Home Blog Page 1395

KIEHL’S OPENS AT HUDSON’S BAY, TORONTO

By
Retail Insider
-
Image: Kiehl's Since 1851

Kiehl’s has just opened a shop at Hudson’s Bay’s Toronto (Queen Street) flagship store.

It is the third Kiehl’s concession within a Bay store, following shops in Montreal and at Downtown Vancouver’s Hudson’s Bay (which opened October 2012).  

For those unfamiliar, Kiehl’s is a popular American cosmetics brand that specializes in skin, hair and body care products. Once difficult to find, the brand has almost over-saturated the market with both free-standing shops as well as department store concessions around the world.   

[Hudson’s Bay website]  

[Kiehl’s website]

SAKS FIFTH AVENUE TO OPEN IN OTTAWA?

By
Retail Insider
-
Hudson's Bay, Rideau Street, Ottawa. Image: Google

Ottawa could get a Saks Fifth Avenue store as part of its announced Canadian store openings. Ottawa’s Saks would likely be located within Hudson’s Bay on Rideau Street. Hudson’s Bay owns the 335,000 square foot Ottawa store outright, meaning Saks would pay no rent to occupy space within. 

Ottawa could be a desirable city for Saks Fifth Avenue, given they city’s relatively high incomes and a population exceeding one million. Ottawa’s incomes are high compared to most Canadian cities, largely as a result of relatively high paying civil service jobs. Ottawa also lacks many upscale shops and designers available in other Canadian cities, meaning Saks could secure many of the designers it would want without having to compete with other retailers. 
If a full-sized Saks opens within the Rideau Street Hudson’s Bay, it would be in the 75,000 to 120,000 square foot range. Saks could also possibly occupy a floor or more of the existing store, or operate as one or more Saks “departments” within the existing store (we’re not a fan of this option, given the vastly differing perceptions of Hudson’s Bay and Saks as retailers). 

Opening Saks within the Rideau Street Hudson’s Bay could be a good move, as competitor Holt Renfrew is far removed at 240 Sparks Street in Downtown Ottawa. Holt’s Ottawa store is only about 36,000 square feet over two floors, and it lacks many of the interesting features and designers found in larger Holt Renfrew stores. Holt’s also lacks some labels Saks would desire, most noticeably Louis Vuitton. We think a Saks in Downtown Ottawa could see shops like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, and Ferragamo, among others.

Saks would join the recently announced 157,000 square foot Nordstrom store, to be located across the street at Rideau Centre. La Maison Simons will also open across the street from Hudson’s Bay/Saks, though Simons carries mostly moderately priced, private-label merchandise. Saks’ primary menswear competitor would be Rideau Centre’s Harry Rosen store, set to undergo a substantial renovation as part of the company’s growth and improvement strategy. 

Saks Fifth Avenue’s opening on Rideau Street would further create an exceptional shopping experience for the area. With anchors like Nordstrom, La Maison Simons and a renovated Hudson’s Bay (as is planned) in the area, Saks as a fourth anchor, would likely make gains at Holt Renfrew’s expense. It should be noted that despite planned renovations to Rideau Centre, Hudson’s Bay will remain connected to the mall by an existing pedestrian walkway. Given the increased popularity of Rideau Centre, Hudson’s Bay (and possibly Saks) should be breathing a huge sigh of relief. 

[Rideau Centre website]
[Hudson’s Bay website]
[Saks Fifth Avenue website]

SHOPPING IS THE NUMBER ONE ACTIVITY FOR TRAVELLERS VISITING CANADA

By
Retail Insider
-

Shopping is the number one activity for visitors to Canada, according to The Canadian Tourism Commission. 2012 was the first year that shopping beat out sightseeing. Chinese visitors are substantially up, possibly benefiting Canadian luxury retail. 

