The controversial ultra-fast-fashion retailer, SHEIN, is popping up at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre, launching on March 23 at 2pm.
SHEIN, the retailer known for its crazy-cheap prices, carries multiple brands and categories for women, men, and kids, as well as accessories, beauty, pet, and home goods.
Two new collections that will be available at the pop-up are EvoluSHEIN, a purpose-driven collection, and SHEIN X, a collection that showcases new talents.
The SHEIN pop-up will be located in CF Toronto Eaton Centre, on level 1 on the North Side of the mall, and will be open for an extremely limited amount of time:
Thursday, March 23: 2 PM – 9 PM
Friday, March 24: 10 AM – 9 PM
Saturday, March 25: 10 AM – 9 PM
Sunday, March 26: 11 AM – 7 PM
Aside from shopping the retailer’s spring collections in person, there will also be complimentary treats from the SHEIN Cafe, and SHEGLAM beauty gifts for guests who post on socials live from the shop.
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The beloved CF Toronto Eaton Centre is going under a very expensive revamp. Cadillac Fairview announced today in a release that it will be putting in $77 million to give the mall a much-needed makeover.
A portion of $60 million will go towards a refurbishment of its galleria skylight roof.
The current glass will be replaced with brand new materials and tech which will improve energy efficiency. Although, it does still plan on maintaining its classic design.
Wayne Barwise, Executive Vice President, Development, Cadillac Fairview, said about the reno in a release, “At Cadillac Fairview, we are proud to continually invest in our properties to deliver a world-class shopping experience. The galleria’s original design was inspired by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Italy and has served as a distinguishing feature of the mall since the center’s opening in 1977.”
There will be two phases for this skylight project. The first phase will happen in mid-January 2022 for the south end and then the north end will finish in March 2023.
If you do see the sixty Canadian geese art piece disappear, don’t panic. It will be temporarily removed for professional restoration and then placed in storage until it is time for reinstallation.
As for the $17 million, it will go towards the improvement of accessibility throughout the Eaton Centre.
There will be three new staircases in the South Court and Urban Eatery. Plus, improvements to elevators and an installation of a larger cab to accommodate wheelchairs and strollers.
CF has actually invested over $1.6 billion into the CF Toronto Eaton Centre since 2010. Some of these investments include the redevelopment of the Queen Street pedestrian bridge and the creation of the BMO Urban Campus.
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Step into a mall in 2019, and you may not think much has changed over the last five years. Malls are still relatively busy, with kids still hanging out in the food court, and people spending weekends and evenings milling about. But, with the rise of online shopping, and the fact that everything is at the click of your finger, in-person retail has taken a dive. While I love to score all my fave items online at great prices, sometimes there’s nothing like wandering a mall with no purpose in mind, and a little bit of extra money to spend. Even better, if the mall has something worth seeing in person. With the current retail trends, malls have really had to up their game to entice people to leave their houses, and spend, which means appealing to what people love about online experiences, and catering to types of events you can only experience in-person.
Here are 6 ways malls and retail stores are adapting to current retail trends.
Influencer Meet & Greets
Instagram/@tecpandora
It’s one thing to have a top influencer chat about how great a certain mall is, but it’s another to invite people to come and meet them at the store. One store in particular is doing a lot of this — Pandora is working with top Toronto influencers to host sales events that bring people in-store to meet their fave IG personalities. The store hosted Summer Style Sessions with local influencers at a variety of malls across Canada, and they’re happening on a regular basis.
Instagrammable Activations
Instagram/@blondehanes
Malls are appealing to everyones love of Instagram by curating fun activations that’ll get folks into its doors for photo ops. We’re already loving pop-ups like HideSeek, so it only makes sense that malls are taking cues from this trend. Plus, some are even inviting influencers to hang out and share the experiences. Sounds like a great reason to head to the mall!
Personalized In-Store Demonstrations
Instagram/@wseatoncentre
It’s becoming more and more common for stores and malls to invite artists into their spaces to provide live, in-store demonstrations of their work. Stores at your local mall are often always hosting masterclasses or workshops where you can pick up new skills. William Sonoma at Toronto Eaton Centre hosts baking workshops with industry pros. This is a great, intimate way for people to meet local artists, and even take something special home with their purchase.
Hosting Local Markets
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One of the reasons so many people aren’t spending as much money at malls is because they’re making more of an effort to shop local. Malls have so much space, so it actually makes a lot of sense to utilize the unused space to support local businesses and artists. Shopping centres like Scarborough Town Centre are building these markets around specific holidays, such as Eid. This is a great way to shop for special gifts, and support local designers and makers in the community at the same time.
