Advertisement
Home Blog Page 778

Canadian-Developed Artificial Intelligence-Based Wardrobe Assistant App Seeks Retail Partners: Interview

By
Mario Toneguzzi
-
Image: Pronti AI

Pronti AI has created a unique app that serves as a personal wardrobe assistant for people and helps consumers discover shoppable items that go with their clothes.

Mila Banerjee, CEO and Founder of the company, said the app gives people suggestions on what to wear based on closet items, choices and mood.

Mila Banerjee

The app also has the Shop-with Closet feature where people can browse for new items seeing how they match with the clothing they already own and buy items that they know they are going to wear.

The company was incorporated in February 2021 and a beta version was launched in late summer but “the real face version” came in September, said Banerjee.

“Over (a recent weekend), we completely blew up and we are now number two on the App store in Lifestyle and we’ve just been having such amazing, amazing traction on the app downloads. We unfortunately had to switch it to a wait list because it was so many that it was overwhelming our system but it’s incredible. It’s very exciting,” she said.

Image: Pronti AI

“We have a mobile for consumers that helps them with what to wear and what to buy. Our machine learning is really a wardrobe assistant so they can figure out daily outfits but they can also shop with clothing that they already have. So our machine learning takes items from their closet and mixes it with something new.

“Users upload images to their closet and they can do that in either of two ways. They can either take a photo of the item or they can find a similar item through Google images or other sites where they just recently purchased.”

Banerjee was a retailer with a furniture e-commerce business in Europe but she said it was such a hurdle to break through the noise and find the right consumer.

“And as a consumer myself or the people we talked to or tested with, it was just really hard to find items that are personal to you. The world e-commerce is an ocean and we are drowning in that choice and we can’t find what we’re looking for. All we do is scroll and scroll and scroll trying to find stuff that’s suited to us,” she said.

Image: Pronti AI

“And really things should be a lot more personal. The reason we have for Pronti is that no one understands your tastes and the way you wear clothes in such a way that we present you with items that you would have wanted to discover yourself and maybe never realized exactly what you were looking for.

“We have some really interesting things on the retailer side. Right now, we’re focused on Shopify retailers but we’re really open to other retail partnerships as well. And essentially there’s two ways that they can engage with the Pronti community or benefit from the machine learning that we’ve developed. The first way is through sending their items to our machine learning which then gets recommended to the users on our app. And the second way is through what we call smart outfits. It’s a retail integration on their website and right now it allows them to merchandise their items so users come onto the site and they get to see the item that they’re looking at in a number of different outfits.”

Banerjee said shoppers search for how to wear an item at least six million times a month. For retailers, it’s helping expand the potential for the users to understand how to wear it and it doesn’t require the retailer to take a ton of other photographs with different models or with clothing that they don’t necessarily have in their store.

Image: Pronti AI

“I think the potential is enormous. Certainly one of the reasons we had such an influx of people downloading the app  . . . is we have reached two million views on a TikTok featuring our app and the number of people downloading just completely slowed down the app. We had to put people on a waitlist so we could fix the app. It’s just showing how much it resonates with people to have a wardrobe assistant, a personal stylist, that can both help with what to wear and what to buy,” she said.

For a retailer, Pronti is available in the Shopify App store and if you are a consumer then it’s available both on iOS and on Android on the App store.

“We’re really excited to help the retailers out. I think so many amazing small brands and really unique stores have popped up because Shopify enables them to get their storefront up but then they have such difficulty getting share of voice and getting out there. This is sort of our mission to help really unique retailers get out there and reach customers and find a new, more exciting way to shop than just scroll,” said Banerjee.

Snapchat Announces AR Commerce ‘ Catalog-Powered Shopping Lenses’ For Brands and Retailers

By
Craig Patterson
-

Snap Inc., parent company to Snapchat, has rolled out Catalog-powered Shopping Lenses which it says is a significant upgrade to artificial reality shopping by making it simpler and more engaging for consumers. 

