high school teachers liked to tell a story about insisting on being served in French at the Emerson, MB port of entry... he had to wait a half hour while some off-duty staffer who could speak French drove in from Saint Jean Baptiste.

Personally, I don't know that I'd get that insistent about proving a point with border guards!

It can go either way.

They can just wave you through to avoid potential complaints as I alluded to above.

Or you can get treated badly if they think you're a troublemaker.

I usually choose the middle ground: I approach them with a "bonjour" (and usually get an accented, cautious "bonjour" in response.

And then I switch to English. I often exaggerate my French accent a bit to give the impression I am being conciliatory in spite of my legal right.

If they were to bring me over for a search, though, I'd lose my English right away. Even the guy mopping up the floor better speak to me in French or they'll have Graham Fraser on their ass within days.

[north 42]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

What does a store in Detroit do for Windsor residents? Do you guys not pay duty on items purchased in the US or something?

More often than not we get waved through, especially when you get to know certain border guards by crossing the border daily for work like my husband does.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

And then I switch to English. I often exaggerate my French accent a bit to give the impression I am being conciliatory in spite of my legal right.

If they were to bring me over for a search, though, I'd lose my English right away. Even the guy mopping up the floor better speak to me in French or they'll have Graham Fraser on their ass within days.

[casper]

Any thoughts on the impact delivery lockers is going to have on retail.

There is a Canadian company that is now offering computerised refrigerated locker systems (http://www.omnioninc.com/) for grocery store e-commerce.

In Europe and Asia these are pretty common. Amazon has built out a network of regular lockers for parcel delivery in 7/11 stores in the US.

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It can go either way.

They can just wave you through to avoid potential complaints as I alluded to above.

Or you can get treated badly if they think you're a troublemaker.

I usually choose the middle ground: I approach them with a "bonjour" (and usually get an accented, cautious "bonjour" in response.

And then I switch to English. I often exaggerate my French accent a bit to give the impression I am being conciliatory in spite of my legal right.

If they were to bring me over for a search, though, I'd lose my English right away. Even the guy mopping up the floor better speak to me in French or they'll have Graham Fraser on their ass within days.

My brother's CBSA, apparently Vancouver-to-Alaska cruise ship passengers (i.e. Americans) are really impressed when he says "Hello, bonjour."

Fluent French isn't a requirement to get hired anymore btw, he can barely say a sentence.

[q12]

IKEA Canada Announces Full Size Store in Quebec City

Scheduled to open in summer 2018, IKEA Quebec City to be located at intersection of Highway 40 and Highway 540.

BURLINGTON, ON – IKEA Canada is thrilled to make the next stop on its coast-to-coast expansion journey, with the announcement of a full-size store for Quebec City.

Scheduled to open in summer 2018, the IKEA Quebec City store will be the 14th IKEA store in Canada. It will be located at the intersection of rue Mendel and avenue Blaise-Pascal in the Sainte-Foy borough, just south of the intersection of Highway 40 and Highway 540. The store will take roughly 14-16 months to build once the ground has been broken in spring 2017 and will be approximately 340,000 square feet (31,500 metres squared) in size. The store will include a restaurant, Market Hall, Showroom, and SMALAND playroom and offer customers a complete range of convenient services including home delivery, assembly, planning, and exchanges.

“It was clear from the first day we opened the Pick-up and order point that Quebec City residents are passionate supporters of the IKEA brand,” said IKEA Canada Acting President David McCabe. “We look forward to welcoming many more customers to the new IKEA store when it opens in summer 2018.”

“Thousands of families were dreaming and waiting for this moment. Today, we are all proud to welcome the company in our city with a full size store. This announcement confirms again the strength of Quebec City’s retail market and our vigorous economy with an unemployment rate near 4%, still the lowest in the country, said Régis Labeaume, Mayor of Quebec City. “Quebec is in competition with the world and again today, a major international company chooses to do business here, in Québec, l'accent D'Amérique.”

