We woke up to a beautiful sunny day in Ottawa. We looked out the window of our hotel and tens of thousands of people were filling the street heading towards the Parliament building. Jack and I walked with the crowd and sat very near the stage in front of the Parliament building. We got to see the Prime Minister and his family and the Queen as they walked in and out of the event. A great show was put on and fun was had by all.
Queen Elizabeth II on Canada Day 2010
The Barenaked Ladies perform "One Week"
Snowbirds' formation
The Queen walked over to Jack on her way out and complimented him on his hat!
Later in the day, I got a chance to visit the Bay and Zellers store. The Bay store was located right downtown in the best location. I was shown around by Gina Ceppetelli, the store director, and Pia Barry and Charles Ledesque. This is a great store with tremendous opportunity. I can’t wait until we have an opportunity to renovate the store and introduce more exciting brands. I have to tell you that I was a bit cranky when I visited the store because after walking through the city surrounded by a hundred thousand people all wearing Canadian gear I was disappointed at the selection and availability of our Canada product. Canadians are very different from USA in that people seem to love to wear patriotic clothing especially on Canada Day. In the United States, if you walked around on the 4th of July, maybe 20% of the crowd would be wearing red, white and blue or US gear. In Canada with no exception 100% of everyone out was wearing something that was a Canadian branded product. What a great opportunity for us.
At the Zellers store, Pat Grant, store manager, walked me around what was one of our oldest Zellers stores. This store is one of the original 11 Zellers stores to open their doors for business in 1932. This is a store that has done well but we as an organization need to figure out how to get more product out of the undersized stores.
As Jack and I continue to travel around Canada, what is most apparent to us is the huge opportunity that we have at the Hudson’s Bay Company. So many opportunities to improve service, to improve product, to modify buildings. We certainly have a bright future if we all connect the dots.
Lots of work and construction planned for this season
The neighborhood around our store has seen a great deal of exciting new projects. Including Manitoba Hydro which built a huge building adjacent to our store and two new University of Winnipeg buildings.
Our flagship building was the first Canadian HQ of HBC beginning in 1970. Desiree Blackmore, our store manager, will tell you a little more about the history of Winnipeg in this video.
We are planning on converting the lower level of this store into a Zellers. We will be consolidating the Bay so that it is easier to shop and has better sales staff coverage throughout the store. There is a great future for this building and downtown Winnipeg!
Jack and I finally arrived in Winnipeg in the mid afternoon.
Our first stop was the Polo Park Mall. This mall is the fashion leader in the Winnipeg market. We spent time walking through our beautiful Bay store which is in perfect condition and carries a strong range of brands.
They have just completed some small renovations. This store should be able to sell all the best brands we have because this store is the top of the market.
Store manager Brian Read and his team, Glen Wold (Marketing manager), Arlene Cook (Group sales manager) and Ronna Mawhinney (Sales manager Ladies wear & lingerie) spent time walking us through the store.
Arlene, Ronna, Desiree, Glen, me and Brian. Photo by Jack
Next stop was the Zellers store in Winnipeg. As you can see from the picture, the store is under full renovation. We are renovating all of the Winnipeg Zellers stores to our new prototype. Even with the store under construction you can clearly see how much easier it will be to shop at the store. The low fixtures with the fashion in the middle of the store provide a great layout for the customer. This is very exciting and represents the future for Zellers. We are all looking forward to analyzing the results. Mark and his team have put a tremendous amount of work into making this a success. Thank you to all involved.
As you can see in the new prototype the fixtures are much lower giving the customer much better visibility
While in the store I needed to buy some dress up clothes for myself because I am having dinner with the president of the University of Winnipeg, Dr. Axworthy. Unfortunately I was disappointed with the pricing of the dress up shirts and slacks. Much of what we had could be bought at The Bay for a better price at this moment in time. I would love for someone to explain to me what our price strategy is with dress up men’s clothes.
By the way I have now put on the clothes I bought and I have to tell you that they not only look good but there is a lot of engineering in the men’s pants. What I mean is that there is some sort of elastic so that even if you’re a little chunkier than you should be, you have plenty of room. So even though I feel that the pants were a bit expensive for Zellers I feel like I got great value. The brand on the pants are Haggar.
