Canadians can now apply for Target’s ‘Red Card’ online. The card provides 5% off store purchases. It is a debit card that links with the cardholder’s existing chequing account and is for Target stores, only.
A Target credit card will also be issued by the Royal Bank of Canada. The Target RBC Mastercard will have no annual fee and cardholders are eligible for additional rewards towards Target gift cards, as well as purchases not made in Target stores.
Target Red Card site: Target.ca/redcard
Tory Burch will open its third Canadian store on Alberni Street in Vancouver. The store is expected to open in September 2013, according to their store manager in Calgary.
Tory Burch’s current Canadian locations are at Chinook Centre in Calgary, and at Yorkdale Mall in Toronto.
Tory Burch is a popular New York City-based designer brand that is also carried in Canada at Holt Renfrew. The label includes women’s clothing, shoes and accessories.
We had to post an image of Tory Burch with the world’s cutest dog, Boo. Thank you to Retail Insider Amitis for the pic!
Follow our Facebook and Twitter, as we post lots of insider information not posted on this website. We even give away some insider info beforehand, and some astute readers guessed this brand’s Alberni Street tenancy last week after we posted a ‘blind item’.
Tory Burch Website: www.toryburch.com
Peter Simons confirms he is actively seeking space for La Maison Simons stores in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa-Gatineau.
“These markets are in our plans. We are working hard on it to open more stores in the rest of the country, “said Peter Simons to Lapresse.
According to Mr. Simons, sales at the new Edmonton Simons store are stellar and “beyond our expectations. Our business is profitable, “he said.
Simons sunk about $35million into the 118,000 square foot Edmonton store. We previously reported on its opening and its beautiful interior design.
Peter Simons, again, expressed his disappointment at the falling-through of negotiations to open a Simons store at Ottawa’s Rideau Shopping Centre. Nordstrom’s securing space at Rideau hampered Simons’ ongoing negotiations. Negotiations for a store at Ottawa’s St. Laurent Shopping Centre also fell through. As we previously reported, Simons may therefore open its first Ottawa location in Gatineau.
In Fall 2013, La Maison Simons will open its eighth store in suburban Montreal at the Galeries d’Anjou. Simons will have sunk about $25million into the two-level, 100,000 square foot store when completed.
Retail Insider was also informed by a commercial real estate broker that Simons wants stores in Calgary and Winnipeg.
Maison Simons website: www.Simons.ca
Today (Monday, February 4th) marks the last distribution day that the Canadian penny. Circulation started in 1858.
There are still six-billion of them in circulation so they won’t disappear overnight. The Canadian mint estimates it will take about 3-4 years for pennies to leave Canadian circulation.
Did you know it costs roughly 1.6 cents to produce a penny? Neither did we. The Canadian Government will save about $11million/year discontinuing the penny. Not much in the big scheme of a government that lavishes spending on multi-billion priorities like ‘national defence’.
Only about 20% of Canadian retail purchases are made in cash. The loss of the penny will have no impact on debit or credit-card purchases, which will will remain cent-specific.
Canadian retailers now have the option to ’round up or down’ their final cash prices, and the Federal Government hasn’t formally legislated how rounding will occur. Ottawa has provided ‘suggestions’ as to how to round a final bill, including “For totals ending in one, two, six or seven will be rounded down, while totals ending in three, four, eight and nine will be rounded up”.
Penny production stopped in May 2012, but the Canadian Mint continued its distribution until today.
Similar countries no longer use pennies. Australia got rid of their penny in 1992, for example.
Consider rolling-up and donating your pennies to charity. Retail Insider’s two favourite charities are:
1) Covenant House (Toronto and Vancouver). Helping homeless street youth build better lives for themselves while benefiting the community.
2) Access Pro Bono Society of BC – Providing free legal services to lower-income British Columbians.
Oxford Properties has provided several optimistic renderings of its proposed Oxford Place in Downtown Toronto.  The development may be contingent on the project securing a casino component.
After yesterday’s announcement that Cadillac Fairview has partnered with MGM Resorts for a Greater Toronto Area casino, Oxford Place’s development may be downscaled. We cannot confirm anything yet so we are instead posting these stunning renders of a project that we hope is built.
We previously reported that Oxford Place could include a 1million square foot retail component, housing such department stores as La Maison Simons and Nordstrom. Again we have no updates at this time, given the preliminary nature of this proposal.
