Quebec-based retailer Simons is in expansion mode outside its home province, with two new stores coming to Toronto. The chain has pending openings in the Toronto Eaton Centre and in Yorkdale Shopping Centre. The Eaton Centre location in particular has outlived such tenants as Eaton’s, Sears, and Nordstrom, but some analysts think Simons stands a better chance.
“I would not say that … because other department stores have failed in those places, that necessarily means that Simons is going to fail,” Joseph Aversa, who teaches retail management at Toronto Metropolitan University, told CBC News. Since appointing its first CEO from outside the Simons family in 2022, he said, the banner has been “very calculated in terms of their expansions.”
