The retail revolution goes on with department store J.C. Penney in the US saying this weekend it will close 130 to 140 stores. That’s said to be nearly 15 percent of its total. Macy’s and Sears are also faltering with the future unknown. Walmart’s boundless ambitions have been dampened by a chaotic in-store atmosphere some shoppers complain about. There is certainly no hurry to build the Walmart in the Wicksteed Ave. extension of the SmartCentre. The site has been still for more than a year. Walmart has recently begun a grocery home-delivery service in Toronto.
FOOD RETAIL
For its part, Loblaws seems to have no interest in following Walmart or global merchant Amazon into home delivery of food. Loblaws CEO Galen Weston likes what he sees so far in the so-called click and collect side of grocery sales. You choose items online and then come and get them. You can do that at the Redway Road store. Click and collect is less costly than home delivery, vital in the low-margin world of food retail. The most buoyant retail scene is the dollar-store phenomenon. It shows no sign of slowing. Dollarama is being joined on the streets and in the shopping malls of Canada by such contenders as Giant Tiger (in Ontario and Quebec) the Great Canadian Dollar Store in Atlantic Canada and the Japanese entry Ichiban, now open in the East York Town Centre.
