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Do Readers Remember Toronto’s Creeds?

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Retail Insider
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We had to borrow this image from Toronto Life, since it is the only suitable Creeds image we can find online!

Hello Readers! We want to do a retrospective on Toronto’s former luxury retailer, Creeds. If you have any stories, memories or photos, please feel free to submit them to us at insider@retail-insider.com. 

To those unfamiliar, Creeds was a Toronto-based women’s mini-department store that was last located at 45 Bloor Street West in the Manulife Centre.  Creeds’ former space is now partially occupied by William Ashley china. Creeds was approximately 35,000 square feet over two floors and featured several exclusive shop-in-store boutiques. It introduced Canada to Chanel with an elegant in-store Chanel Boutique. Creeds also included shops for Christian Dior, Emanuel Ungaro, Sonia Rykiel, Michael Kors and Krizia. Also included were a world-class fur salon, some gourmet food brands, cosmetics and jewellery  The store unfortunately filed for bankruptcy in 1990. 

In the past and especially in the 1980’s, Toronto was a fashion destination where wealthy women would fly in to shop at high-end places like Hazelton Lanes, Creeds and the then-slightly less-upscale Holt Renfrew store across the street from Creeds. We will do a separate article on the history of the Toronto Holt Renfrew flagship store in the near future. 

Former Creeds location, now William Ashley. [Image Source]

We will also be doing a series of articles on the history of some well-known Canadian stores such as Holt Renfrew, Simpson’s, Woodward’s, Bretton’s and others. We love retail history and hope readers will enjoy our upcoming articles. 

Retail Insider will announce a few new projects next week. We’ll be sending out ‘secret shoppers’ across the country to evaluate stores and their customer service. And we won’t be playing favourites. We’ll cover a variety of retailers and be evaluating them on a scale of ‘one–to–Nordstrom’. We’re only half-joking about that evaluation scale. 

We’ve decided to make Retail Insider more fun and potentially interactive. Keep reading and have an excellent weekend, everyone!

p.s. We’re sending a big shout-out and thank you to Toronto Life Magazine. In the early 90’s in small-town Alberta, this author started loving retail after a neighbourhood mom gave us a Toronto Life Magazine providing insight into a fashionable world we had previously never experienced. 

Retail Insider on twitter: @retailinsider_
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Got any retail insider info? insider@retail-insider.com

TopShop Opening This October at Mississauga’s Square One

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Retail Insider
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TopShop

TopShop/TopMan will open a store inside of Hudson’s Bay‘s Square One Shopping Centre store in October. This will coincide with a renovation of the Square One Hudson’s Bay store, now underway. TopShop will be located on the main-floor of the 190,000 sq ft Bay store. 

Hudson’s Bay is in the process of renovating some of its more productive suburban stores in an effort to modernize the chain. So far we are impressed with what we’ve seen, store-renovation-wise. 

Mississauga’s Square One Shopping Centre is in the process of being expanded and renovated. The mall will soon get a renovated Target store anchor, replacing a former Zellers location. 

This week we reported on the possibility that Holt Renfrew could open a store at Mississauga’s Square One. We’re not sure if negotiations are serious or if the negotiations are a tactic for Holts to get favourable lease terms for a possible Sherway Gardens Holt Renfrew store expansion. 

We’ve got more Canadian TopShop store locations to announce. Thank you for reading Retail Insider.

TopShop/TopMan website: www.topshop.com

Hudson’s Bay website: www.TheBay.com

Clearly Contacts Vancouver Store Opens Today (March 21st)

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Retail Insider
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Clearly Contacts on Robson Street in Vancouver

Today Clearly Contacts opens its first-ever free-standing store on Vancouver’s Robson Street. We first reported on this store in January. 

Clearly Contacts has reportedly signed a six-month lease for its Robson retail space, making us wonder about the company’s long-term bricks-and-mortar retail plans. 

Clearly Contacts is one of several new, exciting retailers that will be opening on Vancouver’s famed Robson Street in the coming months. We’ll be announcing more in the weeks ahead, as well as improvements coming to Robson Street itself. 

It might be considered an unusual shift for an online retailer to open a bricks-and-mortar location in an age where many retailers see increasing online sales as their future.

The company’s VP of marketing, Aaron Magness, says: “There’s only so much you can learn from surveys and focus groups. 100% brick-and-mortar creates a challenge for the consumer because it’s not convenient, but with 100% online, you miss the opportunity to engage with your customer and find out what makes them tick.”

Other retailers like Ebay and Etsy have opened temporary ‘pop-up’ stores but Clearly Contacts’ will be more permanent. 

Magness says: “We think there’s a real opportunity here.  The first store will be a testing ground for future locations, focussing largely on customer experience and interaction—there will even be an eye-care professional on site to conduct tests.”

Magness says the store is more about getting to know the customer than just making money. 

