Retail Insider is streamlining its Canadian retail news from around the web to include a handful of top news stories that can be viewed quickly during the day. Here are the top stories from the past several days.
Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo will open its second Edmonton store this fall as the brand continues with its cross-Canada store expansion. Uniqlo has been opening stores across the country since 2016.
The second Edmonton store will span about 15,000 square feet at the Southgate Shopping Centre, a leading regional mall on the city’s south side. Uniqlo’s Southgate store will be located between Sephora and an American Eagle store, joining several retail spaces combined together for the large new tenant.
Uniqlo has been expanding its Canadian operations since its entry into the country in 2016 by opening stores. Uniqlo entered the Canadian market in September of 2016 when it opened a flagship store at CF Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto. A second Toronto flagship opened a month later at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre. Both stores are more than 30,000 square feet on two levels.
Click image for interactive Southgate mall floor plan
Uniqlo now has seven stores in the Greater Toronto Area with other locations being at Square One in Mississauga, Vaughan Mills north of Toronto, CF Markville in Markham, Upper Canada Mall in Newmarket, and at Oshawa Centre in Oshawa.
Uniqlo’s first store on the West Coast opened at Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby in October of 2017, and the retailer subsequently opened locations at CF Richmond Centre in Richmond, Coquitlam Centre in Coquitlam, and Guildford Town Centre in Surrey.
Exterior of Uniqlo at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Photo: Dustin Fuhs)
Uniqlo’s first store in Montreal opened in October of 2020 in the city’s downtown core at the Montreal Eaton Centre. It remains the largest Uniqlo location in Canada with over 40,000 square feet of leased space facing Ste-Catherine Street. In 2021, a store opened at CF Carrefour Laval near Montreal and in 2022, two other units opened at CF Fairview Pointe Claire and CF Promenades St. Bruno.
The retailer entered the Ottawa market this spring with a location at CF Rideau Centre. That store, similar to the Alberta locations, is about 15,000 square feet.
Design-build firm SAJO is building the Southgate Uniqlo store.
Uniqlo said in an earlier statement that it has a five year plan to operate about 200 stores in North America, with plans to open about 20 stores a year into 2027.
Uniqlo is owned by Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. which is one of the world’s largest fashion retailers. In 2022 it saw sales of about USD$16.6 billion. The company has a total of more than 2,400 stores across the world.
“As a city builder, our ultimate purpose as a business is to create vibrant community spaces, where people come together – spaces woven deeply into the cultural fabric of cities around the world. Space that will play a key role in how people reconnect with one another post-pandemic,” said John Sullivan, President and CEO, Cadillac Fairview, in the report.
“Under our community pillar, guided by our purpose of “transforming communities for a vibrant tomorrow,” we continue to provide the spaces where people can come together — to meet, work, shop, live, and dine — and whenever possible, spark community spirit through immersive events and activities.”
CF Chinook Centre (Image: Cadillac Fairview)
Wholly owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, CF manages more than $42 billion of assets across the Americas and the United Kingdom, with further expansion planned into Europe and Asia. Internationally, CF invests in communities with like-minded partners, including Stanhope in the UK, Lincoln Property Company in the U.S., and Multiplan in Brazil.
The company’s Canadian portfolio comprises 68 landmark properties, including the Toronto-Dominion Centre, CF Toronto Eaton Centre, Tour Deloitte, CF Carrefour Laval, CF Chinook Centre and CF Pacific Centre.
Key highlights from the ESG report include:
19 per cent CO2 reduction since 2017 in Scope 1&2 emissions. 58 per cent reduction since 2008;
10 per cent energy reduction since 2019. 47 per cent reduction since 2008;
25 per cent water reduction since 2019. 71 per cent reduction since 2008;
78 per cent waste diversion since 2008;
100 per cent Canadian properties completed climate risk evaluation;
397 electric vehicle charging stations at 100 per cent of operated sites (by complex);
100 per cent properties have achieved at least one Green Certification such as LEED, BOMA Best, Energy Star or Zero Carbon Certification.
Karen Jalon, Vice President of Sustainability, Energy and Smart Technologies for Cadillac Fairview, said the company, as a community builder, really understands its impact on stakeholders and the expectations are increasing.
Karen Jalon
“It’s very clear from our perspective we have the opportunity to do what’s right for our communities at large but also to support our core business,” she said. “We’re supporting Canada as well as our key stakeholders like tenants and the public achieve their personal ESG goals. We have a focus on reducing our operational costs by lowering our energy and making sure that we build in-person environments.
“This is very foundational to our culture and what we believe our key stakeholders and communities need right now.
“We’re very proud that our shopping centres are a place for the community. A place to interact with each other. Beyond that, it’s clear that we’re in a time of environmental challenges and the public is expecting companies like CF to focus on climate mitigation and resilience. So we are focused in our retail centres on ensuring that we’re achieving and exceeding the best industry standards when it comes to sustainability including creating certifications of our properties which we have achieved to having been ranked number one compared to our peers when it comes across ESG and specifically sustainability. I think expectations are increasing and that’s part of how we do business and so we’re aligning with those expectations.”
CF Sherway Gardens (Rendering: Cadillac Fairview)CF Fairview Mall in North York, Ontario (Rendering: Cadillac Fairview)
Jalon said investing in sustainability does make business sense because it mitigates regulatory risks to reputational risks.
“There’s opportunity to reduce long-term costs,” she said.
Jalon said the ESG landscape is changing very quickly from expectations to clear needs of the community.
