By Yen Yen Yip
Sparks Street Mall management is hunting for ways to attract more shoppers, and it’s following the scent of high-profile stores, like Roots and The Gap.
“The plan is to have good stores with good inducements,” saus Louis Fachinni, chair of the mall’s retail leasing committee. “They have their own marketing budget, and they will bring more people to the area.”
This move comes after a 1998 survey which targeted 310 shoppers, pedestrians and tourists in the mall. It found about one in 10 of those surveyed felt that specialty stores like The Gap and Jacob would make the mall more appealing.
Despite efforts to market the mall in new ways, management says that Sparks Street is “not in dire straits.” When it comes to stores that cater to tourists and sell Canadian arts and crafts, Sparks Street is a leader, according to management — but it needs to push the envelope in retail variety to attract the local crowd.
This need appears to be strong, especially when the mall is compared to its nearest competitor, Rideau Centre, says Fachinni. “When you go to the Rideau Centre, you can find everything there,” he says. But “Sparks Street is very lopsided with respect to the types of merchants . . . it doesn’t seem to have “There are a lot of variety stores, souvenir stores, shawarma places and restaurants, but if a woman wanted to buy clothes, she’d be hard-pressed to find a variety of women’s stores. If I wanted to buy a bed or sporting goods, I wouldn’t be able to do that on Sparks Street.”
By bringing popular chain stores to the mall, management hopes to achieve the “cluster effect,” a situation whereby putting competing stores together would actually lead to more business.
Besides, high-end retailers will simply be able to draw a larger number of shoppers based on their popularity, says Fachinni. “Other stores will be able to capitalize on that draw (when there are) more people.”
William Cornet, who runs Classico Uomo, a store specializing in men’s formal attire, believes that bringing high profile stores to Sparks Street is a step in the right direction, particularly since business has been hindered by on-going construction around the mall.
“Confederation (Park) is under construction, and if it’s not there, Parliament Hill is under construction,” he says. “Anything that is going yo enhance the image of the mall can only help.”
Ian Wright, owner of The Snow Goose, agrees.
“Stores that are going to attract people and make it a classy street, that would always help,” he says.
Although Wright’s store, which sells Inuit and Indian art, caters mostly to tourists, he wants to see more shoppers from Ottawa. Sparks Street is already scoring high marks for its ability to draw tourists – it should work on the local scence, he says.
“No doubt the mall could attract more local people . . . there’s obviously room for improvement,” says Wright. “And the only way that’s going to happen is if there are better stores on the street.”
But the plan to recruit more popular stores hasn’t been put into action yet.
Before it can approach the retailers management wants in the mall, the retail leasing committee has to go through several formal procedures, like collecting an inventory of the available space, and convincing the landlord to enter into a new lease agreement.
Nevertheless, Fachinni is confident of Speak Street’s potential to get more quality stores.
“The mall is one block from Parliament Hill, and there’s only one Parliament Hill in Canada. It’s a very exclusive neighbourhood,” he says.