The above diagram highlights the numbers of foreign tourists, reflecting 2012 over 2011. About 16 million international visitors came to Canada in 2012, up from 2011. They spent about $12.3 billion, showing the importance of tourism to Canadian retailers. Not all regions saw equal tourist numbers, however. 

Of 18.2 million visitors to Canadian provinces, 7.7 million (or about 42%) went to Ontario while 4.3 million (or about 23%) went to British Columbia. Quebec and Alberta had most of the rest. 

Of that same 18.2 million visitors, about 60% are from the United States. Other top visiting countries include The United Kingdom, France, Germany and China. China’s growth is what got us interested.

Chinese visitors to Canada increased almost 60% in 2012 over 2011. Many Chinese tourists spend substantial sums in stores abroad. Many seek expensive brand-name products. If a similar tourism trend continues, we could see more luxury retailers opening in Canada that cater to affluent Chinese tourists. A source at Holt Renfrew tells us that about 80% of luxury items purchased in its Vancouver store are to speakers of a Chinese language.

Canada lacks many of the luxury retailers found in some American and European cities. We expect that will soon change. We’ll be doing articles on what new luxury retailers are expected to open, and we’ll analyze what brands we expect will go where. Labels like Valentino and Bottega Veneta are likely on the horizon to open full-sized Canadian stores, for example. Keep reading for updates. 

[Canadian Tourism Commission website]

MONTREAL’S PLACE VILLE MARIE TO SEE $100 MILLION RENOVATION

By
Retail Insider
-
Image: Ivanhoe Cambridge [Image link]

Downtown Montreal’s iconic Place Ville Marie will see a $100 million renovation, including substantial improvements to its retail component. Its landlord, Ivanhoe Cambridge, plans to make more investments in its other downtown Montreal retail properties as well.

Ivanhoe Cambridge purchased Alberta Investment Management Corp.’s 50% share in Place Ville Marie as part of a transaction valued at more than $400 million. More details are provided in this press release.

Place Ville Marie includes 186,151 square feet of retail space. It was built in 1962 and was last renovated in 2006. It has about 75 tenants and is part of Montreal’s vast “Underground City“.

Place Ville Marie’s current retail plan

Ivanhoe Cambridge is expected to further renovate its downtown Montreal real estate holdings including Complex Les Ailes, Place Montreal Trust and the Montreal Eaton Centre. These announcements will likely come in September or October, according to a source at Ivanhoe Cambridge.

Holt Renfrew, Place Ville Marie, 1976. [Image Source]

Interestingly, Holt Renfrew once had two smaller locations within Montreal’s Place Ville Marie (see image above). One was for women and the other for men. 

[Ivanhoe Cambridge website]

[Place Ville Marie website]

JAMIE OLIVER TO BE SPOKESPERSON FOR SOBEYS

By
Retail Insider
-
Photo: Jamie Oliver

Popular chef and media personality Jamie Oliver will become a spokesperson for Sobeys grocery stores. He will promote healthy food choices for Canadians, and collaboration will begin formally this fall.

For those unfamiliar, Jamie Oliver is a British chef, restauranteur and media personality. He is known for his culinary TV shows as well as his cookbooks. He has become an advocate for healthy food choices and was previously the public face of British grocery chain Sainsbury’s.

Sainsbury’s reportedly paid Oliver about £1.2 million/year to be its spokesperson, which ended in 2011. 

Making Oliver a spokesperson for Sobeys is a smart move with increased grocery competition in Canada. Walmart and Target are both expanding their Canadian food offerings. Sobeys itself recently bought Canada Safeway for $5.8 billion. Adding Oliver as a spokesperson will benefit Sobeys, especially with the proposed Canadian expansion and increased popularity of competing health-focused Whole Foods.

[Jamie Oliver Wikipedia link]

[Sobeys website]

ROOTS IS 40 YEARS OLD TODAY – AND IT’S CLOSING ITS TORONTO FLAGSHIP ON BLOOR

By
Retail Insider
-
100 Bloor Street West, Toronto. Photo is a screenshot from Google Streetview.

