Bricks and mortar shopping malls have been in decline for a long time as various anchor stores ceased to exist, but as long as the marginal consumer is tapped out financially while still facing a variety of lockdown hangovers, this trend can be expected to accelerate.
Total retail sales growth in Canada has slowed recently, cooling to 1.5 per cent last year after rising to 8.5 per cent in 2021, according to data from CBRE Group Inc. The commercial real estate company predicts total sales growth of 1.7 per cent for all of 2023. At the same time, a flood of retailers are shutting their doors for good, leaving mall units vacant for months or sometimes years on end.
In fact, I went to Saks Fifth Avenue at Sherway Gardens (in Toronto) with my wife one morning during the week; they didn’t open until noon. The sign said that they were open seven days a week between 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., or by appointment,” Minakakis said. “I thought to myself, ‘what is happening here?’ Is that a part of being unable to recover staff? There’s a lot of question marks.”
In related news.
In winter I’m a mall walker and spent many hours walking through stores like Saks.
I accurately predicted to my wife the closure of Nordstrom. I also predicted the closure of Saks and stand by it. As soon as their leases run out they’re outta here.
Both stores were, and still are, badly run and badly stocked. A major part of ‘badly stocked’ is wild over pricing, at least for Canada. We are a poor country compared to the USA and less prone to expensive showy clothing. Those of us who can afford a $600.00 sweater are less likely to buy one. I was in the market for a new suit or sport coat. Those items in Saks and Nordstroms, in Calgary, were complete garbage at any price. Trashy fabric, full of polyester, badly cut, badly sewn, unlined, lack of sufficient pockets, weird colours. A man willing and able to spend $1,200,00 on a jacket might want a plain, traditional, blue or black blazer in lambs wool or cashmere, dontcha think?
The store atmosphere in both was horrible and still is in Saks. Tarted up and sleazily dressed female staff, male staff with every possible indicia of aggressive homosexuality, whether real or impersonated, and very loud hard rock playlists blasting out of the store sound system is no way to attract wealthy older people.
Every successful US retailer or fast food chain follows the same recipe:
Take a successful US venture, hand it to the same gaggle of nitwits in Toronto and tell them to “customize it for Canada”, hand them the keys, watch them screw it up, declare bankruptcy and sell or scram.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
OMG Hans Gruber European Central Banker At Large – you totally nailed it!
And while I realize that the term “nitwits in Toronto” is perhaps a redundancy (and I say that as someone who lives there!), a good deal of the fault lies with Canadians themselves who just don’t demand the same level of quality and service that Americans do, in no small part, based on the former’s believing – fautuously, of course – that to demand such is “pushy” and “American” and that Canadians are “nicer” (read: preeningly superior in every conceivable capacity).
To be fair, much of the problem is that Canadians are so stupid that they’ll reflexively reject any American retail chain that attempts to expand here unless it engages in embarrassing baksheesh to show how much they truly respect “Canadian values”.
Canadian retail nitwits don’t understand retail distribution and that Canadian stores are usually competing against their American counterparts a 2 hour drive away across the border. So, they build stores in Canada inferior to the American ones and then wonder why they go bust.
And, yes, I’m looking at you Target, but you’re only the Biggest Loser.
As for Target, please read the linked article below from Canadian Business. It wasn’t Canadian retail “nitwits” that screwed the Canadian Target operations, but the bright people from the U.S. who screwed up the distribution system and simply didn’t understand Canadian retail.
https://archive.canadianbusiness.com/the-last-days-of-target-canada/
Sure, like Walmart.
Perhaps I am the one “out of step”, but I really do not like on-line shopping. I like to try things on (sizes vary widely for my body type) and I confess to the enjoyment of “hunting and gathering” for food at grocery stores and for clothes. When I was a teenage girl in Edmonton in the late 1960’s, there was nothing better than going downtown and hitting the big 3 – Hudson’s Bay, Eaton’s and Woodward’s department stores. Only Hudson’s Bay is in existence now and the store in the Cornwall Center in Regina is in very sad shape with product strewn around the shoe department and merchandise crammed onto the racks in the women’s departments. The store management closed off the basement area as no one visited it. In fact all of Regina’s downtown core is in a very sad state of affairs as there is very little parking and what there is, you must pay for. But even at the shopping malls (where parking is free), there are many closed store fronts.
