Polestar location at Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver (August 2021). Photo: Lee Rivett.
Automaker Volvo‘s electric performance brand Polestar has opened a temporary Vancouver storefront at Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver while a new downtown store is built. The Park Royal location is in addition to its Montreal (3035 Boulevard le Carrefour, Laval) and Toronto (55 Avenue Road at Yorkville Village) locations.
Polestar location at Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver (May 2021). Photo: Polestar Vancouver/Google Maps.
Hamilton Street location in downtown Vancouver (February 2021). Photo: Polestar Vancouver/Google Maps.
Hamilton Street location in downtown Vancouver (February 2021). Photo: Polestar Vancouver/Google Maps.
1050 Homer Street Polestar Location
1 of 3
Homer Street location in downtown Vancouver (November 2020). Photo: Reddit
Homer Street location in downtown Vancouver (December 2020). Photo: Google Maps.
Homer Street location in downtown Vancouver (December 2020). Photo: @stevenelliott /Twitter
Future Polestar location at 827 Seymour Street in downtown Vancouver (Dec 2020). Photo: Google Streetview.
The downtown Vancouver store’s opening date hasn’t been formally announced as construction is ongoing. Polestar’s retail spaces will be located in busy downtown locations where between two and three vehicles can be displayed, with non-commissioned salespeople and demonstrators to be part of the retail experience, according to a report in Automotive News Europe.
Retail is about people. It always has been, dating all the way back to the earliest bazaars. And it always will be. The objective, of course, is the transfer of product and services from seller to buyer. But, at its core, it’s about communication and the delivery of information and courtesy in order to support a great experience for the customer. Today, ensuring that stores are staffed with the right talent required to execute superior levels of service and to meet and exceed customer expectations is a top priority for retailers everywhere. Given the challenges that the industry’s faced over the course of the past 16 months or so, combined with a current shortage of in-store retail talent, it’s an element of the operation that is in desperate need of improvement. And, according to Ray Riley, Co-CEO at Progress Retail – a provider of an innovative retail operations and employee experience platform – the solution to the challenge is in the continuous education and development of staff.
“The role of the in-store retail employee is a difficult one,” he admits. “And it’s one that’s only becoming harder. When we talk to retailers every single day, the main issues of front-line empowerment and enablement come up time and time again. From an enablement perspective, there are far too many tools and apps today that make it very difficult to effectively engage and develop store teams and manage store operations. Our platform combines retail task execution, company communications and dynamic learning for all. From an empowerment perspective, retailers of all shapes and sizes are starving for quality content. Through Progress Retail, brands have access to a deep and renowned library of education. Going forward, meaningful retail education and development will be table stakes as retailers refine their physical footprints, and stores continue to evolve in purpose and utility.”
A learning platform for retailers, built by retailers
Image: Progress Retail
Founded in 1989 as People in Progress by current Co-CEO Terry Hawkins, the company has amassed over 100,000 retail alumni who have clocked in more than 85,000 online learning hours. In a 2019 case study, Progress Retail’s approach contributed over a one-year period to a 61 percent decrease in their clients’ employee turnover rates. It’s a mission and resulting success that’s not only driven by the robust nature of the platform and its offering, but by the combined 40-plus years of experience the leadership team has enjoyed working within the industry. Hawkins spent a number of years working within executive roles at major fashion chains, and is a recognized expert in the design of retail education. And Riley, who describes himself as a ‘lifetime’ retail employee, has worked everything from frontline in-store positions to leading Michael Hill’s U.S. stores. He says that experience underpins the fluency needed to relate to retailers.
“There’s a language to retail,” he asserts. “Very quickly you know who’s lived that life in practice and not just in theory. Progress Retail is a platform for retailers that’s been built by retailers.”
Justin Asgarpour
And it seems that Canadian retailers are taking notice. In fact, Clearly of Essilor Luxottica and Kiaro have recently joined Progress Retail in the last few months to leverage the platform that Riley describes as “category-agnostic”, adding that it’s breadth of application speaks to the strength of the platform and educational content it offers. And, according to Justin Asgarpour, Chief Vision Officer & Director of Retail Operations at Clearly, the Progress Retail platform is easy to use, delivering tangible results.