This store is one of our most beautiful flagships. The elegant facade and the beautiful marble floor on the main level gives the customer the feeling of a bygone era.
Downtown Calgary is an exciting opportunity for us. Two huge office towers are under construction within walking distance and the adjacent mall has been totally renovated.
Jennifer Arrowsmith toured us through the store and showed us the exciting new brands and improvements being done at the store. Congratulations to Jennifer and her team who have accomplished more with white paint than any other store I have seen. The new contemporary white space area is spectacular. They created excitement by using old window displays and painting them white and mounting them on the walls. The fourth floor with a little more work and white paint looks like a SoHo loft. This is a great example about how to improve a store by being smart, it’s not always about spending more money.
Jennifer sitting in her new white space
Another shot of the white space because it looks so good and costs so little
Good example of a perfect top-of-bed presentation
4th floor on its way to looking like a SoHo loft
Great example of our future furniture offering
Great example of our past furniture offering
After downtown Calgary we went to the Chinook Centre where we have both a Bay and a Zellers store. At the Bay we spent time with Rob the store manager. We were impressed with the new brands and how the better product elevated the whole look of the store.
At Zellers we met with John Pritchett, the district manager and Chris Van Doorn, the store manager. The team has been moving fixtures around in order to create wider aisles. They have also been reducing the height of the fixtures in order to allow the customer to be able to have a better view of the store. I thought it looked great. I normally get nauseous when I walk into a two story Zellers but this one was the best one I’ve seen. I’m dying to talk more about the new Zellers prototype until I can show you pictures from Winnipeg.
District Manager, John Pritchett, Store Manager Chris Van Doorn
Approximately 30 minutes away is Market Mall where we have another Bay and Zellers store. The Bay was totally rebuilt and renovated five years ago. It looks fantastic. It is a very productive store with great brands and a great team lead by Ruth Fredrick. This store is undergoing some right-sizing renovations in order to bring in more better brands.
The Bay at Market Mall
John Pritchett and Paul Leeking, store manager, walked us through this two story Zellers store, not withstanding how you know I felt seeing another two-story store I was impressed by how smartly they had laid out the store in order to take advantage of the mall entrances. A Zellers store that can properly present its fashion offering so that it’s visible to the mall customer can drive great volume for their apparel business. Well done to this team. Of course, I can’t wait to renovate this one also.
We just finished a great tour by Sarah Gruetzner, the CEO of Ft. Calgary. She was nice enough to open the fort special for us at 8:30 in the morning.
Jack in front of the original fort with the growing city of Calgary behind him
Fort Calgary was built at the confluence of the Elbow and Bow Rivers in 1875. It is Calgary’s only National, Provincal and Municipal historic site.
The Hudson’s Bay Company post was located across from the fort on the Elbow River in 1876. Calgary’s oldest building was part of the HBC installation. The facteur’s house remains in its original location across from the fort and is commonly referred to as The Hunt House. Jack and I were very impressed with the beautiful condition of the fort and its property.
First stop is a return to downtown Vancouver, home of the great Olympic store. During the Olympics this store was the most productive Olympic shop in the history of the Olympics. Lise Kuramoto, Karen Skogan and Dawn Stevenson toured us around the major renovations going on throughout the building. The team is working hard in order to turn this store into a world-class flagship and they are well on their way.
Bonnie and her team have brought great new brands to Vancouver including Polo, Juicy, Pink Tartan, Lacoste, Ellie Tahari and many more to come. The excitement with the associates and the customers is palpable as soon as you walk through the door.
Standing in the shoe dept. looking towards the new white space
Richard, Lisa, Karen and Dawn
New white space under construction
Also while touring through the store we met Devinder Saggu the FIT Specialist in the lingerie department. For those of you who don’t what that is, she helps women purchase the proper size intimate apparel. This is a very sensitive and specialized skill. I am told that people from all over the city come especially to meet with Devinder. Devinder, because of her skill and sensitivity, is also recommended by local surgeons performing mastectomies. Congratulations to Devinder for providing the skill and services that our customers need. Your hard work is what makes The Bay a great store. Watch this video of me meeting Devinder and hearing her story.
Also click below on “1101 Customer Service Heroes” and read these amazing letters from customers about how Devinder has impacted their lives for the better.
Richard Baker’s Cross Canada Tour 