The company also says that its Lenses offering is easier to build, scale, and optimize. It’s a technology that can benefit retailers in Canada and beyond as innovations continue to be integrated into the consumer experience. Consumer preferences have been changing rapidly with new tech and the pandemic has only accelerated the adoption and growth of digital channels, and Snap appears to be addressing this.  

Snap’s new Catalog-powered Shopping Lenses provides for what the company describes is a simplified, more useful AR try-on shopping interface for Snapchatters. With that, users can quickly see product info such as prices, descriptions, and unique URLs to purchase with new Lens Product Cards as you try on products. 

As a result, important product information and SKU-specific purchase capability can be determined including real-time dynamically updated price and colour details. The platform provides Snapchatters with the required product information rapidly as they simply tap on the Lens Product Card to purchase each individual product.

Real-time results for brands is another benefit that includes instant feedback on which Snap’s Gen Z and Millennial audience is said to be drawn to. Snap says that this is good for research and development purposes and it also can help brands track consumer trends and product engagement by offering marketers immediate insights to help educate their research and development plans. 

Marketers can now leverage Snapchat’s AR try-on as an early indication on which products Snapchatters are engaging with, while utilizing these signals when ideating on targeting strategies and early-on decision making for product development. That can be done down to the SKU level according to Snap.

The real-time results feature also allows Snapchat to optimize delivery of a businesses’ Shopping Lens to the Snapchatters most likely to purchase each item. In combination with its newly released auction optimization towards purchases for AR Lenses, brands are seeing meaningful increases in purchases and efficiency through Snapchat. 

One example is Toronto-founded MAC Cosmetics which has seen 1.3 million try-on experiences at a cost of 0.31 cents per product trial and has secured 17 times higher lift in purchases among females, 2.4x higher lift in brand awareness and 9x higher lift in purchase intent. That no doubt led to an increase in sales and profitability at a remarkably low cost.

The new platform also expands on Snap’s simple Lens Web Builder which allows beauty brands to create Shopping Lenses in as fast as two minutes. At launch, the quick click accessibility in Lens Web Builder will be available to Beauty brands and will roll out to other product verticals in the coming months. Snap notes that all product brands can leverage catalog-powered Shopping Lenses with Lens Studio. 

“Augmented reality is changing the way we shop, play, and learn, and transforming how businesses tell their stories and sell their products,” said Jeremi Gorman, Chief Business Officer, Snap Inc. “Our revamped AR Shopping Lenses will mean a more engaging experience for our Snapchat community, and enable a faster, easier way to build Lenses for businesses — directly linking Lenses to existing product catalogs for real-time analytics and R&D about which products resonate with Gen Z and Millennial audiences.”

Snap has become hugely popular — over 200 million people are said to be engaging with AR on its platform daily across a variety of personal and often useful experiences that span commerce, entertainment, education, and the arts. 

Since 2020, Snap Inc. says that it has focused on AR shopping as a primary company initiative by offering brands real-time AR try-on experiences that reach millions of its ‘Snapchatters’. That ranges from trying on makeup to shoes, watches, glasses and other items with AR shopping being a key emerging part of how Snap’s community engages with its  app. Incredibly, Snapchatters are said to engage with AR more than 6 billion times per day globally.

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For February 4th, 2022

By
Retail Insider
-
Canadian Retail News From Around The Web

News at a Glance

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.

Walmart Unveils Impressive Multi-Million Dollar Renovation to its Supercentre Store at Dufferin Mall in Toronto [Photos]

By
Mario Toneguzzi
-
Dufferin Mall Walmart Supercentre in Toronto (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

Walmart Canada has completed a $14.5 million renovation to its Toronto Dufferin Mall Supercentre which expands its Grocery Pickup service, launches its Express Pickup service and provides a wider assortment and other new services for customers.

“Our customers have been waiting for this and there’s been tremendous feedback so far,” said Store Manager Maksim Bozic. “They can’t believe what they’re seeing with the new upgrades and changes to improve the shopping experience. The store looks bright, organized, and refreshed. We have ready-to-eat rotisserie chickens and samosas, a new sushi bar and a fresh in-store bakery for all to enjoy. The response from our customers has been very positive.”

