Canadian Retail Thread

[miketoronto]

I don't shop at Walmart, so I have not been in them to much. But how can the people really look that different when Walmart is located in every regular suburban area of this country??????

[IntotheWest]

Originally Posted by furrycanuck

...but you don't HAVE to, right? :-)

Ah...the joys of small town. For somethings, I like it. But, for shopping? Yeah, I do have to. Whether its for cheap kids clothes (under 2 years old), or certain "electronics" (computer-related stuff, DVDs, some CDs, etc...), there's really no other choice. I travel to the city about once a month - if that. So, I may happen to go to Shawnessy's "big box" area.

I do try to go to Home Hardware, Staples, or even Canadian Tire out here as well...just sometimes, you have to go to Wart-mart.

I never did until I moved out here.

[Denscity]

I'm hopin' and prayin' my city doesn't get a Walmart. Nelson 30 minutes northeast has one and Trail 25 minutes southwest has one already so is my city safe?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

I don't shop at Walmart, so I have not been in them to much. But how can the people really look that different when Walmart is located in every regular suburban area of this country??????

Every place and has both ugly and good looking people. For some reason, many of the ugly-looking people in most places seem to congregate at places like Wal-Mart, the cheapest fast-food joints, etc.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by theman23

Find of the century. Gold.

[harls]

Originally Posted by miketoronto

I don't shop at Walmart, so I have not been in them to much.

That doesn't make sense..

[crooked rain]

Originally Posted by Denscity

I'm hopin' and prayin' my city doesn't get a Walmart. Nelson 30 minutes northeast has one and Trail 25 minutes southwest has one already so is my city safe?

Their opening everywhere. We went through Pincher Creek, AB last weekend and their was one there. It is not a large town, so I was surprised to see it so I think they will move into any town that is a reasonable size. They seems to be moving into smaller centres in Canada like they used to did in the U.S.

[christopherj]

Originally Posted by crooked rain

Their opening everywhere. We went through Pincher Creek, AB last weekend and their was one there. It is not a large town, so I was surprised to see it so I think they will move into any town that is a reasonable size. They seems to be moving into smaller centres in Canada like they used to did in the U.S.

Yep. Last year they opened one in Wainwright, Alberta. I'm not even sure 10,000 people live there?

[mersar]

Originally Posted by christopherj

Yep. Last year they opened one in Wainwright, Alberta. I'm not even sure 10,000 people live there?

Pincher Creek is under 4,000. Wainwright is closer to 6,000. Biggest reason they are moving to these types of towns is that there isn't much within a close distance so its an easy market to enter.

[Rusty van Reddick]

American Apparel is opening a new store on 10 St in Kensington (Calgary)- it's where Lula Interiors was, and it's a much smaller space, maybe 1/4 the floor space, of their 17th Ave store.

[kirjtc2]

Last year Wal-Mart opened a store in Woodstock, NB, population 5000.

They've already had a store 15 km away in Houlton, Maine, population 6000, for 20 years.

They'd probably open across the street from each other if they could.

[christopherj]

Originally Posted by kirjtc2

They'd probably open across the street from each other if they could.

Soon they'll be like Starbucks.

[miketoronto]

I am not happy with these large retailers under normal conditions let alone at the moment.
Walmart did the classic thing here in Scarborough and opened two stores near my house, and than they closed one down and left it vacant for years. The mall is finally getting rebuilt. But Walmart is famous for opening a number of stores within close proximity to each other and than closing one of them down.

And the lattest is LOBLAWS. We had a wicked LOBLAWS store in a mall that at one time was in decline. LOBLAWS moved in and the whole mall renovated and it is doing great. Now LOBLAWS built a SUPERSTORE about 5 minutes north at the town centre, and they closed the nice normal LOBLAWS store we had. Now everyone has to go to this mega supercentre, and reacation from the neighbourhood is not good. I have talked with one person who likes the new superstore. Everyone else is wishing the old LOBLAWS was still here.