“And so we’re continuously re-evaluating where we are and where we have to be and we know we need to strive for greater positive impacts on our communities. We started our environmental sustainability program back in 2008,” she said. “Over that time we’ve reduced our emissions by 58 per cent. We’re making significant strides.
“That means we’ve integrated it into how we do business and now is the time for us to accelerate those kinds of results.”
It appears as if retailers, such as Walmart, are rethinking the self-checkout offering at stores and some retailers are either pulling them out or not launching them as theft related to a cashier-less experience continues to grow.
Melinda Deines, Strategist: Brand & Marketing with design consultancy SLD, said even a consumer who has little intention of stealing is more likely to do so at self-checkout. Consumers who are inclined to steal can now do so more easily.
Melinda Deines
“By continuing to use self-checkouts in their current format, retailers are creating an environment where theft will continue and become normalized, threatening even greater losses in the future,” she said.
“Walmart’s not the only brand that’s rethinking self-checkouts. Wegman’s in the U.S. is removing them. Hy-Vee which is a gas convenience, they’re pulling them out. Albertson’s has been back and forth. Trader Joes has said we’re never having them and still don’t have them. We’ll see if that remains true forever.
“There’s definitely a range of responses. I think the amount of shrink caused by self-checkout probably was a big surprise to a lot of retailers and dealing with that is probably sort of mission number one from their perspective – controlling that because it’s gotten out of control. The interventions that they’ve been using are not really working. So that’s why we’re seeing some of this backtracking and now having staff members coming and supporting with standing. This could help them while they rethink what does the ideal experience look like. In the meantime, we’ve got to control that shrink.”
Self-Checkout (Image: Shutterstock) Image: Walmart Corporate (New Checkout Experience Seeks to Eliminate the Wait and Add Options at the Register)
She said self-checkout has created a new type of shoplifter.
In a blog on the company website, Deines outlined the four factors making self-checkout really conducive to shoplifting:
Self-checkouts increase consumer frustration. Despite improvements in technology, self-checkouts are still far from simple. Most lack an effective workflow and there are no standard practices, creating confusion. A customer hasn’t been trained on how to find codes or enter promos correctly. Such frustrations may cause consumers to steal out of sheer exasperation.
Stealing, simplified. At traditional checkouts, a staff member takes responsibility for accurately scanning items and obtaining payment. Without that oversight, brands rely on an honor system. When no one is watching, it’s a piece of cake to switch a lower-cost item for an expensive one, switch barcodes, and not scan all items.
The risk of enforcement is low. If a consumer is caught with an unscanned item, they have the perfect explanation: it was an honest error. Proving otherwise may be impossible, making enforcement very difficult.
Consumers rationalize their behavior. The removal of human interaction may amplify the sense that stealing from a big corporation doesn’t hurt anyone. In today’s inflationary economy, financial stress adds another reason to rationalize theft. In addition, consumers may feel that retailers are saving money by reducing labor costs so they are entitled to share those savings. Or, they may feel this is their way of forcing the retailer to “pay them” for doing a job that was previously done by staff.
Image: Walmart
Deines said some common deterrents used by retailers today involve friction which could create negative experiences for consumers and staff.
The first is staff monitoring, the second is the use of smart security, the third is shutting down self-checkouts at busy times, the fourth is implementing receipt checks or rescans as consumers exit, and the fifth is using messages that caution consumers about theft.
“The first thing to think about is that first of all customers want self-checkout,” she said. “They do. There are a lot of customers that don’t want to use them but want to have a person but there’s a lot of customers that do want them. Eliminating them altogether is not a long-term solution and I don’t think that’s the way that retailers should go.
Self-Checkout at Shoppers Drug Mart (Image: Dustin Fuhs)Metro Front Street Self-Checkout (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
“However, I think if you’re in a situation where the loss is so extreme that you’re considering raising prices, I would say a temporary shutdown and rethink quickly would be better than raising prices. Retailers need to think that yes people want this type of technology but it has to work for the consumer. It has to be easier for them. A lot of that frustration that consumers are having when things aren’t working, it’s not a seamless experience for them, they are trying to get support from a staff member and the staff member is not there or is with someone else, if we can deal with that then we can deal with a lot of the accidental loss because a lot of this loss is not coming from intent. It’s coming from someone just making an honest mistake.
“The amount of loss that’s happened due to accidents is very high. So if we can deal with some of that frustration and make it more seamless then we’re going to shrink the shrink by doing that. That would be the most important thing that retailers can do.”
She said the other most important thing they can do is think of technology as working in concert with human beings.
“Removing human beings completely from the equation is not what customers want. They want to have access to a person in case something doesn’t work,” she said.
“And the other aspect of having a human being there is that it reinforces the sense that this is an organization where it’s humanistic. If we completely remove people from the equation then we reinforce the sense that this is just a big corporation. It’s just the big, evil bad you know multi-national corporation that’s here to stick it to the little guy. So we don’t want to have that happen. We want to reinforce that positive relationship with our staff and empower them to really make a human connection with people even if it’s just greeting someone and saying hi my name is Melinda if you need any help I’m right over here, just click this little button and I’ll be right there. Even something like that can go a long way to making people feel like oh there’s a person here which really changes the dynamics at self-checkout.”
Aaron Spivak and Lior Ohayon, Co-Founders, Hush Blankets at Yorkdale Pop-up (Image: Hush)
Craig and Aaron Spivak discuss the journey of Hush, from the brand’s inception as an innovative solution to a successful sleep company offering a wide range of functional and comfortable bedding products. They discuss Hush’s experiences with pop-up stores, distribution strategies, and plans for the future.
