Winnipeg Retail

[esquire]

Originally Posted by trebor204

It is possible to open Off 5th at the Bay downtown?

No.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by trebor204

It is possible to open Off 5th at the Bay downtown?

Only locations under consideration for Winnipeg are:

- Polo Park/Polo Festival (aka old stadium site)
- Seasons of Tuxedo
- the planned outlet mall

[cheswick]

Couple of notes regarding Portage Place. The new Ardene is almost ready to open. Its a fairly large space, the exterior is actually pretty nice considering. They did vacate their former first floor location. Also That sports cards / jersey store that has occupied the skywalk for as long as I can remember has relocated to the second level of Portage Place proper.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by cheswick

Couple of notes regarding Portage Place. The new Ardene is almost ready to open. Its a fairly large space, the exterior is actually pretty nice considering. They did vacate their former first floor location. Also That sports cards / jersey store that has occupied the skywalk for as long as I can remember has relocated to the second level of Portage Place proper.

I cannot believe how big the Ardene store is. Either they sell endless amounts of cheap teenage girl stuff or (more likely) Portage Place is practically giving that space away.

The west end of the mall's second floor is well on its way to becoming office space with another big office conversion underway near the skywalk.

Portage Place is now pretty much where Cityplace was 12 years ago.

[vid]

Ardene must be doing well, there are hundreds of them it seems. A really big one just opened in Thunder Bay a few weeks ago, we now have 3 or 4 I think?

[cllew]

Originally Posted by vid

Ardene must be doing well, there are hundreds of them it seems. A really big one just opened in Thunder Bay a few weeks ago, we now have 3 or 4 I think?

Their website says that they have over 400 locations so they must be moving a lot of clothing and bling.

[TR_Chick]

Originally Posted by cllew

Their website says that they have over 400 locations so they must be moving a lot of clothing and bling.

They have insane deals so young girls on a budget flock to there to buy stuff that looks relatively nice but without the huge price tags. Portage place therefore is a perfect location for them to have a larger store.

[vid]

Over 400! And that is just in Canada, people!

My god there must be 60 of them in Toronto alone!

[armorand93]

Those teenage girls are going to have to get through the hoardes of creepy guys at the entrances first...

[Komatiite]

There's a rumour of an Anthropologie coming to the new Polo Park area development. My girlfriend is very excited. YMMV.

[Biff]

MTS Centre is renovating their street level store and adding a 2nd level store on the walkway level at the top of the escalators by the T Eaton Statue. It looks like it will be really nice. It will be against the back wall with access to the arena not the Portage Ave windows.

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by Biff

MTS Centre is renovating their street level store and adding a 2nd level store on the walkway level at the top of the escalators by the T Eaton Statue. It looks like it will be really nice. It will be against the back wall with access to the arena not the Portage Ave windows.

Good news! Is the main level store expanding or just renovating? I always thought it was a little small. But I guess it was built for an AHL team.

Got to give credit to TNSE. They're not afraid to spend money.

[cllew]

Originally Posted by Biff

MTS Centre is renovating their street level store and adding a 2nd level store on the walkway level at the top of the escalators by the T Eaton Statue. It looks like it will be really nice. It will be against the back wall with access to the arena not the Portage Ave windows.

Are they taking over the abandoned MTS cell store space on the 2nd level? That location has been a dead spot since MTS let its lease expire.

[Danny D Oh]

Took a walk through Target at KP today. Felt like I was the only person left after nuclear fallout. Anyone think they'll be able to adjust to the Canadian market or will this be an epic retail fail?

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

Took a walk through Target at KP today. Felt like I was the only person left after nuclear fallout. Anyone think they'll be able to adjust to the Canadian market or will this be an epic retail fail?

Found that store poorly stocked, high prices and mostly empty so in other words not much different from the Zeller's store it replaced!

[esquire]

The sad reality is that the KP store is far, far better than the one at Southdale. The Southdale store has empty shelves like something in the USSR, circa 1981. Frankly, I'm surprised that they haven't yet managed to work out their supply chain issues.

That said, for all of the Target fans there seem to be in Winnipeg (judging by the parking lots at North Dakota Target locations, at least), it's surprising to me how empty the stores here are. Obviously the grocery selection is not the same as in the US, but the other merchandise is more or less on par with the US Targets.

[Biff]

Originally Posted by esquire

The sad reality is that the KP store is far, far better than the one at Southdale. The Southdale store has empty shelves like something in the USSR, circa 1981. Frankly, I'm surprised that they haven't yet managed to work out their supply chain issues.

That said, for all of the Target fans there seem to be in Winnipeg (judging by the parking lots at North Dakota Target locations, at least), it's surprising to me how empty the stores here are. Obviously the grocery selection is not the same as in the US, but the other merchandise is more or less on par with the US Targets.

It blows me away that they even considered opening these stores without having all of their supply chain confirmed. The poorly stocked shelved is an incredibly poor impression to leave with customers. We were just in Fargo last weekend and other that the colours of the stores there was no comparison in what they offered stock wise.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by esquire

The sad reality is that the KP store is far, far better than the one at Southdale. The Southdale store has empty shelves like something in the USSR, circa 1981. Frankly, I'm surprised that they haven't yet managed to work out their supply chain issues.

That said, for all of the Target fans there seem to be in Winnipeg (judging by the parking lots at North Dakota Target locations, at least), it's surprising to me how empty the stores here are. Obviously the grocery selection is not the same as in the US, but the other merchandise is more or less on par with the US Targets.

Honestly though, Target in the US is overrated IMO. I can never find anything there in terms of clothing, Wal-Mart in the States, outlet stores (Levi's, Reebok, Nike, Under Armour etc) and sports stores (Dick's, Scheel's) have much more selection and competitive prices. I don't find Target particularly cheap in the US compared to Wal-Mart, even brand name stores. Maybe I'm not their target market. The females in my life love Target south of the border but say that the selection of clothes is not the same here, yet anyways.

The empty shelves are brutal. If you didn't see the red balls on the way in you'd still think the Zellers clearance sale was on.

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

Honestly though, Target in the US is overrated IMO. I can never find anything there in terms of clothing, Wal-Mart in the States, outlet stores (Levi's, Reebok, Nike, Under Armour etc) and sports stores (Dick's, Scheel's) have much more selection and competitive prices. I don't find Target particularly cheap in the US compared to Wal-Mart, even brand name stores. Maybe I'm not their target market. The females in my life love Target south of the border but say that the selection of clothes is not the same here, yet anyways.

The empty shelves are brutal. If you didn't see the red balls on the way in you'd still think the Zellers clearance sale was on.

Pretty much bang on with my impression. I have never been to Target in the state, not much of a North Dakota/Minnesota shopping traveller. But when I went to the KP store for a hallway table, I didn't know what the hype was all about. Just seemed that Zeller's had renovated. Same crap I can get anywhere else. The table I found, to my surprise, was $250. For some crap laminated thing, no thanks.

[CoryB]

My last few visits to Amercian Target stores scream to me that the whole chain is in the early stages of retail failure. Maybe it is just my flawed memories but I remember Target being fairly busy place with lots of people. On my last few visits it is a ghost town with more staff than customers and this was not isolated to a single store or town but a larger sampling. The problems of Target's launch is not specific to the Canadian market but a sign of the much larger problems they are faing and how they have slipped from their high point.

Then again I am not expert on the subject but it is hard to ignore the signs when they keep repeating themselves (ie Kmart, Eatons, The Bay, Sears, etc).