Popular Toronto pizza joint Maker Pizza has opened its second location in the city as the company strives to keep up with steadily growing demand.
The pizza company, which opened its first location in 2015 on Cameron Street, near Queen and Spadina, recently opened a second location on Avenue Road near Lawrence Ave. West.
“From the moment we opened the Cameron location doors, the response has been overwhelming,” says Dave Smulowitz, partner at Maker Pizza. “After moving into the Avenue space, we are so appreciative of the local community there for welcoming us with open arms.”
Maker Pizza offers a selection of pizzas made with high quality ingredients, including three-day aged pizza dough, organic California Bianco DiNapoli Rustic Crush tomato sauce and fresh cheeses. The most popular item on the menu is called ‘Dr. Pepperoni’ – a pizza that includes double pepperoni, fior di latte, parmesan and toasted fennel oil.
“The concept was to create the best delivery pizza in the city by elevating standards and quality of ingredients,” Smulowitz says. After having observed a heavy emphasis in the broader pizza delivery market on fast delivery and affordability, Smulowitz says it became clear that there was an opportunity to focus on quality.
“We will never sacrifice the quality of the product to speed up delivery times,” he says. “That’s what makes Maker unique amongst a sea of delivery pizza shops in Toronto.”
Maker Pizza’s restaurants are designed primarily to cater to delivery, with a small selection of seats for customers who would like to eat in-store. Both locations were designed by advertising agency The Community Agency.
The new Avenue Road location is approximately 2,000 square feet in size. Design elements include a modern and minimalist approach, with clean lines and plenty of aluminum and chrome.
“Our approach was to highlight the pizza maker,” says Jenny Vivar, creative director at Community. “We borrowed visual cues from the restaurant’s industrial brick facade and carried that through the interior.”
The company plans to open additional locations as demand continues to trend higher, however Maker Pizza is taking a measured approach to growth.
“Like any business, location is key – Maker won’t move into an area without vetting the space and area properly,” Smulowitz says. “As for which area of Toronto you’ll see us next, that’s a surprise!”
Paris-based children’s luxury fashion retailer Bonpoint will make its Canadian debut this summer with a standalone store in Vancouver.
The 920 square foot Vancouver boutique will be located at 1512 W. 14th Avenue in the city’s Fairview area, a few steps away from the tony South Granville retail strip. The boutique is being run in partnership with upscale multi-brand children’s retailer Isola Bella, which operates a retail space in Vancouver’s Kerrisdale area. CBRE Vancouver represented the retailer in the lease deal under the direction of Martin Moriarty, Mario Negris and Chloe Hamelin.
Bonpoint sells upscale children’s fashions including newborns, and also has a line of footwear, sunglasses, perfume and skincare. Some garments can cost into the hundreds of dollars each, which means its target market is households with discretionary income. The store’s location is clearly in line with that sentiment — rather than locating downtown in the city’s ‘Luxury Zone’, Bonpoint will be located on Vancouver’s affluent West Side which houses wealthy neighbourhoods such as Shaughnessy, Kerrisdale and Point Grey, where some homes can cost in excess of $20 million.
The company was founded in 1975 with a single store in Paris, and the company has since expanded to include retail and wholesale accounts globally. Bonpoint has nine stores in the United States, all of which are generally located in upscale locations. New York City has three Bonpoint stores (Two stores on Madison Avenue as well as a store in Soho) as well as in Bal Harbour FL, Beverly Hills CA, Chicago, Houston, Palm Beach, and Short Hills NJ (suburban NYC).
According to a report in WWD last year, Bonpoint has also set its sights on opening a store in Toronto at some point in the next while. The WWD report notes that Bonpoint is also considering opening stores in Las Vegas, San Francisco, and at Orange County’s prestigious South Coast Plaza.
Vancouver-based Peregrine, a designer and manufacturer of high-end retail environments for some of the world’s best known retail brands, is poised to further expand its business with the recent acquisition of Acorn Wood Designs.
Brian French.
That has paved the way for Peregrine, based in Burnaby, B.C., to grow its presence in the hospitality industry.
Peregrine, which was founded in 1977, is a millwork and fixture manufacturer that primarily serves retailers and restaurants and the acquisition of Acorn has given Peregrine new capabilities, particularly in servicing the restaurant market.