“The platform is intuitive, enabling optimal engagement of staff, and provides insights our leadership team can leverage to further support team development,” he says. “The Progress Retail team has provided a level of commitment that ensures uptake, guaranteeing the needle moving in the right direction.”
Eleanor Lynch
Eleanor Lynch, Chief Operations Officer at Kiaro agrees, adding that the platform also serves as an incredible singular touchpoint from which retailers can manage their teams while properly and effectively supporting their current and future development.
“Retail staff have many priorities,” she recognizes. “Progress Retail allows us to support Kiaro store teams with one convenient platform to collaborate, update their own knowledge-base and find the information they need to complete in store duties. Beyond just the tactical improvements to the employee experience, Progress Retail provides Kiaro store management with a comprehensive training program focused on empathy-based interactions. The team at Progress Retail have provided exceptional value to our retail teams, and we are honoured to be a partner.”
Company-wide development tool
A business tool to be implemented and leveraged by the entire retail organization, Progress Retail’s education platform consists of three distinct retail hubs, including Operations, Learning and Performance. Riley says that he and Hawkins often talk about “the total being greater than the sum of the parts,” adding that the amount of increased productivity and engagement retailers can realize by having a single source of truth for the majority of store communications, operations, and training is quite compelling. He suggests that it represents a much more holistic approach to education and skills development than retailers have been used to. But, more importantly, it helps them modernize the methods by which they administer and manage their training, helping them to address the needs and concerns of the modern retail employee.
“Post-COVID retailers are increasingly looking at new ways of operating,” explains Riley. “They’re shedding their legacy tools and systems, doing away with their homegrown intranets and PowerPoint-style training content, and looking for newer and better ways to meet the needs and complexities of modern retail. We don’t use the term ‘learning management system’ or ‘LMS’. That’s not where we are competing, nor is it where we believe the industry is going. The platform’s full capability helps retailers streamline their employee education and training while enabling them to communicate directly with team members. It allows a clearer view into the objectives of the team and the impact that their training activities are having on the organization’s overall performance.”
Increasing comprehension and performance
In addition to the streamlining of learning and education that the Progress Retail platform provides, it’s also helping retailers to increase comprehension among their teams, resulting in enhanced execution and performance results. Riley believes that it’s a comprehension that has lacked within the industry over recent years, explaining that it’s simply been “assumed” that retail frontline staff have a clear and explicit understanding of their roles and the ways by which they contribute toward the organization as a whole, when, in fact, they don’t.
“For 25 years now, the ‘all-store’ emails have gone out with training information, tasks to be done, and updates from nearly all business functions,” he says “What’s the priority? Who is the intended audience? What got done? And who knows what? It’s impossible to tell. Fortunately, we offer an easier way, representing perhaps the greatest return on investment for any retailer when it comes to leveraging our platform. It provides them with the ability to develop people into the next generation of retail leaders as well as the tools to help support that development. It ultimately leads to a more engaged and involved retail team who feel a renewed value and importance placed on their roles. And it helps to motivate staff, providing them with a clearer view into potential career progression and the path to success. This is a platform that will help them achieve their goals as an employee of the company. With this in mind, learning is not a stop and start process. For retailers looking to cultivate and maintain a culture of learning, education and training should never stop. Employees are constantly developing, transitioning from frontline staff to assistant store managers, to store managers, to district managers and so on.”
Meeting the needs of modern retail
Riley goes on to explain that the platform also helps retailers address the many new skills that are required in light of the shift in consumer behaviour that’s been precipitated by COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing requirements. The advent and growth of buy-online-pick-up-in-store, curbside pick-up and other modes of retail transactions are presenting organizations with new rules and learning opportunities around meeting the needs of today’s consumer and delivering the experiences that they demand. When considering the gamut of talent development needs that the Progress Retail platform helps to address, it seems to serve as the vital talent cog that keeps the retail operation moving forward, smoothly.
