"Harry Rosen readies itself for retail foreign invasion" Sensing profound change coming to the retail landscape, Larry Rosen called his senior executives to an urgent meeting at Canada’s premier high-end men’s clothier. They drew up their own battle plan, raised $100 million to expand most existing stores, add a few new ones, and invest in e-commerce, staff training over the next five years, and may even go back into the women's luxury fashion business. With Nordstrom coming Harry Rosen sees it as a direct challenge. "It's not business as usual,: said Mr. Rosen, 55, CEO, and second generation to run the business. "In the next 5 years, there are going to be winners and losers. I am very confident we have the direction to be on the right side of that equation." This is the typical response by most of the Canadian retailers. They're aggressively tightening their businesses and expanding themselves. There's going to be a fight up there and the consumer will benefit long term. (Source theglobemail.com)

Wal-Mart Canada's Loss Prevention leader left to join the RCC, leaving the biggest LP job in Canada open. Stay tuned for who'll get that job.

Sears Canada cuts 400 jobs in their second downsizing. The second downsizing in two months as the struggling retailer tries to cuts costs. "These are never easy decisions. These people gave their heart to Sears," said Sears spokesman Vince Power, who said most of the affected employees were in "non-core" areas, including food services, administration and IT. At some stores, cafeterias will be closed down, Power said." (Source RCC newsletter)

Retail Sales in November were up 0.3% to $38.7B for the fourth straight month. General merchandise store sales were up 0.6%, the sixth increase in seven months. The "other general merchandise stores" industry accounted for the gain, rising 1.7%. Following a decline in September and flat sales in October, sales at department stores fell 0.7% in November. (Source gc.ca)

No big LP job gains yet in Canada - actually we've seen some shrinking of the market. But that's typical when an entire industry is getting ready for war so to speak. With a number of Canadian retailers out there buying other retailers, streamlining, right sizing, and trimming all the fat. It's the calm before the storm. However we have seen a few new jobs but they're scattered and go by almost unnoticed. With all the news in the last 18 months of U.S. retailers going north it takes time to make that a reality and some will stretch their resources and try to cover it from the States. So all the new jobs will come but it's going to take time and it'll be much more gradual then the actual store openings.