We find Clearly Contacts’ store opening to be a positive movement in the world of retail. Given that the store may be only open for six months, however, we suggest you hurry if you want to get your glasses in-store. 

[Partial Article Source – Canadian Business Magazine]

Holt Renfrew’s hr2 Announces Opening Dates, Twitter and Web Link

By
Retail Insider
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Holt Renfrew HR2

Holt Renfrew‘s discount chain hr2 has announced opening dates for its first two stores. The Suburban Montreal store (at Quartier Dix30) will open March 28th, and the suburban Toronto location (at Vaughan Mills) will open May 10th.

The temporary hr2 website (via Holt Renfrew) lists the Montreal store as being 24,500 square feet and the Toronto store as being 23,000 square feet.

hr2 has its own twitter page as of today: www.twitter.com/hr2Official 

hr2 logo

hr2’s logo has been introduced, above. It includes the words ‘Holt Renfrew’ under the hr2. This leverages Holt’s cachet on the new store brand.  

The website advertises purchasing hr2 gift cards. We’ll hold off until we get a better idea of what the store is about. So far this is Holt’s description of hr2: “Visit hr2 to shop the brands you love and the styles you want, all at prices you won’t believe. Our continually fresh assortment of womenswear, menswear, footwear, accessories and jewellery will keep you coming back for more.  This is the new shopping experience that you’ve been waiting for.”

hr2 Shopping Bags: [Image Source]

We first reported on Holt Renfrew’s hr2 launch in October 2012. A suburban Toronto location was announced in January 2013. 

We’ll keep you updated on hr2 by Holt Renfrew news. 

Article Source and hr2 website: holtrenfrew.com/hr2

Vancouver Airport Luxury Outlet Mall Details Revealed

By
Craig Patterson
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McArthurglen Rendering

Further details of the proposed McArthurGlen luxury outlets near Vancouver International Airport have been revealed. The first phase of the mall will open late 2014 with 78 stores. 

We first reported on this development in November 2012. Vancouver International Airport has since provided the above render and the site plan, below. 

Further details of the McAurthurGlen outlet mall were made in an information session at the Airport the evening of Tuesday, March 19th. We’ll update readers with further details. 

Thank you to ‘officedweller’ of Vancouver Skyscraper Forum for bringing these new renders and plans to our attention. 

Vancouver International Airport McArthurGlen website

Hudson’s Bay’s ‘The Room’ Coming to Montreal and NYC

By
Retail Insider
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The Room at Hudson's Bay, Toronto.

Hudson’s Bay‘s luxury women’s department ‘The Room‘ will open September 14th at Lord & Taylor in New York City and in 2014 at Hudson’s Bay in Montreal. NYC-based Lord & Taylor is owned by the same parent company as Hudson’s Bay. 

Hudson’s Bay President Bonnie Brooks made these announcements during the March 13th Walrus Speaker Series.

Lord & Taylor, NYC

The Room is already present in Hudson’s Bay stores in Toronto (21,500 sq ft, opened October 2009) and Vancouver BC (almost 20,000 sq ft, opened September 2011). It carries top-of-the-line ready-to-wear and accessories by such luxury designers as Balmain, Giambattista Valli, Azzedine Alaia, Roland Mouret, Sonia Rykiel and others.

Hudson’s Bay, Montreal.

Lord & Taylor is looking to ‘up its fashion game’ by introducing The Room to its Manhattan store.  Compared to competitors Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, Lord & Taylor is a bit more ‘traditional’ and generally not as upscale. Introducing ‘Room’ with designers like Moschino, Nina Ricci, Erdem and Comme des Garcons will launch Lord & Taylor into a new fashion realm creating competition for the newly renovated Third Floor at Saks Fifth Avenue (link includes video) located a few blocks up Fifth Avenue from Lord & Taylor’s flagship.

The Room, Hudson’s Bay Vancouver

One potential issue with the Montreal ‘Room’ is that some of the staple designers from the Toronto and Vancouver Rooms are already carried at either La Maison Simons or Holt Renfrew. This means there will likely be label wars in a market that already has limited affluent shoppers (Montreal lags significantly behind Toronto and Vancouver in terms of luxury retail sales).

Hudson’s Bay website: www.TheBay.com

Lord & Taylor website: www.LordandTaylor.com

The Room website: www.TheBay.com/TheRoom

Could Holt Renfrew Open at Mississauga’s Square One?

By
Retail Insider
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Could Holt Renfrew Open at Mississauga's Square One? (Photo: CBC)

Holt Renfrew is in talks with Oxford Properties to open a store at Mississauga’s Square One Shopping Centre. Negotiations have been ongoing for several years, according to a source at Holt Renfrew head office. This store would replace Holt Renfrew’s current Sherway Gardens store. 

Negotiations with landlord Cadillac Fairview for an enlarged Holt Renfrew store at Sherway Gardens have been unsuccessful and Oxford has jumped in to lure Holt’s away from Sherway into a newly renovated Square One Shopping Centre. 

