🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 2 Jul 2018, Alfred Falk wrote:


> Sears Canada was hollowed out.  It was bought by an investment fund which
> proceded to pay itself dividends and huge management fees even though it was
> losing money.  It also sucked money out of the pension fund.  (Canadian laws
> are rather weak in this regard.)  "Ooops! We're bankrupt! we'll have to pay
> ourselves millions just keep us around for the wind-down.  Too bad about the
> employees pensions..."
>
I rmemeber a series of changes which in themselves meant nothing, but in 
retrospect did.  They renovated the Sears I went to, for the worse, even 
apart from the distruption that probably lost customers.  They shifted 
from having a cash in each department to a more centralized cash, 
though at least not near the doors.  They shrunk the 
tool department, not that I counted on that section but I did check it 
every so often, and eventually it disappeared.  I think they tried twoards 
the end to be more upscale, when all I wanted was fairly standard and 
generic pants and socks and such.  Like the other department stores, they 
became little more than a clothing outlet.  I keep getting a Bay gift card 
at Christmas, which was great at Zellers, but there's very little at The 
Bay that i want to buy.  They don't even sell cashews anymore.


> When Walmart moved in to Canada about 20 years ago, it ran into problems.
> Among those being that Canadian shopping preferences are _not_ identical to
> their American neighbours.  (See! we don't even spell the same.)  However
> they figured things out and survived, even without my business.
>
>
I guess I'm lucky, in almost downtonw Montreal a lof of these chain stores 
require a deliberate trip.  When Ikea came to down decades ago, it was 
nearby, a smaller version, but they've long moved to the suburbs.  There 
was no downtown Canadian Tire until about 1990, which is now long in the 
past, but it was a big thing at the time, I'd barely gone into one until 
then.  But Walmart was a deliberate trip, and I think I avoided it for 
some time, no real reason.  I did go in a few times, and found it a real 
mess, things just dumped all over the place. Yes, messy customers, but not 
enough staff to put things back.  So there was a big gap but recently I 
have gone in a bit, mostly for some food items, but it's only when I 
happen to be nearby.

When Mountain Equipment Coop came to town fifteen years ago, they built 
from scratch, a nice ecologically sound building, but right in the middle 
of a shopping area, the buidlings all separate but something you 
deliberately drive to.  An odd place for an outdoor store.  It's only a 
two hour walk, each way.  I think they've realized the issue, since now 
there is a "boutiqe" store kind of downtown, with a limited  number of 
items, and less outdoor than the market they are going after these days 
kind of urban who wants their stuff.

Michael