Eres has opened its second Canadian store (and seventh in North America) at 396 Laurier Avenue West in Montreal. Eres specializes in upscale swimwear and lingerie. Its first Canadian location opened in June 2012 at 126 Cumberland Street in Toronto.Â
For those unfamiliar, Eres is a Paris-based swimwear line that began in 1968. It was purchased by Chanel in 1996, and Chanel expanded the brand to include lingerie. Eres has five American stores in Beverly Hills, Chicago, East Hampton NY, Las Vegas and Palm Beach.Â
About 100 Windows (by Microsoft) stores will open within Canadian Best Buy stores by September. It will sell Windows-based tablets, computers and other Microsoft products. Microsoft-trained sales staff will assist customers.
Best Buy Canada will be concentrating on popular, profitable products including tablets and mobile phones. Adding Windows shops-in-store is the latest strategy to build sales at struggling Best Buy. The retailer has seen increased competition from discount rivals and online sales.
Canada’s first and, currently, only free-standing Microsoft store opened in November 2012 at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre. It is 6,844 square feet and is located in the mall’s newest expansion wing between the (current) Sears store and Holt Renfrew.
J. Crew will open a ~6,500 square foot store at 110 Bloor Street West in Toronto, next to a ~15,000 square foot Brooks Brothers store which is currently under construction. J. Crew will be located in a re-configured space formerly occupied by Guerlain, which has moved westward within the same retail complex. The adjacent Brooks Brothers will occupy space formerly occupied by the ~13,000 square foot womenswear retailer Escada, which moved into a 3,650 square foot location across the street at 131 Bloor Street West.
According to a source at J. Crew (we are waiting to hear back if we can credit them by name) the Bloor Street J. Crew will carry both menswear and womenswear.
This will be J. Crew’s 6th Toronto area store (including the outlet store opening in August). J. Crew’s Toronto stores include The Toronto Eaton Centre, Yorkdale Shopping Centre and Fairview Shopping Centre. And we correct our previous article to include a J. Crew at Vauguan Mills (Thank you Samson Yuen for the correction!)
Source: ACT7 of Urban Toronto. Image: Google Maps screenshot.
Update: Oxford Properties purchased the Yorkdale and Square One leases for $191 million. Stores will close in March, 2014. Oxford also paid Sears $1 million for the option of buying-out the 230,000+ square foot Scarborough Town Centre Sears lease for $53 million. That closure could happen within the next 5 years. [Press Release]
The Yorkdale Sears is about 190,000 square feet and is located in the western portion of the mall. Nordstrom has already announced that it will open a 188,000 square foot Yorkdale store as part of an eastward mall expansion, so the Yorkdale Sears space will either be reconfigured for multiple retailers, demolished then redeveloped, or be leased to another anchor tenant. La Maison Simons has been in talks with the landlord and could occupy some, though likely not all of the space. Simons is seeking Toronto store space in the 80,000-120,000 square foot range.Â
Square One Shopping Centre, Mississauga
Square One’s Sears store is about 145,000 square feet and it is located at the north-end of the mall. Nordstrom could become a possible replacement anchor for the Sears space, though Nordstrom has already secured a 138,000 square foot space at nearby Sherway Gardens mall that will open in 2016. Again, La Maison Simons could possibly occupy the Sears space, though Simons could also go in the expanded area near the recently announced 120,000 square foot Holt Renfrew. Holts will be located in an expanded southern portion of Square One that will see Old Navy and neighbouring retailers demolished.Â
For those unfamiliar, Lululemon is a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company founded in 1998. It has over 200 stores in Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand.
First quarter earnings results have been released for Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Company, and they appear positive. In the first quarter, Canadian operations saw a sales increase of 7.6% over last year.
Specific earnings numbers are provided in this Financial Post article. Instead of going into detailed numbers, we’ll start delving into Hudson’s Bay‘s strategy and some potential shortcomings.
Hudson’s Bay’s modernization strategy has included selected store renovations and the introduction of TopShop/TopMan concessions at several of its stores. Top Shop’s moderate prices and youthful designs have seen Canadian earnings in excess of $500 per square foot according to a source at Hudson’s Bay. Other new designer brands and the introduction of the ‘White Space’ contemporary/bridge women’s departments in selected Bay stores have also increased per-square-foot store revenues. As increased concentration on women’s shoes has seen some new moderate-to-upscale brands added, including Friday’s opening of a 50,000 square foot women’s shoe hall at the chain’s Toronto flagship store.
