Calgary Openings, Closings, and Developments

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

That's a huge blow. Those are ALL five stores in the GTA, and the only remaining one in Ontario will be in Ottawa. Not a great sign for Canada's most populous city/province, a logistics hub, etc. If you can't make it there....

Decathlon is a great store. My kid recently went on a grade 8 sailing trip and needed lots of stuff, and that place was a life saver. And maybe I'll change my opinion in a few years when things start to fall apart, but my initial impression is that the quality is pretty damn good, especially at the price point.

Long live Decathlon!

We have tons of stuff from there, and the quality has generally been better than I expected given the price points. I think a lot of the savings come from having it all be Ikea-style store brands vs skimping on quality compared to a "regular" brand. Obviously at their prices it isn't high end stuff, but there are plenty of usage cases where that's fine, imo

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Table 5

I've always liked that Canmore hotel too. It's fine if you don't like the Foothills one (not like its my favorite either), but hating the color combo just seems a bit odd since the yellows aren't that dissimilar to me...maybe slightly more red tint in one. But if you think the yellow will look back because of grime on one, it will look bad on the other too. My biggest peeve with the Foothills building is not the yellow, but the fact that the blue window portion on the west side doesn't really match the vibe of the rest of the building.

But whatever, there are way worse architectural atrocities in this town. This is the epitome of the trend I absolutely hate:

Spoiler!

Imagine showing that in your design portfolio.

Truly fugly

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Retailers seems to keep overestimating the market in this country for expensive sports wear.

Hey man, just spend a couple of minutes on their website before you post.

It isn't an expensive store.

I don't mind Decathlon.

For the right things it is a great store.

[Shazam]

Yeah what the hell is going on in the GTA?

Decathlons here are uber-busy. It's like going to Ikea.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Yeah what the hell is going on in the GTA?

Decathlons here are uber-busy. It's like going to Ikea.

No time for activities, they spend all of their free time on the 401.

[topfiverecords]

People in Toronto don't go outdoors. Pumping gas is the longest they spend outside.

[dubc80]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

We have tons of stuff from there, and the quality has generally been better than I expected given the price points. I think a lot of the savings come from having it all be Ikea-style store brands vs skimping on quality compared to a "regular" brand. Obviously at their prices it isn't high end stuff, but there are plenty of usage cases where that's fine, imo

There was a dad on one of my kid's sports teams this year who is in Management at Decathalon. Moved here from Europe to help with SouthCentre mall opening.

It was awesome talking to him about the sporting goods industry. I had no clue how big they were on the international scale. They are massive. Thousands of stores in like 70 countries or something like that.

They are more than a retailer. They actually design and manufacture things, do their own product testing and have R&D facilities.

The main reason they are not successful in North America is because the consumers here are very loyal to brands, leagues, and athletes.

If you don't carry Nike, Under Armour, Adidas, North Face, etc or have advertisements with Tiger, Lebron, McDavid, Mahomes, it will be an uphill battle.

They do sponsor pro athletes and some of their brands/products are internationally renowned but they aren't anything North Americans care about like cycling.

He told me Decathalon invented that full-face snorkel mask thing but did not patent it in time, and everyone has since copied it and manufactured it.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Retailers seems to keep overestimating the market in this country for expensive sports wear.

Decathlon is cheap sports wear.

[jayswin]

lol, nailed it, as usual.

[browna]

Decathlon is great for some niche things. And then some common things; their backpacks and travel packs are well rated for the price point, and a lot of reasonably priced stuff that cost 3x at Sport Chek. Basic hiking or camping stuff it's really good for as well.

But, their floor space is massive which has to hurt especially in Toronto.

As mentioned earlier, Team Town is a similar situation. A lot of top quality gear and a lot of sports not served properly by Sport Chek (ie baseball softball basketball soccer). Stores are well stocked with good selection, but it's a ghost town in there, in again, a big store space.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Retailers seems to keep overestimating the market in this country for expensive sports wear.

Originally Posted by Wormius

Decathlon is cheap sports wear.

hahaha, old Cliff and his understanding of things. Just straight up finger on the pulse!

[Sliver]

Not piling on Cliff, but jumping in to say I'll be so sad if Decathlon closes. You can buy gear there for the price of renting it somewhere else. It's absolutely perfect for trying new things. And then the crazy part is you think you're buying a throwaway item because it's cheap, then you like the sport, and it turns out the Decathlon thing you bought is actually pretty good and you don't even need to upgrade.

Love our pickle ball paddles and foldaway net.

I bought a great quality dry bag for practically free that I keep clipped into the box of my truck with a bunch of tow ropes and rain gear. An indestructible waterproof cool AF bag for practically free.

Their camping stuff is really cool and fun. My 17 year old is super into camping with his buddies...for Christmas we bought him basically an entire car camping set up from there and, honestly, the stuff is 1/5th the price of Breathe Outdoors or MEC for 90% of the quality. He'll still have it all when he's my age.

It's such a cool store...I love it. Since I live across the street from Southcentre Mall, I'll just wander around that store daydreaming about weird sports to try. If you're ever feeling blah, head to that store with $100 and buy yourself something super fun that'll get you outside screwing around. It's my favourite store in Calgary. I just love that it makes so many activities so accessible to so many people. Like, if you walk around your typical outdoors stores it feels like playing outside is for the rich. Decathlon makes basically every fun thing totally available to almost everyone.

[Jiri Hrdina]

The toys r us on 32nd is closing
That’s the third to close in the last 12 months

[fotze2]

When I went into decathlon it just felt like a very shabby sport scheme but I must have missed something and will need to go back.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

To be fair to Cliff when I saw that news I had to Google whether decathlon was the budget European one or the expensive one in market mall. I was thinking of sporting life being pricey and full of name brands.

[powderjunkie]

Decathlon is awesome. Better quality than MEC house brand at this point. The store is kinda weird with how empty it is, but that's also kinda nice.

[Wormius]

The only thing I don’t like too much is their actual in-store clothing selection isn’t as good as their European stores.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

The toys r us on 32nd is closing
That’s the third to close in the last 12 months

Lasted longer than I thought, just another death thanks to Bezos.

[dubc80]

Meant to post earlier. Breathe Outdoors (formerly Campers Village) is shutting down.

https://breatheoutdoors.ca/

I was there on Friday. Min 50% off everything and selection was already fairly limited.

Guessing not much left by now.

[Old Yeller]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

Decathlon is awesome. Better quality than MEC house brand at this point. The store is kinda weird with how empty it is, but that's also kinda nice.

Really!? Not that MEC is the pinnacle of quality but most of my MEC clothing/equipment has held up really well over the years.

From reading this last page, I think I'll have to give Decathalon a second chance, I went when it initially opened not knowing exactly what to expect and it just seemed cheap/lower quality.