archited
Senior Member
^^^^ the decline of retail is happening in every City, sadly.
Sadly, this is objectively true.Indeed, but the options in our fair city's core are abysmal and at a level far beyond comparable cities... even Regina has a stronger retail scene in its core.
Yea I get that WEM would've taken up a lot of space, but it could've completely changed downtown.^The main malls for Regina and Saskatoon are downtown. Regina's has a H&M, Lululemon, Sephora, Bay, etc. It's not very big but it has the main retailers. Saskatoon's is even better, and the old Sears is being redeveloped.
I thought when the Metro Line was built I would feel more connected to going to Kingsway, but sadly I don't. Imagine if Triple 5 had built WEM downtown, it would have changed the trajectory of all urban development in the city imo.
I don't like to be too negative, but I fully agree with this. I would say abysmal is an accurate statement here.Indeed, but the options in our fair city's core are abysmal and at a level far beyond comparable cities... even Regina has a stronger retail scene in its core.
Interestingly and to their credit, Triple 5 also built a mall downtown here (Eatons Centre, now City Centre West ). However for a lot of reasons it did not help that much.Yea I get that WEM would've taken up a lot of space, but it could've completely changed downtown.
Why go downtown when all there’s so many suburban options surrounding the Henday? If I wanna goto a mall other than WEM, the city also as plenty of options for those.I think more people avoid downtown due to cost, crime, streetscape than lack of retail.
^^^ seconded! As a laclustre-income-zillenial with an increasingly dim career outlook, I agree very much with the 'shopping isn't a big draw' notion. Myself and almost all of my peers don't value shopping the way I think previous city-builders expected us to. We still like stuff, but not to the extent of "Downtown doesn't have any stores selling Gucci (Holt Renfrew) or a Perfume Maze (the Bay) anymore, I'm not going". That's not why we were going in the first place. as @Stevey_G points out, there are much better options in the city if one simply wants to acquire stuff at a large scale, quickly. Big box stores (and yes, I'm lumping the by into this, because it too is just a big box, just one with a posh logo and high prices) don't give customers experiences. They don't make the buying experience special enough to make it worth visiting, versus shopping online. If you want to have fun, shop local, if you want stuff, cheap and fast, shop amazon.Id say events, leisure, great buildings, car free lifestyle, close to school/work will be bigger sells. WEM got it right with all the extra attractions. I dont think that'd work DT with size/space. But the rec room, sweet concert venues, etc could help.