[Moncton] Retail Thread

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

But they are not part of Forlani Group, correct?

No they are a competitor.

[Ammn_guy]

i find decathlon is more like mountain warehouse, walmart of sporting goods, or amazon storefront its mostly off brand chinese copycat clothing/goods. we buy if for our kids to destroy at school..as its cheap, but not great quality for more active outdoors people. sport check(forzani/canadiantire/hellyhansen, mark's) is higher end gear, sports experts would be their brand in quebec.

Surprise we dont have a mountain warehouse here already..

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Ammn_guy

Surprise we dont have a mountain warehouse here already..

There would have been if the pandemic had not intervened. There were firm plans for a CF Champlain location. Maybe it will still happen once the pandemic is over.

[DyAm00394]

Originally Posted by Ammn_guy

Surprise we dont have a mountain warehouse here already..

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

There would have been if the pandemic had not intervened. There were firm plans for a CF Champlain location. Maybe it will still happen once the pandemic is over.

I can see Mountain Warehouse still wanting to open a location in Moncton. I know the Saint John store posted recently, (in a post addressing some rumors going around suggesting that they are closing, which they confirmed they are not), mentioning:

"I would like to assure all of our members/ clients that we are a growing company and hopefully will open more stores in the maritimes in 2021".

(Source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.p...14326733453353)

They already opened locations in Saint John, Halifax NS, and St. John's NFLD back in 2019. So I can see Moncton (CF Champlain) still being on their radar/plans. I could see Dartmouth (Mic Mac Mall or Dartmouth Crossing) and Fredericton (Regent Mall) may be also possible locations in the future as well.

[DyAm00394]

The main admin of Retail Talk & Share NB has posted a photo tour of the current status of stores that closed and will be closing at CF Champlain.


(Edit) Source: Original post on the Facebook group was removed by admin, due to a lot of negative comments about the mall. I will keep the post/photos here.

It may look like "doom and gloom" at the mall. But it is not. There are still 90-100+ stores open (list here: https://www.cfshops.com/champlain/stores.html). I'm confident that CF Champlain, (as well as the other 2 major NB malls in Fredericton and Saint John), will come out of the pandemic with a strong retail base. Right now all 3 malls are doing pretty good, (lots of retailers/services open), considering the current situation happening in the world. I'm keeping an optimistic outlook for the future of the malls.

1. Former Mexx Kids.
2. Former Fruits and Passion.
3. Le Château (store closing).
4. Jack & Jones (store closing/liquidation).
5. Calendar Club (store closing/seasonal pop-up).
6. Former Maritime Travel.
7. Former Addition-Elle. (Rumored to be the location of the new Sirens store coming soon).
8. Former Pink and Victoria's Secret. (Now temporarily being used as additional food court seating).
9. Former Glamour Secrets.
10. Former Blacks Photography. (Currently CF employee lounge. Closed temporarily due to pandemic).
11. Former Cazza Petite. (Currently Just Cozy. Rumored to be permanent location for Just Cozy).
12. Former Booster Juice.
13. Former GNC.
14. Former Crepe Delicious.
15. Former Jugo Juice.
16. Naturalizer (store closing).
17. Former Coach.
18. Former Jump+ (moved across the hall to former Suzy Shier location).
19. Former Clair de Lune.

[MonctonRad]

Not a happy photo tour.

Still, I think CF Champlain is holding on, and once the pandemic is over, a lot of these vacancies will be filled. There are a number of prospective tenants out there who might be open in the mall by next Christmas season.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

There is something going on in the old Blockbuster store on Mountain Road (in the remainder of the space not occupied by Bennic). I saw workers in there yesterday on my way into work, and the windows are now covered. Does anyone have any ideas?

Apparently this unit has been leased, and is currently being renovated for a business relocation from elsewhere on Mountain Road. The source however was unwilling to divulge who will in fact be moving in.

[MonctonRad]

Starbucks is in further contraction mode:

https://globalnews.ca/news/7571716/s...-closures/amp/

They say the closure of 300 locations, but I think this is just the closure of an additional 100 locations on top of those previously announced.

Regardless, it is downtown locations without drive-thrus that are at the greatest risk. All of the remaining Moncton locations have drive-thrus except for CF Champlain and Chapters. I imagine CF Champlain is safe. Is the one at Chapters still closed? That was temporary I believe, and related to a tiff over whose responsibility it was to clean the bathroom. The two locations on Elmwood are pretty close to one another. One of these could potentially be at risk...…….

[NBNYer]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The two locations on Elmwood are pretty close to one another. One of these could potentially be at risk...…….

Yes, although I would guess they must serve very different clienteles. The Granite street SB is a true big box/highway coffee shop which serves Costco shoppers and TCH traffic whereas the Elmwood SB is a neighbourhood coffee shop more akin to the Champlain street location.

I think the main risk to the Elmwood SB is the decreased UdeM student population. Many UdeM students are attending classes virtually and thus have stayed if their home towns outside of the region or province.

[L'homard]

Originally Posted by NBNYer

Yes, although I would guess they must serve very different clienteles. The Granite street SB is a true big box/highway coffee shop which serves Costco shoppers and TCH traffic whereas the Elmwood SB is a neighbourhood coffee shop more akin to the Champlain street location.

