It’s the last place you’d expect to find a grocery cart.
Yet that’s exactly what greets shoppers as they enter Canada’s first-ever big-box Hallmark outlet.
Located in Woodbridge, Ont, this 6,000 square-foot store offers every imaginable Hallmark product, plus hundreds of other gift-oriented items from various manufacturers.
While the grocery carts are a nice touch – and doubtless appreciated by parents who grow weary of ordering their children to keep their hands off the shelves – they do prompt one to wonder: Just how much of this stuff can a person realistically buy? After all, this isn’t Price Club territory, where a minivan is needed to lug home all of those bulk purchases. This is cards, teddy bears and collectibles.
As it turns out, folks can buy quite a bit. According to Don Hughes, president of corporate retail for Toronto-based Hallmark Canada, the average purchase at the Woodbridge store, which opened in mid-September, has been $3 higher than at any of the company’s standard corporate-owned outlets.
‘Lo and behold,’ he says, ‘they start filling up that grocery cart.’
Is that differential enough to sustain a big-box store? Well, it certainly appears to have been in the u.s., where Hallmark has opened up more than 50 big-box outlets in the last eight years.
‘It has proven to be very successful,’ Hughes says. ‘It was a natural evolutionary process that we would try it up here eventually.’
The Woodbridge location was chosen because, frankly, that’s where the money is.
‘The demographic is outstanding,’ Hughes says. ‘The median income is very high.’
In addition, the intersection at which the store is situated happens to be one of the best retail locations in the greater Toronto area, boasting a wealth of major chains such as Chapters and Pier 1 Imports.
Hughes says that about 80% of the people in the immediate area are of Italian descent, and the store takes great care to cater to them. Roughly half the staff speak fluent Italian, and the store also boasts an eight-foot display of Italian-language cards.
‘That’s very unusual,’ he says. ‘You just don’t see that very much anywhere.’
The Woodbridge store basically follows the model of its u.s. counterparts, save for a few differences in fixtures and the like. The store is divided into zones – or ‘neighborhoods’ – such as a kids’ play corner, a collectibles area and a service centre offering gift baskets, balloon bouquets and other custom-made items.
The cash area is located in the middle of the store, which Hughes says offers convenience for customers in a hurry as well as for those who are just browsing.
The store also boasts a visitor’s centre near the entrance. It’s an area devoted to building the Hallmark brand by showcasing the company’s 85-year history.
Encased in glass is information about Hallmark and its accomplishments. Branded Hallmark clothing and other merchandise is offered for sale there. ‘It establishes Hallmark’s identity in the community,’ Hughes says.
The centre is only temporary. The company plans eventually to use it in other locations, as it opens new stores or remodels existing outlets.
Another unique feature of the Woodbridge big-box store is its custom-printing area, where customers can have their own unique cards made, using whatever artwork they supply to be scanned.
Standard Hallmark card shops – known as Gold Crown stores – have existed in Canada for the past two decades, according to Hughes. There are now more than 300 such stores across the country, 60 of which are corporate-owned. The rest are owned by independent retailers.
Gold Crown stores average approximately 1,600 square feet. All adhere to the same standards in terms of merchandising, product display and store layout. Their offerings include exclusive product from the u.s. that is not available in other retail channels where Hallmark product is sold, such as Wal-Mart. There are also promotions exclusive to Gold Crown, plus a punch-card loyalty program.
Where Gold Crown stores in Canada differ from their American counterparts is in the prominence of the brand name. In the u.s., the strategy has been to promote the Gold Crown brand using a large standardized logo that appears on outdoor signs, as well as in the store interior, and on shopping bags.
Here in Canada, however, the logo is not nearly as prominent on signage and other materials – something that Hughes would like to see change.
‘It’s very difficult for consumers to identify the stores as Hallmark Gold Crown,’ he says. At the moment, however, there are no plans to adhere more closely to the u.s. model.
Since the Woodbridge store stocks all Hallmark product, along with other merchandise – something that smaller outlets could never do – it will serve as something of a testing ground for the Gold Crown stores.
‘We’ll have a better idea of what consumers really want with regard to Hallmark and non-Hallmark products,’ Hughes says. ‘If you can carry an assortment of product, as opposed to just one or two items, you can start getting a better idea of what customers want to purchase, and transfer that to other stores.’
Whether the Canadian market can sustain a second big-box Hallmark outlet is something the company has yet to determine. ‘We’re going to walk before we run here,’ says Hughes.
A big-box outlet – with all of its additional space, merchandise and staff – is a major challenge to operate, he adds. ‘It’s three times the headaches running a big store.’
While the Woodbridge outlet is off to a flying start, Hughes says Hallmark needs to be sure that there’s more than just the pure novelty value drawing customers into the store.
‘Two months does not make a life of a store,’ he says. The company intends to take stock of the store’s progress after the first quarter of next year, before deciding whether to open any more such outlets in other markets.
Also in this special report:
– A store of one’s own p.B1
– The ABCs of retail branding p.B2
– Surreal campaign works for Metro: Quebec grocery chain eschews food for people in non-traditional take on supermarket advertising p.B6
