What do you think will be the next Big Box to go under will be?

Swerny wrote: ↑ Staples or The Source.

I can't believe they aren't both already gone.

Why would The Source close? You do know most of their 650 locations are in every small town in Canada where there are no other options right? The retail landscape outside the center of the universe is a little bigger than you think. In many of these small towns they are also the only option within 200km for mobile phones. I'd wager that many of these locations churn more phones and cell plans than many mall kiosks at less than 5% of the rent.

No the 12 or so locations in Toronto don't have heavy foot traffic but most of the other 98.2% of the locations are quite healthy.

Cas77 wrote: ↑ Why would The Source close? You do know most of their 650 locations are in every small town in Canada where there are no other options right? The retail landscape outside the center of the universe is a little bigger than you think. In many of these small towns they are also the only option within 200km for mobile phones. I'd wager that many of these locations churn more phones and cell plans than many mall kiosks at less than 5% of the rent.

No the 12 or so locations in Toronto don't have heavy foot traffic but most of the other 98.2% of the locations are quite healthy.

Actually, it's because Source is owned by Bell these days. They tend to upsell and convince people that Bell fibe is great. Take Bell Fibe and get $100 off the price of a TV, etc, etc.
I hate that store for that same reason. (I'm a very loyal Rogers fan)
They'll be around because there's always someone...even if all they really want is Bell's new ALT TV.

some1not wrote: ↑ What about Bell and Rogers? Everyone in here hates them both especially their over price services and crappy customer service. Don't tell me you all still have services with them? Isn't everyone using a Kodi box now? Ok so you'll have your internet service with them.

They're not going anywhere.
Both companies are bigger than you think.
Did you use your Kodi box (or whatever brand) to watch City TV? That's Rogers. Did you use it to watch CTV? That's Bell.
Rogers owns Sportsnet, Bell owns TSN.
No cable? Streaming SN and TSN? No problem!!
Both Rogers and Bell are banking on the idea that even a simple OTA (over the air, old fashioned antenna, no cable) TV viewing habit will still make them good money through commercials.
Sports is going to be a huge money maker for them going forward...
(to name one area...I havn't even gotten into the part about little guy companies renting their cell towers etc)

Back in October when I first replied to this topic... I said Staples.

Although to clarify... I thought at the time (and still do) that this chain will not disappear entirely, they’ll just downsize their B&M stores... do most of their biz online (like they do now) and these smaller storefronts will probably carry the Staples name... in the form of STAPLES PRINT ENTRE and go on from there.

Because although there is rarely any Customers in the aisles (or much stock these days) the instore Copy & Print Centres are ALWAYS busy
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.
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But my vote for the NEXT BIG BOX STORE CLOSURE HAS CHANGED

As much as Staples is transforming into something else, and won’t disappear entirely... I think the writing is on the wall now for Home Outfitters

We went looking for one this weekend, only to discover when we got there, it was gone. And upon further research / reading it looks like this 1990s staple has been closing up shop right across the country... going down to what could only be called a skeletal presence vs a prime retailer on the Big Box & Mall Front just 10+ years ago

Thing is when Home Outfitters is gone... it will be gone for good... folding itself back into HBC / The Bay where it originally spun out from
(So no big sell off... just a quiet retraction back to the Mother Ship)

My guess is we’ll see an announcement sooner than later.

PointsHubby wrote: ↑ Back in October when I first replied to this topic... I said Staples.

Staples is actually doing quite well selling office furniture, printers, ink and other stuff.
While select locations might close, I doubt they'll close all their stores.

PointsHubby wrote: ↑ But my vote for the NEXT BIG BOX STORE CLOSURE HAS CHANGED
I think the writing is on the wall now for Home Outfitters
My guess is we’ll see an announcement sooner than later.

Depends on where you look.
In a place like Yorkdale mall, it may strictly be a deliberate store to cut down competition a bit.
It doesn't have to be a huge money maker, just a basic money maker...one that calculates to be more profitable than a store in it's place competing head on with the Bay.