“We are seeing firsthand how challenging hiring within the industry is,” he says. “The people that work in stores are beyond essential. The level of empowerment and enablement they receive is what will set retailers apart as an employer of choice. We’re experiencing positive growth and are looking forward to supporting retailers throughout North America, and executing on some exciting plans with respect to the next generation of our product.
For more information concerning the ways Progress Retail can help improve your organization’s training and development initiatives and streamline your operations, visit progressretail.com
Showcase at CF Toronto Eaton Centre - Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Canadian retailer Showcase, known to be ‘Home of the Hottest Trends’ and the world’s largest retailer of its kind, has opened its first store in downtown Toronto. It marks a milestone for the retailer which has no other downtown stores in major Canadian cities except for a Calgary location.
The new downtown Toronto Showcase store is located on Level 1 of CF Toronto Eaton Centre next to a new Sunglass Hut store and is across from retailers Zumiez and Hollister. The Showcase storefront features a prominent black facade and has been busy since its opening several days ago.
The first Showcase store to open in a major Canadian downtown is at Calgary’s ‘The CORE’ shopping centre in 2019.
Until now, residents of downtown Toronto and visitors would have to go to a suburban shopping centre to shop at a Showcase store. The retailer has several locations in the city with the closest to the downtown core being at Dufferin Mall.
Showcase at CF Toronto Eaton Centre – Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Across Canada, downtown residents often find themselves visiting the suburbs for certain retailers. That is changing in some markets as downtown populations boom, and Toronto is leading the way in Canada. The city’s downtown core continues to see thousands of new residential units being added annually with a downtown population exceeding 300,000 people — making it second only to Manhattan in North America in terms of having such an urban core density.
Showcase has been innovating with its retail concept, including being the first retailer in Canada to launch regular live-stream shopping on social media platforms as recently reported in Retail Insider. Showcase also has an online presence which means residents of other urban cores such as those living in Vancouver may choose to shop online rather than visit a physical Showcase store location in a suburban mall.
Showcase at CF Toronto Eaton Centre – Photo by Dustin FuhsShowcase at CF Toronto Eaton Centre – Photo by Dustin FuhsShowcase at CF Toronto Eaton Centre – Photo by Dustin FuhsShowcase at CF Toronto Eaton Centre – Photo by Dustin FuhsShowcase at CF Toronto Eaton Centre – Photo by Dustin FuhsShowcase at CF Toronto Eaton Centre – Photo by Dustin Fuhs
Odd Burger, one of the world’s first vegan fast-food chains and first to go public, is in expansion mode. The company is set to open its newest location in London, Ontario in mid-August – its fourth since it began operations and second since rebranding.
James McInnes
An additional two locations – Waterloo and Hamilton – are also expected to open this month and in September, respectively. And the brand plans to open 20 locations by this time next year, including a flagship New York City restaurant in Manhattan.
“We feel we can be as big as any other major fast food chain. Thousands of locations. International restaurant footprint,” said James McInnes, co-founder and CEO.
“Frankly, the fast food industry is the largest, if not one of the largest, sectors of the food industry. It’s going to be a trillion dollar food industry within about six or seven years. It’s an enormous part of the economy but the problem is that the current industry is horrible for the environment because of its reliance on animal products primarily, horrible for our health, and obviously kills billions of animals a year.
Image: Odd Burger
“So the idea that this industry is in any way sustainable is kind of laughable. It’s just not a sustainable industry. It’s an industry that has to change if we’re going to take the environment seriously. And the fast food industry so far hasn’t changed very much. What we believe is that Odd Burger is going to be the brand that is going to create this radical change in the industry where we come in and prove that you can have great food that’s better for your health and way better for the environment and our sustainability challenges. I just don’t think major chains are taking that seriously and maybe they never will. We need leadership in the space to create this change and that’s what we’re doing.”
Odd Burger’s roots are in the former Globally Local brand. The first fast food restaurant opened in 2016 in London, Ontario. Odd Burger Corporation went public in April on the TSX Venture Exchange and in June the rebrand was announced.
There were two locations in London of Globally Local which were closed and now a brand new location is being opened for Odd Burger. The first fully branded Odd Burger location was in Vaughan. Other Odd Burgers currently open are in Toronto on College Street and in Windsor (Tecumseh Road East).