Walmart has expanded its Grocery Pickup service with 150 slots available daily with plans to expand to about 900 slots. The renovated store is also one of 28 Walmart locations that launched a time-saving Express Pickup service, a new premium option that provides customers with online grocery orders for pickup in two hours or less.

Walmart Canada at Dufferin Mall in Toronto (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

Key features of the renovated store include:

  • A new fresh bakery, sushi bar, and other ready-to-eat food options such as rotisserie chickens and samosas;
  • The international food aisle is now larger with an expanded assortment available;
  • Fresh food has been moved to the side of the store under new signage and lighting;
  • Newly upgraded front entrance, self-checkout area, and dairy and frozen sections.

“Walmart has been here serving the community for 28 years when Walmart came to Canada and we’re the closest Walmart store to downtown Toronto. There’s nobody else but us pretty much in the heart of the city,” said Bozic.

He said the retailer has turned its focus on the online side of the business.

Dufferin Mall Walmart Supercentre in Toronto (Image: FieldAgent Canada)

“We’re looking to go to 500 (online) orders in the next four months by end of May and then we have a capacity of 900 to 1,200 orders per day,” added Bozic. “It’s part of the grocery pickup but the good thing with Walmart Canada is we offer also general merchandise.”

Over the past year, Walmart Canada has made approximately 70,000 items available for customers to pick up.

“Express Pickup, we launched at this location (recently). It’s in-store pickup but you can order your order an hour ahead and pretty much the same hour, two hours you’ll get your order,” he said. “If you need something right away, you place your order, you get one personalized shopper, Walmart associate, that does your full order for you, they pick it up, they get it ready, you come to the store, you use our apps we have, and in a matter of two to five minutes the order will be delivered to your car. It can be general merchandise items as well.”

The two level store at Dufferin Mall is a two-level location with 143,000 square feet. It has 420 staff currently with expansion possibly to 500 as it progresses with online orders, said Bozic.

Dufferin Mall Walmart Supercentre in Toronto (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Dufferin Mall Walmart Supercentre in Toronto (Image: FieldAgent Canada)

“At this moment we have about 28 open positions to hire different areas of the building – the front end, the fresh, overnight, online associates to help us pick those orders. We’re creating quite a few careers.”

Walmart Canada came to the country in 1994 and operates a chain of more than 400 stores nationwide serving 1.5 million customers each day with more than 100,000 staff. The Dufferin store was one of its first locations in Canada.

The Dufferin Mall Supercentre is the closest Walmart Canada store to downtown Toronto and it’s designed to be a delivery hub. The store has its own delivery vehicles, which includes a new van that was recently added to the fleet.

The renovation is part of the company’s $3.5-billion investment aimed to generate significant growth and to make the online and in-store shopping experience simpler, faster and more convenient for Walmart customers. That includes renovating more than 150 stores – more than one-third of Walmart Canada’s store network, said the retailer.

Dufferin Mall Walmart Supercentre in Toronto (Image: Dustin Fuhs)

Vendors in the Dufferin location includes a minutekey, Western Union, Naoki Sushi, Walmart Pharmacy, Walmart Photo Centre, Walmart Vision Centre, Walmart Wireless and Walmart Financial ATM. A new McDonald’s will be located inside the store, which is expected to open in the Spring.

Bozic said the company’s philosophy is to take care of its customers.

“Because this is the closest to the downtown, we felt it was important that we make this store is 100 per cent what the customer is looking for,” he said. “The focus is on the online business but also we cannot forget that we have folks who come into our store and they want to feel, they want to see what we have.”

Thriftys Brands Launches Larger Store Format Carrying its Multiple Retail Banners: Interview/Photos

By
Mario Toneguzzi
-
Thriftys brands (Bluenotes, Aéropostale, Aéro Kids and Lucky Brand) at Scarborough Town Centre

The Thriftys Family of Brands has launched an integrated brand model for some larger format stores to carry all of the retailer’s banners.

