Target Comes to Canada--this Time, It's Not a Rumour

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After teasing me for nearly all of my 8 years here, Target is finally coming to save Canada.

http://yhoo.it/dEIO5E by taking over Zeller's leases.

It's about time.  As I noted earlier (http://saulcarliner.blogspot.com/2010/09/enhancing-ambiance-of-montreal.html), Zellers was in desperate need of a facelift.

This also explains why, after I've noticed a dramatic improvement in appearance in Bay Stores (as dramatic as a makeover on Oprah), Zellers haven't looked any different.  HBC must have been getting ready to sell them.

Shopping Trip 2: Malls, Malls, Malls

We didn’t limit our shopping to department stores, but that was the only class of shopping we did in nearly every city we visited.  Otherwise, our shopping experiences varied among cities.

• In some, we visited malls.
• In others, we visited shopping districts.
• In all, we noticed the brands (marcas in Spanish) that appeared—and didn’t appear—in the stores.
• And because we noticed the same brands, of course we compared merchandise.  

Malls
A highlight of our visits to Lima, Istanbul and Paris were visits to the malls.  Yes, I know that’s tres Americain, but hey, that’s what I am.  We like malls because, in addition to shopping, they offer free air conditioning or heat (depending on the season) and, occasionally, other unique benefits. 


Larcomar, Lima:  In Lima, we visited three malls.  Of the three, tourists are probably most familiar with Larcomar, a mall located at the edge of the tony Miraflores district and dramatically built into a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  In fact, it’s barely visible at street level because it is built below a city park.  Larcomar is situated across the street from a J.W. Marriott hotel and within an easy walk of several others, and caters to teens and tourists with loose change in their pockets.  The highlights of the mall are its food court (a little larger than most, with breath taking views of the beach and beyond) and adjacent restaurants, a few high-end tourist shops selling local wares of gold, silver, and alpaca wool, and several fashion shops aimed at teens and young adults.  To keep an eye on those teens from the moment they come near the mall, security guards are visibly stationed at the entry and throughout the mall.  Rather than traditional anchor stores, the mall has four “cultural” anchors:  a movie theatre, a restaurant that features a Peruvian dance show, a theater, and a branch of the Museum of Gold (it’s one of those rare instances in which the branch is significantly more impressive than the main location).   During my first, brief visit to Lima in 2008, we visited Larcomar a few times.  During this extended visit, we only visited once.  


Plaza San Miguel,  Lima:  A second mall we visited was Plaza San Miguel–a compact, open air, recently remodeled mall in a densely populated lower middle class section of Lima, not too far from the airport.  All of the major local chains had stores there: stylish Chilean department stores Saga Fallabella (which was once Sears in the 1960s, but was sold off years ago) and Ripley, a number of local clothing chains, a small food court, and an outbuilding with a 2-story Bembos, the popular Peruvian hamburger chain whose Choco-Bembo (a soft ice cream cone dipped in chocolate) is among my favorite taste treats on earth.  


Jockey Plaza, Lima:  But the mall we visited most regularly—partly because it is closest to where we stayed and partly because it is, without question, the nicest mall in Lima—was Jockey Plaza (so named because it’s next to a race track).  Jockey Plaza had nearly all of the same stores as Plaza San Miguel, but the store sizes were slightly larger, the merchandise selection slightly enhanced and, being enclosed, slightly more comfortable.  For example, both malls had Chilean home retailer Casa y Ideas (kind of like the Crate & Barrel of South America), but the Casa y Ideas at Jockey Plaza was larger and seemed to have a slightly larger selection of merchandise.  Plus Jockey Plaza had additional stores, like an Ace Home Center, the Plaza Vea hypermarket, and a flagship Tommy Hilfiger Store.  


I later learned that, because Peru has fewer malls per capita than almost any other country in South America, real estate developers have aggressive plans to build them.  


Forum Istanbul:  But we didn’t limit our mall shopping to Lima.  One of the highlights of our trip to Istanbul was a visit to the relatively new Forum Mall, a mall so large that it’s earned not only also its own subway station but also the title of the largest of mall in Europe.  And it’s big enough that I believe it—certainly felt as cavernous as the Mall of America and the West Edmonton Mall, but a lot warmer in fell in than the Mall of America and not in desperate need of remodeling like the West Edmonton Mall.  


