Sale! Sale! Sale!....Going out of Business. Kaput!

In the commercial districts of Greater Vancouver, I have noticed that many retail stores are either having their going out business sale or they have already gone out of business.  You don't have to look further than the streets of Robson to see the ghost of a once thriving shopping destination.  Within the last several months, stores such as Sterling Shoes/Freedman/Joneve (Sterling Shoes LP parent company), HMV and Esprit had their "going out of business" sale and eventually closed shop.  

Prior to the recession, the norm was to keep up with the Joneses.  Nowadays, shoppers are more budget conscious and would analyze their purchases instead of just handing over their credit card. So what causes some stores to survive the recession and others to scum to their demise? Simple, the stores ability or inability to constantly evolve in order to meet the needs of their customer.


Espirt use to be a very popular brand name when I was back in high school approximately 6-7 years ago. (Yes, I am aging myself).   They sold stylish graphic t-shirts for $10 a pop that were suitable for a high school student's budget.  Over the years, Esprit changed their target market to young working woman without changing much else about their company.  Esprit's fashion design and price point were not a hit with their new audiences.  On Feb. 1, 2012, Esprit Holding's Ltd. announced that they are pulling out of the North American market after being faced with last year's alarming 98% earning slump.

After reading the news, I went shopping to Queensborough Outlet the very same weekend and saw this:

The iphone pictures did not turn out to be so clear, that was because I was taking the pictures "ninja style." The store was essentially empty with only a few racks of clothing.  Everything in the store was an additional 70% off the marked price.  Even with 70% off the marked price, I walked out empty handed! Why? The items they had did not appeal to me and they were still quite pricey even with the extra 70% off the marked price.  (Look for a post in the future where I will talk about self restraint when it comes to sale time)  


Speaking of sales, on the very same day, look what I saw:

Once again, I did not pick up anything even though the shoes were DIRT cheap! By the way, the Shoe Warehouse is now officially closed. When I was there on Saturday, it was their 2nd last day.  The store was a mess with mismatched shoes everywhere on the ground.

If Sears does not evolve to upgrade its facility and change their business model to fit with today's consumer, the department chain store will surely be putting out "Going out of Business" sign very soon.  Sears has already decided to close hundreds of their less profitable stores so that they can focus in revamping their business model.

Today's retail market is tough, if you do not make the effort to understand and evolve with the demands of the consumer, you will be left in the dust.

Cheery Nails for a Dreary Vancouver Winter

I have just about enough of the rain and snow this winter!  Fun bright colored nails would have helped lift my mood on this dreary winter day.  So I was scrolling through my iphone pictures for nail inspirations until I stopped on the nail pictures below. The soft sky blue nail polish base with the colorful array of beautiful flowers remind me of a sunny Hawaiian day. Oh how I wish I can be in Hawaii right now!

The decorations on my nails are called fimo nail art decoration rod sticks, 100 of these rod sticks can be cheaply bought on ebay for under $6 (shipping included). The rod sticks are made from a soft flexible rubber type material. Here is a picture of how the fimo nail art decoration rod sticks look like:

A blade is required to thinly cut the rods to individual nail decoration pieces.  Aren't they just the cutest thing ever? You can also them for arts and craft.

Thanks to my lovely friend for introducing me to these nail art decoration rod sticks!

Sweet Sweet Things

So after creating my blog title and blog header, I started beating myself up for not including "Food" on it.  My greatest passion in life is food! If I am not eating, I am thinking about food.

There was a sale on Haagen Dazs ice cream at a local grocery store, so I had to stock up because you can never have too much ice cream! The green tea and honey vanilla ice cream is my favorite, the prominent grean tea flavor with the right amount of honey taste is absolutely delish!

I like to indulge myself with anything sweet! So it is to no surprise that the 2006 movie Marie Antoinette  gave me foodgasam! Here is a picture of one of the scenes in the movie, look at all the girly cakes around her. I would gobble them all up and hate myself later!