Overall, the company has 129 stores across Canada under the following banners: Bluenotes (100), Thriftys by Bluenotes (nine), Aeropostale (eight) and Lucky Brand (12). 

Sean Goodall

“The way we’ve kind of built this multi-brand model is really around Bluenotes, Aeropostale and Lucky Brand,” said Sean Goodall, Director of Marketing and E-Commerce.

“When Bluenotes first started introducing Aeropostale into the Canadian market, we did open some Aeropostale specific storefronts and we still do have them coast to coast. But were kind of tasked with the brand problem of reintroducing the brand to Canada. It had exited the country. A lot of people were still under the impression that it was no longer a Canadian retailer that they could see in malls.

“One thing that we introduced off the bat was an Aero collection into Bluenotes stores. Due to the success and how we saw our customers responding to Bluenotes and Aero products together, we upped the ante if you will and really started integrating Aeropostale within our stores. And then when you shop our stores we’re now at a point where all of our Bluenotes and Aeropostale products are all integrated into one.”

Thriftys brands (Bluenotes, Aéropostale, Aéro Kids and Lucky Brand) at Scarborough Town Centre

That includes co-branding on window fronts of stores. 

Josh Graham, Director of Visual Presentation, said there are a variety of storefronts based on the square footage of the store. 

Joshua Graham

“Our real strategy lately is to obtain larger square footage in shopping centres. So if a store is over a certain amount of square footage we might call that store a Thriftys and really the plan there is that in a Thriftys store to be able to carry all of the different brands,” said Graham.

“Depending on the mall, most stores are called Bluenotes but in our most recent strategy to get larger square footage stores we have been opening more and more Thriftys stores which also carry Lucky Brand, Aeropostale and Bluenotes.”

Recently, a store in the Scarborough Town Centre in Toronto launched the multi-brand concept. 

Thriftys brands (Bluenotes, Aéropostale, Aéro Kids and Lucky Brand) at Scarborough Town Centre

“Our Bluenotes store in Scarborough was much smaller and we moved to a larger store which allowed us to integrate more the Aeropostale and Lucky Brand products,” said Goodall.

Graham said at Scarborough Town Centre the store was originally 3,500 square feet but moved to a 10,000-square-foot store to showcase more of a variety of the retailer’s brands.

“We can really create that multi-brand experience within a large square footage store. Because we do have a variety of different sizes of stores, anywhere from 2,500 square feet in some cases all the way up to a store that is 40,000 square feet, the assortment will vary based on the square footage.”

The retailer is starting to take over larger real estate spaces in malls to expand this multi-brand store model.

Thriftys by Bluenotes concept store at Lynden Park Mall in Brantford, Ontario (Image: Thriftys Family of Brands)
Thriftys by Bluenotes concept store at Lynden Park Mall in Brantford, Ontario (Image: Thriftys Family of Brands)

The Scarborough store for example is the same experience as a Bluenotes store but the company has really focused on creating departments within the store and within that department can be found the different branded items together.

“We’re very much of the model that online needs to play and within in-store very, very harmoniously. It’s one website for all the brands. We have the Bluenotes tab, an Aeropostale tab, and Lucky Brand tab so the shopper can easily flip back and forth between each of the tabs,” said Goodall. “And to kind of further mirror what we’re doing in-store if you shop the Bluenotes site you are actually shopping both Bluenotes and Aeropostale products. 

“You have the ability to just shop the Aeropostale collection and then you have the ability to just shop the Lucky Brand collection but it’s all within one on the website interface.”

Canadian Retailer ‘The Nooks’ An Innovative Business Model as Rent-Based Omni-Channel Incubator: Interview

By
Mario Toneguzzi
-
Image: The Nooks

Entrepreneur Colleen Imrie has a mission to help artisans follow their dreams and build successful businesses.

It’s why she created The Nooks concept which some people have described as an artisan retail business incubator. The Nooks is a creative space that allows Canadian artisans and entrepreneurs to sell their handmade products both in-store and online.

