Target Canada’s official ‘grand opening’ is today, April 5th. Some target stores have been open for over a month, and the store has gotten much publicity.Â
Many media sources will report on Target’s grand opening day so we won’t go into too much detail. We find it interesting, however, that Target has chosen to distribute fliers to Canadian households. On Thursday April 4th, a 28-page flyer was distributed to some Canadian homes. A digital version of the flyer is available here. A .pdf version of the same flyer is available at this link.Â
Time will tell if Target will succeed in Canada. Excitement was met with disappointment as some shoppers discovered Target’s Canadian prices were higher than both American Target stores and some Canadian Walmart stores. Still, we expect Target will profit from its Canadian expansion.Â
Target has already opened 24 Canadian stores. We can expect about 100 more to open across the country in the coming months.Â
Have a great weekend, everyone. On Monday we’ll be celebrating Retail Insider’s one-year birthday.Â
Today off-price retailer Marshalls opens seven Canadian stores, including a 55,000 square foot Toronto flagship. Marshall’s has opened 14 Canadian stores since March 2011 and it will have 27 Canadian locations by the end of 2013. The company expects to open up to 100 Canadian stores in the next 10 years.
For those unfamiliar, Marshalls is a larger-floorplate off-price retailer selling designer-brand fashions at reduced prices. This is opposed to retailers like H&M , for example, that sell discounted products (purpose-made inexpensive items).
Image: Marshalls
Marshalls is owned by American TJX Companies which also owns Canadian retailers Winners and HomeSense . Marshalls stores differentiate themselves from Winners by, among other things, carrying over 8,000 pairs of shoes per store. Marshalls has about 750 American stores in 42 states.
The seven Marshalls stores opening today include stores at the following locations:
Toronto, Ontario: Yonge & Gerrard Streets
Hamilton, Ontario: Barton Street East
London, Ontario: Wonderland Road South at Wharncliffe
Markham, Ontario: McCowan Road at Bullock Drive
Mississauga, Ontario: Argentia Road, West of Winston Churchill
Winnipeg, Manitoba: Next to Polo Park Shopping Centre and
Vancouver, BC: Marine Drive at Ontario Street.
The Toronto store is located at the retail base of a residential condominium project called ‘Aura‘. The store is close to TJX-owned Winners, located at College Park. The store will be the first Canadian location to include ‘home decor’. Other Marshalls stores will include home decor departments starting this summer.
Marshalls Toronto store will be located at the base of the Aura Tower.
The Aura (Image: TorontoCondo)
Marshalls will experience increased competition once Nordstrom Rack begins opening Canadian stores. Nordstrom Rack is expected to open between 12 and 15 Canadian locations.
We’ll continue to update you on Marshalls’ Canadian expansion.
The label was started in London (England) in 1994 and has become a popular label available at select upscale department stores and about 65 free-standing AllSaints boutiques in Britain and the United States. The label is known for stylish men’s and women’s clothing and accessories with designs often in black, brown, white and/or gray.
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Toronto-based TNT The New Trend will open its fifth store at Toronto’s Bayview Village Shopping Centre in September 2013. The store will be almost 5,500 square feet. TNT is an upscale larger-format clothing store with branches in Toronto and Montreal. Designer fashions are considered ‘cutting edge’ and the store includes about 350 designer labels, some with prices into the thousands.
Adapted from Google Maps
TNT started in 1992 with a 1,200 square foot store on Toronto’s Eglington Avenue West. The current Eglington Avenue store is about 18,000 square feet and includes both women’s designer clothing, shoes and accessories. TNT has two stores at Toronto’s Hazelton Lanes Shopping Centre: a 14,000 square foot women’s store and a separate 4,000 square foot men’s store. TNT also has a 6,000 square foot women’s store location in Montreal.
TNT The New Trend, Hazelton Lanes, Toronto
Bayview Village Shopping Centre is an enclosed, upscale suburban Toronto mall lacking large ‘anchor’ stores. It includes more than 110 stores over about 440,000 square feet. It includes nine jewellery stores, an upscale grocery store called Pusateri’s, and many unique retailers found only in a few other Canadian shopping locations.
Happy April 1st! We were thinking of doing an April Fool’s Retail Insider post but given that we’re less than a year old, we’re not ready to potentially jeopardize our credibility.
Which brings us to our age… Retail Insider turns one year old on April 8th. Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for plenty more Canadian retail news!
