 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Canadian retailer Simons is expanding. Can it succeed where its peers couldn't? | | |  | Shoppers ride an escalator in the Simons store at Edmonton's Londonderry Mall in August 2017. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press) | | | With a 10-store presence in Quebec, and a handful of others sprinkled across the country, Canadian fashion and homeware retailer Simons is opening two locations in Toronto this year at Yorkdale Shopping Mall and the Eaton Centre — in addition to its Mississauga and Ottawa stores.
Yet, as the company relocates to a space haunted by the ghosts of big retailers past — Nordstrom, Eatons and Sears are all former tenants of the Eaton Centre space — it's a stark reminder that department stores have struggled to gain a foothold in the Canadian market.
The aforementioned brands (and Target) have each met their demise in this country over the last two decades, some because of the challenges posed by transplanting a U.S. business into Canada.
Even as rising costs, picky customers and online competition roil an unpredictable retail industry, Simons says it's doing things differently. Can it beat the big retail curse?
"I would not say that ... because other department stores have failed in those places, that necessarily means that Simons is going to fail," said Joseph Aversa, a retail management assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.
"Simons went through a lot of challenges, right? In 2022, they experienced a fair bit of difficulty," he noted. The retailer was family-run until that year, when it appointed its first outside CEO in Bernard Leblanc to steer the company out of the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, the company has been "very calculated in terms of their expansions," Aversa said.
Simons has seen steady growth in the last few years coming out of the pandemic, CEO Leblanc told CBC News, seeing a three per cent bump in sales growth from 2022 to 2023.
But the executive is well aware of the challenges that its forebears experienced in the Canadian market. The retailers that succeed in a market plagued by failure are the ones reinventing themselves by refreshing the customer experience, he said.
Got a news tip or story idea? Contact us. | | | | | Why now for the Edmonton Oilers? A primer on the Stanley Cup hopes of Canada's northernmost NHL team | | |  | (Perry Nelson/USA TODAY Sports/Reuters) | | | | The Edmonton Oilers have won five Stanley Cups during the franchise's history — but none since 1990 and thus none in the lifetime of 27-year-old team captain Connor McDavid. With the Oilers' Stanley Cup final against the Florida Panthers set to begin Saturday, check out our preview here. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) workers are in a legal strike position and their union has set a deadline of 4 p.m. ET today before job action could start. Over 9,000 workers, including employees at airports, and land and marine ports of entry, could be part of the job action. While the workers would be on strike, it doesn't mean they'll be off the job. About 90 per cent of workers represented by the union are deemed essential, the CBSA said in a statement. That means they must continue to do their jobs, but are free to participate in job action outside their working hours. Possible job action could include "work-to-rule," when workers could apply each and every one of their job's rules and regulations. "You can create tremendous lineups of those trucks and tremendous lineups of people. It'll be very, very disruptive if they do work-to-rule because so many people cross that border every day," said Ian Lee, an associate professor in the Sprott School of Business at Ottawa's Carleton University. Read the full story here.
Calgary crews continue to search for the source of a "catastrophic" break in a feeder water main that's plunged the city's water supply into a critical state. The large water main — as wide as two metres in parts — suffered a break Wednesday night that left hundreds of homes and businesses in the city's northwest without water. During an update Thursday afternoon, the city said Calgary remains under Stage 4 water restrictions, meaning mandatory outdoor water restrictions remain in effect. Officials also urged people to continue to do what they can to reduce indoor water use, like delaying running dishwashers, washing machines, limiting showers and keeping baths shallow. Read the full story here.
Montreal police fired tear gas at a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters outside McGill University's James Administration Building, where activists had blockaded themselves on the third floor Thursday evening. At around 6 p.m. ET, masked demonstrators inside the building on the university’s downtown campus could be seen opening windows, chanting and waving a Palestinian flag. About an hour into the protest, police in riot gear appeared in the windows where protesters had been. They began to shut the windows and removed the flags and banners. Officers then used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse a crowd that had gathered outside the building. Following that, the protesters were escorted out of the building. A spokesperson for the Montreal police said the situation was under control, but said there will be arrests connected to the incident. The group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill posted a lengthy statement on Telegram, saying McGill has so far shut down its demands for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel. Read the full story here.
The union local that represents nearly 12,000 Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) workers says it has agreed to a "framework settlement" with management, averting a strike that would have caused chaos for millions of commuters. The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 113 said in an update shortly after 11:30 p.m. ET Thursday that the framework for a new contract allows it to put a planned strike on hold. The union local had planned to strike just after midnight Thursday if no deal had been reached with the TTC. As a result, the TTC transit system's buses, streetcars, subways and Wheel-Trans vehicles will run normally on Friday. "We will continue to work through details and to arrive at a fair and reasonable contract that we can recommend to our members to ratify," ATU Local 113 said in the update. Read the full story here.
Now here's some good news to start your Friday: As friends and family watched her collect her law degree from the University of Saskatchewan on Wednesday, Saba Ahmad knew she was doing more than just crossing a stage for a diploma. She had crossed one hurdle after another, from the strain of a traumatic divorce to deciding to travel back and forth between Alberta and Saskatchewan to get her law degree, while raising three kids, two of whom have Type 1 diabetes. "My heart is full and I'm just very, very grateful for God, for the universe, for my parents and my family," the 42-year-old mother said, her voice choked with emotion. "I actually didn't realize the strength that I had." Read the full story here. | | | FIRST PERSON | Doctors told me I could never walk, but my football team made me feel like I could fly | Whether it was at a time when medical professionals were warning him he would not be able to walk or at a time when he would be alone in his room without friends, the Roughriders kept Dylan Earis company and a reason to feel hopeful about what lay ahead. Read this column here. | | | | | | |  | Life's tough. Will the interest rate cut help? | The Bank of Canada has cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a per cent, the first such cut since 2020. But is it going to make life in Canada any more affordable?
Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: June 7 | | | 1887: Wilfrid Laurier is elected leader of the federal Liberal Party. In 1896, he became Canada's first prime minister of French descent.
1929: The Papal state, non-existent in Italy since 1870, is revived under a treaty that recognized the independence of Vatican City.
2002: Quebec becomes the first province to grant same-sex couples full parental rights.
2009: Tennis great Roger Federer wins the French Open for the first time, finally completing a career Grand Slam. | | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | |  | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news
Breaking news alerts
Local, national & world news
In-depth coverage | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
forwarded to you. | | | |
