Hundreds of Winnipeggers lined up outside multiple retailers across the city, with one shopper bellowing triumphantly: “It doesn’t even feel like a pandemic anymore — it’s Boxing Day 2.0!”
As the province eased public-health orders to allow the sale of non-essential items this weekend, parking lots filled up quickly Saturday morning.
Shoppers didn’t let the biting snow showers or even the mandated 25-per-cent capacity limits stop them from waiting outside storefronts for hours on end, before they could get in. Malls remained busy well into the evening, with larger outlets allowing up to 250 people at a time.
“Honestly,” Darrien Drewyer told the Free Press, as he queued up outside the Winnipeg IKEA with his young son to pick up a new chair, “I’ve been waiting for this for like months now.”
Drewyer — like all of Manitoba — hasn’t been able to shop for anything but groceries, pharmaceuticals or other essentials since mid-November, when the province enforced strict Code Red measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
At Polo Park, a security guard said he’d never seen this many cars stacked across the space in tight rows in the many years he’s worked at the mall. “It’s madness,” he said.
“We couldn’t do a lot of Christmas shopping or even Boxing Day or Black Friday properly,” said Nicole Julien, waiting outside the Grant Park Winners outlet.
“I guess this is our chance now because the government finally said you can do it,” chimed in Julien’s boyfriend Henry Siloam, who wanted to purchase a pair of T-shirts he saw at a special in-store discount.
While most other large retailers, such as Costco, Toys”R”Us, Best Buy and Sport Chek were also chock full of customers, independent and small stores did not see the same level of foot traffic.
Just a few steps next to the busy Winners outlet in Grant Park Shopping Centre, which touts up to 70 different storefronts, Northern Reflections and other such outlets appeared barren.
Hi everyone, I’m covering business reopenings today @WinnipegNews.
Here’s what the lineups look like outside IKEA right now — where 250 customers are allowed in-store, per newly relaxed public-health restrictions.
Used DVD store Entertainment Exchange was relatively occupied with customers, however. At one point Saturday afternoon, at least 12 people were waiting to enter, while several others were already glancing over the CDs inside.
“I’m sure the larger businesses are extremely happy with this,” said Jonathan Alward, Manitoba director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “But I just wish people would understand that it might actually be safer and even quicker to go support a small business instead of going off to an IKEA instantly.”
Alward hopes, “once people have gotten things out of their system in the following days,” retailers could look calmer. He thinks a lot of it comes from having more than two months of pent-up cabin fever since restrictions were implemented.
According to the newly relaxed public-health orders, all businesses are allowed to reopen and sell anything they’d like, if they’re enforcing strict capacity limits, physical distancing guidelines and mask policies. Restrictions have not been eased for northern Manitoba communities.
The new rules have effectively closed all loopholes that emerged from a repeatedly changed provincial list of “essential” items, which advocates and business owners have argued impacted independent companies more than big-box stores. Smaller shops relied far more on curbside pickups, delivery and online sales — without necessarily having the infrastructure to match larger chains.
Announcing the measures Thursday, chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said the new rules are meant to “allow increased personal connections, support the well-being of Manitobans… and allow struggling small businesses to get a chance at opening.”
“It all depends on Manitobans,” said Roussin of the current orders that will last at least three weeks. “If we start seeing transmission of COVID-19 again, we’re not going to be able to further reopen.”
Looking at the lineups across the provincial capital on the first day of reopenings, Lisa Malbranck of Diamond Gallery isn’t sure if that messaging has come across for Manitobans.
“You know, they’ve talked so much about this ‘spirit’ of the orders,” she said Saturday. “To me this doesn’t really seem like the spirit of the order when you’re running off and flocking so quickly to the bigger stores.”
At her own store, Malbranck did not see any lineups. Save for the occasional walk-in customers, most people came in after they’d already booked an appointment.
“At the end of the day,” she said, “I just want our community to come together and support the ones these orders are really there for, as we return to some sense of normal again.”
Twitter: @temurdur
Temur.Durrani@freepress.mb.ca
Temur Durrani Reporter
Temur Durrani reports on the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic for the Winnipeg Free Press. Funding for this Free Press reporting position comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
