NB "Big Mall" Status

[DyAm00394]

A source has recently mentioned that Charmed Aroma and Santa’Ville will not be returning to McAllister Place and/or Regent Mall.

Instead an Atlantic Canadian based business called “House of Santa” will be opening this upcoming holiday season.

[DyAm00394]

CRU Productivity/Sales Per Square Foot numbers updated for July 2024.

- CF Champlain: $786 (last update was $788). [- $2]

- Regent Mall: $724 (last update was $699). [+ $25]

- McAllister Place: $547 (last update was $523). [+ $24]

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

CRU Productivity/Sales Per Square Foot numbers updated for July 2024.

- CF Champlain: $786 (last update was $788). [- $2]

- Regent Mall: $724 (last update was $699). [+ $25]

- McAllister Place: $547 (last update was $523). [+ $24]

The drop at CF Champlain could be related to the decampment of Shoppers Drug Mart. They sold a lot of cosmetics in there.

[OUIR@random]

A major mall dropping a pharmacy is a big mistake. A successful mall should have has a pharmacy, SDM or Lawtons in Atlantic Canada anyway. Perhaps Lawtons will make an appearance at some point? LL Bean will decamp sooner rather than later, another failed attempt by CF.

P.S. I know the owners-pharmacists of Shoppers left the mall (they decided to leave). Perhaps the lease offer & renewal was a really crappy agreement.

[Taeolas]

Regents numbers are quite impressive, especially since hte mall itself is almost fully leased. It's in spitting distance of the provinces top mall in general, and is missing some of the bigger named chains.

Gotta wonder if Primaris is looking at the floor plan and trying to figure out where they might be able to expand. Depending on how much they want to invest, I could see them closing off the C shape between Sports Chek and Urban Planet/Dollarama, so they could get another interior hallway and group of stores there.

Or they could expand towards Route 8 from the Brick/Dollarama. That parking lot is rarely full even during Christmas, so adding more mall in that direction is probably feasible.

[jonny golden]

Gotta wonder if Primaris is looking at the floor plan and trying to figure out where they might be able to expand.

Hard to say, but if it makes good business sense they are in a strong position to do so. There's no doubt that Primaris has plans to expand, and there's always things going on behind closed doors that the public doesn't know about until it's announced. It would be a major enhancement to Regent if they were to do an expansion!


Quote from Primaris CEO Alex Avery earlier this year:

“We have robust liquidity and are finding lots of attractive opportunities."

Full story:
https://renx.ca/primaris-reit-begins-year-with-solid-first-quarter

[Taeolas]

Just wandered through Regent for the post-Christmas look around.

The popups are shutting down for the season. Looks like Calendar Club had an excellent year, especially with the tax break; I noticed they were half sold out even before Christmas, and won't have much stock left to pack up next week.

As for the mall itself, it seems in decent shape. The barber shop in the corner near Walmart is still empty, but it's a hard spot to rent out.

The rest of the mall seems to be fully leased (maybe one or two spots I may have missed), and in general the stores seem to be doing well.

Stokes's 11th hour reprieve does apply to the Regent Mall location. All the "Final Sale" sale signs have been quickly taken down and they just have 'normal' sales going on. Hopefully they can restock fairly quick. Letting Stokes go so long before saving it may be a bit of a blessing; it let the new company shed a lot of probably ancient inventory, and gives it a chance to bring in fresh supplies, as long as the suppliers are lined up. I hope they do well.

TRU on the other hand, I'm having more concerns about. There's certainly something going on at the moment. The store's inventory is abysmall, and that's something I noticed even before Christmas. And I think I noticed a similar issue down at the Moncton TRU as well.

Before Christmas, at TRU, I most noticed it in the old Electronics section. They moved the Lego into there in the late Summer, and now its looking very sparse. The overhead storage is completely empty. And looking around the rest of the store now, the shelves are also very sparse, and not just Boxing week sales sparse. There's signs up about "Patiance while we sort out our new systems" so something seems to be going on. I hope they get it sorted out fast and get the store stocked appropriately soon. If they aren't ready for Spring/Summer within a month or two, then Regent may have some big spaces to fill.

As is, the 7-8 aisles of Toyes Walmart has at the other end of the mall probably has more toys than the entire TRU store at this point.

The renovated Walmart is quite nice. Much bigger, but the aisle are nice and wide so even when its busy it doesn't feel like the store is busy. I do wonder what they'll do for a garden centre in the spring now; they have no "outside" at that end of the mall any more nor any outside exits they could use. They'll probably set up along the front of the store and use the emergency exit doors by the new grocery section as their garden centre area now. Looking forward to seeing what they do with the Northside Walmart next hopefully.

