is it a 'video killed the radio star' thing?

Retail is a finicky thing.  Betting the farm on the whims of a fickle buyer and the ever fluctuating trend.  Very few models are bulletproof, and building a reputation is that magic elixir of well planned marketing, a lot of good old work and a generous pinch of magic fairy dust.  So why is it when the now dusty or dysfunctional giants of the past shutter their doors are we so nostalgic about it?

I expect the answer includes some left over bit of fairy dust.  But are we putting too much emphasis on what once was and not evaluating what is?  Or do we only create nostalgia when we no longer shop there?

Over the past few months Toronto lost both the majority of the urban Sear's stores, the legendary Honest Ed's and very shortly mall staple, Jacob.

At first blush it seems like old institutions had had their day. But if this is my argument then why are we watching HBC resurrect itself, arguably, again.

Before Jacob, there was Cotton Ginny, or as we called it at the end, Polyester Ginny, both radically changing a well liked brand to their eventual decline.  Cotton Ginny tried to reach out beyond the basics and cotton, and it wasn’t what their customer wanted.  Jacob closed their casual store front, upped their prices and eradicated that pesky size XL from their offerings.  The quality also significantly deteriorated.  The shop was less and less full; those of us who enjoyed the casual line or needed that XL size had been abandoned.  All the while the sale section got bigger and was the first place many customers headed whenever I was in the store, myself included.  After not shopping there for several season’s I happened in recently and noted that the pricing was still more than I wanted to pay and the store wasn’t full for a weekend day.  Two days later the company announced its bankruptcy. 

Honest Ed's demise, looks from the outside to be the victim of the dollar store phenomenon and a bit of disinterest.  As in, the Mirvish's younger weren't all that interested and got an offer on the property they decided not to refuse.  Granted this is a very oversimplified answer.  But I'm not a customer of theirs, having last graced their door sometime in the mid 90's and being willing to pay just a little more for something of better quality I never went back.  I didn't get the appeal.

Sears Canada is an entirely different kettle of fish. An odd fit for downtown Toronto from the start, they set up shop in Eaton's old Toronto Eaton's Centre location shortly after Eaton's bit their own dust.  (Having worked at Eaton's TEC store in the early 90's I have some insight into what-the-what happened there, but back on point.)  Sears took up trade with modest renovations of Eaton's tired space, essentially used Eaton’s same merchandise floor plan and never really stepped it up.  It was handy if you needed a mattress or to look at vacuums, but the balance of the offerings didn't really appeal to an urban market.  As the mall upgraded their store mix and retail in general did well through the early 2000's Sears just sat there getting dusty and providing a handy hallway between the mall and the subway entrance.

If you're partial to analysis having the physical store be in competition with your catalogue was an odd choice, considering you could pick up your catalogue orders there.  And truthfully in a large centre the idea of paying for the order processing never sat well with me.  If you're partial to rumour there's a lot of accusations of using the division as a corporate type of ATM thereby devaluing the entire thing.  Oh and that stuff about an 'Ayn Rand' business philosophy used by people with 'C's' in their title.  An idea that is so farfetched I'm going to leave it over there rather than to make any sort of sense of it.

Eaton's also failed to innovate & renovate, held an entirely too large management team (people working in the walls as we called them) and a huge shrinkage and theft problem.  Yes that’s my perception, but not all of it is unfounded.

So why are we so upset when these giants fall?  Are we harbouring a nostalgia, which by definition, is no longer the reality?  Did we really think they would pull their socks up and get it sorted out or are we stubbornly hoping things never change?

By way of placing myself into a particular part of the city's history I was a very little girl when I both went to the closing of the Eaton's College Street store and then visited their new TEC location.  Later, I did at first find it weird to go to my old work location and find it was a Sears, but I got over it.  And in both the case of Eaton’s and Sears, by the time they were ready to close I wasn't shopping at either of them.

Perhaps the potential of something new in their place placates our loss?  But the new entrant is another enterprise fraught with uncertainty.  I don't know a single person who was sad to see Zeller's go but then again Target hasn't quite been a direct hit either.  I'll write soon about the anticipation by Canadians of US retailers and how we sometimes have to be careful with our expectations.

So I guess it is nostalgia. I have fond memories of the small town Woolco of the 80's but if I went there now would I be impressed?  I still sorta wonder if Cotton Ginny would have lasted now that so many retailers have decided to carry expanded size lines.  Although we still have some work to do there, but another time, another blog post.  It seems time and exposure to more choices does temper out expectations.

And sometimes, it's just that, the times, they are a changin'.

The now famous Honest Ed Signs

not, never

I spend a great deal of time purposefully distracted. I try to live by (George) Carlin's word and not sweat the petty stuff - and also the reverse because that's important.  In doing that I try not to pay too much attention to politics.  But lately I've paid closer attention to my city and its lack of progress and, perhaps because individual opinion makes the news a lot lately I've been noticing a shift in NIMBY from Not to Never.

