Bookstores are competing with digital technology, like e-readers (Photo by Mike Lee)
Earlier this week, we reported on over 30 stores that didn’t make it through 2009. The list included a handful of indie bookstores, such as McNally Robinson, which filed for bankruptcy in December and closed its newly opened Shops at Don Mills location. But unlike its compatriots, who’ve pointed to difficulties resulting from the economic downturn, chain stores, on-line retailers, increasing rents and e-readers, McNally is laying the blame for the closure largely on the Shops’ developer, Cadillac Fairview.
According to founder Paul McNally, Cadillac Fairview didn’t do enough to promote the centre, which is modelled on an American outdoor shopping villa. He complained to the Winnipeg Free Press that it failed to secure enough tenants and provide adequate signage to draw customers, griping, “One would think that Canada’s biggest retail developer might have done a better job.”
“[Even] Indigo would be crazy to move in [to the Shops],” Tory McNally, the company’s director of operations, told Quill and Quire. But Maureen Atkinson from the retail consulting firm J.C. Williams Group dismisses the idea that signage would have made much difference. Signs would cause “a five per cent difference in [McNally’s] performance,” she said in the Globe and Mail. “Not a 50 per cent difference.”
Though about 20 per cent of the storefronts are still vacant (the Shops opened in the spring of 2009), not all the tenants are doing poorly. The Globe points to such successes as Mark McEwan’s gourmet grocery store (the chef plans to open a restaurant there in June), Anthropologie and Barbuti Fine Men’s Clothing, which moved to Don Mills from Bayview Village. The manager of the Shops said retailers are “achieving results well in excess of their expectations.”
The Shops’ true test may be this winter, when shoppers accustomed to the cozy confines of indoor malls will be faced with the choice of braving the cold at the Shops for Banana Republic and BCBG or driving to Bayview Village or Yorkdale instead.
• Downturn wallops McNally [Winnipeg Free Press]
• McNally Robinson looks ahead to brighter days [Quill and Quire]
• Bookstore’s closing not mall’s last chapter [Globe and Mail]
I find Toronto Life always has something negative to write about the Shops At Don Mills. Why does a magazine feel the need fixate and focus so much on Shops At Don Mills? It’s repetitive and annoying. Any business is responsible for their own advertising. Period. To write a story about McNally Robinson passing blame, or buck, is just another negative written column geared towards the Shops At Don Mills in a twisted and turned way. Go pick on something else.
April 7, 2010 at 5:40 pm | by JHI, too, was excited by the concept of the McNally Robinson store. But one visit explained why they did not succeed.
April 16, 2010 at 12:11 pm | by MoisheAs others have mentioned, their prices were higher than other book stores, with little in the way of “special promotions”. They gifts and clothing were expensive, and the restaurant was very poorly designed and managed. Only one person I know of who tried the restaurant liked it. Everyone else had a bad experience, from poor service to poor food at a high price. The restaurant was not properly prepared for the opening, as evidenced by the inexperienced and poorly trained staff. The owners must take responsibility for their own mistakes – all the advertising in the world won’t correct these problems.
While the bookstore itself was not anything fabulous, I did think the restaurant was terrific! The food was fresh, interesting, not greasy and NOT the over-priced snobby restaurants that are the only other choice at Don Mills! Unless, of course, you want Jack Astor’s where there is an issue with over-stimulation of the senses!
They need some help! Find some middle ground restaurants, and fix the parking, especially for the seniors…. I’ve already put a call into the councillor…. anybody notice how the accessible parking spots don’t have cutaways/ramps to get up to the sidewalks or medians next to them?! huh? Not an easy outing for my father….
May 20, 2010 at 2:41 pm | by PattyI think I’m agreeing with the general consensus here. I live pretty close to the Shops, and was quite excited to know that a BIG bookstore was going to be part of everything. As geeky as it may sound, sometimes I like to wander in a bookstore with no purchase in mind and then just find something that I like (the head over to Coach or Guess hahaha)..anyway, back to the point…I was very disappointed with this store! It is grossly more expensive than Chapters/Indigo, not nearly the selection, and I don’t think that one person approached me to see if I could find what I needed or was looking for etc. It wasn’t the Shops boys and girls, I think you need to look a little closer to home.
November 14, 2010 at 12:11 am | by SusieThe mall is beautiful but only for the wealthy. An outdoor mall in Toronto is ludicrous at best. Hardly anyone is walking there when it rains, snows or when it’s very hot or very cold. I live 5 minutes from there and when I walk through it on a nice day, all you see are people walking. The shops have no shoppers – just the restaurants and LCBO are busy. A ridiculous waste for the area. You want to be busy – open up some mid-riced stores and enclose it. WHo in their right mind would think of an outdoor mall in this climate. I saw the same design in the Troy area of Detroit. The staff at one of the busiest restaurants there said that it isn’t busy on bad weather days and the stores are empty. Same in Chicago. People go to indoor malls here. We don’t live in Arizona, Florida or California. ANd people in this area don’t have money growing in the backyard.
December 21, 2010 at 10:15 am | by SusanWith havin so much written content do you ever run into any issues of plagorism or copyright violation? My site has a lot of completely unique content I’ve either created myself or outsourced but it looks like a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my agreement. Do you know any ways to help stop content from being ripped off? I’d truly appreciate it.
January 14, 2012 at 8:57 am | by Sal KnoleI quite liked the bookstore and the restaurant upstairs.
March 17, 2012 at 12:25 am | by LauraI liked the layout of the store.
I did find the staff very knowledgeable.
I learned it was not easy for some books to get purchased on specific requests. I wonder if there just may have been a problem with suppliers.
Also McNally Robinson had special events – authors come in to sign books which was fabulous.
The big, big problems I have with that whole complex are the parking and the surroundings. The trees are not sufficient – I hate being exposed to the sun in summer – there is no shading along the walkways and in the winter – it is not pleasant walking – and I feel awful for the parking valets outside of McEwan’s who have no shelter in which to stand while waiting for a car to park – ridiculous. ANd the parking is less than adequate: I wonder if there should not be someone in there directing cars. Some of the drivers are just terrible.