The IKEA Quebec City store will be LEED certified when it opens. With a particular focus on energy and waste avoidance, there will be waste management equipment that will be installed to maximize material recycling and diversion from landfill. Additionally, IKEA is pleased to share that every single light source throughout the store will be LED lighting. While the store will operate in a sustainable manner, it will also provide inspiration and solutions that will enable customers to live a more sustainable life at home. For example, they will find solutions that will help them reduce and sort waste, save water and energy, and encourage healthier living.

IKEA aims to be the leader in life at home and offer its customers inspiring home furnishing solutions. Each new store is designed in a way that will present local home solutions that customers can relate to, are inspirational and are possible to implement in an affordable way. In order to best represent Quebec City customers in the new store, home visits will be conducted during the planning and design process. Home visits allow IKEA to interview people in their homes to get a deep understanding of their needs, dreams and frustrations in and around the home. It is our intention with this research not to mirror what people have in their homes today, but to help people live a better everyday life at home and give them new ideas to solve their needs. In November 2015, IKEA Canada announced a coast-to-coast expansion plan to double the store count from 12 to 24 stores in the next 10 years. The Quebec City store is the second stop on this journey. The retailer announced a new store for Halifax earlier this year.

ABOUT IKEA CANADA
IKEA is a leading home furnishing retailer with 375 stores in more than 50 countries worldwide, which are visited by 884 million people every year. IKEA Canada has 12 stores, an eCommerce virtual store, 6 Pick-up and order points in Quebec City and southern Ontario and two Collection Points in Halifax and Saskatoon. The company also recently announced plans to open stores in Halifax and Quebec City. Last year, IKEA Canada welcomed 25 million visitors to its stores and 75 million visitors to the IKEA.ca website. Founded in 1943, IKEA’s business philosophy is to offer a wide range of products of good design and function at prices so low, the majority of people can afford them. For more information on IKEA, please visit: www.IKEA.ca.

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/about_ikea...e_announcement

[q12]

With today's Quebec City announcement here is an updated map of FULL SIZE IKEA stores in North America either open, under construction or planned.

[esquire]

^ Cool map. Looks like Halifax will have bragging rights (such as they are) as the smallest North American metro with a full size IKEA for years to come. On the other hand, it's surprising that a massive metro like Houston apparently only has one location?

[q12]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Cool map. Looks like Halifax will have bragging rights (such as they are) as the smallest North American metro with a full size IKEA for years to come. On the other hand, it's surprising that a massive metro like Houston apparently only has one location?

Yeah crazy isn't it? I added a 2nd Dallas store that is suppose to open around the same time as Halifax in 2017, although it's actually smaller than the Halifax store.

But for a State of nearly 30 million it's suprising they will only have 4 stores. I think IKEA is more popular in Canada than the U.S.

[Acajack]

The IKEA map really shows how "small is beautiful" (population-wise anyway) can work in Canada's favour. There are tons of metros in the U.S. that have well over 1 million people that don't have an IKEA and are some distance away from IKEA stores.

Costco is another good example of this. It has stores in sub-200k Canadian cities like Moncton, St. John's and Sudbury. But none in cities like Buffalo NY which is of similar size to Ottawa-Gatineau. (Ottawa-Gatineau has 4 Costcos.)

Costco has only one store in Pittsburgh, a metro comparable to Vancouver.

[esquire]

So are all those IKEAs a feather in our collective cap because we support so many with a relatively small population, and we like to patronize a store that sells such stylish furniture and décor pieces?

Or is it an indictment of our economic condition because we can only buy cheap, somewhat disposable furniture that is specifically suited to smaller spaces that we're forced into due to our relative lack of prosperity?

A bit of an economic Rorschach test for you

[q12]

Originally Posted by esquire

So are all those IKEAs a feather in our collective cap because we support so many with a relatively small population, and we like to patronize a store that sells such stylish furniture and décor pieces?