Outside of that, you might have a point...unless the Warden & Eglinton store sticks around, perhaps as a clearance centre...??
Mississauga strengthens your point, as more H.O. stores keep vanishing: https://www.insauga.com/a-huge-home-goo ... ississauga

I think we have our winner!

http://business.financialpost.com/news/ ... ome-stores

Sears 2.0 happening right before our eyes. Close a few stores now to slow the bleeding, but I say Toys R Us won't make it to Christmas 2020. Walmart has been eating away at them over the last 20 years, and Amazon will finish off what Wally started.

The Bay would not surprise me. But Sears going down may benefit them if it doesn’t just drive people further away from the dept store model altogether.

Otherwise, pick some apparel chain that was popular in the 90s. Gap?

EastGTARedFlagger wrote: ↑ I think we have our winner!

http://business.financialpost.com/news/ ... ome-stores

Sears 2.0 happening right before our eyes. Close a few stores now to slow the bleeding, but I say Toys R Us won't make it to Christmas 2020. Walmart has been eating away at them over the last 20 years, and Amazon will finish off what Wally started.

It wouldn't surprise me if Toys r us Canada manages to survive and only the American stores vanish.
The Canadian stores should distance themselves now if they can, while they still seem to be showing some form of success.

I think that some of the body care stores need to start shutting down. Fresh, Lush, Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, etc. Also, I'm amazed that Stokes has managed to survive for so long. Those stores never have anyone in there and they are so jam packed with stuff that it is nearly impossible to walk around in their without knocking something over.

mbg wrote: ↑ The Bay would not surprise me. But Sears going down may benefit them if it doesn’t just drive people further away from the dept store model altogether.

Bay might survive. I'm predicting that it's Sak's (their sister store) that will go under.
Make no mistake.
Bay is not the new Zellers and Sak's is not the new Bay.
Bay is the Bay and Sak's is just an over priced clothing store that I don't see lasting much longer unless their prices come down.

calgaryhhr wrote: ↑ I think that some of the body care stores need to start shutting down. Fresh, Lush, Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, etc.

Definitely can also include Sephora and Clair de Lune to that mix.

That market is overdue for a correction. A year or so ago I recall Body Shop sold GROUPONS to get people into their stores. A good clue of a failing business is when a store/restaurant that's been around for years suddenly gets into Groupon, since businesses that use those take a huge hit*. Groupons are fine for a new company trying to drum up business by getting you in the door. It's another story altogether when a business that's been successful for a quarter century does it. I'm surprised they're still around.

However, walking through my local mall over Boxing Week, one of the longest lineups to get into a store was at Lush. So somebody's buying that overpriced useless crap.

Frankly I don't get it. It's not like you can't get similar products at Walmart that work just as well. Or just go to the back tables at Winners and you'll see overstock of those products being liquidated. Loblaws could crush that segment into oblivion if they wanted - they have the drugstores (Shoppers) and a bunch of super/hypermarkets with inhouse pharmacies, plus a rewards program. All they gotta do is lower prices bigtime.

* Most Groupons are 50% off regular prices. However Groupon keeps half of what you paid for the voucher. So if you paid $50 to get a $100 voucher, that store is only pocketing $25 for you to get $100 in merchandise/food. Any business that relies on Groupon for foot traffic either has crazy markups ... or is already on its way to closure.

playnicee1 wrote: ↑ It wouldn't surprise me if Toys r us Canada manages to survive and only the American stores vanish.
The Canadian stores should distance themselves now if they can, while they still seem to be showing some form of success.

They can't distance themselves. Toys-R-Us Canada is 100% owned by Toys-R-Us Inc (USA). Unless the parent company spins off the Canadian wing (the way Sears did, and further back when Radio Shack spun off what we now call The Source), if the US parent fails, so will the Canadian side. Notice they filed for Chapter 11 (or its equivalent) in both countries back in September:
http://www.trucadevtest.com/tru/corpora ... _19_En.pdf

Perhaps they aren't hurting as much in Canada given they aren't closing any stores here yet. The one near me never has a full parking lot.... Expect the first Canadian closures to come as leases come up for renewal.

EastGTARedFlagger wrote: ↑ That market is overdue for a correction. A year or so ago I recall Body Shop sold GROUPONS to get people into their stores. A good clue of a failing business is when a store/restaurant that's been around for years suddenly gets into Groupon, since businesses that use those take a huge hit. Groupons are fine for a new company trying to drum up business by getting you in the door. It's another story altogether when a business that's been successful for a quarter century does it. I'm surprised they're still around.