Offering Unique Workshops
Instagram/@embiria
Offering unique experiences such as workshops, allows shopping malls to bring in new guests that may not have been previously reached. Last Christmas, Square One partnered with Embiria to put on a series of unique wellness workshops, enticing shoppers to hangout in the Holiday Market space, and bringing new shoppers into the mall.
Providing Space For Community Events
As I mentioned before, malls have a lot of unused space that can be used for a variety of activities. Dixie Outlet Mall is utilizing a big piece of unused space for its Dixie Living Room. The mall hosts a variety of events there and you can also rent out the Living Room space, for FREE!
Featured Image: Instagram/@filipajackson
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Toronto has been making a lot of changes to revamp the city and make it a more well-rounded community. The Bentway and the renovation at Ontario Place are two examples of that. Now, one of our favourite malls, The CF Toronto Eaton Centre is getting an exterior revamp and adding a rooftop patio to the mix!
According to Blogto, a first-class restaurant and three new stories of bright glass office space. Cadillac Fairview announced today that it will be expanding and restoring a major part of the CF Toronto Eaton Centre complex. The Eaton Centre is a 123-year-old heritage building which was built in 1895. Since then, it’s housed everything from a Woolworth’s flagship store to Tower Records.
“The project, designed to improve the quality and utility of the property while preserving its unique architectural features,” reads a press release from CF Fairview released on Thursday.
Featured Image: Instagram/@cadillac_fairview
Source: Blogto.com
What do you think about the CF Toronto Eaton Centre revamp? Let us know in the comments.
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Despite ongoing challenges, Canadian shopping centers continue to spend billions on expansions and improvements, and have actually managed to outdo their American counterparts. While bigger malls continue to expand, many of the smaller ones are disappearing in front of our eyes. Another new mall trend is offering higher caliber food and beverages at more sophisticated restaurants and bars, instead of the old-school food courts. Elegance and high standards have become a new attraction. In addition, the washrooms are more aesthetically pleasing! Increased comfortable seating and free Wifi are the norm in most malls, along with improved parking solutions, concierges, and personal shoppers. The concept of the malls of the past has changed drastically. “While e-commerce has taken a bite out of brick-and-mortar retail, shopping centers are also taking advantage of technology to make parking easier and utilizing it through such things as touchscreen navigation panels, virtual fitting rooms, augmented reality areas and click-and-collect zones,” reported Property Biz Canada.
Movie theaters in malls are not attracting enough customers, so Cineplex started launching larger complexes that provide a large variety of games and activities. Two examples are Cineplex’s REC Room, which was just built last year, and Dave & Buster’s, which is a U.S.chain.
With the drastic changes at Yorkdale over the past 10 years, the mall has gone from grungy to extremely sophisticated. They’ve just announced a massive extension to add a boutique hotel, office spaces, and condos. According to Property Biz Canada, “There are plans to add residential towers to Yorkdale Shopping Centre and Bayview Village, and Vancouver’s Oakridge Centre will eventually see thousands of residents living in multiple towers directly above an overhauled and expanded shopping center podium.” This turnaround makes complete business sense, as big malls are usually located in prime locations, with transit and plentiful amenities nearby.
“Three of Canada’s busiest malls (CF Toronto Eaton Centre, Vancouver’s CF Pacific Centre and Ottawa’s CF Rideau Centre) are in downtown cores. None of the top 10 U.S. malls are downtown,” notes Property Biz Canada. They attribute the growing success of Canadian malls over U.S. malls to a variety of factors, including stronger urban cores in Canada, with investment priorities, transit availability, a large downtown population concentration and diversity of people compared to most cities south of our border.
In the future, the smaller or older locations are likely to suffer in the upcoming years. “The biggest cities and the best malls are going to succeed, but that’s not always going to be the case for all of Canada,” says Property Biz Canada. Now, we just have to wait to see what stores expand and which retailers we lose.
Source: Property Biz Canada
Which Canadian malls are going to make it through 2018? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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Toronto’s very own Yorkdale Shopping Centre comes in at number one, much of its success may be attributed to its $331 Million expansion bringing new stores like Nordstrom, Canada Goose, and UNIQLO to its roster of stores. This list comes from the Retail Council of Canada who released their list of Top Malls In Canada And The United States By Sales Per Square Foot in a December 2016 study. The list provides the latest information on mall productivity, size, and traffic as well as a juxtaposition between top Canadian and US shopping centres.
Here are the top 10 most productive malls in Canada by sales per square foot for 12 months ending August 31st, 2016:
