{"id":6302,"date":"2013-02-25T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T17:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=6302"},"modified":"2013-02-26T09:21:50","modified_gmt":"2013-02-26T17:21:50","slug":"opening-of-uptowns-hm-met-with-excitement-from-shoppers-concern-from-local-retailers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/02\/25\/opening-of-uptowns-hm-met-with-excitement-from-shoppers-concern-from-local-retailers\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening of Uptown\u2019s H&M met with excitement from shoppers, concern from local retailers"},"content":{"rendered":"

H&M will open its doors at Uptown at noon on Thursday, February 21. The chain was founded in Sweden in 1947 and has 2,700 stores worldwide. In nine years, H&M has opened 61 stores across Canada, with the 62nd at Uptown.<\/p>\n

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Fashion giant H&M has rolled into Victoria (photo by Kate Masters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOne of the greatest things about H&M is we allow people to dress their personality, no matter what that is,\u201d says Emily Scarlett, communications press manager and spokesperson for H&M Canada. \u201cWe feel like there is always something for everybody in the store. Depending on what you\u2019re into that season or what trend speaks to you, you\u2019ll be able to find something at the store.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Victoria H&M will have over 18,000 square feet of retail space. The store will house lines for ladies, men, and children. However, it\u2019s the ladies who should be the most excited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main focal point of the store will be our ladies collection,\u201d says Scarlett. \u201cFor spring you\u2019ll see pastel colours, slim leg trousers, and spring prints and patterns. Another spring trend is the embellishment of studs and jewels on fabrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s section will be a bright light on the otherwise expensive men\u2019s fashion scene in Victoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a full range of men\u2019s clothing in the store, everything from denim to the David Beckham body wear collection, basic T-shirts to really high-quality knits,\u201d says Scarlett.<\/p>\n

Scarlett says reaction to H&M opening at Uptown has been positive on social media. \u201cPeople just seem to be excited to have fashion and quality at the best possible price come to Victoria,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But while some shoppers are ready to welcome H&M with open wallets, locally owned businesses aren\u2019t as excited to see another international retailer hit the market in tough economic times.<\/p>\n

\u201cForever 21 opened up on December 21, the Saturday before Christmas,\u201d says Khloe Campbell, owner of Amelia Lee Boutique. \u201cThe Lower Johnson Street shops went from being steady, steady, steady to dead for that little while before Christmas. I don\u2019t think we can avoid watching everything slow down initially, but as time goes on things will pick up again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Personalized customer service is something local businesses can offer that larger stores like H&M struggle with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like how there isn\u2019t any customer service,\u201d says Maia Langston, store manager of Indigo Apparel. \u201cIf you don\u2019t know somebody who knows what looks good on you, how are you ever going to find what you are looking for? Everything in this store was picked out by hand. We know how it fits you. You can come in with any body shape and I\u2019m going to know what looks good on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

H&M\u2019s Scarlett understands that locally owned boutiques have trepidations with the large chain coming to Victoria, but she believes that the small stores and H&M can co-exist together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we really value our neighbours and a good competitive marketplace,\u201d says Scarlett. \u201cI think it\u2019s about offering the customers more choice, at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H&M will open its doors at Uptown at noon on Thursday, February 21. The chain was founded in Sweden in 1947 and has 2,700 stores worldwide. In nine years, H&M has opened 61 stores across Canada, with the 62nd at Uptown. \u201cOne of the greatest things about H&M is we allow people to dress their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-february-20-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6302"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6308,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6302\/revisions\/6308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}