the only way to be successful is to GROW GROW GROW!!!

or not, not is actually a better answer
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/downturn-wallops-mcnally-80254507.html

I never understood why McNally opened the polo park location, never mind the "WE HAVE TO OPEN IN TORONTO"! idea. They had a nice, moderately successful business and just had to "expand".

and then.. that actually go on to blame the mall developer in Toronto for its failure?
"Last April, it opened a much-hyped big box in Toronto's new upscale Shops at Don Mills. On Monday night, Paul McNally blamed that mall's developer, Cadillac Fairview, for failing to secure sufficient tenants and to even erect proper signage so consumers could find the mall." ( i guess thats their reason for Polo park failing too eh?)
love this quote though

"
McNally admitted opening two new outlets during a recession proved a costly error.
"It was bad timing, that's for sure," he said. "Bookselling has been struggling in general."
"

I saw that in todays paper. I may have to head over and grab some cheap books.

will they actually sell at a discount or just keep the books for their other stores?

Deank wrote:will they actually sell at a discount or just keep the books for their other stores?

I guess the only way to find out is to go there.

I boycotted them when they ditched downtown.....

yeah ditching downtown was a fairly idiotic idea. a pretty much captive audience of business people, they needed a bigger selection there and no real room to grow, plus quite frankly the portage place business hours and second only to the Winnipeg square ones in idiocy.

Goth_chic wrote:I saw that in todays paper. I may have to head over and grab some cheap books.

I may head over to the GP store this evening, on my way to the movies. I'm a member of their discount club.

Triniman wrote:

Goth_chic wrote:I saw that in todays paper. I may have to head over and grab some cheap books.

I may head over to the GP store this evening, on my way to the movies. I'm a member of their discount club.

Cool...which movie are you going to see?

Nothing wrong with expanding, but one must be very, very careful as to where they open.

PP is the most expensive mall in Winnipeg. Ya' gotta' sell a hellava lot of books to make the rent. Don't forget that they must compete with $9.00 Amazon books.

There's nothing wrong with the industry imho...just their management.

(I think those books go back to the publisher...they can't dump them in any event because of the bankruptcy).

I buy alot of books on Amazon...I am enjoying shopping online as of late.

Goth_chic wrote:

Triniman wrote:

Goth_chic wrote:I saw that in todays paper. I may have to head over and grab some cheap books.

I may head over to the GP store this evening, on my way to the movies. I'm a member of their discount club.

Cool...which movie are you going to see?

The new Clooney film, Up In The Air. It's getting great reviews and was cited as the top film of the year somewhere, so I will satisfy my curiosity tonight, hopefully.

I won free passes for that new Clooney movie but I couldn't go so I gave them to one of the girls I work with...she went and loved it!

McNally was good for stocking BOOKS like MOON travel guides - not to be confused with blogs.....books will not go out of style yet but the writing is on the wall, has been for quite awhile even prior to the arrival of Kindle and like photography and print media, this medium's contributors will regroup and find other ways to generate their bottom line. It was inevitable, Paul and Holly having to downsize.

Their timing was bad. They underestimated the competition. They probably undervalued the internet part of their business. I'm certain they did not see eBOOKs becoming a threat.

That said that company has a niche market in Winnipeg. I'd like to see them retrench and retract into their home base.

Polo Park, from what I've heard, was not a typical store. I've not been there but I understand that a customer has to go out of his/her way to get in the store. Not good at any mall. Especially not so if there is a Chapters nearby that does not make the extra effort worthwhile.

The Polo Park store did not have decent visibility from within the mall....one had to go downstairs and it had no synergy to it.

Ahhhh GOM, one cannot post anything here without the pettiness creeping back in a la the ubiquitous red marks....man, this is too friggin funny......so much for your theory there GOM. Methinks you are too charitable. Whatever. I prevail.

A remark made with regards to a store's visibility issues is not controversial, condescending nor rude.....I do believe GOM stated that he had never seen this store so I just provided a thumbnail sketch of it.

grumpy old man wrote:Their timing was bad. They underestimated the competition. They probably undervalued the internet part of their business. I'm certain they did not see eBOOKs becoming a threat.

That said that company has a niche market in Winnipeg. I'd like to see them retrench and retract into their home base.

Polo Park, from what I've heard, was not a typical store. I've not been there but I understand that a customer has to go out of his/her way to get in the store. Not good at any mall. Especially not so if there is a Chapters nearby that does not make the extra effort worthwhile.

I do almost all of my book shopping online at Amazon.ca. I rarely go to bookstores anymore. I even did some Christmas shopping on ebay this year, avoided line ups and crowded malls.

DeanK - a mall has to have a lot of traffic, and "perhaps" in that Toronto Mall there was nothing pulling in the traffic which could have been part of the problem? I think that in Toronto, most of the population don't know how to read, and the rest are immigrants!
I have eaten at the Polo Park store , as my wife loves the food, but I have never bothered to go downstairs to see what was doing (a physical problem). We shop for books at Grant Park, because they have a Pizza Place and a movie theatre there.
It seems that todays readers buy their books on-line? Does that mean that they get their books in e-mail fashion, or through the mail?
McNally is a local entreprenur and should be supported as compared to the Toronto owned chain store, that bought out a very successful plant store years ago and ran it into the ground!

say.. if a HIGH END mall can't make it huber hipster town Toronto... I wonder what a similar beasts chances will be in Winnipeg?

Just for the record, McNally had a store onthe trendy Stephen (8th) Ave in Calgary at one point. It closed it's doors in 2007, so it's not like this is unprecedented.

There are SEVERAL high end malls in Toronto. This one sounded like 1) a new mall 2) had too few tenants and iii) the mall developer did little to attract shoppers to a new mall that had too few stores.

Just a guess...

Well the good news will be if they keep their 2 profitable stores and are able to stay in business!
Book buying from stores that have a store front have been hammered by the cheaper priced on-line stores! just a fact of life that our Winnipeg reputaion for buying cheap is so smart when it is a brand name like a specific book.
Why buy at $50 when you can get it delivered for $35 on line? If that is the case? Anyone out there that can be specific in their purchases?

Goth_chic wrote:I won free passes for that new Clooney movie but I couldn't go so I gave them to one of the girls I work with...she went and loved it!

I hated it!

I probably visit Amazon.com more than any other website. I rarely buy anything from them online, however, just because I prefer to buy it at McNally's if they have it. It's faster that way. I do enjoy browsing the stacks at McNally, though. Today, I bought a few things just from browsing around, including the much celebrated novel The Book Of Negroes, the Danny Goldberg bio, a book to go with my dad's new DSLR, a concert DVD and a jazz CD. I shop there at least twice a month.

Goth_chic wrote:I saw that in todays paper. I may have to head over and grab some cheap books.

They probably need to return some to their publishers or they'll use it at the GP location. It doesn't make sense to liquidate if you're claiming bankruptcy...

It's really too bad. Maybe the Portage location would have had better luck if they had stayed there. I've never bought anything at the Polo Park location but did frequent the downtown one for the cafe and university books.