Next week we’ll have a look at how handbags create excitement at these and other European department stores, and how Hudson’s Bay could benefit. We’ll also look at how Bloomingdale’s has built substantial sales in their handbag departments through various designer shops-in-store at selected locations. Despite Hudson’s Bay’s rosy revenue report, it could make substantially more money by selling more upscale and unique handbags, while elevating the image of its stores as well.
Lastly, we’ll examine the touchy subject of Hudson’s Bay’s customer service. We’ve questioned readers and the public in several Canadian communities, asking for their perceptions on Hudson’s Bay’s customer service. Given the feedback that we received, Nordstrom’s Canadian arrival should be of considerable concern to Hudson’s Bay.
Be sure to check back to read our analysis of how handbags could save Hudson’s Bay.
Grocer Canada Safeway has been bought by Sobeys in a cash deal worth $5.8 billion. Savings of about $200 million yearly are expected with the combined store sales forecasted to be $24 billion annually.
Sobeys has about 1,300 owned and franchised Canadian locations under banners including Foodland, FreshCo, IGA and Sobeys.
Canada Safeway assets include:
213 Safeway stores, 60% of which are located in metro Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg,
199 in-store pharmacies,
62 gas stations,
10 liquor stores,
4 primary distribution centres and a related wholesale business, and
12 manufacturing facilities.
Competition for food store retail in Canada has grown with the arrival of Target and Walmart‘s increased concentration on grocery products. Whole Foods will also be expanding its Canadian operations while competitor Loblaws, with over $30 billion in sales, is still the market leader.
The Louboutin ‘apartment’ will be modelled on Louboutin’s actual Paris residence. Selfridge’s in London also has a Louboutin ‘apartment’ modelled in the same way. The 600 square foot London shop has an eclectic design that includes family portraits of Louboutin as well as artifacts collected from his extensive travels, from Mexican dolls to stone doorways to an antique door made of mussels and sea shells. The carpet, as can be expected, will be red.
Yorkdale’s Holt Renfrew is being used as a prototype for future Holt Renfrew store renovations/expansions. Holts will substantially expand its women’s shoe offerings coast-to-coast. This week we will discuss Holt’s footwear strategy in light of the arrival of Nordstrom and the recently opened 50,000 square foot shoe hall at Toronto’s flagship Hudson’s Bay.
Christian Louboutin Interior
On Friday, June 21st from 4pm-6pm, Christian Louboutin will make a personal appearance at Holt Renfrew, 50 Bloor Street West in Toronto. Everyone is welcome.
We are pleased to announce that we have created a free daily online news publication called ‘RETAIL INSIDER DAILY’. It summarizes Retail Insider’s daily twitter postings of Canadian retail news. You can subscribe to it to keep updated on Canadian retail news, as we do our best to keep on top of it.
To check it out and to sign-up for daily Retail Insider news, click here: [RETAIL INSIDER DAILY]
Whole Foods‘ American parent is testing lower-priced stores in an effort to expand its customer base. If successful, the concept could come to Canada as part of its intended 40-store Canadian rollout in the coming years. The new American stores will be located in lower-income neighbourhoods. The first test store opened Wednesday June 5th in Detroit and two more will open this year in New Orleans and on Chicago’s South Side.
The stores will differ from regular Whole Foods stores in the following ways:
Lower prices (as is the store’s goal),
Fewer employees per store,
More frozen and pre-packaged food, and
Increased product concentration of its in-house label, ‘365’.
The goal is to bring healthy food to lower-income shoppers who might not otherwise be able to shop in regular Whole Foods stores. Whole Foods has fought a reputation of being ‘too expensive’ and, to its chagrin, some have nicknamed it ‘Whole Paycheque’.
The retailer’s American stores earn a gross margin of between 34% and 36%, compared to Walmart and Target‘s 24%-29%. Lowering prices and quality could still positively affect Whole Foods’ bottom line.
Whole Foods may have to be concerned about their brand perception, however, if it chooses to roll-out its lower-cost stores globally. The store’s current high-quality, higher-priced status could be compromised if the concept isn’t handled properly by company management.
Whole Foods currently has 9 Canadian stores and expects to open 40 more locations in the coming years, according to the Financial Post. The company intends on eventually having Canadian sales of about $1 billion. It has about 350 American stores with about $12 billion in sales. It has said it wants as many as 1,000 locations eventually, according to its CEO John Mackey.