In July 2012 we reported on Holt Renfrew’s expanding its Sherway Gardens store to 102,000 square feet. It appears we may have published this information in haste, given the now-stalled negotiations. 

The Globe & Mail reported Sunday evening on Holt’s potential Square One move. The link to this Globe & Mail article can be found [here]. 

While researching for this article, we found this online petition to add Holt Renfrew to Square One. So far it only appears to have seven signatures…
We will update readers as we learn more of Holt Renfrew’s possible relocation in the Western Greater Toronto Area. 

Holt Renfrew website: www.HoltRenfrew.com
Square One Shopping Centre website: www.shopsquareone.com
Sherway Gardens website: www.sherwaygardens.ca

John Fluevog Opening Toronto Distillery District Store in May

By
Retail Insider
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Fluevog Distillery District

World-renowned Vancouver-based footwear designer/retailer John Fluevog will open its second Toronto store in the ‘Distillery District‘ in May. The store will include limited edition men’s and women’s shoes styles only available at this Fluevog store location. Toronto’s other John Fluevog store is located in Toronto’s trendy Queen Street West area. 

This will be Fluevog’s seventh Canadian store and its 17th world-wide. Canadian Fluevog store locations include Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Quebec City and Vancouver (two stores). American Fluevog stores are located in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Portland, Washington DC and San Francisco (two stores). Toronto will be the third city in the world to have two Fluevog stores. 

John Fluevog footwear started in 1969 with then-business partner Peter Fox. Fluevog ‘went it alone’ in 1980 and built the internationally popular shoe and accessories label to what it is today. Its headquarters are located in a stunning glass-clad flagship store in Vancouver’s Gastown area. 

Fluevog joins several other upscale Distillery district retailers including Gotstyle, Euoko and Lileo, among others. Toronto’s Distillery District has seen several new upscale stores open in recent years. We previously reported on the opening of fashionable store ‘Gotstyle’. Internationally-renowned Toronto-based cosmetics manufacturer/retailer Euoko also has its world-flagship store in Toronto’s Distillery District. 

It would appear that Toronto’s Distillery District is becoming a unique, popular shopping destination that could eventually attract substantial upscale retailers in the coming years. The Distillery District is the largest preserved collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in the world which opened to the public as a shopping, drinking and dining destination in 2003. Prior to 2003, it was used for filming for countless movies, TV shows and music videos. 

Sources: ACT7 of Urban Toronto and this Fluevog Press Release. 
John Fluevog website: http://www.fluevog.com

Distillery District website: http://www.thedistillerydistrict.com

Lululemon May Build New Robson/Burrard Flagship in Vancouver

By
Retail Insider
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Lululemon May Build New Robson/Burrard Flagship in Vancouver

Word has it that Vancouver BC-based Lululemon Athletica may open a flagship location at the south-east corner of Robson and Burrard Streets in Downtown Vancouver. The store would replace a Blenz coffee shop and other adjacent retail spaces at the base of the 800 Burrard Street Building. So far both Lululemon and potential broker sources won’t reveal further details.

We’ve been told that the store could take over a ‘substantial’ retail portion of 800 Burrard Street. A source informs us the project would involve a reconfiguration of the the building’s current retail podium, including a partial exterior renovation.

Lululemon would be relocating from its current store location at 1148 Robson Street.

The potential new store will be located across the street from the massive Victoria’s Secret store currently under construction in retail space formerly occupied by retailer HMV. 

Photo: Lululemon

We’ve been informed that some other ‘big changes’ will be coming to Vancouver’s Robson Street. We’ll report on these periodically as we are granted permission to do so. 

Lululemon was founded in Vancouver in 1998 as a yoga wear manufacturer and retailer. It has over 200 stores world-wide.

Lululemon website: http://shop.lululemon.com/home.jsp

Tiffany & Co. Coming to West Edmonton Mall

By
Retail Insider
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Tiffany & Co. Coming to West Edmonton Mall

Tiffany & Co. will open an approximately 3,300 square foot store in West Edmonton Mall. The full-line store replaces a former Tiffany & Co. “corner” located in Edmonton’s Downtown Holt Renfrew store. We recently reported on Tiffany’s Holt Renfrew Edmonton closing. 

The store will be located on the second-level in the mall’s “Phase III” between store Coach and SoftMoc, across the hall from J.Crew and Banana Republic (see mall map above).

We first made mention of a potential West Edmonton Mall Tiffany store in February 2013. 

This will be Tiffany’s 12th Canadian store, and its first first full-line Edmonton store. Tiffany & Co.’s other Canadian locations are in Metro Toronto (3 locations), Vancouver (3 locations), Calgary (2 locations), Montreal (2 locations) and Ottawa.

Source: West Edmonton Mall 

Tiffany & Co. website: www.tiffany.ca

West Edmonton Mall website: http://www.wem.ca

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