Imrie, owner and founder, launched the concept in 2016. She initially had an interior design, furniture store in Toronto based on consignment and her own designs. 

Image: The Nooks

“I had a lot of artists come through my doors a couple of months in and ask if I would sell their jewelry, their art work. I told them I do consignment and that didn’t seem to be the right fit,” she said. “I wasn’t carrying any artisan goods. It was like furniture and home decor stuff.

“Then I quickly looked around my 2,500-square-foot store and calculated well what if I just charged rent. It’s not a new model. Lawyers do it, hairdressers do it. People do this rent-based style of retail and I quickly pivoted six months later to opening my first full Nooks store under a brand new concept of rent-based retail and then building a lot of different back-end and resources to actually help these artisans be a business.

“I really see us as a retail incubator for handmade craft brands, taking people from their hobby to it being their full-time gig. We do that not only with the placement of the best locations in malls, high volume, downtown streets, but also with our business development. That’s where the incubator comes in because we have a lot of resources that I designed or my team collectively designed to help makers go through the journey of becoming an entrepreneur. Just because you make stuff doesn’t mean you’re a business owner or even an entrepreneur. So we kind of teach them those ropes of how to make this super sustainable because we’re putting them in front of thousands and thousands of people. So they’re going to have to level up and get to that mindset that this could be something so big in your life and we can help you.”

The Nooks Future Store at Yorkdale (Image: Craig Patterson)

The stores came first and then about three years in Imrie took the basic retail model of rent-based and brought it online in a marketplace. Its own software was created where vendors can log in and upload their products, make full profit and pay The Nooks a monthly fee. 

The company has 14 stores in Ontario and British Columbia. 

It has also embarked in a partnership with Hudson’s Bay, launching a store within The Bay in Ottawa at CF Rideau Centre. 

“Essentially they want to bring artisan goods into their store to get the customer base. Handmade’s all the rage,” said Imrie, who negotiated a rent-based model with the retail giant where the “nookies” can continue to earn full profit.

In that store, there are 68 vendors selling products in just under 2,000 square feet. 

“We have a drop and go membership which is we merchandise on behalf of the vendors. In our regular stores, everyone has their own nook like a micro-store that they design. With Hudson’s Bay, given the space which our average store starts at 2,500 square feet, we had to shift to drop and go. We merchandise for the vendor,” said Imrie. “It looks like a regular retail setup.

“We’re looking at up to 10 stores across Canada. They shared with me kind of their hot list of top performers and we selected those. Every four months we’re looking to roll out a new location.”

The company, which has three stores in Vancouver (Kitsilano, North Vancouver and Gastown), is looking at two more stores in BC and one more store in Ontario.

“Then we’re going to start filling the gaps between BC and Ontario. We’re looking to do that with the Hudson’s Bay to start. Winnipeg, Alberta. Fill in the gaps of the country through the partnership,” said Imrie. “And that also helps us go about the malls and look for our own standalone store.”

The retailer’s growth also includes the launch of sub-brands The General Store and Hello Sunshine. 

“Having six years of data, I’ve seen a huge rise in the popularity of artisan food and then also baby goods, especially through COVID. So I opened up sub-brand concepts. So we have four General Stores where we now represent artisan food producers. Originally, we had trinkle bits of it in our regular Nook stores besides ceramics and leather and all the other stuff, but I quickly realized when the food is bunched together it does better. So that’s when I thought let’s open up a food concept,” said Imrie. “Our General Store represents all handmade artisan food and drink.

“Our Hello Sunshine is our baby concept. People shop for baby better when it’s grouped together, not spread out throughout the store. It’s more of a destination. So then I created these baby stores. There are three Hello Sunshine stores which are all for baby vendors.

“We’re also going to be launching independent websites . . . because we want to start promoting and isolating those vendors because they need a different care in their business. They have different niches. I want to grow the sub-brands with the Nooks because the same people want to shop the stuff. It’s just better received in a more niched and curated environment over our regular Nook stores, those two categories.”

Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto Adding More Luxury Retailers in 2022 

By
Craig Patterson
-
Yorkdale Shopping Centre (Image: Craig Patterson)

Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre already boasts the densest clustering of luxury brands stores in Canada, and more are being added this year as landlord Oxford Properties secures new tenants. Since January, several retailers have already opened and more are on the way. 

For years Yorkdale had upscale stores including Holt Renfrew, and things really began to pick up in 2009 when Tiffany & Co. opened a store in the mall. A substantial number of luxury brands followed over the years and Retail Insider has reported on many of them. 

The following is an update on some of the new retailers that have either recently opened at Yorkdale or will be over the next several months. 

Burberry: The UK-based luxury brand has reopened its Yorkdale store featuring a new simple design with a bright interior accented with gold. Burberry was one of the first global luxury brands to open a standalone store at Yorkdale in August of 2009 in a newly formed luxury wing that is now home to numerous high-end retailers. 

Rolex store by Raffi at Yorkdale. Photo: Craig Patterson

Rolex: Raffi Jewellers recently unveiled an impressive new space for Rolex which involved converting most of the former Raffi store space into a dedicated Rolex storefront. Raffi Jewellers also has an entrance to its own multi-brand space next to Rolex, and on the other side is North America’s first location for luxury watch brand Tudor which was profiled in Retail Insider and opened in 2020. 

Marc Jacobs: Upscale New York City-based brand Marc Jacobs opened its first standalone Canadian location at Yorkdale mid-January in a 1,900 square foot retail space formerly occupied by Davids Footwear. The Marc Jacobs storefront carries a range of bags and accessories as well as some ready-to-wear for women and men. The store is temporary and a new location will be built in the mall according to an employee. More Marc Jacobs stores are expected in Canada including an outlet store outside of Toronto. 

Läderach Yorkdale Store (Image: Läderach)

Läderach: Swiss chocolate retailer Läderach opened its third Canadian storefront at Yorkdale last week in a 775 square foot retail space formerly occupied by Godiva. Läderach will continue to open more Canadian stores under the guidance of broker Mary Mowbray of Colliers. 

Lucid Motors to open soon, photo by Craig Patterson

Lucid Motors: US-based electric car brand Lucid Motors will soon be opening its second Canadian storefront in Yorkdale’s 2016 Nordstrom-anchored expansion wing. The first Lucid location in Canada opened in early January at CF Pacific Centre in Vancouver. 

Future Emporio Armani store at Yorkdale. Photo: Craig Patterson

Emporio Armani: Italian luxury brand Giorgio Armani will open the only Canadian location for its sub-brand Emporio Armani this year in Yorkdale’s 2012 expansion wing. Emporio Armani will be located in a space formerly occupied by Ann Taylor in a space measuring about 4,200 square feet. Most recently, a pop-up store for Montreal-based outerwear brand Quartz Co. occupied the space which is now being taken back to the studs for the construction of the Emporio Armani store. 

Emporio Armani once had a Canadian store on Bloor Street in Toronto — between 1990 and 1995, the brand had a 6,000 square foot store at 80 Bloor Street West which then-licensee Holt Renfrew relocated to the Holt Renfrew Centre at 50 Bloor Street West between 1998 and the early 2000s. 

TWG Tea to open at Yorkdale this spring, photo: Craig Patterson

TWG Tea: A Vancouver-based licensee will open Canada’s second location for Singapore-based TWG Tea this spring. The 1,400 square foot storefront will be between the mall’s Furla and Longchamp storefronts. TWG Tea is also about to reopen its Vancouver store in a smaller space on Robson Street after shuttering its first Canadian location which was much larger on W. Georgia Street late last year. The team at DWSV Realty negotiated the Yorkdale TWG lease deal on the part of the retailer. 