Brian French, President of Peregrine, explained that Peregrine acquired Acorn because of Acorn’s background in servicing the restaurant industry, “For over 35 years Acorn has provided millwork for The Keg, JOEY, Hy’s Steakhouseand Earls. They have built a reputation for the highest quality.” he said.
In late 2017, Peregrine acquired Acorn Wood Designs with about 35 employees. Acorn, which was based in Richmond, B.C., was founded in 1984 and specialized in precision architectural millwork for the hospitality industry.
The combined Peregrine/Acorn has a diverse workforce of 75 employees that work in the areas of engineering, project management, manufacturing and installation. Its in-house capabilities include: millwork, metal fabrication, plastics fabrication, paint, digital print, CNC cutting, lighting, glass fabrication and solid surface fabrication.
The company has a 50,000-square-foot shop in Burnaby with about 25 people on the front end in roles as project managers, estimators, designers/engineers, and purchasing. The rest are on the shop floor.
French said most of the company’s customers are based in the region or have a presence there.
“Our sweet spot is servicing retailers and restaurants that have head offices here on the West Coast like Lululemon, Sage Natural Wellness, and MEC on the retail side and, now, on the restaurant side”, said French.
The KEG Steakhouse and Bar, Vancouver
“They have restaurants and stores all over the place and we manufacture here and ship and install them all over North America. We also deal with head offices that are based either in Toronto or somewhere in the U.S. and they have stores or restaurants in the West. Historically we’ve done work for companies such as BMO and TELUS. These are companies that have a lot of locations across the country and they’re looking for a service provider out West.”
“We have the best people in the business and our culture drives continuous improvement in everything we do. Our customers value the quality of both the end products and the services we provide to get them there. While we are proud of the growth we have achieved so far we know that we need to continually improve to be the premier millwork and fixture provider for retailers and restaurants throughout North America” said French.
In a 3,000-square-foot space off Main Street in Vancouver, formerly occupied by Kit & Ace, Raif Adelberg leads the operations of his latest venture – HERMAN Market. From concept to completion, every item of his unisex luxury streetwear collection is now shipped from this Vancouver-based location directly to online customers and 30+ international stockists in countries including Lebanon, Qatar, Italy, and Korea.
RAIF ADELBERG
While many brands’ claims of creating ‘luxury streetwear’ are based on inflated pricing generated by marketing hype and celebrity, Adelberg is known for his ability to elevate streetwear to a level of luxury through the careful selection of fabrics and trims and by incorporating hand-spun, hand-knit cashmere into many pieces. By incorporating exquisite fabrics and high-end cuts into the line, HERMAN pieces are distinct and unique to the market.
The recent decision to exit the traditional fashion marketing model to a vertically integrated one saw the brand sever ties with its international agency, close its Italian showroom, and pull all production back to Vancouver.
Unlike luxury fashion houses like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Gucci, who are all racing to embrace digital by partnering with multi-brand sites and various popular streaming options, HERMAN Market is using Canadian-developed e-commerce platform Shopify exclusively to reach their market.
RAIF ADELBERG
Citing the drastic change in traditional wholesale and the distinct cultural shift with buyers, Adelberg’s luxury street brand is focusing on D2C. Not only for the obvious upside on margins but also in consideration of online shopping habits, instant customer gratification via click through, and how Shopify allows them to aggregate and curate their online store.
With design and production under the same roof, when a new garment is completed, staff photograph it, and within hours it is available online with social media promotion. By controlling the online experience, Adelberg’s team controls the brand’s image – how the product is presented, sold, and shipped. Before the shift to focus on e-commerce, the company was responsible for shipping costs, taxes and tariffs on every garment, going forward all garments sold online, and not through bricks-and-mortar retail locations, have the shipping costs become the responsibility of the customer.
HERMAN Market is ideally suited for vertical integration as the collections are smaller, more artisanal, one-off’s are bespoke, and all very individualistic. Staff are highly trained in multiple aspects of production, are paid a living wage with benefits, and work directly with Adelberg who has built his professional and creative reputation by being incredibly hands-on.
