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 24 hours.
adidas Halo Store at CF Toronto Eaton Centre (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Retail giant adidas has confirmed it is consolidating its U.S. and Canadian operations, Retail Insider has learned.
“We are combining our U.S. and Canada teams to work most effectively and ensure we are positioned for continued success in an ever-changing marketplace,” said the company in a statement.
“Historically, these teams have operated separately as two individual markets. Therefore, this restructure will enable more speed and cohesion across the entire North American market. The implementation of these changes has started and will conclude by the spring. Business operations will be mainly based out of our U.S. headquarters in Portland, Oregon.”
The company has 33 retail stores in Canada.
adidas Canada Head Office in Woodbridge, Ontario (Image: Trade Electrical)
“Unfortunately this will lead to a reduction of our Canada based corporate employees. We sincerely thank our entire team in Canada for their many contributions to adidas. We are committed to keeping an open dialogue with impacted employees and supporting all our people throughout the transition to our new integrated One NAM organization,” said adidas.
“The decision does not have any effect on the availability of adidas products to consumers in Canada. Consumers in Canada will continue to be able to shop for adidas products online, in our retail stores and at our wholesale partners.
“We thank Alim Dhanji for his contributions to adidas. As GM for Canada, Alim delivered strong results over the past two years. His growth mindset, innovation and leadership positioned the Canada team for continued success. We wish him all the best.”
Recently Dhanji announced on his LinkedIn profile that he will be joining Equinox Group as Chief People Officer and be based in New York City.
“Equinox Group is a high growth collective of the world’s most influential, experiential, differentiated lifestyle brands that includes the Equinox Fitness Clubs, Blink Fitness, Pure Yoga, SoulCycle Inc., Equinox Hotels and Equinox Media,” he wrote.
Alim Dhanji
“I was attracted by their notion that fitness can empower a life well-lived and foster a community of high-performance individuals. Throughout its 30 year history, Equinox continues to lead and disrupt a category it singularly defined, operating globally.
“Everyone I met at Equinox beams with energy, passion and creativity. With such an amazing team, the potential is truly unlimited – a team I’m fortunate to join.
“I thank Scott DeRue and Harvey Spevak for their confidence in me to lead the people function. I can’t wait to get started and build on their strong growth momentum by reimagining talent strategies that create an inclusive, inspiring and rewarding career destination for high-performance people.”
adidas at The Tenor in Downtown Toronto (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
The adidas brand has evolved in recent years to meet the challenging retail landscape. The brand flagship is the Halo store, which is the store at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre. One Halo store exists today but there are plans to move into the Vancouver market.
The Toronto store is nearly 13,000-square-foot space and adidas opened its first Halo store in New York City on 5th Avenue in 2016, and have subsequently opened many halo stores in key cities around the world including Dubai and London most recently.
Another concept that adidas has launched is the outdoor first branded Terrex store in North America in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver.
ADIDAS TERREX KITSILANO (CNW Group/adidas Canada)
Globally the first Terrex branded store opened in Munich, Germany in November 2021. Terrex is adidas’ outdoor brand with an extensive product assortment of footwear, apparel, and accessories.
The location chosen on West 4th in Kitsilano is a very busy destination for the young urban outdoor enthusiast and is just under 2,300 square feet.
The Collection is for adidas Originals – a space that curates moments and captures culture, contrasting the past stories with a future vision, just as the Original brand does. The first store will open in Canada next year at massive mixed-use development The Well in downtown Toronto. Bordering Front, Spadina and Wellington, The Well is an extension of the urban vibrancy of King West. It is on 7.8 acres and will include 320,000 square feet of total retail space, 1.2 million square feet of office space, 1.5 million square feet of new residential space and 1,700 condominiums and purpose-built rental suites.
Future adidas at The Well (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
The store will be 5,800 square feet and is located in the highest profile, most visible space of the project, at the main entrance of The Well and surrounded on three sides by windows.
It also has plans to introduce this year The Pulse at some existing stores that will be renovated. It will be a factory outlet for value seeking consumers.
And in the past year adidas has also worked out a partnership to bring its products in dedicated spaces within several Indigo stores in Canada as well as online.
Pohlmann talks about how more than $2 trillion in business assets is at stake, how more than three-quarters of small business owners are planning to exit their business within the next decade, top reasons for retirement, and how only nine per cent of business owners have a formal succession plan.