Toronto City Counsel votes on the future of city casino proposals in April. Retail Insider will be watching closely to see if Oxford Place will become a reality one way or another.Â
Thank you to ‘toforumer’ at urbantoronto.ca for posting these fabulous photos, extracted from the .pdf provided by Oxford Properties, link below.Â
Oxford Place proposal .pdf:Â http://oxfordplace.ca/OxfordPlaceDevelopment.pdf
Oxford Properties website:Â www.oxfordproperties.com
The small Tiffany & Co. ‘corner’ inside of Edmonton’s Holt Renfrew store has closed. It was the last Tiffany & Co. shop in Holts that wasn’t a leased concession owned by Tiffany. We have been informed that Tiffany will not open a leased concession at Edmonton’s Holts and that the space formerly occupied by Tiffany will be used to expand the store’s handbags selection.
Other Tiffany & Co. owned and operated concessions within Canada’s Holt Renfrew stores include Holt’s Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal stores. They range from about 600 square feet to about 1500 square feet.
Canada also has seven free-standing Tiffany & Co. stores: two in Vancouver, one in Calgary, one in Montreal and three in Toronto.
Tiffany & Co. website: www.tiffany.ca
Holt Renfrew website: www.HoltRenfrew.com
Today Best Buy announced it will close 15 Canadian stores, responding to competition from electronics retailers such as Amazon and Apple. According to the Financial Post, Best Buy will replace these closers with smaller locations.
The store closures represent about 10% of the company’s Canadian square footage, with layoffs of about 900 employees.
Seven Best Buy and eight Future Shop stores will close.
The locations closing include:
BEST BUY
British Columbia
Last year the U.S. parent company to Best Buy announced the closure of 50 stores with the intention of opening about 100 smaller ‘mobile stores’ emphasising smart phones, tables and e-readers.
In Canada, Best Buy operates 79 stores under the Best Buy banner and 149 under the Future Shop banner, a Burnaby B.C. business acquired by the Richfield, Mn.-based big-box retailer in 2001.
Kate Spade will open its Canadian flagship location on Toronto’s Yorkville Avenue. This will be Canada’s second Kate Spade store, following the opening of its first location in November 2012 at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre.
We are told Kate Spade is searching for and will open multiple Canadian locations. We will update readers when we get further information.
Thank you to ‘androiduk’ at Urbantoronto.ca for finding the City of Toronto application for the store’s renovations. The address listed on the City of Toronto website is 115 Yorkville Avenue for a building size of about 4000 square feet. At this time we cannot confirm if Remy’s, the popular Yorkville Restaurant at this address, will close to be replaced by Kate Spade. Remy’s leases its Yorkville premises.
Kate Spade, as a designer label, started in 1993. It opened its first store in NYC in 1996. According to their website:
“crisp color, graphic prints and playful sophistication are hallmarks of kate spade new york. as our world expands, our exuberant approach to the everyday is evident in each category we enter, from handbags and clothing to jewelry, shoes, stationery, eyewear, baby, fragrance, tabletop, bedding and gifts.
kate spade new york has over 80 retail shops and outlet stores across the united states, and more than 100 shops internationally. our colorful products are sold in more than 400 doors worldwide, in every time zone and on every continent. whether in san francisco, sao paulo or shanghai, our shops are always warm and inviting.“
It appears despite the company’s success, they haven’t yet discovered capital letters.
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Kate Spade website: www.katespade.com
*UPDATE* This store opens Wednesday, June 5th 2013.
J. Crew will open its ninth Canadian store at Calgary’s Chinook Centre. The store will be about 4200 square feet and will carry both men’s and women’s collections.
Last week we announced J. Crew would open a second location in Downtown Vancouver. J. Crew has two stores in Edmonton and four stores in the Greater Toronto area.
Interestingly, Calgary’s J. Crew store will be located next to an Ann-Louise Jewellers store. This is also the case with J. Crew’s new Vancouver Pacific Centre store.
We’ve been told that J. Crew is seeking space in Ottawa and possibly Winnipeg, among other Canadian cities. We’ll update readers when more information is available.
J. Crew website: www.jcrew.com
Chinook Centre website: http://www.chinookcentre.com
Holt Renfrew has launched a new ‘VIP Section’ on its website. It’s password protected for Holt Renfrew’s ‘most valued clients’ (meaning those who spend more on in one season @Holts than most of us earn in a year).
This is the url to the special site: http://www.holtrenfrew.com/en/holt/content/footer/vip/look-books
Those allowed ‘in’ this website section may purchase “limited-edition, one of a kind and special order items” according to Holt Renfrew.
We’ll admit we’re not among the fortunate few to get a password. We are, however, working on getting one from a Holt Renfrew insider. If successful, we’ll post pics of the inner-workings of Holt’s website VIP section so us plebs can get a taste of the online high-life.
Holt Renfrew VIP website: www.holtrenfrew.com/access
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