[Newsbot]

Title: Yorkdale expansion boasts big-ticket retail and billion-dollar potential
Category: Business
Posted By: kitty
Date: 2012-11-20 02:00:31
Canadian

[martin14]

just in time for Christmas !

yay for consumerism.

[QBall]

Like Yorkdale isn't already a friggin' nightmare. It will probably take your longer to get through the line of cars to enter the mall and find a parking spot than it will to actually shop there. By 11:00 a.m. on weekends the line of cars trying to exit Dufferin St from the 401 interferes with traffic flow. This will not help matters. Just another reason to avoid Yorkdale.

[Lemmy]

Or just another reason to leave your goddamn car at home and take the subway.

[Jonny_C]

Lemmy Lemmy:

Or just another reason to leave your goddamn car at home and take the subway.

Yup. Subway is a great way to take home all your bags and parcels.

'Scuse me, 'scuse me, comin' thru...

[bootlegga]

$1:

At the media preview and official opening event Thursday night, Yorkdale’s general manager Anthony Casalanguida – or Mr. Yorkdale, as staff affectionately call him — boasted that with this addition (and don’t worry, it includes 800 new parking spaces and a valet service) would allow Yorkdale to achieve a Canadian first: $1-billion in sales in 2013.

Colour me dubious.

If West Edmonton Mall with 800+ shops and services and almost 10 million visitors every year can't do it, I doubt this mall can. Especially given that Alberta consumers spend much more on retail (on average) than consumers in the rest of Canada.

[QBall]

bootlegga bootlegga:

Colour me dubious.

If West Edmonton Mall with 800+ shops and services and almost 10 million visitors every year can't do it, I doubt this mall can. Especially given that Alberta consumers spend much more on retail (on average) than consumers in the rest of Canada.

With the waterpark, aquarium and amusement park I think it's safe to assume that the majority of the 10 million visitors weren't going there to shop. Yorkdale has a much larger population base to draw from, and everyone going to Yorkdale is going to shop as that's all they have (besides the movie theatre).

[Jonny_C]

QBall QBall:

With the waterpark, aquarium and amusement park I think it's safe to assume that the majority of the 10 million visitors weren't going there to shop. Yorkdale has a much larger population base to draw from, and everyone going to Yorkdale is going to shop as that's all they have (besides the movie theatre).

Good observation. When my wife and I took our family there a few years back, we spent the better part of a day there and came away having bought practically nothing.

[bootlegga]

QBall QBall:

bootlegga bootlegga:

Colour me dubious.

If West Edmonton Mall with 800+ shops and services and almost 10 million visitors every year can't do it, I doubt this mall can. Especially given that Alberta consumers spend much more on retail (on average) than consumers in the rest of Canada.

With the waterpark, aquarium and amusement park I think it's safe to assume that the majority of the 10 million visitors weren't going there to shop. Yorkdale has a much larger population base to draw from, and everyone going to Yorkdale is going to shop as that's all they have (besides the movie theatre).

Oops, I was wrong - it's not 10 million visitors a year - it's 22 million (which is far larger than Ontario, nevermind the area Yorkdale services).

http://triplefive.com/en/pages/wem

I sincerely doubt that most of those people only use the waterpark, amusement park, or aquarium (which is a total joke BTW) - I certainly know I don't, I go there to shop at stores that aren't anywhere else in Edmonton - sometimes anywhere else in Alberta or even Canada.

[kitty]

If you have ever been to Yorkdale you know that if any mall could make a billion dollars in sales, its Yorkdale.
The place IS money

[Jonny_C]

bootlegga bootlegga:

Oops, I was wrong - it's not 10 million visitors a year - it's 22 million (which is far larger than Ontario, nevermind the area Yorkdale services).

It sounds like you're trying to do a straight comparison of multiple visits to population, which doesn't work. Yorkdale has a far larger population from which to draw multiple visits.

[Lemmy]

Jonny_C Jonny_C:

It sounds like you're trying to do a straight comparison of multiple visits to population, which doesn't work. Yorkdale has a far larger population from which to draw multiple visits.

However: 1. Yorkdale also has more mall competition. Square One, Scarborough Town Centre and the Eaton Centre, among others in the GTA, compete for mall traffic; 2. Yorkdale is in a shithole neighbourhood that most Torontonians would prefer to avoid, ceteris paribus.

[Jonny_C]

Lemmy Lemmy:

However: 1. Yorkdale also has more mall competition. Square One, Scarborough Town Centre and the Eaton Centre, among others in the GTA, compete for mall traffic; 2. Yorkdale is in a shithole neighbourhood that most Torontonians would prefer to avoid, ceteris paribus.

Good point, but a quick search reveals that despite the competition Yorkdale currently draws 21 million visitors a year. Of course the expansion will increase that.

I should say that to me this discussion is academic; I'm no big fan of shopping malls.

[bootlegga]

kitty kitty:

If you have ever been to Yorkdale you know that if any mall could make a billion dollars in sales, its Yorkdale.
The place IS money

My point is that I doubt the mall's manager boast - I have little doubt that a mall a quarter (or smaller) than the size of WEM, which undoubtably draws fewer visits, could make more than a mall that has more visitors than Ontario and Quebec combined and is one of the largest tourist destinations in the entire country.

Not only that, but given that Albertans (and Edmontonians in particular) spend far more per square foot than most Canadians at retail shops, his boast is unbelieveable.

OTOH, I have little doubt that the shops and services in WEM have made $1 billion in one year. 22 million visitors (close to half of them tourists) and 800 shops and services are a recipe for consumption. The reason it's probably never been reported is because Triple 5 (the mall owners) and the Ghermezian fmaily are highly secretive and avoid the public eye.