The Video Interview Series by Retail Insider is available on YouTube.
Connect with Mario Toneguzzi, a veteran of the media industry for more than 40 years and named in 2021 a Top Ten Business Journalist in the world and the only Canadian – to learn how you can tell your story, share your message and amplify it to a wide audience. He is Senior News Editor with Retail Insider and owner of Mario Toneguzzi Communications Inc. and can be reached at mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com.
Also check out the other series offered by Retail Insider, including The Weekly podcast and The Interview Series, which are both available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Podcasts, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Simplecast and other podcast players.
After buying the Elgin Centre mall in St. Thomas, Ontario a few years ago, the Burstein brothers have invested heavily into the property with the addition of several new retailers to the old Zellers space as well as the upcoming addition of a hotel and future plans for more development on the site.
Jay Burstein, property manager, involved with leasing and one of the owners, said the addition of a JYSK store in December fills out the last remaining section of the former Zellers space at the mall, joining other retailers Dollarama and Giant Tiger.
The new JYSK store has an exterior entrance as well as an entrance accessible from inside the mall.
Also taking up space in the old Zellers spot is the new Holiday Inn Express & Suites Hotel, a 95-room and $17-million project, that is scheduled to open in March or April.
Former Zellers and Current JYSK and Giant Tiger at Elgin Centre (Image: Elgin Centre)JYSK at Elgin Centre (Image: Elgin Centre)
He said the area of the mall where Zellers had vacated years ago was pretty much a “dead zone” for a long time.
“St. Thomas is a growing city. It’s growing quite a bit. They went through some economic hardship back (a few years ago) with some plant closings. A Ford plant closed there and a Sterling Truck plant closed. But since then there’s been some really good things happening there. There was an Amazon plant that was just completed recently on the former Ford plant site,” said Burstein. “So that’s going to add a lot of jobs to the area.
“The city is really pushing to build at least 2,000 homes over the next four years. 500 homes a year. They’re encouraging the development of that. The city really is in growth mode. They recently assembled 800 acres of industrial land. I think they’re trying to attract one of those large EV plants that manufactures batteries for electric cars.
“It’s very close to London which is a benefit. It’s a benefit that even if you’re living in St. Thomas you could easily have a job in London. St. Thomas is also very close to Port Stanley which is a beautiful town on Lake Erie. In the summers, it’s really busy there. So I think the hotel will benefit from that as well. We feel that the hotel is going to be really busy and that will help fuel the mall as well.
Holiday Inn Express & Suites Hotel at Elgin Centre (Image: Elgin Centre)Rendering: Holiday Inn Express & Suites Hotel at Elgin Centre
“It seems to be a really happening place. More retailers are coming into St. Thomas which is long overdue to be honest.”
Burstein and his four brothers own the Bursco Group, a family-owned commercial real estate investment and development company based in Brampton, Ontario.
The brothers purchased the former Elgin Mall in October 2016.
“The attraction is that it was a very well kept, well maintained property. We also felt that there was potential with it. The potential and the condition of the property, even though it needed some paving, it had really good bones,” said Burstein. “The mall had the appeal of having some very good existing national tenants to build on, including Metro, Fit4Less and Galaxy Cinemas.”
Elgin Centre is a 288,000-square-foot shopping centre located at 417 Wellington Street (just east of Fairview Avenue and easily accessible from Talbot Street (Hwy 3), in St. Thomas. Formerly Elgin Mall, Elgin Centre with over 1,200 free parking spaces, is the only enclosed shopping mall in St. Thomas and Elgin County and has been a shopping mainstay in the community since 1976.
With over 50 stores, Elgin Centre has a mix of junior box national retailers, local shops, boutiques, fitness centre, 18 hole mini golf, services, pharmacy, restaurants and continues to transform. Galaxy Cinemas at Elgin Centre is the only movie theatre (six screen) in St. Thomas and Elgin County. Other tenants include Fit4 Less by Goodlife, Metro, Coles Books, and Ardene. Over the past two to three years, new national tenants and local business have been added and $3.5 million has been spent in improvements.
Image: Elgin Centre
Burstein said the mall is about 92 per cent occupied.
“We feel that there’s some good synergy there between the hotel and mall. The mall will bring amenities to the hotel’s guests and the guests will bring customers to the shops and restaurants,” he said.