Image: Odd Burger in Vaughan, Ontario
McInnes said the company rebranded because it wanted to become an international brand and it was not able to do that with Globally Local due to trademark issues in the U.S.
“About a year ago we engaged a couple of big branding companies in Toronto to come up with a new brand that would represent more what we do and who we are and be more clear to our customers what we do,” he said. “Through that process we chose the name Odd Burger and the reason we chose that was because number one we can use that internationally. We’ve trademarked it in the States and Canada.
“But also we also felt the name Odd Burger really represented us as a company and our values. And our values are that we are kind of doing things very different from other fast food chains and other restaurants. Doing things different is what you need to solve our sustainability issues essentially. It’s all about thinking outside the box. Doing things differently, having a different type of menu, having food that’s familiar but odd.
Image: Odd Burger
Image: Odd Burger
“For example, we have iconic versions of fast food. But those differences mean that you’re helping the environment, you’re saving animals, it’s better for your health. These are good differences. These are things that we’re proud of.”
Odd Burger also operates a manufacturing facility in London where it creates and distributes its proprietary foodservice line of plant-based proteins and dairy alternatives such as burgers, chickUN, sausage and dairy-free sauces.
The company says Odd Burger restaurants operate as smart kitchens, which use state-of-the art cooking technology and automation solutions. With small store footprints optimized for delivery and takeout, advanced cooking technology, competitive pricing, a vertically integrated supply chain along with healthier ingredients, Odd Burger says it is revolutionizing the fast-food industry.
One of Canada’s oldest shopping centres won’t be closing after all. In April Retail Insider reported that Le Boulevard in suburban Montreal would be shuttering in December of this year after an announced expropriation for a new transit expansion and now plans have changed.
The Société de transport de Montréal planned to acquire the entire property for the expansion of Montreal’s rapid transit ‘Blue Line’ that will extend to the Galeries D’Anjou shopping centre on the north part of the Island of Montreal. Prior to that, plans had originally been in place to expropriate part of the shopping centre property and it was ultimately decided in February of this year that given the challenges associated with operating on only part of the site, taking over the entire property made more sense. Disruptions around construction and access were also taken into consideration as it was expected that many tenants would vacate the centre during construction, regardless.
There will still be construction disruption for the new transit line and tenants are being given the option to stay on-site with no rent increases. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2022 according to a report in the Montreal Gazette.
Le Boulevard was the third shopping centre to be built in Montreal and it opened in September of 1953 with 32 stores. The open-air shopping centre was enclosed in the 1970s and expanded in the shape of an L to house about 70 retail businesses. The upscale Henry Morgan department store company opened a one-level store at Le Boulevard in 1953 which was expanded to two levels in 1958. Prior to opening at Le Boulevard, Morgan’s operated exclusively out of a massive building at 585 Ste-Catherine Street West in downtown Montreal which was rebranded as a Hudson’s Bay store in 1972.
Exterior of Le Boulevard Shopping Centre in recent times. Photo: Le Boulevard Shopping Centre
The Morgan’s store at Le Boulevard was also rebranded as Hudson’s Bay in 1972, where it operated until its closure in September of 2018. Landlord Crofton Moore set out to redevelop the 100,000-square-foot Bay box by demising it for several new tenants including an Aubainerie store.
Le Boulevard encompasses about 400,000 square feet of retail space and prior to the pandemic, saw more than 8 million annual visitors. The centre is located at the corner of Jean Talon Street and Pie IX Boulevard which sees more than 60,000 cars pass by daily. Existing tenants include Canadian Tire, Metro Plus Supermarket, Urban Planet, Jean Coutu, SAQ (Liquor Store) Dollarama, and Ardène, to name a few. Landlord Crofton Moore had been marketing the mall’s former Hudson’s Bay space for re-tenanting as part of a strategy shift for the historic centre prior to the pandemic.
The Le Boulevard was one of the first suburban shopping centres in Canada when increasing suburbanization in the 1950’s saw modern shopping malls open in automobile-dependent locations on the outskirts of major cities. The rise of the shopping centre is blamed in part for the demise of downtown retail in North America as well as the downtown department store model that was once in every major city.