Prairies & Petals: The upscale pop-up flower retailer recently unveiled a unique storefront designed by Montreal-based GH+A. The store features an assortment of roses that can last over a year costing into the hundreds of dollars per bunch. The storefront itself is unique in that it is only about 10 feet wide. The store is open through to January 2023. 

Photo: Craig Patterson

Acne Studios: Signage went up for the construction of a new store for upscale Swedish fashion brand Acne Studios at Yorkdale in a newly formed luxury wing occupied by Louis Vuitton, Thom Browne and several other brands. Acne is an edgy brand with fashions for women and men and it is also carried in a handful of retailers in Canada. A lease deal hasn’t technically been finalized as of press time despite the painted construction hoarding.  

Cartier will open a temporary store while its current location is renovated and expanded. Photo: Craig Patterson

Store Renovations/Expansions: Three luxury retailers in the mall will be seeing updates. In mid-February we will be touring the renovated storefront for US-based luxury brand David Yurman. The brand is currently housed in a nearby pop-up space formerly occupied by Mulberry and when David Yurman vacates, the neighbouring Cartier and Bulgari stores will both take part of the former Mulberry location to expand their respective storefronts. 

Upscale US-based Tory Burch is preparing to renovate its Yorkdale store, which was the first in Canada when it opened in the spring of 2012.  Tory Burch is moving into the pop-up CONCEPT space at Yorkdale temporarily for construction. 

Other luxury retailers that recently opened at Yorkdale include Alexander McQueen which we profiled in December. 

Tory Burch moved into this space this week as its current store prepares to be renovated. Photo: Craig Patterson

Final Thoughts: Oxford Properties has managed to successfully create a significant closeting of luxury brands at Yorkdale that places the mall among some of the world’s top retail centres. Yorkdale is the most productive shopping centre in terms of sales per square foot and that’s primarily due to the sales numbers at luxury stores as well as productive retailers such as Tesla, Canada Goose and Apple. More luxury brands are said to be opening at Yorkdale with whispers that one of the biggest concession names at Holt Renfrew in the mall will be opening a standalone location nearby, with details to follow. 

Yorkdale’s success, at least in part, has resulted in something of a loss for Toronto’s downtown core. For decades the Bloor-Yorkville area has been home to Toronto’s luxury shopping and the growth of high-end nodes at Yorkdale as well as at CF Toronto Eaton Centre, CF Sherway Gardens and Square One in Mississauga have all taken market share from the Yorkville area which itself is seeing new luxury store openings. Some brokers are saying that Yorkdale’s success might ultimately be a good thing as some brands look to open second Toronto locations in the Bloor-Yorkville area after testing the market with Yorkdale stores.

We will continue to report on happenings at Yorkdale as the shopping centre continues to add new retailers including many first-to-Canada concepts.  

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For February 3rd, 2022

By
Retail Insider
-
Canadian Retail News From Around The Web

News at a Glance

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.

Podcast [Interview] 2022 Retail Predictions with Liza Amlani

By
Retail Insider
-
Podcast [Interview] 2022 Retail Predictions with Liza Amlani

Craig and retail expert Liza Amlani talk about the Canadian retail landscape including her predictions for what’s to come as we head further into this year.

The Interview Series podcast by Retail Insider Canada is 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 podcast where Craig and Lee discuss popular content published on Retail Insider which is part of the The Retail Insider Podcast Network.

Interviewed this episode:

Subscribe, Rate, and Review our Retail Insider Podcast!

Follow Craig:

Follow Retail Insider:

Listen & Subscribe:

Share your thoughts!

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/

Beware of “Shelflation” in Canada as Grocers Grapple with Pandemic Challenges: Charlebois

By
Sylvain Charlebois
-

“All food products have an intended shelf life. But challenges along the supply chain will compromise a product’s shelf life at the point of purchase, especially for perishables. If consumers aren’t careful, they can fall victim to “shelflation”, but there are ways to dodge it.” 

