Surprises In Store
A sampling of retail innovations being developed in Alberta
by Wes Lafortune
Appealing to the Men
For the average man the idea of buying an outfit for his wife in advance of the holiday season is an anxiety-inducing experience matched only by the pain emanating from his wallet. Now one Edmonton retailer is forever altering the pre-Christmas march to the mall and replacing it with civilized boutique shopping that’s happily accompanied by finger food, a glass of wine (or scotch) and a discounted price.
Maggie Walt of Maggie Walt Design hosts a men’s night every December to help the male shopper put the fun back into finding fashions for loved ones. “It’s our bread and butter,” says the designer, who runs a 1,200-square-foot shop on Jasper Avenue. “Christmas is one of our busiest times of the year. If we just waited for people to walk through the doors, we would be toast.”
More frat night than catwalk, the male-only evening event came to Walt as a way to attract men who otherwise would never venture out shopping for clothes for their wives or girlfriends. “We suggest the women come to the store prior to the busy Christmas season and create a wish list that will later be shared with their partner,” she says. “Then we call the men up and invite them to our men’s night. We give them a discount, we give them a drink or two and we throw in a little gift.” Without getting too judgmental about men’s sometimes off-target gift ideas, she adds, “We’re trying to help men buy something for their women that the women will like.”
Just a few guys turned out for the first event five years ago, but this year Walt expects a full house. “Men’s night has really been growing,” she says. “We tell the men, ‘Just come have a drink.’ Most of the time they don’t want to leave.”
Walt’s fashions are inspired by Asia but made for Canadian women. They include everything from embroidered coats created with Vietnamese silk to garments tailored from parachute fabric. One customer who faithfully shows up for the annual men’s night is John Finnie. He visits the shop to buy Christmas gifts for his wife, Prudence. “Maggie’s clothes are funky and exotic,” says the Edmonton high school teacher. “At men’s night they pull out the list; they’ll even model the clothes. I know when I choose from the list, it’s something Pru’s going to like. They’ll even wrap it for you.”
And men (or women) who are looking to do a good deed during the season of giving can also buy jewelry at Maggie Walt Design that’s been sourced from I-India, a Jaipur-based charity for street kids. “I buy jewelry from the girls at the orphanage,” says Walt. “Every cent goes back to them.”
Movie Renting’s Missing Link
Movie Gallery’s gone bankrupt. Even Blockbuster is struggling under the competition from Netflix, TiVo, the 500-channel universe and cheap retail DVDs. Just when you thought the movie rental business was going the way of the dodo bird, along comes an Edmonton-based company that plans to re-energize the industry in Canada. Quickflick hopes to transform the DVD rental business with a self-service machine that uses less space than the average refrigerator. “It takes up three square feet of floor space,” says Tim Goltz, vice-president of corporate marketing and research for Integrated Management Corp., the company that owns and operates Quickflick. “The machines are 26 inches by 19 inches deep and hold 110 DVDs.”
Goltz and two partners, president Gord White and vice-president of operations Tim Regnier, launched Quickflick in October 2006 and since then have established their kiosks at dozens of locations across Alberta and British Columbia, including at select Safeway and 7-Eleven stores and some Husky gas stations. Customers with a credit card can rent new releases for $1.99 per day or, if they prefer, purchase a movie for $34.99. Future plans for debit card use are also in the works.
Goltz says convenience is the main reason people use Quickflick, as opposed to visiting a traditional movie rental shop. “If you’re already driving to Safeway, then you don’t have to burn more gas by driving to Blockbuster.” Consumers can go to Quickflick’s website and enter their postal code to find out the location of the nearest kiosk.
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