Log In
Register
Home
Topic RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Email this7:50 pm
February 20, 2018
Offline
What the hell is goin on with this one $8.25 is there goin to be another offer and would it go beyond 11? A lot of doubt about their real estate assets being worth much more. Anyone buying for a quick second buyout profit?
8:48 pm
April 26, 2019
Offline
Bud said
What the hell is goin on with this one $8.25 is there goin to be another offer and would it go beyond 11? A lot of doubt about their real estate assets being worth much more. Anyone buying for a quick second buyout profit?
Their stores terribly need updating. Just look at the carpeting in Abbotsford, Coquitlam and Victoria. Downtown Vancouver is for sale. I would say they will be history with their American owners filling up their pockets with funds from selling any more company owned real estate. Then insolvency.
9:55 pm
October 21, 2013
Online
Eaton's... Woolworth's... Sears... Target... Zeller's... The Bay.
It's a very hard time for department stores.
During 2019, all we bought there was a few pairs of socks (using up gift card) and one pair of gloves (gift). In 2018, bought several frying pans (gift; sent all back except one) and a pair of slippers (ordered online, returned).
I am rather fond of department stores as places where you can actually see what you're buying, make sure clothes fit before you buy 'em, and shop for more than one thing all in one store. 
But in truth we have trouble finding clothes that fit, find it difficult to find what we want, are not helped by the sales clerks, and so on. I still look, hopefully, but I don't buy much.
I think they'll be back, eventually, but not until people get tired of having stuff to box up and take to the post office or that gets stolen off the front porch.
Sad.
10:34 pm
April 26, 2019
Offline
You missed Woodwards, Future Shop and Fields and one more that is stuck in my cobwebs.
6:21 am
December 12, 2009
Offline
GICinvestor said
You missed Woodwards, Future Shop and Fields and one more that is stuck in my cobwebs.
Future Shop was just a series of store closures, amalgamations with nearby, or conversions to Best Buy Canada stores. Best Buy is doing well now, thanks to their heavy focus on e-commerce and, in part, opening up their site to third-party merchants like Amazon and eBay. So, no bankruptcy there (as far as I'm aware). They will do alright. Staples Canada is trying to do the same thing, though they're also trying to leverage some of their stores by converting them into coworking and meeting spaces, at lower price points than say a Regus/Spaces or WeWork.
Fields actually very much still exists. It's still in small towns, primarily in western Canada, and is owned by some Canadian private equity firms.
Woodwards, I've heard of it, but don't remember it. I remember Woolco the best, which is how Wal-Mart came to Canada in a major way. I also remember Woolworth's (different from the Australian Woolworth's), which had a store in downtown Kelowna that was later sold to The Bargain! Shop. I'm not sure if The Bargain! Shop still exists.
One Loonie and GICinvestor missed is Office Depot Canada. They merged with Grand & Toy, and I'm not even sure Grand & Toy exists! I still have an Office Depot Canada gift card with a ~$10.00 balance on it I can't use unless I go to Office Depot in the U.S. maybe. But there's no cost-benefit to doing that. I could try and get them to convert it to a cheque and mail it to me. It'll be a tough slog, I think!
Cheers,
Doug
8:04 am
October 21, 2013
Online
FWIW, I didn't exactly forget these other stores.
Woodwards and Fields are foreign to me; I don't think they exist in Ontario. I grew up in Toronto and have lived here most of my life and never heard of them.
Most of the others I don't think of as Department Stores.
Woolco was a child of Woolworth's , at least in Canada. There was also Kresge's, which was Woolworth's competitor (sometimes next door to each other), and the child was, I think, K-Mart. In smaller towns in Ontario, the competitor was Stedman's Five and Dime. All gone now as far as I know. To some extent they have been replaced by Dollarama etc., but not nearly as interesting a selection. Shopping at the old Woolworth's stores could actually be fun as they had so many things that didn't cost much - including toys!
Staples is an American company, started in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney. I remember that first store very well. When it opened in the '80s it seemed like some kind of nirvana for those of us who like that sort of stuff, but the quality and diversity have declined.
I believe Grand & Toy still exists as online only store. At least they did a year or so ago. I miss good stationery stores where you could examine what you are going to buy and try the pens to find the right one. I don't think they exist any more. A pity.
At one time in my life there was also a smaller stationery chain called Wilson's.
What to do with your Office Depot card! I guess it will be a souvenir of a bygone day or handy for picking locks when you forgot your key! Funny you should mention it as I discovered a stash of their branded markers about a year ago, which I recently used up. I think that's the end of them in this house. They were, as I recall, the first store that took in ink cartridges for recycling and gave you some kind of rebate for them.
Oops - no - I still have a few Office Depot pads of paper with their logo!
