Saks Fifth Avenue opened its first store in Canada last week at the Toronto Eaton Centre and opened its second Toronto store today at Sherway Gardens.
So what?
Well, if you’re a shopper like myself, you follow these openings with interest for the simple reason that having more places to shop is a good thing!
While I could talk about the department store and its future (not very promising according to some experts), I’m not going to because I happen to love department stores and want them to be around forever. An excellent article on The Business of Fashion website talks about the challenges and changes coming for department stores.
Instead, I want to talk about why I think Saks Fifth Avenue has arrived in Toronto at just the right time for both the retailer and the consumer.
Firstly, can we talk about our Canadian Dollar and the fact that it’s trading around 70 cents US for the first time in the past 13 years? What’s more upsetting is that the currencies were at par only 3 years ago. Now all I hear is my family and friends outside Canada wanting to come shop here because ‘it’s such a good deal’. Of course it is at that exchange rate. I’m expecting Canada to be packed with visitors this year!