A transcript of the conversation can be found below.
If you prefer to listen to the audio version, it is available below:
The Interview Series audio podcasts by Retail Insider Canada are available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. Also check out our The Weekly audio podcast where Craig and Lee discuss popular content published on Retail Insider which is part of the The Retail Insider Podcast Network.
Craig Patterson 0:03 Welcome to the Retail Insider Video Interview series. I’m your host, Craig Patterson. And we’re joined here today with a special guest. This is Aaron Spivak. He’s the co-founder of Hush Blankets. Welcome, Aaron.
Aaron Spivak 0:15 Thank you for having me.
Craig Patterson 0:17 Tell us a bit about hush blankets and how it got started.
Aaron Spivak 0:19 As we started in January 2018 with the simple idea that we can create an innovation through iteration we saw tremendous demand weighted blankets. In fact, there was 300,000 searches a month. We bought every available option on the internet. It wasn’t that many at the time. They were too small, they were impossible to wash. To warm. The beads would fall to one side, there was sound like a rain stick in your bed. And we said “Well, a lot of people want the solution and the beautiful therapy and a deep sleep and a weighted blanked could provide. But what was available wasn’t really there yet. So we went on we develop a hush blanket which solves all those problems. And we quickly became one of the world’s largest selling weighted blankets and quickly had the largest catalog in the world weights from five pounds to 35 pounds. And obviously since then, we’ve developed fabrics that keep you cold. We’ve launched pillows and sheets and mattresses and beds and really developed ourselves into a fully functional sleep company that provides aesthetics but also functional bedding that is comfortable, cozy, soft, but also keeps you cool throughout the night.
Craig Patterson 1:33 Oh wow. Now in terms of getting started with this, what was your background before you co founded Hush?
Aaron Spivak 1:39 So before Hush, and a little bit before that I was I played hockey for 20 years as a typical Canadian. And while I was in school, I launched a cold pressed juice shop with my brothers and my mom. This was early 2013. And we launched that literally out of the basement of our house. It actually still exists until today and it has 11 locations in the cities and my brothers and my mom right they do a fantastic job. I got my first taste of like real I was always entrepreneurial lemonade stand window cleaner kid when I was like my first taste of really building something before Hush.
Hush Yorkdale Pop-up (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Craig Patterson 2:17 Oh, amazing. We got the hockey part in common but a little further than I did. I stopped around University. So that was that was a long time ago. You got an award top 30 under 30?
Aaron Spivak 2:30 Yeah, Forbes 30 under 30. With co founder Leo and I were nominated/chosen to under that category for marketing and ecommerce in 2021 which was a bit of an accomplishment. I mean, for us, it’s something that as an entrepreneur that you know about because you see it every year but you don’t actually know like how to get into it. Are they just going to choose me and does anyone even care? To be recognized for something that you’re working on by a third party establishment like Forbes, which is world renowned. Was was awesome, to be honest.
Craig Patterson 3:09 Hush was on Dragon’s Den, I think it was?
Aaron Spivak 3:12 Yeah, in 2019. We went on Dragon’s Den in the 14th season of the show and had an incredible episode that did wonders for our business. And we were able to show the world what we’re made out to showcase our giveback program where we donate one in every 10 of anything that we sell, which is over a million dollars of products every single year to various charities throughout Toronto, Canada, and now you’ve been the US. So it’s was awesome to kind of put ourselves out there for the first time on Dragon’s Den. We very fortunate that the episode went in a good way because we’ve all seen those crazy ones. And it was a good experience for sure.
Hush Yorkdale Pop-up (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Craig Patterson 3:51 Oh, yeah. Now, we did an article in Retail Insider about how specifically a pop up retail location that you had at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, which subsequently won an award. Can you tell us a little bit about that store and how things went?
Aaron Spivak 4:07 One thing we’ve always wanted was that we’ve got a half a million customers and every single person that ever purchased a Hush anything had to put their money up first before they can feel it. And of course they have 100 day trial and a super easy return procedure but like still you still have to buy a picture online, and then hope that it delivers. It was always something we wanted to do is to give people the opportunity to experience the product before buying it. And what better place to do it than Yorkdale Mall, something that is virtually impossible to get into let alone as a brand that doesn’t have any pre existing stores and let alone in the busiest time of the year which was November and December. We had a lot of things fall into place for that to happen. But the one thing we didn’t have was the keys that early, we only had 27 days to from the day, we got the keys to launching our first ever store, let alone a store in Yorkdale Mall. And we were literally building and organizing the store up until hours before we we opened it. It was a very stressful day, but ended up being an incredible execution with 10s of 1000s of people that eventually visited us. And something we wish was a permanent thing by the end of it. But it’s something that we want to continue to do as we develop the brand and give people opportunities to experience the products in different ways. Throughout our journey.
Craig Patterson 5:43 Amazing. Amazing. What did the store include? I think it was a bit experiential.
Aaron Spivak 5:49 We had multiple loungers that when people were able to just experience the products within the store, whether it be the weighted blanket, whether it be like a pair of sheets, or a pillow bed mattresses where people can try out a layout on. Then we had this thing we called the blackout room, which is a room in the black in the back of the store that had all of our products on it. So it was mattress was bed frame sheets with blankets, pillows, and eyemask. And then we had a three minute meditation that people would then put headphones on the ears blackout mask to go into total Zen meditation was something that we created that would also not only guide them through a meditation, but guide them through the products and ways to feel the differences. Because you might feel the sensation of the cooling mattress, the cooling sheets, the softness of the pillow mold into your head, you might also experience the benefits of a weighted blanket, which is deep touch presser stimulation, the weight on your body, and how do I feel that like. All in three minutes, and we had over 4000 people try this experience, which is way more than we thought. We thought okay, you know, everyone’s gonna want to try it on day one, and no one’s ever gonna want to try it again. But I mean, obviously, there was a peak in day one, but there was people every day that would come in, and they would try it. And it was really cool. Because one thing we wanted was not just to sell, we wanted to also have something for people that wanted to check us out. Who are you guys, I’ve never seen the brand before. We wanted an opportunity to interact with them beyond just trying to sell a product.
