Winnipeg Retail

[esquire]

^ As a co-op, MEC always took a principled stand on being in urban locations with a focus on transit/AT accessibility with little if any parking. I doubt its new owners will be that idealistic... they're going to want parking. They'll pay lip service to the co-op ideals, but at the end of the day there will be a location with parking. I think that will end up doing in the Portage Avenue location. They'll unload the building (which they own IIRC), find a storefront in a shopping area where lease rates are probably better than they have been in a while, and that will be that.

[buzzg]

The "ideals" of MEC are what separates it from its competition and makes it customers so ultra-loyal. Lose that and you lose you obsessed customers, and fall in line with any other Atmosphere, Mountain Warehouse, etc. If the firm is smart they will know where there customer base is, if you stray from that brand loyalty – the customers will stray to the competition too. Right now, they are a go-to destination. Especially here. Also with lots of their products because they are high-performance, the in-store experience is much more important than buy a shirt from H&M.

[EndoftheBeginning]

They will be switching from a not-for-profit co-op model to a for profit private ownership model. There are bound to be large culture changes associated with a dramatic shift like that. Not sure how many of those devoted to MEC because of the co-op model would gladly change allegiance to a private corporation that is only in it to make money.

[buzzg]

I personally don't think the fact it's a co-op is what drives people to shop there, mostly. It's not like co-op gas where you get money back. They are a Canadian company that makes their own high quality products in an environmentally and ethically sustainable manner, and have unmatched customer service and employee knowledge. Go to a place like Atmosphere that sells the same crap as every other sporting good store in the world, I don't think the 16 year old working the till could even help you buy the right HydroFlask.

[EndoftheBeginning]

^ Those are good selling points for maintaining customer loyalty, true. Personally, I haven't shopped there in about twenty years. The stuff I did buy is mostly still functional, which is a testament to the quality at that time. Some comments on the CBC article were bemoaning a drop in the quality of the outdoor gear in past few years, but I don't know if that is really happening.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ As a co-op, MEC always took a principled stand on being in urban locations with a focus on transit/AT accessibility with little if any parking. I doubt its new owners will be that idealistic... they're going to want parking. They'll pay lip service to the co-op ideals, but at the end of the day there will be a location with parking. I think that will end up doing in the Portage Avenue location. They'll unload the building (which they own IIRC), find a storefront in a shopping area where lease rates are probably better than they have been in a while, and that will be that.

The Green Action Centre, which is in that building, must be getting nervous

[cllew]

I might be wrong but I thought I saw a sign a few weeks ago on the back outside wall off of Donald saying they were doing parking vouchers for the Malbourgh multilevel lot off of of Smith.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by cllew

I might be wrong but I thought I saw a sign a few weeks ago on the back outside wall off of Donald saying they were doing parking vouchers for the Malbourgh multilevel lot off of of Smith.

Yeah, there is validated parking with purchase. But that's still nowhere near as convenient and appealing as free on-street parking by the front door. Especially a place like the Marlborough parkade which many, women in particular, can find intimidating.

[Glenn99]

Basically, Gordon Gecko(Wall Street) bought MEC. There will be changes.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by Glenn99

Basically, Gordon Gecko(Wall Street) bought MEC. There will be changes.

the PE retail playbook:

- sell off all the assets
- slash employee benefits
- do a giant debt-funded expansion or digital transformation or something
- pay the PE firm a bunch of "management fees"
- end up in receivership

[bomberjet]

Ie: Take all the money and piss off.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

^world class greed is what it is.

[BAKGUY]

Originally Posted by borkborkbork

the PE retail playbook:

- sell off all the assets
- slash employee benefits
- do a giant debt-funded expansion or digital transformation or something
- pay the PE firm a bunch of "management fees"
- end up in receivership

I can relate. This is what happened moer or less with Sears Canada. All yoo often, an American company divests its holdings and do all u mentioned

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Global News is reporting a huge backlash on this. I hope it works.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by BAKGUY

I can relate. This is what happened moer or less with Sears Canada. All yoo often, an American company divests its holdings and do all u mentioned

Took the words right out of my mouth.

[CoryB]

To be fair, Sears Canada and Sears USA hadn't been profitable in about a decade. That an investment firm came in and was able to keep in working as a going concern for as long as they did was really amazing. I literally had Sears on death watch for almost five years and if you search the posts here you will see that.

