Retail at Yonge and Eglinton

My neighbourhood – Yonge and Eglinton – is an odd area for retail. Quirky stores open, assuming that the residents would love to spend their money buying ric rac baskets and silver-painted fawns.

This Oddject store has been in the neighbourhood for less than two years and now it’s gone. You would think that it would do well here but it hasn’t.

It’s not the only one. A Mexx store opened in the fall of 2010 and closed in May 2012. It was two stories and carried women’s, men’s, children’s and maternity clothes. Management was convinced that Yonge and Eg was the location to have their flagship store. It wasn’t and you could plot the slow death. Less than a year later, maternity was gone.

On a side note, that annoyed my sister-in-law who took her lunch break to come up for pants.

So what works in the neighbourhood? Club Monaco. I spoke briefly with one of the marketing members of the store while at the Yorkdale launch and she told me that the Yonge and Eglinton store gets a lot of foot traffic in its doors.

Lingerie stores seem to be doing well – there’s a Secrets from Your Sister, Tres Jolie and Beestung if you want high-end lingerie and a La Senza for the more budget-minded.

This store might do well:

A SportChek has taken over the Mexx store. The sports stores in the area are Sporting Life, which is higher end than SportChek so it will be interesting to see how it does.