Bay closure a product of poor location: professor
Posted February 7, 2011 5:32 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A local business professor says the coming closure of the Bay’s flagship Halifax store doesn’t mean retailing is in any kind of trouble in metro.
Mount Saint Vincent business department chair, Dr. Peter Momborquette says the Halifax Bay store is located at a no longer thriving mall and just isn’t in a position to make it work any longer.
“Consumers have opted not to use that location for the last number of years,” he said. “I really think this is not a retail question. It’s more that consumers are changing their shopping habits and there’s been so much competition that’s come into the marketplace that it’s really not a viable location for them anymore.”
He says increased competition from big box retailers helped seal the Bay’s fate.
“The competitive environment locally has gotten stronger and stronger,” he said. “There’s the introduction of Bayer’s Lake, Dartmouth Crossing, the Halifax Shopping Mall and I think consumers are changing the way they shop or where they shop.”
Momborquette wonders if the company kept the store open this long because it was cheaper to maintain the lease than to get out of it.