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Adelberg is repeatedly cited as a major influencer in streetwear trends for almost 30 years by respected fashion and culture publications. He opened his first Vancouver location in 1994 (Biggy), in 1997 launched TwentyFour which grew into 3 locations (4th Avenue, Yaletown, Gastown), and from 2002 to 2007 his 6,000-square-foot Richard Kidd lifestyle boutique ruled Gastown. With luxury labels like Comme des Garçons, Alexander McQueen, and Martin Margiela hanging next to vintage AC/DC rocker t-shirts and reworked silkscreened jackets by Libertine, the incredible cathedral-like space now houses John Fluevog Shoes.
The past decade has Adelberg partnered with industry forces such as Stussy (skatewear) and Buscemi (footwear), the ‘behind the scenes’ force launching Herschel Supply Co., and co-founding Canadian contemporary men’s wear label wings+horns.
While the traditional luxury market of brands with 100+ year pedigrees has been slow to adopt e-commerce, fledgling luxury streetwear brand HERMAN Market is diving in due in no small part to having a trend visionary at the helm. Raif Adelberg has played by his own rules his whole life and has cultivated a loyal and dedicated following which includes hip-hop trio Migos, fashion entrepreneur Heidi Klum, and mega-performers Justin Bieber and Rihanna.
Calgary realtor and investor Albert Fialkow views the New Horizon Mall on the outskirts of Calgary as a Field of Dreams – a clear reference to the popular movie from a few years ago.
“They have a vision of ownership and they’ve created the opportunity . . . by allowing people to own their own spaces. And I believe. Obviously I’ve put my money where my mouth is. I believe if you build it they will come,” said Fialkow on Thursday as the new shopping centre conducted a media tour to announce that more than 500 businesses are beginning to take possession of their stores in the $200-million mall.
Fialkow bought two units in the mall of 203 square feet and 291 square feet, paying about $310,000 and $410,000 respectively. He is expecting to lease them both out.
New Horizon is unique because individual units were sold to either investors who will lease out the space, like Fialkow, or directly to individual store owners.
In terms of the number of stores in the mall, it’s the largest in Calgary and second largest in Alberta behind the West Edmonton Mall. Stores are expected to start opening for business this summer.
The 320,000-square-foot mall, which is about 99 per cent sold, will have more than 500 stores ranging in size from 285 square feet to 855 square feet. The units were priced between $190,000 and $750,000.
The food court features 26 sold-out units with seats for more than 300 shoppers. The shopping centre also has underground parkade and outside surface parking.
“The CrossIron Mills attracts over eight million people a year and the other advantage here with the small spaces the cost of entry is nominal. Before I purchased I looked trying to find out exactly what it costs to have a kiosk or a size in a mall. Anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 a month is what the malls charge,” says Fialkow.
“Well, you can get into here for a fraction of the price. That really opens the door for a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners and investors to profit and share along with the development of the mall . . . I think the traffic will come. Really I believe in that Field of Dreams analogy. If you build it, they will come. Because people are curious. And you’re going to have the variety and diversity in this mall that really doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
Calgary investor Moe Kharfan, who bought four units in the mall, will be leasing them to various services and products.
“I bought here because I thought it was a really unique opportunity. There’s nothing like it in Western Canada. And it’s really a place for a small business person to start a business in a major Calgary mall. The larger malls are quite expensive. This is quite affordable for a person to start a retail business,” says Kharfan.
He bought two units for about $500,000 each of just under 500 square feet and two just under 300 square feet for about $350,000 each.
“This is kind of very exciting and a unique opportunity here in Canada. Nowhere else are you going to own a store unit in a mall. So this is kind of a unique opportunity I found here. That’s why I bought it,” says Prajuli. The family owns a retail business in Nepal. “I want to do something over there as an own business.
“It’s unique because you’re investing in a property as well as investing in your business.”
Wasim Elafech, a realtor with Century 21 Bravo, who helped in the sale of units in the entire mall and also invested in purchasing one unit himself, says a leasing program has begun where the company will be leasing units for the owners of the properties. A leasing office has been opened in the mall.
“We have about roughly 40 closings (on purchases) per day throughout the month of May,” says Elafech. “Whenever somebody closes, they come in, we give them a key and they can start the process of building out their unit and opening the store.”
Eli Swirksy, president of Torgan Group, says the New Horizon Mall is a unique addition to Calgary’s vibrant and entrepreneurial retail landscape.
