General Retail News

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

Giving your postal code is almost the same as giving your address (for me, anyway) - I live on a tiny street, and there are about 10 other houses in Gatineau that share my same code.

It all depends though.. the place where I grew up had one postal code for the entire town of 2500 people, and everyone got their mail from boxes at the lone post office.

One other habit I've started is to give a 'junk' email address when entering contests and crap. I will purposely make a mistake in the spelling of my name to know who's been trading the information. Jean-Coutu had a booth set up at the Balloon festival this year and asked for your name and email address to win a prize. I signed up with my junk email and misspelled name. Surprise.. I'm getting offers from other stuff with that name and address. Those email lists must be worth a lot of money!

In the old days I used to do that with my street address by playing with the generic in the address like Avenue, Road, Boulevard, Court, etc.

Even if the generic is wrong the mail will always get through if the house number, the specific (Maple, Oak, Flanagan) and postal code are correct.

Unless of course your city has a Maple Lane in one part of town and a Maple Street in another area.

Which was never the case with my street names.

[waterloowarrior]

st. laurent target site plan application http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/appDetails.jsf?lang=en&appId=__8E1X2I

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

st. laurent target site plan application http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/appDetails.jsf?lang=en&appId=__8E1X2I

That exact site used to be a K-mart I am pretty sure.

[MountainView]

That's surprisingly a nice looking store! Too bad there will be a parking lot in front of it and not close to the main street.

[MichelKazan]

Oh this is interesting. So is the plan to demolish the Zellers' stores and re-build the Target stores from the ground up? I thought it was just an interior renovation and that was it.

That being said, it's a beautiful store. The two-storey concept is interesting especially since in our "big box" culture, we rarely see new 2-story stores anymore.

[MichelKazan]

Originally Posted by Acajack

That exact site used to be a K-mart I am pretty sure.

Yes it was a K-Mart up until 1998.

[kevinbottawa]

Over the Christmas holiday I saw the Target at Square One in Mississauga. Their space is almost done and it definitely doesn't look as good as this design.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by MichelKazan

Oh this is interesting. So is the plan to demolish the Zellers' stores and re-build the Target stores from the ground up? I thought it was just an interior renovation and that was it.

whoa whoa whoa...seriously. i wonder how many they will do this to? very cool! unlike the new walmart at the old zellers in gloucester centre...that walmart doesn't feel anything like any other walmart i've ever been in.

[Harley613]

From this:


To This:

[toaster]

Originally Posted by Harley613

whoa whoa whoa...seriously. i wonder how many they will do this to? very cool! unlike the new walmart at the old zellers in gloucester centre...that walmart doesn't feel anything like any other walmart i've ever been in.

Really? I was in there, and it felt and looked like all other Walmarts I've ever been in. The only difference was that the layout was a little different (similar to the layout found when many Walmarts operated in malls back in the 90/early 00s), and there is brown brick on the outside, which you wouldn't notice when your in the actual store.

[c_speed3108]

Wow that St Laurent Target store application is pretty awesome!

The old Zeller's there was terrible. Terrible enough to make you travel to other Zeller's stores. It did not have a nice feel at all.

I like what they are doing with the site. They are moving the parking back from the street and improving the pedestrian walk up to the building a fair amount.

Really my only other wish would be that they improve the bus stop area by, at a minimum, replacing the current standard shelter with something larger. It is already over capacity now when it is say raining.

I was hoping for a solid renovation during the target conversion. This is more than I could have wished for and a welcome improvement to the neighborhood.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by toaster

Really? I was in there, and it felt and looked like all other Walmarts I've ever been in. The only difference was that the layout was a little different (similar to the layout found when many Walmarts operated in malls back in the 90/early 00s), and there is brown brick on the outside, which you wouldn't notice when your in the actual store.

Weird because I've been in there a few times and it feels like an old Zellers with the signs painted blue, nothing like a Walmart.

[Capital Shaun]

The Walmart at Glouceter Mall does have a different feel to it compared to the the Walmarts at Tarinyards and South Keys.