Personally, I'm fed up with Big Box stores and having to drive all over the place. I no longer know where to even look to buy certain things.
I think the current system doesn't really meet needs all that well and that eventually we will come full circle and some bright person will come up with the novel idea of having lots of things in one store and will figure out how to make it a fun experience. I saw on the news that department stores are very popular in China, and, goodness knows, China seems poised to overtake us.
I miss the old phone books too, where you could find stores in the Yellow Pages. The "intuitive" internet is so slanted by advertising and so on and is not systematic. Some day someone will think up the amazing new concept of Directories! (I still have my last copy of the Yellow Pages, by the way; useful when the going gets rough as it excludes all the newer stores where I can't find what I want anyway.)
I didn't realize I had so many opinions about retail! I must sound like an old curmudgeon. Maybe I am!
8:47 am
April 26, 2019
Offline
Doug said
Future Shop was just a series of store closures, amalgamations with nearby, or conversions to Best Buy Canada stores. Best Buy is doing well now, thanks to their heavy focus on e-commerce and, in part, opening up their site to third-party merchants like Amazon and eBay. So, no bankruptcy there (as far as I'm aware). They will do alright. Staples Canada is trying to do the same thing, though they're also trying to leverage some of their stores by converting them into coworking and meeting spaces, at lower price points than say a Regus/Spaces or WeWork.
Fields actually very much still exists. It's still in small towns, primarily in western Canada, and is owned by some Canadian private equity firms.
Woodwards, I've heard of it, but don't remember it. I remember Woolco the best, which is how Wal-Mart came to Canada in a major way. I also remember Woolworth's (different from the Australian Woolworth's), which had a store in downtown Kelowna that was later sold to The Bargain! Shop. I'm not sure if The Bargain! Shop still exists.
One Loonie and GICinvestor missed is Office Depot Canada. They merged with Grand & Toy, and I'm not even sure Grand & Toy exists! I still have an Office Depot Canada gift card with a ~$10.00 balance on it I can't use unless I go to Office Depot in the U.S. maybe. But there's no cost-benefit to doing that. I could try and get them to convert it to a cheque and mail it to me. It'll be a tough slog, I think!
Cheers,
Doug
Yes, Doug there was a funny amalgamation to end Future Shop. Along with the high pressure sales they offered. Best Buy does a better job. Woodwards, you don't know??? They were in both BC and Alberta. Also I looked up Fields and you are right...still here...they are iconic!!!
The first FIELDS store was established in Vancouver in 1950 by the chain's founders, Joseph Segal and Saul "Sonny" Wosk. From there, FIELDS grew to eight stores by the time it opened a store at Capilano Mall in North Vancouver in 1968, continuing to expand across British Columbia into the 1970s with the acquisitions of several regional retailers (including several small HBC stores in smaller towns). In 1972, FIELDS purchased a subsidiary chain of hardware stores called Marshall Wells, and after further expansion into Alberta and Saskatchewan, it acquired majority ownership of the Zellers chain in 1976. Zellers would reverse the takeover a few months later and make FIELDS and Marshall Wells into its subsidiaries, all of which were partly acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1978, and fully owned by 1981. Marshall Wells was sold by HBC in 1985, and FIELDS was moved from a Zellers subsidiary into a full division of HBC in 1988.
The above article covers 2 more that are no longer here. Wosks furniture and I assume Marshall Wells.
8:47 am
February 20, 2018
Offline
Bud said
What the hell is goin on with this one $8.25 is there goin to be another offer and would it go beyond 11? A lot of doubt about their real estate assets being worth much more. Anyone buying for a quick second buyout profit?
It appears hbc was a buy when i posted Dec 29@8.25shr. The mistake perhaps some prospective investors made was assuming the deal was over because catalyst went to the regulator.
6:05 pm
December 26, 2018
Offline
Bud said
What the hell is goin on with this one $8.25 is there goin to be another offer and would it go beyond 11? A lot of doubt about their real estate assets being worth much more. Anyone buying for a quick second buyout profit?
Hopefully you made good money today. Good call on this one!
9:32 pm
February 20, 2018
Offline
didnt buy was thinkin about.
thought about baker catalyst past and watched a previous vid of a former teachers pension dealmaker who suggested the retail assets are tough to monetize, for example saks in new york sold air rights lower building heritage and carving out property in vancouver tricky. sorta felt players involved not being totally honest or not so talented but was enough for me to hesitate. baker seems like he doesnt completely know what hes doin., glassman has lost a couple isnt icahn and the analyst when he took a zip of his drink looked like he wasnt being totally honest. heritage preventing development give me a break.
I bought into Canfor after the deal collapsed perhaps a little too early we'll see how it goes. Im up on Husky, even on Nutrien.
Please write your comments in the forum.