“Unlike other malls which are occupied primarily by large corporations and chains, New Horizon Mall will encompass a collection of small businesses, family enterprises and local entrepreneurs bringing unique products and services to the Calgary region,” he says.
“Smaller businesses have long wanted access to the same kind of shopping mall environment and the corresponding customer base enjoyed by larger businesses. This mall breaks down the barriers for businesses looking for that retail advantage in a unique mall environment not found anywhere else in Southern Alberta . . . I believe that the New Horizon Mall will fill an important gap in the retail environment in Calgary and offer a distinctive avenue for businesses looking to expand and grow their customer base.
“I would expect by the summer we’ll be well underway and maybe not fully open but a majority of the stores I think will be open by the summer.”
Swirsky says the fact New Horizon is located so close to CrossIron Mills is “great” because it offers a different shopping experience to that mall. He expects shoppers to go back and forth between the two malls because of the proximity.
“We actually complement each other very well,” he says.
The third level of the mall will be home to the food court, banquet hall and children’s play space. The main floor centre area will host events and entertainment throughout the year.
The basement level of the mall includes the underground parking as well as space for anchor tenants.
World’s 1st Hybrid Cabela’s/Bass Pro Shops to Open Soon in suburban Halifax: According to local online retail publication Halifax ReTales, The world’s first combined Cabela’s/Bass Pro Shops will be opening at the massive Dartmouth Crossing big-box centre in suburban Halifax. The outdoor hunting/fishing and outdoor gear retailers will co-brand a space that will span about 50,000 square feet.
Cabela’s announced that it was opening a Halifax-area store almost three years ago, and locals have been waiting patiently — the original announcement was made on June 9 of 2015, when it was revealed that Cabela’s planned to open a store. The original announcement stated that the store would employ about 150 people.
Bass Pro acquired Cabela’s in the fall of 2017, and some questioned the future of some of the store branding. The co-branded Dartmouth Crossing store is an interesting move — we hadn’t heard back from Cabela’s Canada as of press time as to what the plan is for other stores and their branding. Cabela’s currently operates 10 stores, while Bass Pro Shops operates 5 stores.
One of Bass Pro’s stores is in suburban Moncton, New Brunswick. In February of 2018, suburban Moncton’s Cabela’s store suddenly closed — when the combined Halifax location opens in the next while, it will therefore be the only Cabela’s nameplate in the Canadian Maritime provinces.
The Shoe Company & Shoe Warehouse are Picking Up What Sears Dropped: The Shoe Company and Shoe Warehouse are helping Sears customers “get back on their feet” with a month-long discount offer. Sears Canada’s closure earlier this year left thousands of individuals with defunct Sears loyalty memberships or unredeemed gift cards.
When shoppers visit any The Shoe Company or Shoe Warehouse location before May 15th and present their old Sears card, they will receive $5 off their entire purchase. Plus, as an exclusive one-time bonus, new Shoe Lover Rewards members will receive an extra 2000 points upon sign-up which is equivalent to an additional $10 off your next purchase.
With these offers, the company hopes to alleviate the loss, and provide an alternative for those looking to fulfil their footwear needs.
Indochino Announces 8 More Showrooms: The world’s largest made-to-measure suit retailer has announced that it will open eight more showrooms in the United States over the next four months. The reason it’s remarkable is because by the time the stores will have opened, the company’s base of showrooms will have been expanded by a third in a relatively short period of time.
Showrooms in Denver and Bethesda, MD will open in May, followed by Short Hills NJ and Scottsdale AZ in June. Columbus OH and Newport Beach CA are also scheduled to open this summer in addition to previously announced locations in Dallas, opening May, and New York’s Madison Avenue, slated for late summer.
Indochino’s unique virtual inventory model enables it to run a very efficient retail business, which it is leveraging via its expansion strategy. The company achieved 49% Gross Margin in 2017 with 52% forecast in 2018. It is expecting to end the year with a 53% three year Compound Annual Growth Rate.
In December 2017, Retail-Insider reported that Indochino announced plans to open up to 18 locations in 2018 following the 8 which opened in 2017. Indochino launched and established itself online before opening its first bricks and mortar location in Vancouver’s Gastown in 2015 and is continuing to make strides with its immersive and engaging showrooms and its three-week delivery promise on all orders.