By now, you may have heard of a phenomenon called shrinkflation. Many companies will reduce quantities without changing the price by adjusting their packaging strategy. It’s been going on for years. It is the illusion of buying the same amount of product when it has in fact shrunk over time. But when supply chains aren’t working optimally, food products will reach store shelves either less fresh than usual or even a little too ripe, robbing consumers from some needed shelf life at home. This is called “shelflation”.

According to a recent poll by Dalhousie University and the app Caddle, in the past twelve months a total of 41% of Canadians have thrown away milk because it went sour before its due date. Of that group, 38.5% of respondents have done it at least twice, and for 22.8%, three to five times. Throwing away spoiled products before due dates does happen from time to time, but such a high number is quite unusual. Anecdotally, many Canadians of late have noticed some of their produce isn’t as fresh as it used to be, and will rot much sooner. There’s no specific data on this yet, and I suspect many Canadians have not noticed anything different. Snowstorms, labour shortages, procurement problems related to some ingredients, or even packaging issues can affect perishable foods, pandemic or not.

“Shelflation” is indeed quite common, and pandemics aren’t the only way a product’s shelf life can be compromised. Delays due to weather, natural disasters (like what we witnessed in British Columbia last year), labour disputes, massive recalls, or equipment failures can disrupt a supply chain’s efficiency. Cold chains—kept between 2 and 8 degrees—that are responsible for keeping perishables fresh from farm to store, can also be breached for one reason or another. Mechanical breakdowns, hindrances outside the warehouse, or unusually warm temperatures, for example, can shorten the life of or even spoil products before a shipment reaches the store. Perishables need to be maintained at refrigerated temperatures and high relative humidity, conditions that are not routinely met along the supply chain. Food distribution is complex.

But the pandemic has clearly disrupted global food supply chains in more ways than one, so we shouldn’t be surprised to see more “shelflation” happening. Asking food companies to operate with fewer staff around will eventually bring forth delays along the way and, of course, more waste. And waste at home will certainly contribute to higher food costs for everyone. The average family of four will spend about $14,000 on food annually, and at least 50% of that budget is dedicated to perishables. Wasting a good portion of that can be costly.

The shelf life of a product is the time between production and the use-by date. The shelf life for highly perishable foods is set rather conservatively to ensure food safety. Expiry dates or best before dates are critical to the fabric of our food safety system, and modern technologies have done wonders to prolong the shelf life of many of our products. In the store, assessing the state of any food with expiry dates is close to impossible due to air-tight packaging. So, naturally, we zone in on dates. At the grocery store, we essentially buy time along with our food. We will constantly go for products where the best before or use-by dates are as late as possible. For produce, we’ll go for products that are appropriately ripe based on when we think the product will be consumed. But consumers can only go by the information provided at the point of purchase without knowing the product’s history before it reached the store.

Food waste is a major challenge in our economy. In Canada, about 2.2 million tonnes of edible food is wasted each year. The most common causes of perishable food waste at a retailer are overstocking, unpredictable consumer demand, inappropriate quality control, and product handling. Compounded by issues up the food chain, retailers don’t stand much of a chance. So, putting blame solely on the retailer can be misplaced.

Freshness and quality of perishables will obviously vary, depending on where you live and where you shop. Some regions are better served than others. But unlike shrinkflation, “shelflation” can be dodged. Going to the grocery store once a week, or once every two weeks may not be ideal, especially right now with current food supply chain woes. Visiting the grocery store two or three times a week and buying enough for the next two to three days may help you in the long run, and waste less. We just need to approach our grocery shopping a little differently.

1...777778779...1,321Page 778 of 1,321
spot_img
spot_img

About

Contact

Media

Follow

© 2025 Retail Insider Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. The content on this website is protected by the copyrights of Retail Insider Media Ltd. or the copyrights of third parties and used by agreement. No part of any of the content of this website may be reproduced, distributed, modified, framed, cached, adapted or linked to, or made available in any form by any photographic, electronic, digital, mechanical, photostat, microfilm, xerography or other means, or incorporated into or used in any information storage and retrieval system, electronic or mechanical, without the prior written permission of Retail Insider Media Ltd. or the applicable third party copyright owner.