Craig Patterson 7:16 And do you think that blackout room drove sales at this pop up location?
Aaron Spivak 7:21 Definitely, I think almost majority of people that would try that and actually finish the meditation. So they really bought into the idea of being still for three minutes, which is very difficult when you’re walking around a mall, there’s just so many things going on. Would always leave with either something or a really high intent to purchase something. And because we’re an online brand, there’s a tremendous amount of people that would go home now solidify their decision of what they want. And then they would purchase it online and we would deliver it to their house for free.
Hush Yorkdale Pop-up (Image: Hush)Image: Hush
Craig Patterson 7:50 Excellent, excellent. Lets talk about inventory in the store. Because we spoke we were at the Retail Council Canada conference, that’s where I met you in person. And you were saying that some stuff had sold out and that you didn’t expect it to sell out so quickly. Can you tell us a little bit how sales were this Yorkdale location.
Aaron Spivak 8:05 Yeah, I mean, the sales were fantastic. And you know, opening up our first store, the inventory management in the store is way different than online. And and you only have so much storage in the back and you don’t quite know what you’re gonna sell. And some days you sell through so much at once you and then you replenish that like crazy next day you sells through so much of the other. But, you know, we brought our micro grab, we brought two products, actually, to the store that we’d never sold anywhere else, which was our knitted blanket, which is available now everywhere, which is quickly becoming the most popular weighted blanket. And we had our microgravity duvet which was our NASA technology that we infused into a duvet. So you can choose to be cold or hot by just flipping over your duvet. And this was a very experiential product because you can literally put your hand on the top hand on the bottom and feel the cold and feel the neutral. It was like wow. And we brought a couple of 100 of them was not available anywhere else. We had no marketing support it we’ve never even spoke about this product. And it flew and it’s sold out just a handful of days. And we were stuck because we did not expect anyone to buy something I’ve never even heard of before. But it was also cool to see the difference between online and in person is you can really have a unique shopping experience in person. Even if it’s not the exact same online so many of us feel like whatever’s online has to be in stored and whatever’s in store has to be online it has to be the same all the time we were able to actually give people a unique experience and a unique offering in the store that definitely resonated with them and now we sell it online of course and it’s obviously an incredible product online but it was all came from that initial unforeseen demand and store.
Craig Patterson 9:50 Interesting now you were saying that you’re thinking of doing more of these physical store pop up activations? What would that future store experience be? Do you see any learnings or anything You might want to do a little bit differently or add to or tell me a bit about what you would envision for a future pop up.
Aaron Spivak 10:05 Yeah, I think we definitely want to have more time, things 28 days is like, you have to factor in electrical and painting like there’s just not enough time. But if we were to have more time be able to plan, I would loved to have had an opportunity for when you visited the store. But you know, have more of an opportunity for flow. And for our store was very split like friend and back. So you either kind of hung out on the front and were interested in the accessories or you hung out in the back and interested in the mattress, the experience. And it was done like that for a reason. Because a lot of the Hush customers is an accessory base customer and the do do obviously enjoy the mattresses, but it’s not the forefront of the brand. So that’s kind of the way we organize the store. Because a lot of things were fixed, we had to work with what we had. But in a perfect state. What we love is to create a flow. And an experiential flow is you know, you come in typical people go right, where they just love to go right. And we would drive almost like a circle, you’d come in and you would come out from the other side. And we would set up our registers differently. Because we had iPad registers, it was very difficult for us to like have a designated checkout area, it was kind of like anywhere. So you could be like entering the store. And it could be someone checking out like right in front of you. And then you can be halfway through your maze, it could be someone checking out halfway through. And we really wanted an area where people can just in the future check out. We had our like embroidery station, which was fantastic. It was totally free. So anyone who bought a pillow and a pillowcase. They were able to embroider theirs right in front of the store. So there’s sort of things that we just loved about it. But I think moving forward keep a lot of those things experiential, the blackout room, the embroidery station, but we we create a little bit of a flow where there was no one impeding in your way. There was no sale happening in front of you, you’re able to actually even with someone or unassisted walk through the store experience everything has has to offer. And even if you leave without purchasing anything, you understand who we are, what we stand for, and what our products feel like.
Craig Patterson 12:09 Yeah, because that pop up could drive sales in the future online. If a person goes in they become educated on the on what Hush is. Now, Sleep Country had acquired – was it all of Hush?
Aaron Spivak 12:23 It is all of Hush but it’s broken up into components. They acquired just over half the business that will acquire the rest over 36 months.
Craig Patterson 12:33 Okay, okay. Excellent. Yeah, now with Sleep Country – they’ve got partnerships with retailers like WalMart at Indigo. Is Hush going to become part of that as well as it will it be profiled or carried in physical spaces like say Walmart, indigo or other retailers, or even sleep country stores?