These chains are getting a little to powerfull and oversaturated now. I am now limiting my shopping at LOBLAWS also, since they pulled this crap. And in addition they have changed the name to LOBLAW, so that they can be considered a new company and not have unionized workers or pay the higher wages they use to. Actually we know a guy who lost his job because LOBLAWS did not want to pay his high wage, so they changed to LOBLAW and fired all the people making a good wage. When I hear stuff like that I just have no respect for these companies anymore.

It is amazing the stir Walmart causes though. We have had discount stores for decades, like WOOLWORTHS, WOOLCO, etc. And these stores did not seem to have as bad a rap as Walmart. Infact Walmart replaced WOOLCO stores here in Toronto.

[crooked rain]

Mike, Walmart replaced Woolco everywhere. Woolco was a dying chain and by the time Walmart took it over, the stores were run down, the merchandise was garbage and it was on the verge on bankruptcy. The recession of the early 90s nearly killed it.

[SpongeG]

went thursday night and it was crazy busy many non shoppers just gawking

surprised to see so many people buying flat screens

went again Friday - had a bunch of stuff in the cart - than the lights dimmed and flickered than you could hear people go "uh oh" and than it stopped and lights were somewhat normal

but the store was darker as most of the lights never came back on - it seemed like every 3 or 4th light just strobed/flickered and half the freezers/fridge coolers lost their lights and never came back on

so we shoppped for a good 10 minutes when an announcement came over the PA asking customers to proceed to the exit sorry for the inconvenience - most people just ignored the message - my friend was oblivious has he looked at stuff and i said we have to leabe and he was like what? i said they want everyone to leave the store - the message kept saying leave the store - so halfway to the door we abandon our cart and than the alarms started going off and people took it seriously - finally - and seemed like a rush to the doors now - so we get outside and wait than some fire trucks arrived and we stayed there - than they cleared all the store employees to the one corner of the parking lot which was chaos as people were leaving in droves

so than we stood by the store for a good 10 minutes when someone said move away from the store please - so we got herded into the parking lot - where we waited a while than it started to rain so a bunch of people went to the smoking shelter but were told to move away from the store so they cleared out the shopping cart shelters fro people to stay dry

anyway after waiting around a good 40-45 minutes staff started telling the customers to leave as they were not sure when they would open

so the people that were waiting were the ones who had parked underground and told not to go down there during whatever was going on

so they said it was ok to go to your car underground so we did that and left finally

so it seems there was some kind of fire - some say an electrical fire in the store - some said smoke was coming out of the tim hortons thats inside the store

so they must have lost a lot of money today in the thousands - if you imagine every car spending $100 at least and just leaving empty

one woman we saw had been buying an xbox and a bunch of other pricey items

anyway pretty crazy down there

stores pretty nice - i don't know if its a lot more but the produce and meat and dairy is large and priced quite well and there is lots of room and you don't feel cramped like the other stores

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by furrycanuck

American Apparel is opening a new store on 10 St in Kensington (Calgary)- it's where Lula Interiors was, and it's a much smaller space, maybe 1/4 the floor space, of their 17th Ave store.

they are all over here - big and small

they opened two stores on Robson street a while back - with a TNA store in between them

they are both very small - one does womens the other does mens and pets

never really see anyone inside them

[MolsonExport]

Walmart is bad. Woolco was much, much worse. Even shittier than K-mart (and that is pretty hard to beat on the shittiness scale). The dingiest stores, Evar!

[SpongeG]

did we we ever have woolworths here?


i vaguely recall going to them when i was a kid

[kirjtc2]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

did we we ever have woolworths here?


i vaguely recall going to them when i was a kid

Yeah, they closed at the same time they sold Woolco to Wal-Mart.

They had more downtown/small-town locations than Woolco.

I remember being dragged to way too many of those stores when I was a kid in the 80s-early 90s. Anyone else remember The Met?

[artvandelay]

Speaking of Walmart, they got a new logo:


They have really been expanding into smaller markets lately, a Supercentre just opened in Sylvan Lake. I hope it doesn't kill the local grocery store downtown.