JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Polo Park�s Deborah Green says shoppers will appreciate being able to shop earlier on Sundays.
Not only is Sunday-morning shopping coming to a store near you, but cash registers will soon be ringing up sales on the mornings of Louis Riel Day, Victoria Day and Thanksgiving Day, too.
The province is expected to introduce legislation today that will enable municipalities to allow retailers to open their doors as early as 9 a.m. on Sundays and certain holidays. Store owners would still be compelled to close by 6 p.m.
On Tuesday, the Selinger government released a report from a committee representing business and labour that recommended the earlier Sunday openings, which would also be extended to Louis Riel Day, Victoria Day and Thanksgiving Day.
Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard said she did not want to "scoop" her own legislation by confirming the committee's recommendations would be enshrined in law. But she left no doubt the government was pleased with the fact it had reached a consensus.
"When both labour and business come together and find an area where they can agree, I think you have to take that seriously," she told reporters Tuesday.
"I think they've achieved a good compromise, a good consensus, a good balance, and I'm going to take that advice very seriously."
The Labour Management Review Committee (LMRC) consists of five labour representatives and five business officials. It is asked to make recommendations to government on a variety of labour issues, including the setting of minimum-wage rates. The committee does not always come to an agreement, sometimes submitting a split recommendation. However, with a government friendly to labour indicating it was willing to ease restrictions on Sunday shopping, the group was able to reach a compromise in this case.
For the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, which has led the charge for more flexible shopping hours on Sundays, the LMRC's recommendation represented a partial victory.
"We'd still prefer to see wide-open (shopping) on Sundays to allow retailers to determine their own hours of operation," said Chuck Davidson, the chamber's vice-president of policy.
Davidson said if the government goes along with the LMRC's recommendation, the chamber will argue for even more liberal Sunday-shopping hours when the bill reaches the public-consultation stage.
The labour-management committee recommended stores always be closed on New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Canada Day, Labour Day and Christmas Day.
It noted a number of municipalities in Manitoba have never passed a Sunday-shopping bylaw. It recommended Sunday shopping continue to be prohibited in those communities unless they pass a bylaw.
Even in municipalities such as Winnipeg, that allow for Sunday shopping, local governments should still have to amend their bylaws before retailers in those communities could extend their hours, according to the LMRC.
The committee also recommended new legislation make clear that retail employees have the right to refuse Sunday work. It recommended an employee be required to give 14 days' notice when exercising this right. The committee also recommended strengthened enforcement to back up employees who decline Sunday work. It proposed allowing provincial employment standards officers to order compensation and reinstatement in cases where employees are terminated or otherwise discriminated against for exercising their right to refuse Sunday employment.
Deborah Green, general manager of the Polo Park mall, said retailers generally do not wish to remain open later than 6 p.m. on Sundays. But they and their customers will appreciate being able to open in the morning on Sundays and some other holidays.
"I think a lot of the public will be very happy with those hours," she said, referring to the LMRC recommendation.
Lanny McInnes, a local spokesman for the Retail Council of Canada, said there are some types of stores, however, that require more flexible hours than what the committee is proposing.
Garden centres, for instance, are much busier in spring and would benefit from being able to remain open later on Sundays in peak seasons -- as would their customers, he said. The same goes for stores that sell parts for household repairs.
"Retailers will certainly like the opportunity to extend their hours," McInnes said. "But having said that, it (the LMRC report) doesn't go as far as we had hoped that it would."
Howard said depending on how quickly municipalities revise their own bylaws, liberalization of Sunday-shopping laws in Manitoba could be in place by some time this fall.
A committee of business and labour representatives has reached a consensus on Sunday shopping. Here are their main recommendations:
Municipalities should be allowed to permit Sunday shopping from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., a three-hour expansion from the current hours of noon to 6 p.m.;
The expanded hours should also apply to Louis Riel Day, Victoria Day and Thanksgiving Day;
Retail workers should have the right to refuse work on Sundays, provided they give their employer at least 14 days' notice; and
Employment standards officers should have the authority to order an employer to compensate or reinstate an employee penalized for exercising his or her right to refuse work on a Sunday.
Nearly half of consumers to be ‘social shoppers’ by 2021 - femalefirst.co.uk
The next generation of ‘social shopper’ is expected to emerge as a force to be reckoned with by 2021 with 41 per cent of the UK’s consumer population expected to be influenced by or using social media to make a purchase, according to new research from Barclays.
Amongst 25 to 34 year olds this figure is much higher with nearly half (45 per cent) of this age group already engaging in s-commerce. By 2021, the figure will have jumped to 73 per cent.
Richard Lowe, Head of Retail & Wholesale at Barclays, said: “Shopping has always been a social activity right back to the days when people bartered rather than paid for goods. It wasn’t until the arrival of e-commerce that the social aspect of shopping was removed.
“For most consumers the social element is fundamental – shopping it is a leisure activity in the British psyche – so being able to reintroduce this aspect into the online purchasing process is a powerful tool for retailers”.