“(The property) is still kind of an ongoing project. We want to get some other tenants and we have some in mind. We also want to add some restaurants. In addition to that, when we did the zoning for the hotel we also got zoning for apartments or condos. That’s what we’re going to be looking at doing next. Along Wellington Street we’d like to add some residential and perhaps some mixed-use.”
Elgin Centre Leasing Map
In a news release, JYSK, an international retailer of Scandinavian home furnishings, described itself as one of the world’s fastest growing retailers with over 3,000 stores in 48 countries.
The new JYSK store in St. Thomas is just over 31,000 square feet.
“JYSK has opened or will open a total of four new stores in Canada this year (2022): St Thomas, ON, Thunder Bay, ON, Wetaskiwin, AB, and Granby, QC. With many more stores to come,” said the retailer.
In 1996 JYSK opened its first Canadian store in Coquitlam, BC, and today there are 63 stores across the country.
“With food inflation at record highs, it is no surprise to learn that there are well-publicized cases of theft occurring. But you can also expect more cameras, security guards, and maybe even anti-theft devices directly on the food products.”
Grocery theft has always been a major problem, but with food inflation as it is, shopkeepers now fear the wrongdoers more than before. In December, some Ontarians visited stores in Trois-Rivières, no less, to steal $4,000 worth of meat. In Sherbrooke, a man was arrested following a shoplifting incident a few days before Christmas, and two other people are still on the loose. They had stolen over $2,000 worth of groceries.
Since they got caught, these thefts were probably perpetrated by amateurs, who may have been already doing this for a while. The volume and the amounts tell us, though, that they were targeting a resale market, likely in the food service industry.
These two cases are obviously known due to media coverage. But most such incidents are handled by store management itself. Cases of grocery store theft are grossly under-reported and obtaining food theft data is extremely challenging. Most thefts are in-store, off-the-shelf, of only a few products at most, and usually thefts by people driven by desperation, negligence, or a mixture of both. The most troublesome and financially damaging incidents for grocers are those carried out by internal employees. These cases rarely make headlines, due to their sensitive nature as the optics can be embarrassing. Volume and valuation for these cases are usually more important. Theft in general in food retail is taboo. But with the food inflation rate exceeding the general inflation rate for more than a year now, the industry realizes that their theft problem is worse than before.
According to some industry data, an average-sized food retail store in Canada can have between $2,000 and $5,000 worth of groceries stolen per week. With the relatively narrow profit margins in grocery, this amount is huge. To cover losses, grocers need to raise prices, so in the end, we all pay for grocery theft.
Some stores are increasing security to prevent theft these days. There are certainly the security guards at the entrance, but there are also more and more security personnel dressed in civilian clothes, patrolling the stores all day pretending to do their shopping. It’s a discreet tactic but one that is very effective.
Elsewhere in the world, certain methods are much more visible. Some stores in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere have even installed anti-theft alarms directly on certain products, especially on meat cuts, cheese, and confectionery. No merchant has done the same thing in Canada, at least not yet. But don’t be surprised if you see these devices here in Canada at some point. Also, you can expect more cameras, more surveillance, and more security in general as your favourite grocer won’t have a choice.
The other challenge facing grocers are self-checkouts. In a recent survey by our Lab, more than 65% of consumers now prefer to use a self-checkout with an order of fewer than twenty items. They are increasingly popular. But monitoring at the point of service is challenging. The technology is still not yet ready to limit theft. Limiting labour and handling required by the consumer at the exit during the self-checkout process is not easy. Using the smart cart which calculates everything automatically or a giant black box in which we put all our products at checkout and calculate everything in a few seconds can help. Canada, though, is still not there.
It was in Memphis, in 1916, where the world’s first supermarket opened, the Piggly Wiggly. In this new self-service supermarket, customers were allowed to visit the aisles on their own. Like today, a customer would receive a basket and choose from the various items they wanted. That was 107 years ago, and back then, the greatest fear was indeed theft.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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 24 hours.
Shuttered Shoo by Steve Madden at CF Toronto Eaton Centre on January 8th, 2022 (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
American footwear brand Steve Madden has shut the only store location for its multi brand concept store SHOO by Steve Madden that it launched in October of 2015 at CF Toronto Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. Plans had been in place for the concept to expand with multiple locations and that never materialized.