Today, Toronto-based Roots turns 40 years old. Interestingly, it just opened its 100th store in Asia. It will celebrate its birthday in its flagship Toronto store, which it will eventually close.

For those unfamiliar, Roots is a “lifestyle brand” known for its leathergoods, athletic apparel and natural fiber clothing. It has 125 stores in Canada and the United States, as well as stores in Asia. It has furnished Canadian Olympic athletes.

The Toronto flagship store (100 Bloor Street West) will include an exhibit of the history of Roots. The original “negative heel shoe“, with which the brand got started, will be launched again and sold nation-wide. A leather jacket made in collaboration with Smythe will be sold. Also, a commemorative coffee table book called Roots: 40 Years of Style will be launched.

At the same time, the 15,000 square foot flagship Roots store at 100 Bloor will be closing, with a 1,700 square foot replacement store set to open up the street. The landlord has raised rents at 100 Bloor, making the future of neighbouring retailers uncertain. We’re not sure if Roots will open a new flagship in the Yorkville area, though rumour has it Roots could open in a renovated Hazelton Lanes.

[Source: Press Release]

[Roots website]

METRO TO CLOSE/CONVERT 15 ONTARIO LOCATIONS, AND IT WILL OPERATE TARGET’S QUEBEC PHARMACIES

By
Retail Insider
-
Photo: Metro

Montreal-based Metro Inc. will close and re-brand some of its Ontario grocery stores. It will also operate the in-store pharmacies at Quebec’s Target locations.

Metro announced that it will either close or re-brand 15 of its Ontario stores to the Food Basics label. We have yet to learn which Ontario locations will be affected. 

As mentioned above, Metro will operate Target’s pharmacies in Quebec. This will increase Metro’s pharmacy footprint by about 13.5%. Eric La Fleche, CEO of Metro says: 

“The agreement with Target provides an excellent growth opportunity for METRO’s pharmaceutical division, particularly for the Brunet banner, as it enables us to significantly increase our presence, our purchasing power and our sales potential in Quebec. In all, 18 new pharmacies, including 12 in the Greater Montreal area, will be set up by the summer of 2014, bringing the total of Brunet to 168.”

For more details on this story, a more comprehensive article was done by The Globe & Mail. A press release on Metro’s Target pharmacies in Quebec can be found here.

[Metro Inc. website]

SAKS FIFTH AVENUE TO OPEN IN MONTREAL

By
Retail Insider
-
HUDSON'S BAY, DOWNTOWN MONTREAL. PHOTO COURTESY OF CYNTHIA CHENG MINTZ OF DELECTABLYCHIC! (WWW.DELECTABLYCHIC.COM)

Saks Fifth Avenue will open in Montreal according to Freda Colbourne, spokesperson with The Hudson’s Bay Company. It would be most likely within Montreal’s downtown Hudson’s Bay store, though there is the remote possibility of a smaller Saks space within an existing Bay store at Le Carrefour Laval.

Saks is expected to open between five and seven Canadian store locations, likely within existing Hudson’s Bay real estate. 

Montreal is affluent enough to support a Saks store. The city has a substantial number of high-earning households as well as high net-worth households. The Globe & Mail provides data showing Montreal as having the second-highest number of households earning over $200,000 in Canada (we won’t mention Quebec’s high income taxes). At the same time, Montreal lacks many of the free-standing luxury stores found in Toronto and Vancouver. Some of these luxury boutiques (e.g. Cartier, Gucci, Burberry, Versace, Salvator Ferragamo) could be located within a new Montreal Saks store.

Saks Fifth Avenue: Downtown Montreal

Locating Saks within the downtown Montreal Hudson’s Bay store makes sense. HBC owns the building outright, meaning there would be no rent for Saks. The downtown Montreal Hudson’s Bay store is the third-largest in the chain. It’s about 655,000 square feet, smaller than the Toronto Queen Street and Winnipeg flagships, and slightly larger than the downtown Vancouver store. Montreal’s flagship Bay could integrate Saks into existing square footage either by utilizing one or more retail floors, or it could occupy parts of several floors or even include smaller “Saks departments” throughout the Bay building. 