Aaron Spivak 12:49 Yes, I mean, Hush is in 2500 stores right now are there TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom in the US. And then a handful of smaller chains all throughout. So we have the kind of our own distribution program, not within Sleep Country. But there’s, you know, I always tell people, there’s nothing like having the resources to pull on when we need it. And Sleep Country’s a 27-year old business with close to 300 locations. And for the most part, I mean, everyone in the country knows their jingle. I mean, they have such a strong brand. And they’ve built such a really a beautiful business over the course of a couple of decades, or almost three decades. So for us – a young, up and coming very disruptive, new brand in the space, we get to keep our mojo and do our own thing and go into stores that we see best fit and makes sense for us. But in the back of our mind, we always get to pull on on certain resources if we need if we need help with a distribution if we need help with a packaging, like whatever we need. It’s there for us, which is like a superpower. But in terms of when we’re going into a soup country store. I mean, I would hope so I would I would love to be in a Sleep Country store. I mean, those type of decisions aren’t up to us. But you know, for us, it’s always about building the brand and finding experiences really serving our customers. And I know a lot of people say that but we actually go as far above and beyond to deliver for the people that support us.
Craig Patterson 14:31 Now a lot of brands are going direct to consumer, you know, some of them well let’s use say Nike as an example. You could get Nike shoes perhaps in a DSW or or you know, in a multi brand retailer but now they’re opening their own stores and in some cases pulling back on wholesale. Where do you see that moving with with with hush and just even generally in the industry?
Aaron Spivak 14:51 I mean, I think if you peel back the onion a little bit it’s all about margin and and there’s some brands that the wholesale margin is just perfect. And it makes sense. And that’s the model that you want to run in scale, that is serve your wholesale retailers in a brand like Nike that has such a big brand dominance. They don’t necessarily need third party distribution, they can really house it all themselves, or they can, you know, play in the world of different collections for different areas of the business. You know, I went to a outlet store the other day that had Nike and the other shoe for like $80, you know, maybe the Nike store is only selling $250 Plus, and it’s always the newest and greatest and the brightest, and the you know, the sexiest shoe, so there’s ways to develop different channels within the brands. I think it’s always more difficult for a younger brand like us to do that, you know, and it’s always important to build the foundation first. And there’s a, you know, building our core product line and building who we are what we stand for, to the point where eventually, yeah, it could be like a Nike and be like, Hey, we have this collection that’s maybe lower price and sells in these retailers and this collection that’s maybe higher price and sells exclusively in our stores. But I think there’s many ways for brands to get creative. But it’s the key word is brands, it’s where the brand is, is it mature enough? Does it have enough of a pull and what’s the goal and for us, the goal is to spread the brand as much, as much as possible, get into as many people’s beds as we can. And distribution through wholesale channels, as long along with growing through channels is for us the best way to do that.
Hush Yorkdale Pop-up (Image: Hush)
Craig Patterson 16:33 Terrific, terrific now, not necessarily to do with Hush specifically. But you’ve revived a bit of a newsletter and a blog, you want to talk a bit about that. And you’ve talked about being a leader, you’ve got all kinds of interesting stuff in there, I subscribed.
Aaron Spivak 16:45 That’s awesome. Appreciate that. I mean, I’ve always, I’ve always used to sound like internal letters, notes, like paragraphs to friends, colleagues, people just kind of updating and, you know, I started doing it, and I stopped, I started doing it to, you know, maybe a group of 10 or so people and one of them reached out to me, he’s like, I started looking forward to this message and you stop what’s going on, I’m gonna let them know I do this tantalizing I don’t need to do this, I don’t see anyone sees value. And I started to take a different perspective. And you know, what we’re up to, might be a value might be interesting, might be cool for anybody. And for us, it’s about telling the story and sharing as much as possible. It’s almost like a diary, in a sense. And it’s an update on, on what we’re doing what I’m doing. And I’m starting to like it. And it’s it’s really cool and fun to share the good, bad and the ugly of what goes on. In our life, I find so much of what we see online is curated. It’s like, you know, if I go on LinkedIn, it’s only the best news ever. And if I go here, and if I go on Instagram, it’s the prettiest picture that you have. And if I go on Twitter, it’s like the most thought provoking thing you can possibly say. And it’s like, well, people want to know what’s actually going on. I mean, like, we hear this and if you know, you go on the news, always bad stuff. So like we we know what we’re getting, let’s let’s peel back the onion. So I try to do that with my newsletter, and I appreciate you subscribing and it’s a work in progress. I think this is going to eventually continue to evolve.
Craig Patterson 18:20 Great, we should put a link in the show notes for this as well if anyone else wants to subscribe to it. And and then one final question. I was thinking of strapping on the skates again, just more recreationally I’m about I think 20 years older than you are. I mean, you know may not look it but I think I’m playing hockey again. Getting out there doing that.
Aaron Spivak 18:39 I love to play pickup like you know, I I always tell people like there’s nothing for me at least the only thing in the world where I’m actually not only not on my phone, but not even think if I do yoga, I’m not on my phone, but I’m kind of thinking you know, when I’m on the ice I’m only thinking about the head there’s nothing can pull me away from just this game. And I don’t even think about phone I think when nothing else. And it’s like I put that helmet on and I’m gladiator going to war and it’s it’s it’s a feeling that as only hockey players really know but it’s it’s something that that’s why I continue to play pickup and as I try to get out there as much as possible, because it’s the feeling that you just can’t replace.
Craig Patterson 19:25 Amazing, amazing. I totally get it. It puts you it puts you in the moment, right? It’s it puts you in a zone, you can’t really think of anything else you might get hit by a puck or a person. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been really informative. I love talking to entrepreneurs, people who’ve won awards for their stores. So thank you for joining us. This is Aaron Spivak of a co founder of Hush blankets. Thank you.