The SHOO-branded store in the mall featured a range of footwear brands owned by Steve Madden including the Steve Madden brand, Dolce Vita, Betsey Johnson, Blondo, GREATS, BB Dakota, and Mad Love. When it opened, brands Freebird and Brian Atwood were also present in the store.
When we first reported on SHOO over seven years ago, the retailer said that it was set to expand further into the Canadian market starting in 2016 with storefronts spanning 2,200 to 2,600 square feet — larger than the CF Toronto Eaton Centre location which was 1,667 square feet according to a mall lease plan. Steve Madden had retained a brokerage in Canada for the expansion though future locations for SHOO were never secured.
PHOTO: CF TORONTO EATON CENTRE
Image: Shoo by Steve Madden
Analysts at the time that the store opened praised the new concept store which aimed to build brand awareness for Madden’s sub-brands. Things were different at the time — Toronto-based Town Shoes was in operation (it shut down in 2018), and DSW Shoes was getting established in Canada and it is now said to be struggling. Other footwear retailers such as Shoes.com had entered the market at the time and have since shuttered, and even iconic shoe brand Aldo obtained bankruptcy protection during the pandemic to the surprise of many.
Footwear preferences have changed since the pandemic, and even before the pandemic more causal styles were seen on runways by big designers. Steve Madden’s brands appeared to include dressier styles of footwear at a time when sneakers have become increasingly popular. Thus brands such as Nike continue to open stores in Canada to expand distribution.
Ontario-based Redberry Restaurants is planning a massive expansion across Canada of its quick service brands which include Burger King, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.
Founded in 2005, Redberry is one of Canada’s largest QSR restaurant franchisees, owning and operating 135 Burger Kings, 14 Taco Bells and 24 Pizza Huts across the country. In 2019, it was purchased by Chicago-based City Capital Ventures.
Ken Otto
“We have a very exciting journey ahead of us,” said Ken Otto, CEO of Redberry which is based in Mississauga.
Image: Burger King Canada
“With Burger King, we have definitive agreements to build 120 more Burger Kings in the next seven years. That’s going to be a combination of about 50 stores to be built in Quebec and the others divided between Ontario and Manitoba. We also have an agreement with Burger King to renovate and fully remodel 54 more Burger Kings in the next three years and that’s on top of about 15 remodels that we did in 2022.
“For Taco Bell, we have an agreement to build 200 Taco Bells in Canada in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC over the next seven years. And we’ve completed two big remodels of very old Taco Bells.
“With Pizza Hut, we’ll be opening up three Pizza Huts in 2023 in and around Calgary and that’s the extent of our development with Pizza Hut.”
Otto said Burger King is one of the world’s best QSR burger brands.
Their “intensity of presence” in Canada is very low. So there’s plenty of opportunity for Whopper lovers, especially in Ontario and Quebec, to experience the brand.
“We operate 135 Burger Kings. We’re very pleased with their performance. We’re very pleased with the brand and the franchisor and the level of support. And just the power of the Burger King brand internationally, in the US and in Canada,” he said. “And we see just a whole bunch of opportunity for more Burger Kings in lots of communities across the country.
“Taco Bell again is one of the world’s best brands – 7,000 plus restaurants in the US and lots of growth internationally. Very relevant with the new consumer in QSR. And there’s not a lot of Taco Bells in Canada. There’s only 50 freestanding Taco Bells in the whole country. There’s 150 some odd Taco Bells as part of malls or part of Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell combos. And the portfolio of Taco Bells that we operate – the 14 stores – are very successful, very good sales, excellent margins. So we see just massive opportunity for that brand in Canada in the next seven years and ultimately more after that.”
Image: Redberry Restaurants
In early December, Redberry had a grand re-opening of Canada’s first-ever Burger King location in Windsor, Ontario. Located at 2850 Tecumseh Rd. E, Windsor, this inaugural Burger King first opened its doors in September 1969 and was recently completely renovated to include a new interior, an outdoor digital menu board in the Drive-Thru, and a modern new exterior. The overall design is focused on flexibility, innovation, and convenience to enhance the guest experience.
“This is a special location for both Burger King and Redberry, and we’re incredibly proud of the work that has gone into this renovation,” said Matt Wright, General Manager of Burger King Canada, at the time. “The guest experience is at the forefront of everything we do, and this design concept takes into consideration how our guests interact with Burger King, making the ordering and dining experience easier and more enjoyable.”