UNIQLOs Graphic Tee Exhibit is an Ode to Pop Culture: UNIQLO’s huge new series of collaborations is a game-changer for anyone who’s ever dreamed of wearing images ofyummy Chupa Chups, the never-ending Star Wars, loveable alien ET, American artist Basquiat, and the highly desirable Ladurée macarons on their tee-shirts.
To celebrate the launch, UNIQLO is hosting a four-floor exhibit at 202 Queen Street West from May 2nd-5th. Attendees will be able to view nearly 1,000 different graphic tee designs displayed among art installations and other interactive pieces. Pop-up facilitator thisopenspace provided the venue, and an invite-only party was held to unveil it on Tuesday of this week.
This year’s limited-edition collection overseen by Rei Matsunuma, Director, UT Collaboration for UNIQLO, draws on a massive range of authentic cultural references, and takes inspiration from traditional brands, up-and-coming artists and comic book characters. Each design was created exclusively for the collection.
There will be plenty of niche collaborations for shoppers to choose from like one with Japanese manga Weekly ShonenJump for its 50th anniversary, 30 top animé and manga titles including Dragon Ball, Naruto and Hunter x Hunter, the winning designs of 2018s Marvel-themed UT Grand Prix, and six unique versions of Mickey Mouse.
Visit the exhibit to scope out this epic collection of pop culture from around the world.
Six Hundred Four Launches VR Sneaker Gallery: Six Hundred Four, the limited-edition sneaker brand, located in the heart of Vancouver’s Gastown and steps away from the world famous steam clock, creates shoes based off of art pieces.
In an attempt to parlay their retail business into a unique online experience, they have recently launched the Six Hundred Four virtual gallery that merges VR and e-commerce. It allows virtual visitors to ‘click and stroll’ around the flagship store, viewing the original art pieces while adding shoes and other items to their shopping cart. The best part is that the shopping experience does not require a VR headset.
The brand sees the problem with VR and e-commerce is that one usually hinders the other. A full, immersive VR experience makes it difficult to complete a purchase, while standard e-commerce prevents a deep brand experience which VR offers. Up until now, it has been one or the other.
Six Hundred Four partnered with Method Visual on the project, a leader in 360 photography and VR to create an exciting experience with practically no learning curve resulting in a platform that is intuitive, clean, and user-friendly.
Toronto’s OKV Launches Environmentally Conscious Leather Bag Line for Men: New luxury leather bag line, OKV, will launch its website and e-commerce platform on May 8th featuring the brand’s first men’s handbag collection Primo Edition. The collection consists of six on-trend yet classic styles with a price range of $190 for a wallet to $1,800 for the limited edition custom painted hold all.
Created and designed by Wayne Mayers in Toronto and produced in Italy, OKV is leading the resurgence in sustainable fashion with its responsible and environmentally-safe methods of production. Each item is tanned using only plant-based products including fruits, fruit pods, leaves, oak, chestnut quebracho, and mimosa tree bark.
Meyers was looking to lessen the environmental impact of traditional leather production and sourced a Tuscan facility, which is a member of the Genuine Italian Vegetable-Tanned Leather Consortium, to produce OKV’s luxury pieces.
The initial collection is produced by running 50-90% solar energy, with waste from the leather making process recycled to manufacture construction industry bricks, wastewater is collected, reused, and purified, hairs and small fibres from the skins are also repurposed into fertilizer.
Bumble Hive Bringing “Female First” Programming to TO: From May 4-6th dating app Bumble will be hosting three days of ‘female first’ programming with notable speakers, performers, and panels to Toronto. While the app has presented similar spaces in New York, London, and Los Angeles, this is its first time in Canada, and guests can expect complimentary entertainment, drinks, snacks, and an impressive array of interactive sessions. International thought-leaders and entrepreneurs including Erin Foster, Maria Qamar, and Alex Williamson are all on the roster.
What began as a ‘female first’ dating app quickly grew into one of the top online dating apps, with over 27-million downloads, and has been valued at over a billion dollars. It is now a ‘beehive’ of empowerment for women looking for the ability to control the conversation when not only dating, but in finding friends and networking online. The unique Bumble business model put women in charge with the dating app, Bumble BFF, Bumble Bizz, and an online community that shares on friendship, careers, wellness, city guides, and navigating campus life.