And on a final note, I've been to a few movies recently in the renovated. theatre. The seats and renovations are nice; but I still say its lipstick on a pig. Freddy could still use a brand new modern cinema, and not just something renovated from the 80's. But that's probably been punted down the road for another 20 years now iwth these renos. Oh well, maybe if movies rebound well enough, Cineplex will consider a new second location on the Northside sometime in the '30s.

[MonctonRad]

Regarding TRU, you should read this Retail Insider article:
https://retail-insider.com/retail-inside...des-toysrus-canada-120m-financing-boost/

Sounds like there were liquidity problems at TRU, which were solved by an investor just before Christmas. This probably explains the empty shelves. The new investor is a bit of a white knight venture capitalist, and one of the things they will be looking at down the road is "rationalization", which probably means some store closures,

So, things are not entirely rosy in Toyland, but, it is probably too soon to start sizing up the carcass for a coffin.

[Taeolas]

Glad to hear it was just a logistics hiccup. Horrible that it happened during the Christmas season; it's a retailers worst nightmare I'm sure, especially a Toy retailers.

While I'm sure they're probably going to close some stores, I suspect that NB's three TRUs are all pretty safe. They are the only stores in their respective cities, and the province has had good growth metrics in general. I suspect the closures will be focused more in markets that have multiple stores in the same city.

Back to Regent Mall status, there is a new surprise slot opening. The Vintage Collectible store (located near the Food court), announced they are closing their Freddy location as of Christmas. The owner says he just can't be maintaining two locations at once, and the Saint John location will stay active.

I did notice they were closed when I was in the mall after Christmas, and had thought they were taking an extra XMas break; not that the store was shutting down. A bit of a shame, but it does hint that we could probably support that sort of store if someone else wants to take up the torch.

[MonctonRad]

I think things are pretty dicey still for TRU:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/toys-r-us-closing-five-stores-1.7421973

They are closing five stores in Ontario, on top of store closures in Quebec, and, the closure of the Bayer's Lake store in Halifax. This is at least 10 store closures out of a total footprint of about 80 stores in Canada. This is not insignificant.

In addition, they will be converting space in some stores into a "Wonderlabs" concept (essentially a free playspace), and are looking at expanding the HMV store-in-store concept. They are also looking at other options to maximize usage of their floor space.

In other words they are seriously looking at drastically reducing the amount of space used for selling toys (in a toy store)!!!

https://retail-insider.com/retail-inside...des-toysrus-canada-120m-financing-boost/

TRU has hostaged it's future to Gordon Brothers (US based venture capitalists). Initially, the plan is to rightsize the store count, reducing the number of physical locations, and, try to come up with a winning formula to maximize revenue per square foot. In this regard, the move to a Wonderlabs concept is peculiar, since this is not a revenue generator but, by simply occupying space, this will reduce the need for in store inventory, so, in a curious way, this makes sense.

In the end however, TRU is a toy store, and, they should try to make sure that they sell hgh quality toys with educational value. Lately, there has been a move towards cheaply made and poor quality toys. This needs to stop.

I wish them well, but, i see serious storm clouds on the horizon. A successful voyage is still possible, but will require skillful navigation. I personally give odds of TRU still being around in 2-3 years as 50/50.

[Taeolas]

They are probably feeling that the 'standard' TRU footprint is a bit too big, considering how much has moved online, so those movements are ways to increase store visits without needing to have more stuff on hand.

Expanding HMV isn't a bad idea, since they already chopped their videogames/electronics section. HMV is basically taking that place without the video games.

The Play area, we'll see how that goes. I suspect the workers won't like it; but toy stores are already historically a place where (bad) parents would drop their kids off as a playground while they did other things. (They shouldn't but they did). So actually putting in a supervised play area in the stores will make it a destination and not just a shopping place. So it increases the number of people in the stores and exposed to the advertising and upsell opportunities. This would be especially effective in the mall based TRUs as opposed to the stand alone stores.

It's a risky move regardless, so we'll see what happens. I hope they can recover and rebound.

[Taeolas]

As noted in the Moncton Retail thread:

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Breaking News:


Some seriously bad retail news for greater Moncton.

Retail Insider has just posted this:

This news has ramifications both for Champlain Place and for Wheeler Park where there is a Ricky's/Cleo combo store.

Ricky's, Cleo and Bootlegger are all present at Champlain Place. At least some Bootlegger locations will be saved, but, there is no guarantee that this will include Champlain Place.

And, all this on top of the apparent shakiness of Toys R Us.