Or is it an indictment of our economic condition because we can only buy cheap, somewhat disposable furniture that is specifically suited to smaller spaces that we're forced into due to our relative lack of prosperity?

A bit of an economic Rorschach test for you

Here is a possible shocking stat.

IKEA Canada is planning on doubling the store count from 12 to 24 stores by 2025 (already up to 14 with Halifax and Quebec City under construction).

Unless IKEA USA ramps up expansion, it is possible that they would be in the 50 stores range by 2025.

That would be approx. 2-1 ratio USA IKEA's to Canadian IKEA's, compared to a 10-1 population ratio.

I think this is more to do with Canada being a little more open and accepting to European styles, and also the fact the IKEA stores in the states are not painted Red, White and Blue. Plus Americans like everything including furniture and houses as big as possible which isn't really found in IKEA, except for the size of the store itself.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by q12

Plus Americans like everything including furniture and houses as big as possible which isn't really found in IKEA, except for the size of the store itself.

Haha, good point. Ashley is kind of like their IKEA... that furniture is practically designed to be as big and take up as much space as possible. Some of my McMansion dwelling relatives swear by that stuff.

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by q12

I think this is more to do with Canada being a little more open and accepting to European styles, and also the fact the IKEA stores in the states are not painted Red, White and Blue. Plus Americans like everything including furniture and houses as big as possible which isn't really found in IKEA, except for the size of the store itself.

Ikea can be quite bland as well so I don't think that is it.

I think it has more to do with the average size of dwelling that Canadians live in Vs americans.

If you look at where the Ikeas are located in the US its predominantly in more dense centres, where as large cities that are characterized by sprawl and big houses (ie the Texan cities) have far less Ikeas than one would expect.

[WhipperSnapper]

I haven't looked or purchased furniture from Ikea in a really long time however, when I did, I didn't find their furniture (sofa, tables, etc.) particularly smaller.

It was cheap and disposable. Perhaps Americans are still like my parent's generation in which you buy once for life. It wouldn't really explain the amount of retail square footage in the US however, they also have an absolutely insane amount of rental storage space that doesn't even account for the larger homes. They could all be hoarders.

[Acajack]

Could there be less fierce competition in Canada (compared to the States) for IKEA from domestic retailers in the same market niche?

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Could there be less fierce competition in Canada (compared to the States) for IKEA from domestic retailers in the same market niche?

Before they opened an IKEA in Winnipeg, I used to go to the one in Minneapolis. Despite being a big American city there weren't many places that offered a similar product. Definitely more places that offered more upscale, high-end type design, but if anything the comparable low to mid range alternatives weren't really any better than what there was in Winnipeg (places like EQ3, Urban Barn, Jysk).

[ue]

The only parts of the US that appear to have rates of IKEA stores similar to Canada (though still not at the same level) is California and the Bos-Wash corridor. But the Tri-State area, with nearly 20 million people, still has the same amount of IKEA stores as the GTA with 6 million people. Los Angeles likewise only has 4 stores and covers a vast geographic area at the same time.

I decided to see how this holds up across the Atlantic, where IKEA has been around for much longer in. Greater London itself has only 4 IKEA stores for what, 9, 10 million people? The rest of the UK stores have only 1 per city/region, which is more in keeping with Canada's mid and smaller sized centres. In France, Paris appears to have 7 IKEAs, which is more in keeping per capita with Canada than London or New York. In Germany, Berlin with 4 million or so has 4 IKEAs, Hamburg has 3, Munich 2, and Cologne 2. Also more in keeping with Canada per capita. Though I know Germany is IKEA's largest market.

[WhipperSnapper]

Is the UK like Europe or North America when it comes to renting an apartment? For example, is there flooring/kitchen cabinets, etc with the unit or do you, as a tenant, have to put them in? Is this still done throughout Europe too?

Ikea seems to be big in NA markets where people move around a lot. Cheap disposable furniture is definitely an advantage.