The 3-day Bumble Hive Toronto event will be held at 950 Queen Street, and RSVPs are required through the website.
J.C. Williams Group/Ebeltoft is about to release its 2018 Global Retail Trends & Innovations Report, which highlights some key insights into what innovative retailers are doing around the world. The release will include video discussion as well as a free downloadable version of the book.
The report is useful for retailers seeking out leading industry insights, brokers seeking new concepts to approach, designers and architects, and anyone who is interested in gaining knowledge as to what’s working in retail during this age of disruption.
The report also highlights four ‘hot trends’ for 2018: Smart Shopping, Interaction, Emotional Retail and Responsibility. Examples are used to illustrate each, in an engaging report that will soon be available online.
Ebeltoft Group is a global alliance of consultancy companies with members in more than 25 mature and emerging retail markets. J.C. Williams group is a leading Canadian consultancy, based in Toronto and Montreal.
Watch for the first video to be released early next week.
Nordstrom’s off-price division Nordstrom Rack opens its Canadian flagship this morning at 1 Bloor Street East in Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville area. The impressive store features a glass facade that supplies ample natural light, and is stocked with an expansive offering of luxury brands. We toured and took photos prior to the store’s public opening.
The new store spans two floors at the base of the 1 Bloor Street East retail podium, with almost 9,000 square feet at street-level as well as an additional 30,000 square feet upstairs. The retail podium at the south-east corner of Yonge Street and Bloor Streets was acquired by First Capital Realty from developer Great Gulf in the summer of 2016, and is located below a nearly completed condominium tower that soars 76-stories above.
Nordstrom Rack’s street-level is dedicated primarily to accessories and home goods, while the second level houses fashion and footwear. On the main floor, a corner entrance leads to a display of luxury-branded handbags and small accessories that includes some of the world’s top brands such as Chloé, Stella McCartney, Kenzo, Proenza Schouler and Balenciaga — it’s an assortment not found in most suburban Nordstrom Rack stores in Canada, or the United States. A sunglasses department features hundreds of pairs of designer frames, and there’s also areas for fragrances and beauty, home goods and luggage — Nordstrom notes that residents in the area tend to travel, so offerings are extensive.
The second floor features men’s and women’s fashions, as well as a large footwear department that spans the entire south end of the floor. Thousands of pairs of shoes are available for men and women and similar to downstairs, some of the world’s leading luxury brands can be found at substantial savings. Women’s ready-to-wear labels include the likes of Saint Laurent, Valentino, St. John, and others — product has been brought in from Nordstrom’s full-line Canadian stores, which include designer ‘Collectors’ departments that boast some of the worlds most popular and pricey labels. The footwear offerings are extensive and some of the deals are eye-popping — a Lanvin boot regularly priced at $2,185 was marked down to about $225, as an example.
Merchandise is a mix of product from full-line Nordstrom stores (about 30% in Canadian Nordstrom Racks vs. about 15% in its US locations), as well as some items specifically purchased from top brands sold at Nordstrom.
Nordstrom Rack has attempted to make the shopping process simpler by grouping some areas so that consumers can find products — departments for denim and career wear, for example, are clearly marked. The store also features spacious dressing rooms with enhanced lighting both from within the room as well as from above. Nordstrom is also introducing mobile checkout to further expedite the purchase process — one complaint about off-price retailers is that “the hunt” can also be time consuming, and Nordstrom is attempting to help consumers save time.
The overall experience feels a bit different from that of a typical suburban Nordstrom Rack store. The Bloor Street flagship is flooded with natural light and its windows look out to the bustling cityscape that is undergoing a transformation. Directly across Yonge Street is the construction site for ‘The ONE’, which will be an 85-storey tower spanning over 1000 feet into the air, with multi-level retail that will include a large corner anchor. On the northwest corner, landlord Kingsett Capital will upgrade the retail podium below the 2 Bloor Street West office tower, and further westward there’s construction at Manulife Centre (which is being overhauled and adding Eataly) and the Holt Renfrew Centre will see a new Aritzia flagship, as well as a remodelled Holt Renfrew store. (We will be publishing a comprehensive Bloor Street update later this month).