The first time I really noticed it was at a party talking about an over-the-weekend closure by the TTC to do work.  The argument was that closure was inconvenient, to which I agreed.  But when I suggested they had tried to inconvenience the fewest people as they could my acquaintance wasn't convinced.  The thing is, there's never a good time to shut down a major downtown subway line in a busy city. But there are less bad times.  And that was what the TTC was striving for.

Admittedly my defense was more appealing 6 months ago before the official motto of the TTC became 'We're Sorry'.  And as much as I still feel my points are valid a week of being late to work for no reason I can see makes me want hear less why and see more action.

The major issue with any sort of progress is that someone is inconvenienced.  This seems to be the modern way.  And unfortunately the result doesn't always work out for the majority.  It is, in as a very ambivalent kind of descriptor, the price or result of democratic decision by committee.

I do not have great examples to share.  But issues that come to mind are the discussion about wind power.  As a province we are taxing our power grid.  We need to make more but everyone wants some sort of 'clean' power.  Provided it's not unsightly, inconvenient, disruptive or nearby.  All elements which are unavoidable. And so we do nothing and the problem is not solved.  And so it goes ad nauseam.

I don't have to fabulous solution.  I have nothing stupendous to say.  Other then think. 

Yes, no one like it when development encroaches on our lives but what is the payoff?  Does the current system work?  Is a bit of pain worth it? 

I don't know.

I can only tell you what I see.  And sometimes the answer is that I can get behind the least bad choice.

Now, how does one make an appointment with Andy Byford?  I have some choice words about the state of my backyard.

is it gonna go my way?

It doesn't take much effort to find a bad opinion of any company online.  There's always someone willing to dish about their negative experience in a public format.  Yelp seems to be a good place for these types of reviews.  And as I’ve said in the past, those opinions are worth looking at but also worth the consideration that one bad review does not a bad company make. 

(And we all know that people won't/don't/can't be bothered to give good reviews), so.

Having said that, and in the same breathe, it's pretty safe to say that as a company you can probably do 'OK' when servicing the bulk of the public, but it takes some special talent to blow it when it comes to people who are marginalized by special needs.  And I will come back to this point.  I promise.

But first let's talk about a growing trend in the lack of car ownership, in which we also need to talk about intercity mass transit - and when I say talk, but I mean bemoan the lack of decent options.  You can rent a car, or do car share, but that can be pricey and if you're heading out of town to stay with a friend you have to deal with parking.  Also forget getting either a car or a deal during the holidays, my experience is that the 'deal' is you get the pay extra for those dates.  You can use some sort of mass transit, such as VIA; which is expensive and have a laughable schedule unless you are going to Montreal or Toronto; GO, which is great during the week but forget the weekends; and lastly Greyhound (and I'm going to lump other bus lines in here) the final bastion of low cost mass transit and they know it.

Here's the deal.  Greyhound is as non-customer centric as you can get.  They're in the business of selling you a ticket and running a bus from point A to B.  It's up to you to figure out how to buy the ticket, how to get on the correct bus, make certain your luggage and you get on and off the bus and if there's an issue, you're just going to have to suck it up.  Having said that it costs me about $20 to go back and forth to Kitchener on a given weekend and generally, the price is the same no matter what - assuming you buy it ahead of time and pay a little extra for the convenience of printing your own ticket.

We've all seen the news.  Megabus (who is not Greyhound) runs into bridge, into another bridge, starts on fire. Mentally unstable man (on Greyhound) had a psychotic break and it's really, really bad. But the article that caught my eye was the one about a girl, confined to a wheelchair, essentially dumped in a snow bank on a cold day, for no reason that made sense, and in response, Greyhound states "We pride ourselves on stellar customer service and a stellar travel experience."

As a long time customer of Greyhound's my only response to that is 'whathPHFFF".  And I’m not just talking about this particular individual, who really got the short end of the stick on this one.  I’m talking in general. See and then after they decided that maybe they could do better than ‘stellar’.

I'll soften this rant a little by stating that, for the most part, I’ve never taken issue with the drivers' themselves.  I use this service on average about 10 times a year and have for the bulk of my adult life, so I’m eventually gonna run into a dufas or two.  But as a company the service is laughable.

During the December ice storm that hit Ontario, I got up on a day I was planning to travel to a birthday party for my niece.  Airlines, trains, TTC and even CAA were filing news posts, twitter and updates to their own websites.  Greyhound 'cannot foresee delays by weather'.

While the TTC updates by the second, Greyhound has little to say.