Where Sears really missed their opportunity was when online shopping first started to emerge. People were cautious of putting credit cards online and companies hadn't figured out the distribution side. Sears had an extensive network of catalogue pickup locations including partners any many smaller communities and knew how to get packages large and small from a distribution point to these pickup locations. The locations also were able to take payment.

Had Sears done a pivot and leveraged this internal knowledge to basically handle payments and distribution for any online retailer on a fee for service basis they could have become a dominant retailer, likely similar to the Amazon position today. It is definitely one of the biggest missed opportunities.

--

In terms of MEC I am looking at it more as an outsider having never been a customer but been in their stores. It really seemed like they had started losing their way long before this take over. The product mix seemed very similar to other similar retailers. Also I cannot imagine that selling larger things like canoes works terrible well from their current location. Either way I do not think they will be relocating within the next two years. Heck I would say odds are much higher than completely exit physical retail in Winnipeg before they relocate especially if they own their building.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by CoryB

In terms of MEC I am looking at it more as an outsider having never been a customer but been in their stores. It really seemed like they had started losing their way long before this take over. The product mix seemed very similar to other similar retailers. Also I cannot imagine that selling larger things like canoes works terrible well from their current location. Either way I do not think they will be relocating within the next two years. Heck I would say odds are much higher than completely exit physical retail in Winnipeg before they relocate especially if they own their building.

I noticed in the Edmonton thread they mentioned that one of their two locations is in a central neighbourhood, with the other being in the South Edmonton Common big box area. The central location has apparently been closed for the entire duration of the pandemic since March, and is rumoured to be closed for good. So there's an example of MEC abandoning a central neighbourhood for big box land.

I can imagine that Gendis, which owns the Dollarama retail building next door, might be an eager buyer of the MEC site because then all of a sudden they would have a substantial and prime redevelopment site opposite Bell MTS Place. Remember that Gendis assembled the land for the last huge office building that went up in Winnipeg... Manitoba Hydro Place. MEC's building is probably worth a lot more in combination with the Dollarama building than it is on its own.

[post_man]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Also I cannot imagine that selling larger things like canoes works terrible well from their current location.

It's a pretty good system, considering the location. They have a loading bay at the rear, accessible from Donald (or Smith, or Ellice, depending on where you parked)

[Raj b]

I remember north gate mall before the zellers was renovated...there used to be a part of the mall that extended outwards from the mcphillips side of zellers out towards the other plaza which has or had the police station and sport chek. This section of Northgate mall had a store called OFF BROADWAY which was a low end fashion retail store with black corrugated metal walls on the exterior or at least part of it and the sign for the logo had stars in it. K mart was in the 90 degree corner where the current zellers is attached to the mall. I remember a little bit of the restaurant that was inside zellers and there was a pizza hut in northgate.
But the main thing is the Off Broadway store. That was a classic. It was demo around 1997 or so I believe.
The other plaza across the lot had a CONSUMERS distributing store where sport chek is or was. Then there was a Bi-Way store I think after consumers shut in 96. Then red apple ...

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Raj b

I remember north gate mall before the zellers was renovated...there used to be a part of the mall that extended outwards from the mcphillips side of zellers out towards the other plaza which has or had the police station and sport chek. This section of Northgate mall had a store called OFF BROADWAY which was a low end fashion retail store with black corrugated metal walls on the exterior or at least part of it and the sign for the logo had stars in it. K mart was in the 90 degree corner where the current zellers is attached to the mall. I remember a little bit of the restaurant that was inside zellers and there was a pizza hut in northgate.
But the main thing is the Off Broadway store. That was a classic. It was demo around 1997 or so I believe.
The other plaza across the lot had a CONSUMERS distributing store where sport chek is or was. Then there was a Bi-Way store I think after consumers shut in 96. Then red apple ...

Welcome to the forum! As a Tyndall Park kid I remember Northgate Mall circa 80s and 90s very well. Whoever owned it sank some money into it in back in the mid 80s an attempt to upgrade it from the 60s neighbourhood shopping centre it was into a bigger, almost quasi-regional mall (think along the lines of Grant Park). However, the early 90s recession and shift to big box retail pretty well killed that in a hurry.

But yeah, I do remember the old KMart, Zellers, Off Broadway, I think Bi Way was in there for a while, the big PLAY ZONE... classic.