Directly south of Nordstrom Rack in the same retail podium will be the entrance to a grocery store operated by celebrity chef Mark McEwan. The grocery entrance will be on the main floor with about 870 square feet of space, with a further 17,230 square feet located on the basement level directly below Nordstrom Rack. Other retail spaces are available for lease (First Capital Realty’s Eric Sherman is handling the leasing, according to signage).
The area is very busy and this could become one of Nordstrom Rack’s top-selling stores. About 100,000 pedestrians walk past the site daily, and the store is located directly above Canada’s busiest subway station with more than 400,000 daily riders. About 65,000 cars also pass by daily. The surrounding area is also highly educated and relatively affluent — Yorkville and nearby Rosedale house millionaires and even some billionaires, and the University of Toronto is located a few blocks to the west. Toronto’s busy Gay Village is located adjacent both south and eastward, and the overall population in the area is exploding as thousands of new condominium units are completed and occupied — the area is in a state of transition that will be incredible once completed (though one questions if it ever will be completed, given Toronto’s appetite for development).
Nordstrom has said that it plans to open between 12 and 15 Nordstrom Rack stores in Canada, and the company has already revealed where six of these will be located. Nordstrom Rack’s first Canadian store opened in suburban Toronto at Vaughan Mills in March of this year, measuring 35,315 square feet over one level. The retailer’s second Canadian store opened last week at Deerfoot Meadows in Calgary, in a 30,600 square foot box. Nordstrom has also confirmed that it will be opening three Canadian locations in the fall of 2018, with dates to be revealed closer to their opening. These will include locations at The Ottawa Train Yards in Ottawa, at South Edmonton Common in Edmonton, and at Heartland Town Centre in Mississauga. All three locations will be approximately 35,000 square feet, according to Nordstrom.
Premium Outlet Collection Edmonton International Airport
The Premium Outlet Collection Edmonton International Airport has officially opened in Edmonton, and there were crowds of people waiting to get in for the May 2nd grand opening. Some waited in line since midnight to be the first to see inside the completed centre, which is located south of the city on airport property.
The centre is a partnership with landlords Ivanhoé Cambridge and Simon Property Group, boasting 428,000 square feet and almost 100 retailers. There are over 2,200 parking spaces and the centre now employs more than 1,000 full and part-time staff. More than 200 construction-related jobs were created for the centre, which saw an investment of about $215 million. The centre is LEED Certified, according to Ivanhoé Cambridge.
GRAND OPENING. PHOTO: IVANHOE CAMBRIDGE
Interactive Map
Since then, several more retailers have been announced for the centre, with some of them yet to open. Genesis Motors has opened in the centre — the car company is rolling-out retail spaces nationally in some leading malls. Browns Shoes will open the region’s first ‘Browns Outlet’, which is sure to be a hit amongst those seeking designer footwear at reduced prices. Lacoste is listed as a retailer that will be ‘coming soon’ and popular pretzel concept Wetzel’s Pretzels is also a confirmed future tenant. Polo Ralph Lauren, a staple in most premium outlets, has signage up for a soon-to-open space. Edmonton-based designer Kelly Wolf has opened a store as well.
Another update: Laura Severs confirms that signage for a future Kate Spade store is now up as well.
Stores open at Premium Outlet Collection Edmonton provided by Christopher Lui (Twitter),
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A surprising tenant for the centre is Jack Georges, which is known for its pricey, high quality leather bags and accessories. It would appear that this would be the brand’s first standalone Canadian store — we tried to call the store to confirm but the Premium Outlet Collection’s website appears to have accidentally put another retailer’s number on its website, as of press time.
The centre is attempting to differentiate itself from other regional shopping centres, and one unique retail concept is SHARE, which is an innovative market which brings together local producers, artisans, and a specialty coffee shop.
Services at the centre include: DeliverEASE parcel shipping and delivery, which ships direct-to-home; gift cards and gift wrapping; CUP, Alipay and WeChat Pay (accepted at Guest Services as well as participating retailers); stow and go (coat, luggage and parcel); boarding pass printing and flight arrivals/departures screens; complimentary mobility assistance; complimentary baby supplies; portable cellphone chargers; airport shuttle stop information; free Wi-Fi and lounge area; complimentary refreshments; ‘refresh room’ for weary travellers on long stopovers at the airport.