The layout is also almost the same one that the Zellers had. Zellers with blue signs is a pretty good description. There's even a couple former Zellers employees who now work at the Walmart. (The ones that use to peddle the HBC credit cards.)

[c_speed3108]

At 152,000 sq feet that Target store will slot almost exactly between Target's average General Merchandise format and the Super-Target format.


http://pressroom.target.com/news/fastfacts

Formats

Target operates two store formats:
General Merchandise stores (P04) are typically one-level stores within major community or regional shopping districts. This is our most prevalent store format which is approximately 126,000 square feet in size. Our merchandise offering includes general merchandise and selected grocery products and may also include other amenities such as photo processing services, a pharmacy, a Food Avenue restaurant and often a Starbucks.

SuperTarget stores extend the Target brand beyond fashion and home dcor by providing guests with a pleasant and convenient grocery shopping experience in addition to the traditional Target store experience. SuperTarget offers a full grocery line, including a bakery and deli, meat and produce selections. With an average size of 174,000 square feet per store, SuperTarget’s mix of grocery and merchandise delights our guests by offering the convenience of one-stop shopping.

[drawarc]

The Walmart at Glouceter Mall does have a different feel to it compared to the the Walmarts at Tarinyards and South Keys.

The layout is also almost the same one that the Zellers had. Zellers with blue signs is a pretty good description. There's even a couple former Zellers employees who now work at the Walmart. (The ones that use to peddle the HBC credit cards.)

Another thing is the Gloucester store has a few large skylights, not something i've seen in other Walmarts.

[Harley613]

I wonder if we are getting any Targets with groceries...

[toaster]

Originally Posted by Harley613

Weird because I've been in there a few times and it feels like an old Zellers with the signs painted blue, nothing like a Walmart.

All cashes, checkouts, flooring, shelving, signage, doors, carts, baskets, fridges are new. The Zellers didn't even have all the grocery that is now in the Walmart (typical of most walmarts). Maybe I'll take pictures for you the next time I am there.

[c_speed3108]

The Gloucester Walmart definitely was a bit of a quick do-up. They opened initially without even having the store fully stocked. They kept many things like the flooring from the Zeller's store. They just got rid of things like red inlays. I am guessing they opened quickly to maintain the current Zeller's customer base that was used to going there.

The store also seemed to lack a few usual things like the (in)famous Walmart greeters.

It being smaller than some of the other Walmarts it is a much easier store to run into to pick something up quickly as the parking lots etc.. are not as chaotic. It is also far more accessible by transit that Innes and Trainyards.

The only drawback being that because it is smaller, it is more likely to be out of things like sale items, which are piled up by the pallet at the other stores.

[Capital Shaun]

The renos were minimal other than the new "furniture" since Zellers sold off all of theres. The grocery section is almost double what Zellers had but otherwise the stores are very similar. The hallway that loops around the store is at the same place. The clothing is still on the East side of the store. Electronics is at the exact same place. Seasonal is still to the West. The pharmacy is at the exact same place. Bathrooms remain unchanged.

Compare that to Target that's going to tear down and rebuild the Zellers on St-Laurent. Albeit that building is older then Gloucester mall.

I agree with c_speed3108's assessment that Walmart must have moved fast to pickup Zeller's former clientele (like my own family who live in the area).

I also like that this Walmart isn't a zoo like some of the larger locations. I hate going to those when I have my kids with me.

[c_speed3108]

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

On CFRA they mention in house leases will be transferred to Surgenor . I wonder if they might also pick up the Cadillac and Chevy brands too since they lost two brands (Hummer and Pontiac) when GM reorganized.

Surgenor did open a shinny new Hyundai dealership.

So this is exactly what seems to have occurred:

"Surgenor Buick GMC" is now called "Surgenor Chevrolet Buick GMC Cadillac", although they are still appear to be working at changing signs and revamping their website and social media pages. On facebook they call themselves: Ottawa's newest 'full line' GM dealership!