[LINK] "Hudson’s Bay, Dollarama thrive as Canada’s retail landscape shifts"

[rfmcdonald]

Global News' Jamie Sturgeon notes that in the Canadian retail sector, low-end and high-end retailers like the stores listed in the title of thriving. The remainder are being hollowed out.

The country’s largest bargain store reported Wednesday morning sales results that again trumped all expectations held by experts, as more customers walked through Dollarama’s doors, and the amount of money they spent jumped. The story was similar for Hudson’s Bay Co., which also reported a jump in department store sales.

The pair’s performance contrasts sharply with others, like Sears Canada and clothing store operator Reitmans, both of whom already reported their latest quarterly numbers. They weren’t pretty.

Sears continues to lose huge sums of money as it closes down locations. Reitmans isn’t selling apparel to middle-income working women like it once did, either. The disparate fortunes highlight a “transition” happening in Canadians’ shopping habits, according to Maureen Atkinson, a senior partner at retail consultancy J.C. Williams Group.

[. . .]

The variety of stores Canadians shop at is beginning to visibly reflect the widening inequality that’s been playing out in this country and other advanced economies for more than a decade, some experts say; the high- and low-ends of the retail market place are flourishing while the middle chips away. It’s just now becoming clearer to casual observers.

“You’ve noticed it,” Nelson, a sales associate at HBC in north east Toronto, said. “We’re trying to go more upscale.” The middle-age Hudson’s Bay employee said he left Sears two years ago when his appliance department was downsized.