News   Mar 28, 2024
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Winners (new Winners stores)

R

RJR123

Guest
On CBC News last night (Toronto edition) there was a story about Winners taking over the Chapters on Bloor St. between Avenue Road and Bay St.
Apparently, they will be moving in there by Fall and the fellow merchants on Bloor are none too happy! Not a great fit for the street and its image.
 
Though I could see Winners having its "Century 21" appeal around here (the store at the edge of Ground Zero, not the real estate firm)
 
I knew they've been wanting to unload 110 Bloor for a while (since Indigo bought them), but I thought they'd have something more upscale. Maybe even a Saks or something higher class (anything else). Winners is everywhere, and although the College Park store is nice, it doesn't belong in one of North America's glitziest shopping districts. Uggh. Century 21's unique in that it's one store, where Winners is one of 1500 stores North America-wide!

An Apple flagship store would've been great in that space (or part of it)!

I wonder if Starbucks will try to buy their share of the site. It's one of their top performing stores in Eastern Canada, after all... When is Chapters going to begin liquidating? The Indigo isn't as nice as Chapters either. What a disappointment.
 
You know what should have gone there on Bloor? Simons (which I think Toronto should have). Their Montreal (Ste-Catharine especially, the old Simpson's) and Quebec City (downtown and Place Ste-Foy) stores are great.
 
Nothing was there before Chapters, i.e. that multi-story interior space was custom-built especially for Chapters...
 
@spmarshall: You're right, Simon's would be great there. Simon's is a great department store. Their store on Ste-Catherine, where Simpson's used to be is great. So is their Carrefour Laval store. They have really slow growth though, only three in Quebec city, three in Montreal, and one in Sherbrooke. I don't think they'd want to overexpand like their Quebec cousin, Les Ailes de la Mode did. They had plans for Montreal downtown (where Eaton was), Ottawa Bayshore, and Fairview Pointe-Claire all at the same time, and were even looking at a Toronto store at one point. The Ottawa store opened, in a poor choice location (away from their traditional Francophone base), Montreal downtown was too big and its location in the Centre Les Ailes was too far from the street, and they shelved the Pointe-Claire store. As a result of the money pit of the downtown store, they closed the slow-sales Ottawa store, and turned the Montreal store from five floors to two. Anyway, I guess there's no point to that cautionary tale, except Simons'll have to be really sure it will do well before they expand.

I have doubts Winners will be filling up so many levels.

@adma, but what building was there before?

@Ed007Toronto, I've had Houston's before (they used to have on in Gloucester, ON, and they have one in Vaughan Mills). Good ribs. But not as good as Bâton Rouge.
 
What was there before? Random retail at best.

And beyond that, remember that that whole blockfront is a 90s-style urbanizing "building out" a la the Eaton Centre. It replaced a more demure podium-like street treatment that was more consistent w/the mirrored-graph-paper 70s/80s aesthetic of the condo behind; think of the Colonnade, 15-20 years later. (It even had a forecourt w/an echo of the Colonnade's concrete spiral stair.)
 
As far as what is going into the Chapters space (if it is in fact closing), I would think an operation like Restoration Hardware or a new Club Monaco would be a more likely choice. I only mention Club Monaco due to the mention of UofT wanting the Homemakers? Building for a university art centre.
 
It's already closed? Did they have a selloff? Are there signs saying the next tenant? That's really quick. There were rumors for a long time that the Chapters at Festival Hall was closing too, but I guess having three is much more economically feasible than having four superstores (five if you include World's Biggest Bookstore) downtown.
 
I'd thought that the bloor st. store closure was not to do with the viability of another large bookstore downtown, but rather because they have another store (the Indigo on Bay) no more than a block away.
 
Definitely, the thing that made them close 110 Bloor is that Manulife Centre has an Indigo. The rent's probably cheaper, and the space is smaller.
 
Sell-off? I doubt it. The announcement of the store closure to last day of operation was very quick. I walked by today, and the books were being removed, probably for redistribution to other Chapters, Coles and Indigo stores. There was no sell-off when Indigo closed at Trinity Mall in Brampton (and the nearby Chapters didn't get any better).
 
Ahh...the last (or latest) casualty of the Chapters-Indigo merger. Have any new stores been opened recently? The Indigo at Scarborough Town Centre's now a Sportchek, the Chapters at Yonge north of Eglinton's now a Future Shop. I think the one at Hamilton Lime Ridge is a Old Navy now? And now a Winners at 110 Bloor...what a diverse array of stores.
 
Ahh...the last (or latest) casualty of the Chapters-Indigo merger. Have any new stores been opened recently? The Indigo at Scarborough Town Centre's now a Sportchek, the Chapters at Yonge north of Eglinton's now a Future Shop. I think the one at Hamilton Lime Ridge is a Old Navy now? And now a Winners at 110 Bloor...what a diverse array of stores.

Don't forget re really short-lived Indigos, the Empress Walk location (now Staples). And as goes other short-lived Empress Walk stuff, then there was Tower Records...
 

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