So what do we do?  Take the train - which I would love to but at twice the price and a schedule that returns me to Toronto after 11 p.m. on a Sunday night (from Kitchener) this is not an option. So we stick with the reliable and annoying Greyhound until another low cost option presents itself.  In the meantime I'll continue to rile Greyhound on Twitter if only to amuse myself and feel some sort of satisfaction that I said something.  And since we all seem to be voting about something this year, why not talk about intercity transport options.  We're a big country but in places we're not. Like southern Ontario, where a few hours between cities should allow options for travel that are reliable, affordable and decent.

I mean, have you ever tried to pee on one of those things?

because canada

A friend tipped me off to Ipsy, which I’ve just joined, a fun service, that for $10 a month sends you a bag of goodies, make-up and skin care to try.  In spite of a bit of, in my opinion, misguided marketing efforts not the least of which is calling their customers ‘ipsters’ as a play on ‘hipsters’ and personally makes me go ‘ick’, I think it’s a great little service.  However, because ‘Canada’, that’s a $15 monthly fee instead.

Recently, IRL I had to send a customer a price list and as he was located in the US I had to explain that the prices would be higher as ours was a Canadian price list.  He was genuinely taken aback.  I told him to flip over a book sometime and see that generally, things just cost more in Canada - and really for no discernible reason.  Although the government is currently seeking price equality at a national level.

I’ve been grappling with how to write about the subject of online stores and their related service fees and today I realized that in all honesty the reason is probably because Canada.

I’ll preface this by saying I have not e-shopped in the US and have no personal experience with their shipping policies, but since many things ‘Canadian’ are still American, I can generally see that there are pretty liberal, at least in comparison, shipping and return policies with most US to US e-shopping.  Then again I could be totally wrong.

But here in Canada, I have some experience.  Generally most stores have a decent minimum order, or periods of no cost shipping in order to entice customers to order.  The good ones also provide amazing return policies.  So here’s the disconnect for me - if I’m not getting better prices on your web site, and I have to pay for my own shipping there and back, what’s the incentive for me to shop online?

I am a lot of years removed from my retail days but I doubt the goal of repeat business and multi-unit transactions has changed that much.  So it follows if I walk into your store, I am assuming that the cost of that store, staffing it and marketing it are part of the price of the items.  If you’re an e-tailer, you don’t incur all those costs, I should be getting a better deal to reflect that, or at the very least, have my shipping covered.  Or if a physical store who also e-tails, basically, I’m not only paying for your stores but also for you to pack that parcel; the one that I paid for?!  And that I find confusing.

Yes I know there are costs associated with running a web store.  But you can’t tell me they are near as high as a physical location.  And to that end, with your added reach to markets beyond your geography, you should have an uptick in sales to further compensate. 

Let’s take my favourite retailer of late, well e-tailer to me.  Located only in la belle provence, Simons (I’ll give them a little shout out), a suggestion for another friend, offers decent low cost knit times, which I personally pretty much live in.  Orders over $50 are shipped for free, and they seem to have frequent no limit shipping promotions.  Orders arrive nicely wrapped in a branded box, folded, not in plastic bags, and your invoice in an envelope.  But the kicker, no questions asked returns.  Just go back to your account, tick the items you want to return, print the return label and take the box to the post office and your money returned upon receipt, which they acknowledge via e-mail.  Easy.  Peasy.  So if I’m uncertain of a size, I just order two and away I go, returning the one that doesn’t fit.  I’ve never set foot in their store – although I probably will if I’m near one now, and I order from them frequently.  Bonus points for showing both the back and front of an item and including the garment composition.

Conversely one of my favourite stores at the mall, Ricki’s, which is also not so conveniently located near me, doesn’t do it quite so well.  Shipping offers of under $5 are common, usually either $2 or $4 regardless of the dollar value of the order, but the kicker is, you can return anything to the store, but via mail you have to cover the return fees.  And that bothers me.  And I can’t use my store issued gift card credit online.  They do a good job of images and views, but composition isn’t listed, so for someone like me who likes a bit of spandex in her tee’s, I have to guess a lot. 

I could go on, but I won’t.  I will say that there’s a perfect set of features out there for garment sites.  Unfortunately I’ve never run into it all on one site.  So if you’re a retailer, and you’re reading this here’s what we need.   Multiple views of the item; front and back.  And a shot of the item in each colour, not some crappy colour swatch.  On a dummy form is great, or if the manufacturer gives you a product shot that’s great too.  I clearly like to know the composition of the item.  A ‘runs large or small’ indicator is a nice to have but not a deal breaker.  But if there’s one thing I could insist every site has it would be a size filter.  A multi select size filter – so that when I’m looking at items I can filter for my sizes only and not get all excited about something that is only left in XS.  And if I could, and I know it’s in vain, a ship to Canada landed price.  Although to be honest, I’ve been burned enough by landing fees to avoid shopping in the US or outside my country anymore.

So we’re not changing the world here, just my little corner of it.  And while I have some reservations about this Ipsy thing – like do they amp up the first couple of bags to hook you, or does it last.  In the mean time; lookie what I got!

March 2014 Ipsy Bag