Body shop & others promote themselves as not testing on animals.
That is one main reason why they survive.
Clearance section of Winners has what on the shelf? With what ingredients? A brand no one has ever heard of? Tested on animals?

As for Groupon, Body shop was sold recently (yes, again!) to a Brazilian company. Maybe a new owner saw some benefit to Groupon for reasons unknown... Source: https://www.ft.com/content/10b37676-5b6 ... 55f264aa8b

So, long story short, Body shop was a British company, which sold to L'oreal in 2006.
11 years later, (June 2017) they sold Body Shop to Natura Cosmeticos...

playnicee1 wrote: ↑ Body shop & others promote themselves as not testing on animals.
That is one main reason why they survive.

Not that I buy the stuff but I'm sure most of the equivalent products sold by Loblaws/Shoppers are also marked "not tested on animals" in the fine print.
Are you now trying to defend Body Shop after just saying you think some of those retailers should close? You seem to be talking out both sides of your mouth :-)

EastGTARedFlagger wrote: ↑ Not that I buy the stuff but I'm sure most of the equivalent products sold by Loblaws/Shoppers are also marked "not tested on animals" in the fine print.
Are you now trying to defend Body Shop after just saying you think some of those retailers should close? You seem to be talking out both sides of your mouth :-)

I never said any of those stores should close.
It will be interesting to see what happens next, since L'oreal has products in Shoppers.
It used to be that they'd try not to compete with themselves, but there's no doubt that with the selling of Body shop to another company, maybe L'oreal will perhaps put their own line of body shop type products
in SDM & Rexall now...unless the sale of Body shop came with a no compete clause, which I doubt...

playnicee1 wrote: ↑ I never said any of those stores should close.
It will be interesting to see what happens next, since L'oreal has products in Shoppers.
It used to be that they'd try not to compete with themselves, but there's no doubt that with the selling of Body shop to another company, maybe L'oreal will perhaps put their own line of body shop type products
in SDM & Rexall now...unless the sale of Body shop came with a no compete clause, which I doubt...

My bad, I confused you with calgaryhhr, somehow assumed it was the same poster replying to me...

What I meant by Loblaws crushing them - they could create (well, outsource) their own store brand of Body Shop/Lush type products (either call it PC or figure out some other name), and then sell it for half the price compared to those mall retailers. They're in a perfect position to take over that segment (and have even more vacancies at the malls...). Hate to give Westonette more ways to get richer but hey, this one's just too easy.

I still think staples. And coming soon Aldi/Lidl

I think It's going to be Best Buy. Anytime I walk in there which is seldom these days I think there's nothing here I can't get anywhere else and for a better price. There's hardly anyone in the stores and anytime I need to ask someone for help there's no one around. The shelves are always bare with stock for add on items or accessories. We bought my daughter a go pro and needed a helmet mount. Didn't want to wait for shipping from online as she wanted to use it that day. Walked in to best buy and the accessory section for go pro and competitors were empty. There was about 30 pegs for items and there may have been 5 or 6 items there. Same thing with headphones and the cable section.


Also, when I do finally get help the help is less than spectacular which to be fair is less of a best buy thing and more of a "employee to lazy to find out the solution thing" They had no go pro helmet mounts available but they had a competitors brand. I wasn't sure if they were universal so I asked someone at customer service as I couldn't find anyone else to ask and her answer was "Sorry, I don't know" I had to ask her to ask someone who would know the answer which you would think would be her next logical step but she rolled her eyes and seemed to be annoyed that I interrupted her chatting time with her colleague

playnicee1 wrote: ↑ Bay might survive. I'm predicting that it's Sak's (their sister store) that will go under.
Make no mistake.
Bay is not the new Zellers and Sak's is not the new Bay.
Bay is the Bay and Sak's is just an over priced clothing store that I don't see lasting much longer unless their prices come down.

There's a reason that they bought Sak's - luxury sales are generally doing well owing to the increasing polarization of the middle class downward or upward. The middle is what's under pressure. Would not be surprised to see Sak's fill in some (but not all) of the space left behind by Sears if Sears was in a higher-end mall.

Department stores are a different story because they generally catered to the middle. WalMart, Amazon, and Winners/HomeSense are good enough for many people and an affordable step up for others.