“Redberry is thrilled to accelerate both new unit growth and remodels for the Burger King brand. This remodel is especially dear to us,” said Otto. “As Canada’s first-ever Burger King it was incredibly important for us to make this renovation a standout. There have been a lot of memories over the years at this first-ever Burger King, and this renovation sets the restaurant up for years of future enjoyment.”
Otto said Redberry’s vision is based on partnering with world-class QSR brands that have plenty of runway to grow in Canada.
“We’re always talking. We’re always looking. But we’re very happy with the three brands we have now. Will there be one or two more in Redberry’s future? Maybe, but nothing now.”
For several years now, SAJO and BuildingPoint Canada (with Trimble products) have been collaborating to create innovative processes and enhance deliverables in the construction industry. In collaboration with Trimble & Boston Dynamics and assisted by BuildingPoint Canada, SAJO is proud to announce that it has performed a first indoor scanning operation on a Construction site with Spot the robot.
SAJO builds retail environments and will utilize the technology in Canada and abroad on future projects.
Image: SAJO
Spot is a mobile robot with a wide range of automated capabilities and industry applications. It has the built-in capacity to sense and explore space as well as inspect and navigate all kinds of terrain to conduct operations, potentially hazardous to human health and safety. On worksites, Spot accurately captures, collects, and processes 3D data, creates digital twins of the job site as well as documents and manages site progress. It is an indispensable adjunct for worker safety, operational efficiency, stakeholder productivity, and successful project completion.
Implementation of this new technology enables the collection of progressive and accurate data, daily, for purposes of quality control monitoring, clash detection and project documentation, and ultimately for the validation of the as-built conditions and architectural plans.
Image: SAJO
As a first real case study, Spot was deployed on a SAJO project where it collected millions of data points of existing conditions at the Stewart Biology building at McGill University job site, an 88,000 square foot, seven-floor complex, including cold rooms, environmental rooms, and complex MEP systems.
The automation of the data collection and scan registration processes on site, allows for information to be collected after work hours and analyzed daily, by means of real-time design validation metrics such as point cloud-to-architectural plans and federated 3D models.
Additionally, Spot can self-charge, as needed, by automatically maneuvering its way to a docking station and then proceeding on its mission, as a one-stop job site operation. Once Spot’s mission is completed, the multiple stakeholders have at their disposal, real-time access to the data which can be shared at any time and analyzed according to design validation methods.
Spot’s limitless autonomous functions and potential industry applications have only just begun to unfold.
This new technology works in tandem with multiple other leading-edge initiatives SAJO implements on site, such as Extended Reality and automation of key activities integral to the construction life cycle. SAJO will utilize this technology in various projects including upcoming retail stores in North America.
The world’s first Saks Fifth Avenue food hall will be shutting its doors at the end of the month at CF Sherway Gardens in Toronto, marking the end of a chapter that began in 2016 with Saks entering the Canadian market with two stores in the city.
Toronto-based Pusateri’s Fine Foods operates the CF Sherway Saks food hall which opened along with Saks fashion store in March of 2016 — the idea was that the food hall would become an attraction to draw visitors into the store, and it appears that it wasn’t a success. Pusateri’s also opened a Saks food hall in downtown Toronto in November of 2016 and that food store will remain open for now.
The CF Sherway Gardens Saks food hall spans about 18,500 square feet according to the retailer, and houses a range of prepared food items, grocery options, and at one time had seating areas with ten culinary stations including a prosciutto bar, Champagne and raw bar, sushi bar, cold-pressed juice bar, café, full service hot food counter, rotisserie, and even a Nutella café. A visit last week showed some of the food hall already being empty although some grocery items are still in-store prior to its final scheduled closure on January 28th.
Saks Fifth Avenue at CF Sherway Gardens in January 2023. The Pusateri’s-run Saks Food Hall is located on the lower level of the store. Photo: Craig Patterson Inside the CF Sherway Saks food hall, photo: Craig Patterson Some of the hot meal options at the Saks food hall have already been shut. Photo: Craig Patterson View of the Saks food hall’s former hot food area and the open cut-out to the Saks fashion store upstairs. Photo: Craig Patterson
Saks Fifth Avenue’s men’s department was once located next to the basement-level food hall. Menswear was moved upstairs during the pandemic where some women’s fashions had been located, resulting in a downsizing of the 48,920 square foot women’s fashion floor that also included the elimination of the women’s luxury brands that were once located there. That included former women’s boutique spaces for some big-name designers that opened with the store in March of 2016 such as Alexander McQueen, Etro, Akris Punto, Max Mara and others.