Security at the mall was the tightest I saw anywhere in Istanbul; we had to go through a metal detector when we entered the mall.  The corridors were more expansive than those in Jockey Plaza (or any other mall we visited), both in terms of width and height, only adding to the feeling that the mall is huge (as do the presence of an IKEA store and a full-fledged hypermarket).  


The mall was relatively empty, not surprising for a Monday night in February, and to entice what little traffic was there, nearly every store had a sale.  And the merchandise was worth exploring; stylish shoes and clothes, housewares, and electronics.  We visited a large furniture store selling Mediterranean chic chests, sofas, and tables.  


Among the surprises (besides extensive use of wood, curving lines, and varied ceiling and roof lines to give the place a chic, warm, engaging look) was the lack of a Chinese food stall in the food court (I had always thought that was  prerequisite) and the lack of a traditional department store (what anchors the mall?).  


Grand Bazaar, Istanbul:  Forum Istanbul contrasted sharply with the other mall we visited in Istanbul: the Grand Bazaar, one of the oldest indoor malls in the world (though it does not bill itself that way).  A fixture in central Istanbul for over 400 years, the bazaar features hundreds of small shops (maybe 3 by 4 meters) grouped around themes: jewelry, leather, clothing, and so on.  The Bazaar is so huge that many vendors have more than one shop.  I realized this when I saw two that sold antique Judaica and, upon closer inspection, realized both have the same name.  


Unlike Forum Istanbul, the Grand Bazaar was teeming with activity all the time.  And, in sharp contrast to the decorum of sticker-based pricing in the Forum, all prices in the Grand Bazaar were negotiable.  In fact, negotiating them is half the fun of being there.  


One of the most interesting traditions we observed there was the delivery of afternoon tea.  A young guy would walk around with a tray that contained several glass cups filled with tea, and deliver them to the shopkeepers.  Instead of going out for a coffee break, shopkeepers had their tea break come to them.     


Underground Mall at the Louvre, Paris: The only other city where we visited malls was Paris.  We saw two there.  One is the mall underneaeth the glass pyramid underneath the Louve.  The only thing notable about this mall was how un-notable it is.  Take away the choice location—underground next to one of the most visited art museums in the world—and its overpriced washrooms (to be honest, I have a strong belief that people have the right to pee for free)—with a McDonald’s, Virgin Megastore, and similar chain shops, most shoppers would be hard pressed to distinguish this mall from any other mall in the universe.  


Quatre Saisons, Paris:  The last mall we visited was the Quatre Saisons (Four Seasons) Mall at La Defense, a new section just off of the island of Paris.  The mall had recently been remodeled.  It lacked the spaciousness of the Forum Istanbul or, for that matter, Jockey Plaza, but we enjoyed it all the same.  Like the Forum Istanbul, this mall had no department store as its anchor.  Instead, it had a two-story hypermarket and a French version of Home Depot as the anchors. The mall was huge and its target demographic seemed to be middle-middle class and some latter day YUPPIES. It featured the classy Paul’s bakery (which I would later learn is a chain and kind of over-priced), a Zara Home store (which we don’t have in North America and, to be honest, was a major let down; I thought the merchandise was a bit fru-fru in look and hi-hi in price), and Muji, the Japanese design chain hawking well-designed, deceptively simple housewares and clothing.  Among my favorite items at Muji are its tiny kits—clear plastic boxes that contain miniature sewing kits, office supply kits, and so on.  The mall also had two Monops (if I remember correctly) and the best looking McDonald’s I’ve ever seen in my life.  


One other thing about this mall: it was the only place Parisians can shop on Sundays.  Not all of the stores participate, but it is the first to open on Sundays.  


Shopping Districts
Although we didn’t visit shopping malls in other cities, we did visit well-traveled shopping districts, including the area near KaDeWe in Berlin, Gran Via in Madrid, and Bareclona’s Passeig Gracia   Of the districts, the Passeig Gracia was easily our favorite; an exceptionally wide street with Gaudi-designed street lights and benches, and a first-class selection of stores combine to create the type of shopping experience one would expect from a design capital of the world.   


Merchandise 
On our shopping adventures, we noticed some of the same merchandise but not necessarily at the same prices.  For example, we saw a clock with knives, spoons, and forks in Lima and Paris.  In Lima, the clock cost between 35 and 50 soles ($12 to $17.50) depending on size.  The same clock cost between 26 and 39 euros in France ($39 to $59). 


We also encountered brands that we had not noticed in North America, including Camper shoes, Desiqual jeans, and Quick burgers.  

