Swedish Invasion!

Happy New Year to one and all!

I've been away from the blog for a few weeks, and obviously everyone knows this already, but in the interests of complétude, I feel I should finish what I started back on 29 November.

To begin, for anyone who managed to miss it, a revue de presse from mid-December:

• IKEA store coming to Winnipeg


• IKEA eyes Winnipeg location


• The road to IKEA


• Store expected to draw shoppers into Winnipeg


• What is IKEA anyway?


• We were offended that IKEA was snubbing us


• $18.5 M to redo roads for IKEA


• Retailers see more winners than losers with new outlet

And, confirming the trend of a veritable synergie suédoise happening in Winnipeg, H&M are coming to town as well, apparently at Polo Park where the Safeway is (was?):

Only days after international home furnishings giant IKEA unveiled plans to build a new 350,000-square-foot destination store in southwest Winnipeg, a spokeswoman for one of the world's largest clothing and fashion retailers-- Sweden-based H&M -- said it's also got its eye on Winnipeg for expansion.

"We are expanding throughout Canada and we're always looking for new and great cities to expand into," Emily Scarlett said Thursday. "And being a major city, Winnipeg is definitely on our radar screen."

[...]

H&M is rumoured to be looking at the former Canada Safeway space in Polo Park Shopping Centre, but Scarlett and Polo Park general manager Deborah Green would neither confirm nor deny that.

This really is a juste retour des choses, as Winnipeg was known as the 'Swedish Capital' of Canada up until World War II.