Skeezix
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- Apr 25, 2007
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I'm wondering where in the Rideau Centre Simons will go? Nordstrom is taking over part of the closed Eaton's/Sears space on the south end of the mall, and the food court is supposed to move over there. I don't think the current food court is big enough to handle a Simon's unless they totally reorganize that end of the mall as part of the LRT construction. Or are there plans for expansion?
Interestingly, Les Ailes de la Mode tried, and failed, in the Ottawa market, as they had a store at Bayshore, on the west end of Ottawa.
The Rideau Centre is starting the work for a large expansion along Rideau Street (currently surface parking and the old Ogilvy's building, the historic portion of the facade of which is being dismantled and will be reconstructed as part of the expansion). Presumably Simons will end up there.
Les Ailes de la Mode had a lot of problems and significantly over-extended itself. By all accounts, the store at Bayshore was a disappointment, but it's hard to know how much of that was attributable to the much larger problems within the company. The company ended up closing some of its banners and selling the others off piecemeal. Visiting the Ailes "Grand Magasin" store on Ste Catherines in downtown Montreal today, reduced in size from when it originally opened, is so sad - full of poor quality, discount merchandise. It's like shopping at International Clothiers (I think it is now the same company IIRC).