I think the main risk to the Elmwood SB is the decreased UdeM student population. Many UdeM students are attending classes virtually and thus have stayed if their home towns outside of the region or province.

I eat at Rotten Ronnie's next door to Granite SB a lot, and I've yet to see more than one car at the drive thru, never two cars or more, so far. Mind you, I'm not standing there watching all day and night.
I drive or walk by the Elmwood location often and as you say the U de M crowd use it a LOT. Or used to, anyway.
My money is on both of them being left alone. I'm not a SB guy, but they seemed to be doing well until the brown stuff hit the fan. The Granite outlet seems to be getting more and more traffic, as people either find it, or remember about it.

[BlackYear]

The photos above remind me of what Highfield Square mall looked like within the final days.

[MonctonRad]

Classic Burger Express at the Mapleton Centre is now open. This should be a good fit for the Mapleton Centre and they should experience some welcome synergy with the adjacent Mexi's Express location (and Cannabis NB right next door).

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by BlackYear

The photos above remind me of what Highfield Square mall looked like within the final days.

Yes it does, but every unit was like that in Highfield. They didn’t have near as many fully leased units as CF Champlain does.

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by josh_cat_eyes

Yes it does, but every unit was like that in Highfield. They didn’t have near as many fully leased units as CF Champlain does.

I'd still like to see CF do a residential development attached to the mall. They've done it at some of their other malls, and I think it would be great for Champlain place. The market would be there for it, but I'm not sure if something like this is even on their radar.

[MonctonRad]

There was some chatter about Starbucks on the Global TV morning show out of Halifax this morning. They were bemoaning the fact that almost all of the downtown Starbucks locations were closing in Halifax. They also said something about the Starbucks locations in their Chapters stores down there closing as well. If so, this probably means the Starbucks in our Chapters is probably doomed too.

If this is the case, I'm sure Chapters would be looking for a replacement. Could this be an opportunity for Second Cup (especially since they recently closed their CF Champlain location)???

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

There was some chatter about Starbucks on the Global TV morning show out of Halifax this morning. They were bemoaning the fact that almost all of the downtown Starbucks locations were closing in Halifax. They also said something about the Starbucks locations in their Chapters stores down there closing as well. If so, this probably means the Starbucks in our Chapters is probably doomed too.

If this is the case, I'm sure Chapters would be looking for a replacement. Could this be an opportunity for Second Cup (especially since they recently closed their CF Champlain location)???

I was in a Chapters here shortly before Christmas and the Starbucks was closed. Didn't know if it was just a short term COVID related closure or a longer term/permanent closure.

[BlackYear]

I noticed that as well. I thought maybe they have been closed since Bass Pro Shop moved in which closed off the back entrance. Didn't think there was enough foot traffic to support a coffee shop in the back of a book store.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by BlackYear

I noticed that as well. I thought maybe they have been closed since Bass Pro Shop moved in which closed off the back entrance. Didn't think there was enough foot traffic to support a coffee shop in the back of a book store.

I had heard that the original reason for closing the Starbucks at the Chapters was a spat over whose responsibility it was to clean the bathroom. This wasn't a major issue pre-pandemic, but with aggressive cleaning needed during the pandemic, maintaining the bathroom became a major irritant.

Chapters insisted that Starbucks clean the bathrooms. Starbucks refused and closed down instead. The assumption was that Starbucks would reopen when the pandemic was over, but perhaps not.

Care and maintenance of a full service Starbucks is obviously a greater financial (and logistical) burden than operating a drive-thru facility. This seems to be the new way forward for Starbucks - suburban locations with a high volume drive-thru and a few hard seats inside the store rather than a downtown unit with comfy sofas, lots of people loitering and stealing wi-fi and no high volume drive-thru traffic.

I disagree with this new paradigm. Hopefully Starbucks will rethink this strategy in the future............

[jonny golden]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I had heard that the original reason for closing the Starbucks at the Chapters was a spat over whose responsibility it was to clean the bathroom. This wasn't a major issue pre-pandemic, but with aggressive cleaning needed during the pandemic, maintaining the bathroom became a major irritant.

Chapters insisted that Starbucks clean the bathrooms. Starbucks refused and closed down instead. The assumption was that Starbucks would reopen when the pandemic was over, but perhaps not.

Care and maintenance of a full service Starbucks is obviously a greater financial (and logistical) burden than operating a drive-thru facility. This seems to be the new way forward for Starbucks - suburban locations with a high volume drive-thru and a few hard seats inside the store rather than a downtown unit with comfy sofas, lots of people loitering and stealing wi-fi and no high volume drive-thru traffic.

I disagree with this new paradigm. Hopefully Starbucks will rethink this strategy in the future............

I agree with MonctonRad on this; I never go through a Starbucks drive-thru. They're fine for a lot of customers, but I prefer the in store experience. In it's heyday, the one on Main Street had a great atmosphere and was an excellent place to go for a coffee. You would see people doing business, students doing their work, and a lot of conversations happening.

[MonctonRad]

The Dollarama signage has been installed on the façade of the CRU next to Ren's Pets in the Champlain Plaza on Champlain Street in Dieppe.