Aaron Spivak 19:48 Thank you so much.
Craig Patterson 19:50 I’m Craig Patterson. I’m the founder and publisher of Retail Insider, as well as CEO of Retail Insider Media limited which includes Retail Insider the magazine. Thank you so much everyone today for another are watching this on our YouTube channel or listening to it on our podcast channel. Be sure to subscribe. Take care and bye for now.
Subscribe, Rate, and Review our Retail Insider Podcast!
Drop us a line at Craig@Retail-Insider.com. You can also rate us in Apple Podcasts or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show!
Background Music Credit: Hard Boiled Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Dolce Vita's New York flagship store in SoHo, New York City. Image: Dolce Vita
Retailer Steve Madden is launching its first ever store for its Dolce Vita brand in Canada with a new pop-up location slated for the Metropolis at Metrotown in Vancouver.
Jennifer Walewski, President of Steve Madden Canada, said the store will be opening August 24. The store is 1,286 square feet.
“The current pop-up is a small boutique feel. We are looking to turn this into a permanent location. We had a very strong wholesale business throughout the years and we launched our website in November which had a really great reaction. A lot of customers also reach out to us to open up stores.
“Right now we’re are going to be testing the concept through pop-ups but we do feel there’s going to be a strong potential to open permanent locations across Canada.”
Dolce Vita’s New York flagship store in SoHo, New York City. Image: Dolce Vita
She said Dolce Vita sees a minimum of five stores in the future in Canada.
“It will be like a very small square footage footprint in each of the malls we decide to go in but we feel there’s a very strong demand. We have a lot of interest for customers to have brick and mortar. We see a minimum of five stores in Canada,” said Walewski.
There are 24 Steve Madden stores in Canada.
Dolce Vita has two stores in the U.S. – in Melrose, Los Angeles, and Soho, New York City.
“The U.S. has a slightly different strategy. They had a big surge of the brand during the pandemic. Their online business is doing great and they also have a very strong wholesale business.” said Walewski. “The Soho location just opened earlier this year and they’re seeing fantastic results.”
Dolce Vita’s New York flagship store in SoHo, New York City. Image: Dolce Vita
Dolce Vita’s 8414 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, CA
Dolce Vita’s New York flagship store in SoHo, New York City.
She said the Dolce Vita brand’s customer demographic is focused on women from 25 to 55 years old.
“Dolce Vita began in New York, and offers a quality product at an attainable price point. From dressy heels to waterproof boots to everyday sneakers, we have styles available for everyone, “added Walewski. “And it’s definitely a brand that’s on the upswing.”
“In terms of the look and feel of it, it’s a very unique customer that we’re going after.”
The brand also has handbags.
Walewski said opening in Metrotown is a perfect location for the customer demographic the brand is targeting. There is also significant demand from the west coast.
Ben Labrecque
“This is a great opportunity for Dolce Vita to “step into” the growing Canadian retail market, and an even greater opportunity for Canadian consumers to purchase design-driven, quality products at an attainable price point. We look forward to facilitating and being part of Dolce Vita’s strategic retail roll out strategy,” said Ben Labrecque, Managing Partner, Client Services at Oakmont Real Estate Services.
Walewski said the brand has a large wholesale distribution in about 200 accounts across Canada from small to big stores.
Pro Hockey Life has unveiled a brand-new store layout and shopping experience for customers visiting its Hamilton location which will act as a prototype for new stores in the future.
The Hamilton store, under the Canadian Tire umbrella, features a new layout that is easy to navigate, accessible and ultimately designed to provide a better shopping experience for customers with the help of adaptable merchandising, wider aisles, expert staff, and a wide assortment of equipment for players at all levels.
The revamped layout includes newly enhanced in-store service offerings such as the Shooting Lanes, the Pro Shop and three Custom Fitting Centres for skates, protective gear and goalie equipment – all of which have been designed to help players test and find gear that will improve their game.
Pro Hockey Life Hamilton (Image: Pro Hockey Life)
Mike Magennis, SVP of General Merchandising, said the Hamilton store is 18,000 square feet.
“We’ve revised the entire layout and expanded in our service area of the store which is one of the key reasons why customers come into Pro Hockey Life,” he said. “It’s really designed to allow the player to come in and get everything that they need to play the game of hockey irrespective of what level they’re playing in.
“We call ourselves the hockey store. We talk about the player but there’s other segments that we target. So we talk about the coach, we talk about the fan, and we talk about the hockey parent.
“So as we think about what we need to do within this store we’re really looking at all those different groups.”
Pro Hockey Life Hamilton (Image: Pro Hockey Life)
Pro Hockey Life has 16 stores in Canada – nine in Ontario, four in Alberta, one each in BC, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. Stores are from 15,000 to 21,000 square feet with locations primarily standalone in shopping centres.
“(Hamilton) is the first one we’ve done so we’re obviously monitoring this . . . Early reads on it, I would say we’re very happy with it. We’re going to leave this in market for at least a year but this will be the foundation as we think about the stores we’re going to open next year.”
Canadian Tire recently acquired Bed, Bath and Beyond locations and announced that as a result Pro Hockey Life will be opening four new stores in Ontario. The revamped Hamilton store will act as a test-and-learn concept with the potential for future enhancements as the brand prepares to open new locations.
The former Bed, Bath and Beyond locations are in London, Barrie, Kingston and Sudbury.
“As we think about where we’re going with this floor plan, we believe it has the potential to be rolled out into the existing network. So that would be something that we would contemplate over the outlook, call it the next three or four years,” said Magennis.