Next post:  Shopping Trip 3: The Meaning of Shopping  

Shopping Trip 1: The Department Stores of Europe

• Paris
• Berlin
• Spain
• Lima

The department stores of Paris:  We visited 4 of the big 5.  One of the best known (at least, in my limited experience) is Galeries Lafayette.  The store has its flagship near the Opera in Paris, as well as branches throughout Europe, including a relatively new one in Berlin that was designed by star architect Jean Nouvel.  

Going into this shopping experience, I thought that Galeries Lafayette was the superior store.  After all, its flagship store has three buildings—Femme (women), Homme (men) and Maison (home).  (I actually thought the Homme store was the HoMe store, failing to see the second m.)  And its gourmet food gallery is to die for—even if the food didn’t look sumptuous (it does) its prices are enough to knock a person over (we had seen cheese in the food halls that was 30 percent higher than at a grocery store).  

But truth be told, I wasn’t “wowed” by the merchandise.  Nothing said, “Look at me, you’ve gotta have me.”  But the store did look cleaner than its Berlin branch, which I visited last year.  It was in the midst of a sale and looked sloppier than a Macy’s C-quality store—merchandise strewn all over the place, tried on, discarded, and left for someone to put back, though apparently no one felt like doing it.  

At first, competitor Printemps (translates to spring)  seemed like a copy cat to Galleries Lafayette.  Like the Galeries, Printemps has three buildings, too—women’s, mens, and home.  Unlike the Galleries, Printemps had the wow factor.  Its merchandise was a notch better than the Galleries.  For example, the Galeries features Ralph Lauren merchandise, Printemps offers Ralph Lauren merchandise tonier black label merchandise.  The home store had unique items from Alessi (the Italian design line that markets museum-quality design ware for the home) that  weren’t available in Galeries Lafayette, as well as a cooking school.  Throughout Printemps, the displays were a tad sharper than those in Galeries Lafayette.  

If Galeries Lafayette failed to wow me, its sister stores did.  In addition to a chain of department stores under the family name, the Galeries Lafayette operates the department store, Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville (BHV) and a discount department store chain, Monoprix.  Hotel de Ville is the French term for city hall, and the former store is aptly named because it’s across the street from the Paris City Hall.  That store really did wow me.  Its size wowed me.  Its unusual mix of merchandise wowed me, including a complete art supplies department (something I haven’t seen in any other department store).  And its men’s store really wowed me.  Some of the wow was in the merchandising—beautiful clothing and accessories that was equally beautifully displayed.  But part of the wow was the building itself; a remodeled building that had exposed some of the original brick and wood, intriguingly used stairs, windows, and courtyards to dramatic effect, and has that urban feel one would expect of a Parisian store—and that I expected (but didn’t find) in Galeries Lafayette.  

Galeries Lafayette’s other store, Monoprix, is kind of like the Target of France.  But that would be the more middle of the road Australian Target, not the cheap chic American Target.   Monoprix has a full service supermarket, as well as a large housewares section.  Apparently, it’s the place where Parisians buy their toiletries and similar supplies.  

The department stores of Berlin:  We didn’t see any bargains in the department stores of Berlin.  But we did see some of the best looking department stores we saw on the trip.  The extra money the department stores of Berlin charge for merchandise appears to be re-invested in the stores.  The granddaddy of Berlin Department Stores is KaDeWe. It’s Europe’s largest department like the Macy’s store in New York’s Herald Square is America’s (and the world’s) largest department store.  

But unlike Macy’s Herald Square, KaDeWe doesn’t feel like an endless cavern of merchandise whose order often makes little sense (like an electronic store in the middle of the basement of Macy’s), each floor in KaDaWe has a distinct purpose, and its visual design supports the purpose and enhances the shopping experience.  For example, although the men’s store takes up an entire floor, it feels like a series of small, interlinked shops.  My favorite floors are the ones with housewares (part of which is comprised of a series of mini-shops, each featuring the china, crystal, and accessories of a particular designer or manufacturer)—which also has the stationery shop, the food hall, which features a bonbonerie, boulangerie, wine bar, fruiterie, and several other gourmet specialty mini-shops, and the top floor cafeteria, which features not only delectable food, but serves it in sun-soaked atrium atmosphere (most of the ceiling is a skylight).  

Furthermore, unlike Macy’s Herald Square, which looks like it could benefit from a complete renovation, KaDeWe was completely renovated in the past decade; the entire store looks fresh. 

