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Toronto non-mall retail (Odds & Ends)

  • Thread starter marksimpson7843
  • Start date
I hope it does. They already do it to an extent today, particularly in the cosmetics department and with some clothing lines, but they need to embrace it more completely. If they go the direction of Lane Crawford, which is an amazing retailer, I'll be more than satisfied.
 
khristopher said:
As long as there are no walls put up between the "stores", then that's fine with me.
Click to expand...

They'll just do it like they do now: Brand Areas.

I find department stores such dinosaurs though, do people really shop them? There's so much crap you have to wade through in order to get the few nice things.

Why do department stores still exist? Aren't they just the malls of Christmas past? It's like a unit of the Powers of Ten movie: you start out on the street with stores in separate buildings, walk into a mall to see the smaller stores collected into one building, then walk into a store full of even smaller stores. Maybe I haven't looked around enough and within the Calvin Klein underwear shop I'll find a door that leads to...a room for online shopping?
 
I found myself on the fourth floor of Eatons, or Sears, or whatever they call it now ... just before Xmas. A loud, tinny, gratingly girly voice announced that customers must please go to the fourth floor and meet under the bright, coloured light ... where a "free gift" would be given out. Customers who had already received a "free gift" today were requested not to present themselves for another one.

Mostly, a few bored twentysomething couples and one or two elderly women hove into sight and gathered beneath the bright, coloured light. The young woman who'd made the announcement herded them around a stage where she started to give a sales pitch, glancing into a box on the table as if it contained the crown jewels, faking a look of delight, and shutting it again.

Oh, the little tease!

I drifted away - even I'm not that desperate. Later, after checking out the toasters and electric kettles, I passed by again and saw the huddled masses, twentysomethings and old women, grasping little plastic spatula things as if their lives depended on it and looking rather pleased.
 
299 bloor call control. said:
I hope it does. They already do it to an extent today, particularly in the cosmetics department and with some clothing lines, but they need to embrace it more completely. If they go the direction of Lane Crawford, which is an amazing retailer, I'll be more than satisfied.
Click to expand...

That seems to be the model for most East Asian department stores, which are quite busy - little branded departments within larger categorical departments, all for one brand each.
 
Is the sale at lileo in the Distillery a permanent thing? Whenever I drop by there are large racks of clothes at 50% off.
 
I'm not sure, but I noticed that, too. The whole store looks like a permanent sample sale. It's great if you wear "L" or "XL" in everything :/
 
TKTKTK said:
They'll just do it like they do now: Brand Areas.

I find department stores such dinosaurs though, do people really shop them? There's so much crap you have to wade through in order to get the few nice things.
Click to expand...

I really hate department stores that are organized this way. One advantage of a large store is that it has many products, so you can compare items without going from store to store. Divvying up the merchandise by brand makes this a real pain. Imagine if Loblaws, or Future Shop, or Home Depot was organized by brand! If I'm shopping for pants, I don't want to walk around a gigantic store to search every nook and cranny for them. I want to see them all in one place, under a big sign that says PANTS.
 
bleeepbluuup said:
I really hate department stores that are organized this way. One advantage of a large store is that it has many products, so you can compare items without going from store to store. Divvying up the merchandise by brand makes this a real pain. Imagine if Loblaws, or Future Shop, or Home Depot was organized by brand! If I'm shopping for pants, I don't want to walk around a gigantic store to search every nook and cranny for them. I want to see them all in one place, under a big sign that says PANTS.
Click to expand...

I don't have a problem if there are a few brands in their own separate sections, but I would have to agree with you. The point of a department store, is to shop by department.
You totally made me laugh by the way.
 
khristopher said:
I don't have a problem if there are a few brands in their own separate sections, but I would have to agree with you. The point of a department store, is to shop by department.
You totally made me laugh by the way.
Click to expand...

I guess we should call them Brand Stores then.
 
However, for the Bay to be successful in the future, it needs to reposition itself in the class of a boutique store like Holt Renfrew. On top of that, HBC already has a brand to compete in the department store category, and that's Zellers. So the main reason why the Bay has stalled, and was failing, is because it became this messed up hybrid schcizophrenic of a departaboutiquemacy store that had no direction. It's ridiculous how many "concept" stores the Bay has opened over the past decade - concepts that never really took off.

My hope is that Bonnie Brooks comes up with a coherent vision of what The Bay will be and actually implement it across the board.
 
I'd like to see the bay be high end like, but without high end prices. Or at least not the majority of it's stuff.
The Bay in Square One is 3 floors, and I find it very unattractive to shop in. It needs more theming. It feels too empty and cheap, considering it's not a Zellers.
 
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