[TransitBart]

How does anyone pay the rent? Really? What are the margins on Danish pastries! I know them on clothes and I can’t believe most stores move the velocity that allows them to pay the rent. I was on Queen West on the block between Peter and Spadina this afternoon and I think that the limit in terms of rent has been overshot. There were a lot of moved/bankrupted/empty storefronts.

 

[CapCurk]

I wonder if the CF paid for the Sage shopfits. It's only moved three times in less than two years!

 

[Student99]

That hallway is looking worse than I imagined with the more photos I see of it. I bet if CF were allowed, they would probably get rid of the tent entirely.

 

[toaster29]

How does the average shopper afford Nordstrom or Saks? I thought Nordstrom was supposed to be more reasonable but a shirt is still 200$. Bizarre to me... Hudson Bay is the "discount" banner at Sherway lol.

 

[Amare]

How does the average shopper afford Nordstrom or Saks?

The average person these days just uses their credit card and rack up endless amounts of debt, which is why you always hear about record high consumer debt levels in Canada.

 

[junctionist]

More people would shop at stores like Saks if housing prices weren't as high as they are. Housing prices cut into disposable income.

 

[WislaHD]

How does the average shopper afford Nordstrom or Saks? I thought Nordstrom was supposed to be more reasonable but a shirt is still 200$. Bizarre to me... Hudson Bay is the "discount" banner at Sherway lol.

The average person these days just uses their credit card and rack up endless amounts of debt, which is why you always hear about record high consumer debt levels in Canada.

I refuse to believe people are that dumb to spend credit on $200 shirts that they do not have on any sort of regular basis.

I believe the real answer has to do with foreign money laundering, considering the number of times I've walked through Eaton Centre Nordstrom to see persons paying for items in cash.

 

[mustangjay]

Rumors started to fly about HBC wanting to either sell off its Saks division and/or close its Saks stores in Canada due to their drastic under-performance. Wonder what would happen under such a scenario to malls like Sherway which would suddenly find themselves with massive anchor space.

 

[Skeezix]

Rumors started to fly about HBC wanting to either sell off its Saks division and/or close its Saks stores in Canada due to their drastic under-performance. Wonder what would happen under such a scenario to malls like Sherway which would suddenly find themselves with massive anchor space.

There are only two full-line Saks stores in Canada. The Queen Street store would be relatively easy to repurpose as part of Hudson's Bay, possibly with new concessions along Yonge and Queen, etc., while keeping Pusateri's and Leña. Sherway would be more complicated/potentially more costly to HBC depending on the lease terms. Saks announced another store at Chinook Centre in Calgary, to open in early 2018, but I don't even know if they have started construction there or not. As far as I know, nothing has progressed on the proposed downtown Montreal store.

 

[Amare]

I refuse to believe people are that dumb to spend credit on $200 shirts that they do not have on any sort of regular basis.

I believe the real answer has to do with foreign money laundering, considering the number of times I've walked through Eaton Centre Nordstrom to see persons paying for items in cash.

You would be surprised with the number of people who spend high sums of money on the most basic things these days trust me, there is no shortage. If I spent a day outside of Sherway and did a survey, I guarantee you more than 50% would fall into that category. In terms of money laundering, there is definitely a big problem with fraud in high-end department stores. If you've worked in retail for a while, you can normally pick up signs of odd behavior/questions/payment forms that will tip you off.

Rumors started to fly about HBC wanting to either sell off its Saks division and/or close its Saks stores in Canada due to their drastic under-performance. Wonder what would happen under such a scenario to malls like Sherway which would suddenly find themselves with massive anchor space.

And they would have no one to blame but themselves for Saks performance in Canada. I've posted in detail in the Nordstrom thread how HBC (Saks in particular) doesnt understand the Toronto market and they have misaligned both their store offerings and location in the city.

 

[toaster29]

Toronto is an odd market. Not many markets where people who buy and live in multi-million dollar homes shop at Old Navy.

 

[torontowest91]

What happened to the squish candy... it’s closed already.

 

[interchange42]

Squish is moving to another spot in the mall.

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[torontowest91]

Didn’t they just open in September ?? Weird

 

[interchange42]

Months since I was last there. The hall down to Nordstrom looks a lot better, all but one store open. Somewhere around a dozen stores across the entire mall have hoarding up as moves continue to happen from one section to another (like Squish, now relocated) as spots they feel are more appropriate open up. Apparently American menswear shop UNTUCKit is opening its first outside-the-US location here soon. Also coming soon is Tesla, in part of the space that Holt Renfrew abandoned.

Maybe not the best time for Telsa right now, right after green programs have been cancelled by the new ding dongs in charge, but hey, it's one more store for Sherway. No sure what's going into the rest of the area where Holt's was: it's been painted black on the exterior.

To the west of Indigo where The Keg went in last year, Cactus Club is close to opening now.

Here's what this area looked like in the renderings:

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