January 6, 2012

It's going to get tough in Canada. With consumer spending expected to worsen as debt in Canada is at record level and the global economy weakens it's not going to be easy to steal market share for any new retailer. Canadian retailers are preparing and getting their houses in order as the U.S. push is just getting started. Wal-Mart Canada is speeding up the conversion of more of its Canadian outlets to Supercentres with full supermarkets, along with 40 new outlets (former Zellers stores) in 2012 (that Target actually sold to them interestingly enough). This is going to be a fight to the finish over the next 5 years. (Source canadiangrocer.com)

Target announces their first 24 stores in Canada and all of them are in Ontario. Target has purchased the leasehold interests of 189 sites currently operated by Zellers Inc. and about $10 million to $11 million will be invested to remodel each facility. Each location will employ between 150 to 200 workers, with hiring slated to being in 2012. According to sources Asset Protection will be managed from the corporate office in Minneapolis at the senior group level and will not have a Canadian senior AP executive for some time. (Source canadianbusiness.com)

At the end of the day, the Canadian retail sector looks promising for job growth in 2012, so workers can be fairly certain that there will be a positive hiring atmosphere for the year ahead. With some areas feeling "a little bit of a challenge in terms of candidate flow" filling all of the new jobs coming with the new store growth may be challenging for many. Which at the end of the day will drive wages and payroll up. (Source montrealgazette.com)

Pity the poor retailer who fails to keep up. Just like their U.S. counterparts the Canadian consumer is time starved and technology driven and know what they want and where to get it at the best price. They expect convenience, speed and service. And they’re willing to adopt whatever technology helps them achieve that. And that's going to increase significantly in 2012. You think online and mobile were hot in 2011 - well just wait for 2012. Guess the same is true in the U.S. as well. (Source moneyville.ca)

Increasingly bold thieves hurting trucking industry across Canada A $5-billion-a-year problem for the trucking industry across the country. Since 9/11 the trucking industry has made huge investments in security, but the crooks are getting smarter. Organized crime hires helicopters to follow equipment leaving facilities (where they know high-value loads, like electronics, are being shipped), then go after them," said Garth Pitzel, director of safety and driver development at Winnipeg's Bison Transport. Police across the country work closely with the industry, but the Criminal Code does not differentiate truck-cargo theft from any other robberies -- it's just over or under $5,000. The industry would like to see harsher penalties against the perpetrators of truck-cargo crime. The trucking associations across the country have recently teamed up with the Insurance Bureau of Canada to implement a new cargo-crime incident-report form. The idea is to allow for an anonymous forum where incidents can be documented without requiring either insurance companies or police to be involved. The study conducted earlier this year found that about 60 per cent of incidents are not reported. (Source transportsecurity.com)

Le Chateau reports same store sales down 8.4% last quarter. (Source thechronicleherald.ca)