I loved KaDeWe so much after my first visit in 2008 that seeing it a second time was one of the primary motivations for returning to Berlin.  Like the first visit, I didn’t buy anything this time, either.  Despite an improved exchange rate since my visit in 2008, the merchandise was still a bit pricey for my wallet. 

And I learned on this trip that KaDeWe is just one of several well-designed, coherent, superbly merchandised Berlin department stores.  The more modest (both in terms of price and size) Galeria Kauthof in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz wowed just as much as KaDeWe.  Although Galeria Kauthof lacked some of the tony merchandise of KaDeWe, it had its own distinctive merchandise, including a line of hand-painted items—furniture, housewares, and the like—produced in limited editions and prominently displayed at the entrance to each floor.  

Besides merchandise, department stores in Paris and Berlin had one other source of revenue: their rest rooms.  They charged between half and a whole euro (between $CDN .75 and $CDN 1.45).  Spirit Airline’s $45 charge to stow baggage in the overhead bin is a more reasonable expense than the rest room fees.  

The department store of Spain:  In contrast to the department stores of Paris and Berlin, Spain’s leading department store--El Corte Ingles—was somewhat of a disappointment.   I had been told that the store fancied itself a Spanish version of Harrods.  The Harrod’s influence is certainly evident in the store’s logo.  

But that’s where the resemblance ends.  J.C. Penney’s is a more apt comparison.  The store specialized in mid-range merchandise.  This strategy was especially evident in the housewares department, which was considerably downscale from the already  modest Galeria Kauthof.  The clothing department displayed more variety of merchandise and familiar brands, but mostly at the upper middle range.  

Merchandise displays were similarly middle-of-the-road, nothing screamed “wow” to the visitor.  The 3 Corte Ingles complexes we visited in Spain all featured low ceilings, which contributed to feelings of limitation.  What el Corte Ingles lacked in merchandising and in feelings of spaciousness was compensated for in the available in square footage.  As a result, the store carried a broad range of merchandise, including a full supermarket.  

The Barcelona store we visited had 9 floors in a building whose exterior was as eye catching as its interior wasn’t; we didn’t even visit a companion stores nearby.  The store on the Gran Via  in central Madrid was housed in three buildings.  Ostensibly, each had its own purpose—one is a men’s store, one a women’s store and the third a home store.  In reality, several of the buildings featured duplicate departments.  For example, two of the three buildings had tourist sections, pharmacies, and groceries.     The home store (I use the term loosely—the only home stuff was on the top floor) was a bit more modern and up to date in appearance but suffered from the same bland merchandizing as the other stores in the chain.  The only exception was the Corte Ingles in Valencia.  Its look was cleaner and crisper; sections within departments were better differentiated.  Overall, it seemed the same age as the other Corte Ingles branches that we visit, but a better maintained store.  

The department stores of Lima:  My Peruvian partner was excited about visiting El Corte Ingles; it has a great reputation in South America.  Having had the opportunity to visit two of the largest South American department stores just before the visit to Spain, I’d say that the colonies have a lot to teach the empire.  In contrast to the middle-of-the-roadness of el Corte Ingles, Ripley and Saga Fallabella do for traditional department stores what Target   in the U.S. does for discount department stores.  Both are Chilean-based chains.  Saga was once Sears, a chain that been bought, sold, merged, and rebranded several times since the 1960s.  The result is decidedly not Sears.  

By North American standards, the two chains probably appeal to a mid-range market, though it’s probably upper-middle to upper-price range by South American standards.  The two chains offer nearly identical categories of merchandise—clothing, shoes and accessories, housewares, electronics, sporting equipment, and travel agencies.  Both have associated banks.  

Both display their merchandise their wares in light, spacious, airy stores. The merchandise is decidedly fashion-forward, displaying influences of modern, Northern European  design coupled with colorful South American palette.  By North American standards, the prices were amazing.  Many of the clothing and houseware brands were popular American ones but, to be honest, the store brands were just as stylish and a heck of a lot more reasonably priced.  For example, I bought some knockoffs of Crocs for less than $10/pair.  

The stores also feature their own soundtracks.  Ripley seemed to have a thing for Beyonce songs (I seemed to hear Halo every time I was in the store), but that’s probably because Ripley was sponsoring an upcoming concert by the diva.  

Next post:  Shopping Trip 2:  Malls, Malls, Malls.