The downtown Montreal Hudson’s Bay store is geographically removed from luxury department stores Holt Renfrew and Ogilvy. Hudson’s Bay is 800 metres (or about half a mile) from Ogilvy, and a further 350 metres away from Holt Renfrew. This separation could be beneficial for a Saks store within Hudson’s Bay if it is considered far enough from Ogilvy and Holt’s to secure such concessions as Louis Vuitton (located within Ogilvy) or the likes of Gucci and Prada (located within Holt Renfrew), among others.

Saks Fifth Avenue: Le Carrefour Laval

There is the slight chance that some sort of smaller Saks shop-in-store could open within Hudson’s Bay’s Carrefour Laval location. Hudson’s Bay’s Carrefour Laval store has a favourable long-term ground lease. It is 185,588 square feet according to landlord Cadillac Fairview. Given that Saks would likely occupy 75,000-140,000 square feet for a free-standing store, it would be more likely that a smaller Saks could be integrated into the Laval Hudson’s Bay store. This is total speculation on our part and in our opinion, we think integrating small Saks spaces within Hudson’s Bay stores would be a bad idea.

Downtown Montreal’s Hudson’s Bay store is scheduled to open the luxury womenswear department ‘The Room‘ in 2014. The roughly 20,000 square foot salon’s future is in question, though, if Saks locates within in the Montreal flagship. 

TUMI STORE (CANADA’S FIRST?) OPENING AT YORKDALE SHOPPING CENTRE

By
Retail Insider
-
Image: Tumi

Tumi will open its first free-standing Toronto store at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre. The store will be almost 1,300 square feet and will be located between Birks jewelers and Thomas Sabo. We expect the store will open some time in September.

It could technically be Canada’s first Tumi store, as the one we reported on in Vancouver will be a combined Tumi and Rimowa retailer.

For those unfamiliar, Tumi is a New Jersey-based manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of travel bags and accessories. It has more recently branched into the lucrative handbag retail market. Tumi has over 120 stores worldwide and over 200 shop-in-store locations.

Tumi products are also available at various Canadian retailers including Betty Hemmings, Harry Rosen, Holt Renfrew and Taschen! stores.

Thank you to our source for this article, ACT7 of Urban Toronto. ACT7 first alerted us to Tumi’s Toronto store in May, and just learned of its exact location.

SEARS WEBSITE SELLS $32,000 ROLEX WATCHES AND CHANEL BOOTS

By
Craig Patterson
-
SEARS WEBSITE SELLS $32,000 ROLEX WATCHES AND CHANEL BOOTS

Sears‘ American website is selling a $32,000 Rolex watch and a pair of Chanel boots marked down to ‘only’ $897. It’s an interesting strategy for Sears, as the retailer struggles to maintain customer interest. 

Items are listed on the website’s ‘Marketplace’. It should be noted, however, that these items are sold by third-party vendors who pay Sears a commission of up to 20% on items sold, plus a $40 per month fee. These items are not technically in Sears’ own inventory.

Some shoppers might question if these items are real or counterfeit. If we were in the market for Rolex or Chanel, we’re not sure if we’d buy it online from Sears. 

SEARS WEBSITE SELLS $32,000 ROLEX WATCHES AND CHANEL BOOTS

Nevertheless, the appearance of Rolex and Chanel products on Sears’ website is a far cry from what’s actually in store. We’re not sure if this marketing tactic is smart or misguided, and we’d hope Sears doesn’t let anything ‘slip by’ like, say, pornographic material or something else potentially controversial.

Our source for this article is this Wall Street Journal article.

[Sears website]

1...1,3941,3951,396...1,430Page 1,395 of 1,430