My daughter and her husband are in their early 30’s and live in Montreal. They like to shop at boutique stores where they receive good customer service (which they pay for in higher prices).
I do not know what the solution is, but it is NOT more shopping experiences such as are being touted by Regina’s City Council in their plans for developing the railway lands on Dewdney Avenue.
I guess Saks has Cadillac Fairview, the management of Sherway Gardens, trapped in a lease neither wants to brake. Malls regularly force lease holders to open the at same time, 9:30 usually, to draw in the ‘walkers’ and ‘free’ coffee types. Other than Vape shops and Nail Salons there doesn’t seem to be much expansion of retail businesses.
I thought the ‘Greens’ would challenge the number of courier trucks emitting fumes as a problem but they don’t want us driving either. If Malls fail where will we shop because boutiques don’t sell what I need. Own nothing and keep people unemployed ? I guess malls will be levelled for public housing as being out of date much like Toronto’s plan to tear down the ( 52 year old, horrors !!!) Science Centre for housing. What can you say for a city that sold off their McLaughlin Planetarium, a gift from the McLaughlin family, because attendance declined during the many unnecessary renovations to the Royal Ontario Museum.
Thanks, always wondered why this excellent planetarium closed. Always seemed to be packed until it closed.
Retail is an inefficient expensive and increasingly irrelevant way to distribute goods.
Head out to the night markets, or open air daytime markets once a week like in euro cities, where weather permits.
OTOH mall anchor tenants like Zellers, Woolco, Target really drew them in.
Now its the Canadian Tire Corp monster buying up SportChek, Marks, etc
Big box retail, aka warehouse shopping, notta model for 15 minute pueblos.
Think again greenies that wanna change the world.
All-in-One to All-at-Once!
First they run all the mom & pop businesses out of business for the name of convenience and All-in-One shopping. Then when Box Stores fail, it’s like losing 10 stores in the area All-at-Once.
Clothes..hmm, havent bought a pair of jeans in yrs, same with dress shirts n Ties…mine are so old that the style will come bk…again lol.
T-shirts, Lee Jeans, hoodys, MEC Jackets, Eddie Bauer Down Parka…thats the basis for this ole guy. I wanna be comfy…bottom line.
Ecco Shoes (simply superb full leather footwear), that last for 6-7 yrs daily use…when worn out..? theres always open box product on E-Bay.
I refuse to go into malls – too many humans with most keeping their cell phone 2″ away from their face..or jammed up their (_i_)…Anything else, sorry, but Amazon Works fer me..as does E-bay or kijiji..
Never wore jeans ever. I wear what could be called khaki, more beige than the military color. Bought them in Florida for many years, off the rack, perfect fit, have enough to last me until death. 10 to 12 dollars a pair. For dress, grey wool slacks.
“I refuse to go into malls – too many humans with most keeping their cell phone 2″ away from their face”
It’s for that very reason I love malls. The cell phone-fixated get steam-rolled. I no longer even bother looking over my shoulder to faux-apologize. Just move on, looking for the next victim. No straight paths, here.
Brookfield’s office fund has the same issue that many other office buildings have, in that their vacant properties have loans against them at a given value, but without tenants they aren’t performing, and if they reprice them, they end up triggering repayment, since the value of the property based on the new/lower rents is less.
I haven’t been in a shopping mall since before Covid. I don’t buy much other than the ocassional article of clothing which I usually get at Costco or Mark’s.
Yep , Costco for me when I need gas , socks, underwear or pants and as a bonus a $ 1.50 hot dog and drink.
Marks for other stuff , the odd tool at Princess Auto or Homey Depot and China Tire.
Car parts local guys or Ebay.
And pick yer part @ wreckers