It’s not yet known what will be done with the 43,700 square foot basement level of Saks after the food hall closes — with menswear having moved upstairs, the entire lower level will become vacant. Currently there’s a large cut-out open area between the grocery store and the fashion store above providing visibility between the two floors.
The 49,000 square foot main floor of the Saks store still features a range of handbag boutiques, jewellery, cosmetics, footwear and a 5,500 square foot restaurant branded Beaumont Kitchen. The selection of women’s shoes appeared sparse last week and one shoe area had been cordoned off.
A former Nancy Gonzalez handbag boutique on the main floor has been converted to another brand — Gonzalez, known for making pricey bags in exotic skins, is in legal troubles after being accused of smuggling crocodile handbags and could face jail time.
The area behind the mannequins was once the men’s department of Saks which moved upstairs during the pandemic. This photo was taken from the Saks food hall looking to the escalators that lead to the main floor accessories and beauty areas. Photo: Craig Patterson Empty sit-down seating area at Saks food hall CF Sherway Gardens. Photo: Craig Patterson Main floor bags/accessories at Saks Fifth Avenue CF Sherway Gardens, January 2023. Photo: Craig Patterson Cordoned-off women’s footwear area at Saks CF Sherway Gardens, January 2023. Photo: Craig Patterson
Overall, the Saks space features high ceilings and an attractive design with little change since Saks’ opening nearly seven years ago. In 1971 Eaton’s opened in the mall and its box is now occupied by both Saks and a Sport Chek flagship — Saks occupies more than 143,000 square feet though its actual retail presence is now about 100,000 square feet with the loss of the lower level. The Eaton’s influence actually saw the mall’s developer at the time shift the design of the mall so that Eaton’s was visible from both freeways beside Sherway Gardens.
The exit of the Pusateri’s-run Saks food hall at CF Sherway Gardens follows the recent announcement that Italian food concept Eataly will be opening in the mall. The Eataly store will be located next to where Saks is currently operating and Eataly hasn’t yet said when the store will be opening. A wall of non-branded hoarding beside Saks will eventually become home to Eataly when construction is completed.
Pusateri’s opened its second Saks food hall in November of 2016 in the subway/PATH level of Saks Fifth Avenue in downtown Toronto. Its construction had been delayed — Saks opened its three level fashion store downtown in February of 2016 and construction delays saw the grocery component open about nine months later. The downtown Saks food hall was closed for much of the pandemic and has since partially reopened, though foot traffic in that part of downtown Toronto is still down significantly given that many are working from home. Prior to the pandemic, more than 50,000 people would pass the store via the underground PATH network daily.
Not much product – Alexander McQueen boutique space at Saks CF Sherway Gardens. Photo: Craig Patterson Menswear department, now upstairs on the third floor of Saks CF Sherway Gardens. Photo: Craig Patterson Women’s fashions — in years past luxury brands had boutiques in this area which has since been downsized. Photo: Craig Patterson Mall entrance to Saks CF Sherway Gardens in Toronto, January 2023. Photo: Craig Patterson
We recently reported that the downtown Saks store had seen minor renovations following the exit of several luxury brand concessions. One of the key changes was Saks moving the women’s footwear department downstairs to the main floor where handbags had been — staff in the store said it was to pair shoes with bags, though it also appears that space is being filled so that areas of the store aren’t empty following the exit of Louis Vuitton, Dior and Saint Laurent boutique concessions.
Several months ago Saks reduced its store hours for its three Canadian stores. The CF Sherway location is now open just six hours a day from noon to 6pm seven days a week. The retail opening hours for the mall are 10am-9pm Monday-Saturday with the mall closing at 6pm on Sundays. It’s unusual for a mall-based store to maintain such reduced hours, even for an anchor store.
In Canada, Saks Fifth Avenue also operates a 115,000 square foot store at CF Chinook Centre in Calgary which opened in February of 2018. That store does not have a food hall component and its opening hours are now reduced the same as at Saks CF Sherway Gardens.
We’ll follow up on more news about Saks Fifth Avenue in Canada as more information is said to be coming out in the weeks ahead.