Holt Renfrew just released a list of some of hr2’s designers. These include: Alice + Olivia, Diane von Furstenberg, Splendid, Michael Kors, Cole Haan, Kate Spade, Tory Burch, Ray-Ban, 7 for All Mankind, Nicole Miller, Elie Tahari, Ralph Lauren, House of Harlow, Anzie, John Varvatos, Hunter and hr2 private label. The store will have about 150 brands in total.
We took special note that hr2 will include its own private label merchandise. We look forward to seeing it in-store and, hopefully, available online.
We also notice that some of the above designers are also carried at Hudson’s Bay. hr2 may therefore be considered, at the very least, a minor competitor to Hudson’s Bay by carrying labels like Diane von Furstenberg, Spendid, Elie Tahari and others.
HR2 [Image: Holt Renfrew]
We’ve been told that hr2’s atmosphere will be “casual but smart”. Stores will be bright, and merchandise will be updated/added weekly.
hr2 Vice President Heather Arts says: “We are pleased to welcome customers to this unique new shopping experience. hr2 will offer fresh and distinct merchandise. Our vendors are thrilled to partner with us to grow their business through this new premium off-price store.” Ms. Arts further goes on to say: “While some of the brands at hr2 will also be carried at Holt Renfrew, product assortment will not overlap“
La Maison Simons will open a 105,000 square foot store at Ottawa’s Rideau Centre in the Spring of 2015. This will be Simons’ ninth store (after its Galeries d’Anjou store opens this August) and its second location outside of Quebec.
Today’s announcement is surprising. In November 2012 we reported Simons was shut-out of Rideau Centre by Nordstrom. Simons subsequently sought space in an Ottawa-area mall in Gatineau, Quebec. Despite the signed Rideau lease, Simons may still open a second Ottawa-area store, according to Simons President and CEO Peter Simons.
Negotiations between La Maison Simons and Rideau Centre landlord Cadillac Fairview commenced about five years ago. Negotiations stalled in November 2012. Renewed talks led to a signed lease agreement between Simons and Rideau Centre about two weeks ago.Â
We will update readers with further La Maison Simons Rideau Centre store details, including store size, location, and Rideau Centre expansion renderings and floorplans.Â
Thank you to our source, Retail Insider Geoffrey Hall, for providing us with the link to this article source.Â
Vancouver-based ‘Naked‘ underwear will launch its lower-priced ‘NKD’ line at tomorrow’s hr2 by Holt Renfrew grand opening in Montreal. The line includes t-shirts, tanks and underwear.Â
The NKD line will include ‘soft fabrics’ the Naked mainline is known for. It will be geared towards younger males, according to the company’s press release.Â
NYC-based Kleinfeld Bridal is opening a 20,000 square foot flagship salon on the seventh-floor of Toronto’s flagship Hudson’s Bay (aka “Queen Street store”). Readers may be familiar with Kleinfeld as featured on the TLC television show ‘Say Yes to the Dress‘. The store opens early 2014.
Hudson’s Bay President Bonnie Brooks first alluded to the Kleinfeld deal in July 2012 when The Toronto Star reported that a 20,000 square foot franchise was ‘close to signing a deal’ for seventh-floor space. Kleinfeld Bridal salons will subsequently open at Downtown Hudson’s Bay stores in Montreal and Vancouver.Â
Kleinfeld’s partnering with Hudson’s Bay is a brilliant move ahead of Nordstrom’s Canadian entry. In late 2010, Nordstrom introduced ‘The Wedding Suite’, an upscale bridal salon at selected stores. We’ve been told we can expect more than one Nordstrom Wedding Suite in Canada when Nordstrom opens next year.
Hudson’s Bay already has Canada’s most popular wedding registry. Kleinfeld will compliment that with an extensive wedding gown collection generally priced from $1500-upward.
Kleinfeld reportedly earns about $1000 per square foot per year, according to an article in The Globe & Mail. If Toronto’s salon does similar sales, it will mean $20million/year. This could become the ‘most productive’ retail space in the Queen Street flagship Hudson’s Bay store, surpassing per-square-foot sales of cosmetics, handbags, shoes and its luxury women’s salon ‘The Room‘.Â
We will keep you updated on Kleinfeld’s Canadian expansion, including details of upcoming Montreal and Vancouver salons.Â