Around 70 per cent of online shoppers are already active users of social platforms but the number of social shoppers is set to grow further as social micro-blogging websites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest increasingly blur the boundaries between retail channels in the same way mobile technology has done.
Where social media is really coming in to its own is as an influencer and multi-channel integrator rather than a direct sales channel. Users are receptive to new ideas, suggestions and recommendations when on social networking sites but are not in an active state of mind to purchase. Translated into revenues, in the next five years influenced sales are expected to more than double from £1.4 billion to £3.3 billion. This contrasts with direct sales which are expected to rise from £210 million to £300 million.
The retailers enjoying the greatest uplift in sales as a result of social media’s increasing influence are fashion, footwear, music, film and grocers.
Richard Lowe continues: “When someone you know and trusts makes a recommendation it’s extremely powerful and we’ve seen that the social shopper isn’t afraid to express online how much they want, love or dislike a product or service.
“This in turn creates a feedback loop on a product or brand. As more people post reviews, more people read them and, in turn, they give their own feedback which is picked up by a new group of consumers. Retailers should be exploring ways to tap into these communities in order to create more personalised shopping experiences”.
Mountain Lion Wanders Into LA Shopping Area - Sky.com
The animal was spotted in the courtyard of an office building in Santa Monica
8:12am UK, Wednesday May 23, 2012
A mountain lion was shot dead by authorities in the western outskirts of Los Angeles after it strayed near a popular shopping street.
The animal was spotted in the courtyard of an office building in Santa Monica, which is close to a large wilderness area.
But even there, lion mountains are rarely seen - and they virtually never come down into the city itself.
Madeline Bernstein, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to AnimalsHosing a mountain lion down and then shooting her with pepper balls only served to make her more frenzied.
So police and wildlife officials were called when one of the big cats, estimated to be three years old and weighing about 75lbs (34kg), was spotted wandering in Santa Monica.
However, the animal proved to be more difficult to control than first thought and after a stand-off, the mountain lion was killed.
"A variety of means were used to try to keep the animal back inside the courtyard area," said Santa Monica police spokesman Robert Almada.
"We deployed less-lethal pepper ball, we deployed fire hoses and the animal continued to charge in (an) attempt to flee.
Santa Monica police lift the body of the mountain lion into a truck after the shooting
"Regrettably, the animal was euthanised in order to protect public safety."
Animal rights activists voiced dismay at how the situation was handled.
Madeline Bernstein, head of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals LA, said: "Basically, they agitated and frightened a cornered cat before they killed her.
"Hosing a mountain lion down and then shooting her with pepper balls only served to make her more frenzied.
"Deadly force should be used only as a last resort. The citizens and wildlife of California deserve better."
Shopping centre bucks trend as retail sector is transformed - This is Gloucestershire
Despite the tough environment, Bristol’s biggest shopping centre has continued to see an increase in sales and customers.
Cabot Circus opened in the autumn of 2008, just as the recession was getting under way in earnest, but has still managed to help propel Bristol into the top table of the UK’s retail market.
Land Securities, the property firm which owns the £500 million shopping centre, published its annual results, and it came as no surprise that the figures made for some sober reading.
The firm’s property portfolio is now valued at £10.3 billion, a two per cent increase on last year, but its profit before tax was down by more than 50 per cent to £515 million.
Revenue profit, a measure of the group’s cash generation ability, rose nine per cent to £299.4 million.
Chief executive Robert Noel, who recently took over at the firm, has admitted that the property market is still struggling to recover.
He said: “The world has changed as the eurozone contagion started to spread last summer and it hasn’t really started to recover from that point.”
Despite the downbeat view Mr Noel still believes the property firm is still set “absolutely perfectly” to deal with the tougher new environment of the property market.
He said: “There is an increasing realisation that we are not in a growth economy and that it is a fairly boring time
“But we have got our loan-to-value right down, we have got great interest in the buildings we have in development, and our balance sheet is bullet-proof. The only way we can grow right now is by taking on a bit more risk.”
However, locally the outlook appears to be a lot more healthy.
Kevin Duffy, centre director of Cabot Circus, said: “Cabot Circus has continued to perform well in 2012 and we remain positive about the future.
“Our tenants have reported an increase in sales this year; a notable achievement against a backdrop of continued economic uncertainty.”
He added “The number of people using our car park has also risen.
“As we move into the summer season, we expect to see footfall increase in Quakers Friars in particular as a result of our events programme, which will see a giant outdoor screen in the area for Wimbledon and the Olympics, a free food festival and weekly fresh produce market.
“In line with the national picture, we are seeing demand from potential tenants looking for quality retail space in the South West and there is active interest in all of our vacant units.”
As one of the UK’s largest retail landlords Land Securities has had to work hard to deal with what can only be described as a challenging market.
He said: “The retail sector is undergoing one of the most dramatic structural reforms in a generation and it is changing the way people shop.
“Shoppers are becoming more focused on malls which offer restaurants, cinemas and entertainment.
“The market has stopped growing so you need to work harder just to maintain the same momentum as before.”
No comments:
Post a Comment