“The one thing about our brand is it’s pretty pervasive. So even though we might not have stores in every province, we end up shipping through our e-commerce business to every province in Canada. We’ve got a virtual destination in terms of how we think about the brand and its connectioin with customers across the country.”
Pro Hockey Life at South Edmonton CommonEntrance 6 leading to the “Sports Neighbourhood” at CrossIron Mills. Photo: Canada247
Magennis said many of the traditional stores were designed to mimic coming out of a dressing room to go into an arena. So in many of the stores there are tunnels coming into the centre of the store.
“What we’ve done in (the Hamilton) store is we’ve taken that tunnel out and really opened up the merchandising so you can get a really good sense of the store and where everything is in the store,” he said.
The Hamilton store is located at 1779 Stone Church Road East.
The Premier Pro Shop, Fitting Centres and Shooting Lane have been designed to help players test and find gear that fits right and will ultimately improve their game.
Pro Hockey Life Hamilton (Image: Pro Hockey Life)
The renovation highlights include:
An entirely new store layout that has transformed the 18,000 square feet of retail space into an open and accessible shopping experience with adaptable merchandising, an easy to navigate layout, expert staff and a wide assortment of equipment geared to help players at all levels play their best;
High performing, customer driven Premier Pro Shop offering skate sharpening including multiple Sparx Automation machines along with repairs from expert technicians. The Pro Shop offers tune ups, repairs, skate stretching, replacement steel and profiling services to help players find the right profile for their game;
The Pro Shop now offers Pro Sharp, the full profiling system from Bauer Hockey. Pro Sharp allows skaters to cater their blades to their specific skating style while enhancing both the level of comfort and performance of the skates;
Three Fitting Centres, each dedicated to its own category of equipment (skates, protective gear and goalie equipment), where customers can get assistance from expert staff on everything from the perfect gear fit to product recommendations, making it easier to get access to all the great hockey products in the store;
The Shooting Lane offers a unique shooting experience for players to measure their accuracy, shot speed, and reaction time. Expert associates will help players test sticks in the Shooting Lane before purchase by examining their shots and making recommendations on appropriate stick specs specific to each player and their shooting style;
Goalie Equipment Customization allows goalies to build their dream set of pads, blockers, gloves, stick and chest protector for players at all levels of play. Customization can include anything from colours and graphics to specs and sizing and can be ordered with the help of expert staff in-store.
A recent investigation into Lululemon casts doubt on the ability of Canada’s new Modern Slavery Act to tackle labour abuse. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
The Canadian government recently passed the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act. The new law is designed to address forced labour and child labour in supply chains by requiring companies to disclose their efforts in eliminating labour abuse from their supply chains.
The legislation, known colloquially as Canada’s Modern Slavery Act, does not require large Canadian companies to actually take actions to prevent or reduce the risk of forced labour and child labour in their supply chains.
Our recent investigation at the Governing Forced Labour in Supply Chains Project into the Canadian apparel company Lululemon Athletica casts doubt on the ability of this new law to tackle labour abuse.
The new law falls short of what is required to make large corporations exercise due diligence to prevent labour abuse from occurring within their supply chains.
Remembering Rana Plaza
This new Canadian law comes a decade after the tragic collapse of the nine-storey Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh that killed nearly 1,130 garment workers and injured over 2,500. The disaster raised concerns about the ability of voluntary corporate initiatives to address labour rights violations and protect workers.
In response to the tragedy, an agreement between brands, retailers and trade unions called the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh was established. The accord was designed to improve workplace safety and prevent future accidents in the garment sector.
Bangladeshi garment workers, activists and relatives of workers participate in a protest marking the four-month anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh in August 2013. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)
Legislation aimed at addressing forced labour in supply chains has the potential to address these weak corporate initiatives — but only if the law is strong enough.
In response to this accusation, Lululemon stated it had zero tolerance for forced labour, was committed to all the workers in its global supply chain and regularly monitored vendors globally through a due diligence process.
Lululemon supplier concerns
Lululemon does not own or operate any of the manufacturing or raw materials facilities used to make its apparel. Its April 2023 supplier list revealed the company sourced from suppliers located in four out of the 10 worst countries for workers’ rights violations according to the 2021 Global Rights Index created by International Trade Union Confederation: Bangladesh, Colombia, the Philippines and Turkey.
According to the supplier list, one of Lululemon’s largest manufacturing facilities is in Bangladesh, with over 13,000 workers — 70 per cent of whom are women. Despite this, Lululemon has not signed the 2021 International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry.
A worker packages spools of cotton yarn at a Huafu Fashion plant, as seen during a government organized trip for foreign journalists, in Aksu in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in April 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Two reports found that from 2018 to 2019, workers at a Lululemon supplier factory had to work two to three nights without being allowed to go home or take necessary breaks.
While a 2022 follow-up investigation determined this situation had been rectified by Lululemon and the supplier, some workers reported they still felt unable to refuse overtime requests.
According to the follow-up report, the supplier at the same factory also engaged in serious union-busting tactics, including firing the union’s elected leaders and reports from workers that some managers had threatened to close the factory if the workers unionized.
The follow-up report found that while many of the anti-union issues had been addressed, some supervisors reportedly made comments that could be construed as still discouraging workers from joining the union.
Corporate transparency issues
Lululemon has several codes and policies in place to address forced labour. One is the Lululemon Global Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, which states that employees and vendors are to adhere to labour and employment standards in the countries they operate in, unless the code sets a higher standard.