This could be a very tough retail year..........

Regent has all three of them, with fairly significant footprints, so this will be a big blow for Regent for certain. (On top of TRU's troubles too)

McAllister place has a Boathouse, but they don't have Rikkis nor Cleo's in the city so it's not as huge a blow to them. They do have a TRU so that's another sword hanging over the mall there.

*Edit* Looking at the McAllister place floor plan, losing TRU might be a GOOD thing for them. But it would require some major renovations.

With TRU gone, Sports Check could expand a bit. They could also subdivide the TRU space into another hall of shops, probably by punching through the food court to make the new hallway. (Or just make the new hallway from Entrance 9). It wouldn't be an ideal situation but it might be a better way to unify the mall a bit more if that's what they are thinking of doing.

[KnoxfordGuy]

Does SJ have Bootlegger?

[sailor734]

I don't think Boathouse is part of the group being effected by this bankruptcy filing.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/boathouse-blackwell-supply-company/?originalSubdomain=ca

[DyAm00394]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

As noted in the Moncton Retail thread:




Regent has all three of them, with fairly significant footprints, so this will be a big blow for Regent for certain. (On top of TRU's troubles too)

McAllister place has a Boathouse, but they don't have Rikkis nor Cleo's in the city so it's not as huge a blow to them. They do have a TRU so that's another sword hanging over the mall there.

*Edit* Looking at the McAllister place floor plan, losing TRU might be a GOOD thing for them. But it would require some major renovations.

With TRU gone, Sports Check could expand a bit. They could also subdivide the TRU space into another hall of shops, probably by punching through the food court to make the new hallway. (Or just make the new hallway from Entrance 9). It wouldn't be an ideal situation but it might be a better way to unify the mall a bit more if that's what they are thinking of doing.

Boathouse is not part of this company. Bootlegger is, and McAllister doesn't have any of these three chains so Saint John will not be affected by this.

And I agree about if Toys R Us leaves, it will present a perfect opportunity for the mall to either divide up the space for multiple new tenants or bring in a bigger tenant to fill the over 21,000sf space.

[Taeolas]

Sorry, my bad; I mixed up the B-names when I started looking at McAllister place.

So SJ dodges this particular bullet at least, but Regent has a big block in the quiet wing of the mall (the old Sears end) that's about to be opened up. (Ricki's and Bootlegger are side by side and basically that entire side of that wing).

Cleo is in the central hallway, across from AEO. I doubt that spot will be too difficult to fill in once they're out.

[DyAm00394]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Regarding TRU, you should read this Retail Insider article:
https://retail-insider.com/retail-inside...des-toysrus-canada-120m-financing-boost/

Sounds like there were liquidity problems at TRU, which were solved by an investor just before Christmas. This probably explains the empty shelves. The new investor is a bit of a white knight venture capitalist, and one of the things they will be looking at down the road is "rationalization", which probably means some store closures,

So, things are not entirely rosy in Toyland, but, it is probably too soon to start sizing up the carcass for a coffin.

Looks like the parent company, Putman Investments, has just acquired women’s clothing chain, Northern Reflections. Doug Putman said the apparel industry has been on the company’s radar for awhile and was looking for the right opportunity to enter that market.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ic...ersary-with-new-ownership-843674011.html

[MonctonRad]

If TRU is in trouble, why is he going out spending more money on other chains?

Is he looking for an exit strategy, or, are things not so bad at TRU as we think.

With the Comark troubles and the imminent demise of Ricki's, Cleo and maybe Bootlegger, there will soon be over 200 new vacant CRUs across the country that Northern Reflections could expand into.

[Taeolas]

Doesn't really help Freddy; Northern Reflections in Regent Mall is already next to Rikkis and Bootlegger. That could give them an opportunity to expand that store maybe.

Freddy's other Northern Reflections in Brookside Mall is already announced it's closing soon (or may already be closed), so that's a non-entity.

[Freddypop]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

Sorry, my bad; I mixed up the B-names when I started looking at McAllister place.

So SJ dodges this particular bullet at least, but Regent has a big block in the quiet wing of the mall (the old Sears end) that's about to be opened up. (Ricki's and Bootlegger are side by side and basically that entire side of that wing).

Cleo is in the central hallway, across from AEO. I doubt that spot will be too difficult to fill in once they're out.

Not worried. Regent has a list of retailers that want into the mall but have been waiting for space to open up. This is an opportunity to see new-to-market stores take up the space. I don't expect the space to be vacant long. Expect also to see movement of existing stores into the yet-to-be vacated spots opening up prime locations in the mall for the new stores