With the internal expansion of Holt Renfew and the arrival of Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue to the Canadian scene, Canadian cities may soon boast a higher concentration of luxury department stores per capita than that of their American counterparts.
On October 20, Retail Insider released the results of a self-conducted study that looked into this issue. Specifically, the media outlet wanted to determine whether Canada would soon become oversaturated with luxury department stores.
For the purpose of their study, “North American” luxury department stores included Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys New York and Holt Renfrew. Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom were excluded due to their broader focus.
The report, which compared the prevalence of these retailers in Canadian and American cities, found that most large U.S. regions—excluding New York City and Los Angeles—have fewer luxury department stores per capita than Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary.
Farla Efros, president of HRC Advisory, told Retail Insider that this phenomenon could cause a label war between Holt Renfrew and Saks Fifth Avenue as the latter party expands into the former’s domain. Ultimately, she said, winning this battle will come down to which retailer can best serve customers and provide the hottest designer brands.