It’s unclear what will happen to the Le Boulevard site when the Blue Line is finished. Given the size of the site and its proximity to transit, it may be the case that a mixed-use development including retail and residential will be part of a future redevelopment.
Craig and Richard Mcleod discuss Foot Locker and its growth strategy in Canada that includes new community-focused stores and other initiatives. Mcleod has extensive experience in the retail industry and discusses what he’s seen and where things might go post-pandemic.
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.
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/
Montreal-based fashion footwear brand La Canadienne is expanding its Canadian retail footprint with its first Ontario location officially opening in Toronto’s prestigious Yorkville area on Monday August 9.
The store is the retailer’s first foray outside of its Montreal home base and its third brick and mortar location.
The Toronto store, located at 138 Cumberland Street, is more than 4,000 square feet over three levels with two of those dedicated to retail space.
“We have known our Toronto customer for quite some time. Now she has access to us right on her doorstep,” said Nicholas Niro, President of La Canadienne.
“The reality is we already have a strong customer base in Toronto so we wanted to feature our full collection to that customer and really reinforce the brand in this important Canadian city. We are distributed across North America in key major retailers and independents including Holt Renfrew and Nordstrom. Our customer has been purchasing La Canadienne through these premium retailers.”
La Canadienne (Image: Funder Media)
La Canadienne (Image: Funder Media)
La Canadienne (Image: Funder Media)
Nicholas Niro
The retailer is ideally located in Toronto close to luxury neighbours such as Hermès and Chanel in the heart of the most premium shopping, dining, and lifestyle destination in the city.
Well-positioned on a street corner, the two-storey white-brick facade building is reminiscent of old Toronto heritage architecture, honouring the local history and environment.
“Streetfront is part of our DNA. Both of our Montreal locations are streetfront,” said Niro. “And we thought that Yorkville was an important destination with key designer brands present in the Yorkville area. So it was a strategic decision to have our flagship store in Toronto in the Yorkville area.”
The company, which was founded in 1987, says it adopts a no-compromise approach to footwear that marries design, function and a fair made supply chain. With a brand vision focused on offering women with busy, urban lifestyles fashion-forward footwear, La Canadienne will further resonate with Toronto’s socially-aware, yet style-conscious consumer. The brand set out to make shoes from a different perspective, consciously made for city life, it says.
The Toronto boutique features La Canadienne’s Fall/Winter 2021 collection, which includes the trademarked City Dry footwear collection, and luxurious Italian-made outerwear, handbags and complementing accessories. At La Canadienne making waterproof leather and suede footwear is the retailer’s specialty, always ensuring that it offers the utmost in waterproof technology.
Montreal store. Image: La Canadienne
“There’s a long history of shoemaking here in Canada. What makes it quite unique is that it’s made in Montreal, made in the city of Montreal, for life in the city,” said Niro. “All of our components however are from Italy. So everything from our leathers to our suedes and our soles and our components. So we’re benefiting from the great history of shoemaking in Italy but consciously made for life in the city. Really keeping Canadian sensibilities in mind.
“One of the key aspects of our footwear is not only are they timeless in style but the leather and suede are City Dry and so our footwear is City Dry and the leather and suede is waterproof. That really allows our footwear to be resistant to North American rain and snow and all the elements.”
The retailer has one store in downtown Montreal which opened about five years ago and one store in Outremont which opened about 15 years ago. Its factory in the Mount Royal area has been around since the company’s inception. It has more than 100 employees.
La Canadienne products are also available at www.lacanadienneshoes.com, and distributed through premium retailers including Holt Renfrew, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Lane Crawford, and Zappos.
Niro said there could be more retail stores in the company’s future with selective retail in the key major cities. La Canadienne’s broker Labrecque said that Vancouver would be a targeted city for at least one location.
“But our major expansion will really come through our wholesale partners globally. For example, we’re launching in Hong Kong and China this season. That is our key expansion. But in terms of brick and mortar retail we are looking for selective expansion, really to reinforce the brand,” Niro said.
