Another one bites the dust. Sears Canada recently announced that it will soon close its flagship location at the Toronto Eaton Centre, in addition to four other stores.
The concept of the
department store was created to serve as a one-stop shop for everything you might need in your home: clothing, cosmetics, furniture, appliances—anything really. But so much has changed in retail since Eaton’s—now bankrupt—dominated the Canadian landscape. Traditional department stores now face three distinct threats.
These threats include:
• Online shopping. Anything you desire can be delivered to your door, and you can do it in your pajamas.
• Specialty retailers. These guys focus in one area (think Best Buy), so they are experts in their category and can offer service to match.
• Mass retailers. Big box stores compete on price (think
Target) because of their massive buying power.
My mother-in-law loves department stores. Going to the Bay in downtown Winnipeg makes her nostalgic for shopping trips she took there as a child.
Me? I can’t stand department stores. All those escalators exhaust me. The wide selection of goods gives me fatigue. When I have to buy something, I want to get in and out, and department stores conspire against my need to power shop.
What about you? Are you surprised by the closures of Sears stores? How do you shop?
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