Employees are encouraged to report any violations to this code internally through Lululemon or externally using third-party tools such as the international Integrity Line. This phone line allows employees to anonymously report complaints at any time.
However, third-party complaint avenues pose challenges, including requiring tech access, trusting unfamiliar third parties and filing a complaint that protects one’s anonymity while still providing enough detail about worker issues.
Another code Lululemon has in place is the Vendor Code of Ethics and its accompanying Benchmarks policy. Vendors are responsible for enforcing key aspects of the code of ethics, including creating grievance and disciplinary systems for violations and training workers on the policy’s content. When vendors use subcontractors, they are the ones responsible for ensuring subcontractors adhere to the policy.
In California, the United Kingdom and Australia, Lululemon is required by law to report on its efforts to detect, remedy and eradicate forced labour in its supply chains. However, the information necessary for evaluating the effectiveness of these initiatives is not available to researchers, the public or workers.
Crucial information about all the participants and purchasing practices in a supply chain, such as the amount of lead time suppliers are given for orders and whether suppliers get paid on time, are not provided. Additionally, information on how workers navigate Lululemon’s policies and grievance mechanisms is not publicly available.
Due diligence legislation needed
Our study raises concerns about the effectiveness of current transparency and disclosure laws as an effective tool for combating forced labour in supply chains.
Disclosure laws, like those in Canada’s new act, will not require Lululemon to reveal the type of information needed to ensure its suppliers are not abusing workers. Nor does the new law require large multinational corporations to take any steps to eradicate labour abuses in the supply chains.
Our study suggests disclosure laws are a form of window dressing that can be used by companies to project an image of social responsibility to consumers, rather than genuinely improving the working conditions for supply chain workers.
It’s time to require companies to take real steps to rid their supply chains of labour abuse. If Canada is to truly eradicate force labour in global supply chains, it needs mandatory due diligence legislation that involves supply chain workers at every stage of the process — before another disaster like Rana Plaza occurs.
Editor’s note: Prior to publishing this story, The Conversation sought comment from Lululemon about how the company is complying with the new Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, as well as some other issues raised in this article. Lululemon did not respond.
By Gayathri Krishna, PhD Candidate, School of Labour Studies, McMaster University, Judy Fudge LIUNA Enrico Henry Mancinelli Chair of Global Labour Issues, School of Labour Studies, McMaster University, Kaitlyn Matulewicz, Researcher, Governing Forced Labour in Supply Chains Project
Lightspeed Commerce Inc., a leading provider of unified point-of-sale (POS) and payments solutions, has unveiled its latest features that include Time Clock, Shipment History, and Automated Ordering. These features are designed to streamline merchant operations and boost efficiency, helping businesses thrive in today’s competitive landscape.
The Challenges of the Current Economic Climate
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, retailers face unprecedented challenges in managing day-to-day operations efficiently. With mounting responsibilities and limited resources, entrepreneurs require innovative tools to simplify processes and optimize performance.
Lightspeed Commerce Steps Up to the Plate
Lightspeed Commerce, the all-in-one POS and payments platform, continues to lead the way in empowering ambitious entrepreneurs. With the launch of Time Clock, Shipment History, and Automated Ordering, the company redefines how merchants handle critical aspects of their businesses, providing them with the time and focus they need to engage with customers and drive growth.
Introducing Time Clock While Saying Goodbye to Manual Timesheets
Time Clock marks a significant milestone for Lightspeed Retail. This integrated feature eliminates the need for outdated time tracking systems or juggling multiple unintegrated apps, thereby reducing training and compliance costs.
Key Features of Time Clock:
Punch in and out: Time Clock enables employees to record their start and end times accurately, ensuring a transparent attendance record.
Efficient tracking: Traditional paper timesheets and Excel spreadsheets often lead to errors and consume valuable time. Time Clock streamlines time tracking with a single, precise solution.
Seamless integration: Time Clock’s integration within Lightspeed Retail eliminates the need for employees to switch between different systems, allowing retailers to keep their payroll systems up-to-date effortlessly.
“Time Clock is a game-changer for retail businesses,” says Ana Wight, GM of Retail at Lightspeed. “By simplifying time tracking and payroll processing, merchants can focus on what truly matters: connecting with their customers.”
Enhanced Inventory Management with Shipment History
Shipment History addresses a common pain point for merchants: tracking shipments received against placed purchase orders. Manual reconciliation becomes a thing of the past with this powerful new feature.
Key Advantages of Shipment History:
A single source of truth: Retailers can now effortlessly track received orders, whether they arrive in one shipment or multiple packages.
Building an archive: Each purchase order maintains a clear shipment history, offering retailers valuable insights into their inventory management.
Streamlined processes: Shipment History saves time and reduces the risk of errors during invoice reconciliation.
Automated Ordering: The End of Guesswork in Inventory Management
Powered by Lightspeed Analytics, Automated Ordering revolutionizes the way merchants handle inventory replenishment. By analyzing data and forecasting sales patterns, this feature suggests what, when, and in what quantities to order, eliminating guesswork and maximizing efficiency.
Staying Ahead with Lightspeed Commerce
Time Clock, Shipment History, and Automated Ordering are the latest additions to Lightspeed’s impressive suite of innovations. These updates further strengthen the company’s commitment to empowering businesses, complementing recent releases such as NuORDER Assortments, Unified Payments, B2B Catalog, Scanner App, Price Management, Advanced Marketing, Enhanced eCom, and User Permissions.
Retail Insider is streamlining its Canadian retail news from around the web to include a handful of top news stories that can be viewed quickly during the day. Here are the top stories from the past 48 hours
