Winnipeg Retail

[vjose32]

Speaking of demolition, just noticed the front of the old Wheelies on McPhillips has been torn off. Guess they are finally turning it into a strip mall.

[vjose32]

Originally Posted by vjose32

Speaking of demolition, just noticed the front of the old Wheelies on McPhillips has been torn off. Guess they are finally turning it into a strip mall.

In case anyone is wondering this is what I’m referring to. Interesting they have a unit tucked around the back, good use of space.

https://capitalgrp.ca/wp-content/upl...llips-2401.pdf

[esquire]

Stitches in Portage Place is going out of business, there was quite a crowd lined up to buy all remaining items for a dollar. I can't quite tell if International Clothiers is closing too, but they appear to be having some kind of mega sell-off judging by the signage.

Looks like retail at Portage Place is starting to wind down... pretty soon there won't be any clothing stores left.

[buzzg]

Maybe they're just going to rebrand it back to an Urban Planet hahaha.

International Clothiers is in constant state of blowout lol, even the Polo Park one.

[vjose32]

They need to get Portage Place sold and let them build the housing towers and that will help the retail there a bit.

[dennis]

Originally Posted by vjose32

They need to get Portage Place sold and let them build the housing towers and that will help the retail there a bit.

Wasn’t that tried in the mid eighties?

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by vjose32

They need to get Portage Place sold and let them build the housing towers and that will help the retail there a bit.

But, but, but it's a sacred meeting place where folks gather but not spend any money as it's sacred......

[vjose32]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

But, but, but it's a sacred meeting place where folks gather but not spend any money as it's sacred......

They can still do that, lol

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by esquire

Stitches in Portage Place is going out of business, there was quite a crowd lined up to buy all remaining items for a dollar. I can't quite tell if International Clothiers is closing too, but they appear to be having some kind of mega sell-off judging by the signage.

Looks like retail at Portage Place is starting to wind down... pretty soon there won't be any clothing stores left.

The sign up says closed, re-opening aug 23. Check us out for new arrivals.

[CoryB]

Apparently Pier 1 Imports announced they are closing 25 stores in North America, six of which are in Canada. Apparently the Polo Park location is one of those six.

I won't be out that way in the next little bit but can someone check in the St Vital location is also closing?

[tvor202]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Apparently Pier 1 Imports announced they are closing 25 stores in North America, six of which are in Canada. Apparently the Polo Park location is one of those six.

I won't be out that way in the next little bit but can someone check in the St Vital location is also closing?

Not closing as of today.

[EspionNoir]

Originally Posted by vjose32

They need to get Portage Place sold and let them build the housing towers and that will help the retail there a bit.

Sale is currently underway, though it will not move very quickly. Reboots pages of this thread contain the sale information.

[dennis]

The residential towers behind the mall were built for that purpose. That didn’t seem to work out for the mall. I believe they were initially intended to be higher end condos or apartments but it did not turn out that way.

[vjose32]

Bulk Barn at GC has apparently opened, Seafood City gotta be soon too.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by vjose32

Bulk Barn at GC has apparently opened, Seafood City gotta be soon too.

Exterior looks complete. I believe they had initially stated summer 2019? So looks on track.

Not sure about the Sobeys strategy in the area. They closed the Maples IGA, it's been replaced with a Luckys. Closed the Leila Safeway, now a new grocer across the street. Seems like they just willingly gave up market share to competitors.

I think the FreshCo which replaced Jefferson Safeway is franchised? Which is again odd since not long ago they ended all franchised IGAs.

[cllew]

Originally Posted by cheswick

Exterior looks complete. I believe they had initially stated summer 2019? So looks on track.

Not sure about the Sobeys strategy in the area. They closed the Maples IGA, it's been replaced with a Luckys. Closed the Leila Safeway, now a new grocer across the street. Seems like they just willingly gave up market share to competitors.

I think the FreshCo which replaced Jefferson Safeway is franchised? Which is again odd since not long ago they ended all franchised IGAs.

I think they are following the Loblaws formula where the NoFrills stores are franchised which takes all sorts of costs off the patent company.

From what I can find on the internet Sobey's are asking for a franchise fee of $45,000 and a service fee of 4 percent of gross sales. And I am guessing the owner/operator has to come up with the money for fixtures and inventory to open as well.

[bomberjet]

$45k seems pretty cheap. I know someone looking at franchising a much smaller business model than that and it is $50k fee per store. Surprising to me. The 4% of sales is where the money would be made long term.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by cllew

I think they are following the Loblaws formula where the NoFrills stores are franchised which takes all sorts of costs off the patent company.

Based solely on Winnipeg it seems the Loblaws franchise model is to own the building and lease out the actual store operations. The franchise locations also, on the surface, appear to be in locations that likely have higher rates of product theft. That means the franchise operator takes the expense of theft prevention and the losses related to theft and the parent company just skims their rake off the top.

[cllew]

I would not think the new NoFrills in Transcona is in a high theft area but as a customer you would not be privy to what a locations shrink ratio is. You might know its bad if you regularly see see LPO's chasing after people running out of a store with a basket full of unpaid goods

From what I recall reading years ago McDonalds was one of the first franchise companies to own the land/building or have a head-end lease on a location and in either case sublet the location to the franchisee as part of their contract.

It gave them guarantied cash each month beyond the % of sales and also allowed them to remove a bad operator as a condition of the lease contract was operating a business that was scoring high in the onsite inspections by a franchise district manager. If you ran a bad store you lost your lease which caused you to you loose your franchise.

[buzzg]

^Lots of franchise models in the restaurant industry work like that. The franchisor is locked to the sublease, and even if they shut down, owner still owes the parent rent until they find a replacement.

This is exactly what happened to Fox & Fiddle. The franchise owners weren't paying their franchise dues so the parent company (Pegasus) locked them out, but were able to keep collecting rent for a while. As Pegasus also has a stake in La Carnita, they put that in there once they found someone to run it.