Opening soon photos provided by Christopher Lui (Twitter)
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“We are thrilled to bring our premium shopping experience to the Edmonton International Airport and surrounding community,” said Claude Sirois, President, Retail, Ivanhoé Cambridge. “Premium Outlet Collection EIA will be a unique shopping destination for Alberta, guaranteed to draw visitors from within and beyond the province. The combination of value-focused retailers, all under one roof, and our signature array of guest services and amenities is sure to please value-seeking and fashion-conscious shoppers.”
“We are so delighted to team up with Ivanhoé Cambridge in Edmonton,” said Stephen Yalof, CEO of Premium Outlets, Simon. “This is Premium Outlets’ fourth opening in Canada and I have no doubt that our commitment in delivering sought-after brands and value will continue to resonate with our Canadian customers.”
*Additional photos below have been curated from social media from the opening day.
PHOTO: IVANHOE CAMBRIDGE
PHOTO: GRANDEUR (INSTAGRAM)
PHOTO: BOATHOUSE STORES (INSTAGRAM)
Premium Outlet Collection Edmonton International Airport
With labour optimization a constant challenge in the retail world, new technology by Halo Metrics is offering retailers an efficient – and cost effective – way to manage their staff in stores.
The company, which launched Ripple Metrics early last year, uses a proprietary combination of sensors and algorithms which anonymously and accurately counts and tracks visitor movement within a store.
Ravinder Sangha, marketing manager of Halo Metrics, says the result is an extremely accurate suite of visitor traffic metrics that include customer presence, return frequency, stay time as well as the ability to map out the customer journey through a store, all of which is easily accessible through a cloud based dashboard.
Now that technology, with its highly-accurate traffic count, can help retailers in the area of scheduling their staff in each store, said Sangha.
“We’re actually starting to see some great results when customers (retailers) start using this data for optimizing their scheduling and their labour,” he said.
“Something very, very important is that we are able to give the retailer the tools to help them schedule the right staff at the right time doing the right tasks. That’s a key thing to understand. First of all, I think we’re all aware that labour costs are going up throughout the country because of minimum wage and other things putting a pressure on labour costs.”
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Sangha said the technology allows retailers the ability to re-allocate that labour in a way that they can schedule their staff during peak traffic times.
“The results have been pretty incredible. For example, we have customers who have been relying on other methods to gauge traffic in their stores. They might be using POS. They might be using other technologies,” said Sangha.
“If they’re using POS, they’re at a fairly significant disadvantage because traffic in the store is not always reflected by transaction counts at the POS. We actually had an example of that where a customer had a measurable difference between the two in terms of traffic and transaction counts.”
Sangha said Ripple Metrics’ reports can get very granular, getting traffic counts down to 15-minute increments throughout a day and also track that traffic throughout different departments.
“Certain things unfolded as we shared this with the customer. They knew certain days were busier but they didn’t realize how busier they were,” he said. “We were able to tell them their typical peak hours throughout the week. And once they saw that they started to take that into account and started using the system for scheduling.
“The biggest thing for them is once they realized when their peak times were, and peak days of the week were, they right away were able to schedule their staff appropriately.”
The data enables retailers to have their staff focused on selling during peak times instead of putting away stock or taking breaks. If they are going to be taking breaks during peak times, they can determine appropriate coverage for that.
By determining traffic counts right down to individual departments within a retail store, this too can ensure the right amount of staffing is in place to deal with shoppers. Drilling down further, the technology could help staff certain departments to make sure employees with specific knowledge and expertise of certain products are available when customers are most likely coming to the store for those products.
“At the end of the day, they’re using this information and they’re scheduling staff to be in the right place, at the right time doing the right tasks. And what we’ve seen is an immediate lift in sales,” said Sangha. “And that lift in sales is attributed directly to when they started scheduling based on actual traffic coming into the store.”
The technology takes the matter of scheduling staff down to a science.
“It fully opens your eyes because we’re also tracking stay time in the store overall and also within the departments. We’re tracking new customers versus returning customers,” he said. “We’re also tracking marketing and promotional events as well.”
