A massive new sporting goods store with a twist is opening in Calgary this weekend.
Decathlon, which was launched in France in 1976, is opening a 63,000 square feet retail space at Southcentre mall, including a 7,000 square foot automated warehouse manned mainly robots.
Customers will be able to watch the 27 robots in action as they service e-commerce orders for Western Canada and fulfill in-store requests.
The store will include experiential test zones, after sales service workshops — such as bike tuneups and ski fitting and waxing — as well as programming for kids and adults, all run by local coaches and organizations.
The Retail Council of Canada says the arrival of a company like Decathlon shows optimism for a sustainable retail market.
“Calgary is now and always has been an important market in Canada, both for domestic and international expansion, for sure. It’s one of the top markets in Canada,” said senior retail advisor Michael LeBlanc.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm about Calgary. It’s a young market, from a demographics perspective. And, you know, all markets have ebbs and flows and sometimes that’s a pretty good time to go into the market — when the market is ebbing more than flowing — and, you know, anchor yourself in a nice place, get a nice long-term deal as a retailer with a great rate.”
LeBlanc also said positioning themselves as a distribution centre in western Canada is a good thing for Decathlon and Calgary.
“So they built a store that’s going to be just jam-packed, full of product, probably some extra product and use that, interestingly, as a ship to western Canadian customers distribution center, which is interesting, some retailers ship from store, that’s not uncommon, but it’s a particular investment with some technology and some automation.”
The president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Deborah Yedlin says there’s a retail vibrancy in the city that companies like Decathlon are interested in capitalizing on.
“Despite the challenges, we still have a strong business climate and we’ve seen other things happen in the last while in terms of companies coming here and setting up shop, and also seeing our local businesses expand,” she said.
“We still have the highest per capita incomes in the country, so they’re obviously interested in that. They’re looking at sales per square foot in terms of the various malls in Calgary. Our recreational activities are very actively-based and so they’re seeing this as a market big enough to support another entrant and they’re not a small entrant, they have purchasing power and it’s gonna be really interesting to see how they leverage that brand in the city.”
There are 10 Decathlon locations in eastern Canada and this is the first store in the west.
The company is looking to expand to Vancouver and Winnipeg.