Canada’s malls continue to outperform U.S. malls

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Jan 22, 2019

Despite troubling times in the retail sector, Canadian brick-and-mortar is alive and well. 

 
That’s according to the Retail Council of Canada’s third annual Canadian Shopping Centre Study, released earlier this month, which concluded that Canada’s top malls are continuing to outperform those across the border. 
 
“The United States has considerably more retail space than Canada per capita, and Canadians appear to be embracing brick and mortar retail more than Americans who are increasingly purchasing online,” the report noted. 

U.S. malls have been showing productivity declines since 2014.
 
For the third year in a row, Yorkdale Shopping Centre located in the Greater Toronto Area was dubbed Canada’s most productive mall. Based on sales per square foot, Yorkdale lead with sales of $1,905 per square foot, for the 12-month period ended August 31, 2018, up over 15 percent compared to last year. 
 
Yorkdale was followed by CF Pacific Centre in Vancouver, which outperformed fellow Vancouver mall, the Oakridge Centre with sales of $1,690 and $1,594 respectively. 
 
Larger metropolitan regions dominated the top 30 list including the Greater Toronto Area with 11 centres and Vancouver/BC Lower Mainland with 7 centres, followed by Greater Montreal with 2 centres. 
 
Most of Canada’s top 30 shopping centres did see an annual per square foot sales gain between 2017 and 2018, however. In fact, in 2018, 12 of Canada’s top 30 shopping centres boasted annual sales per square foot exceeding $1,000, while in 2017, that number was eight. 
 
Still, based on pedestrian count Ontario’s CF Toronto Eaton Centre was considered Canada’s busiest mall with an annual pedestrian count of over 53 million.
 
The report concluded that most productive centres in Canada are continuing to invest into their retail operations, while noting that the country’s mid and lower-tier regional malls are still facing challenges.