Sunrise Records Canada - New Stores opening thread.

Discussion in 'Music, Movie and Hardware Store Guide' started by jimod99, Apr 19, 2017.

  1. Dreadnought

    Dreadnought I'm a live wire. Look at me burn.

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    It's Monday and the mall was bustling. Walking into Sunrise was like walking into that soundproof tunnel thing that was at the Ontario Science Centre when I was a kid. A void, isolation. Another negative is a feeling of guilt walking out empty handed. I can't see why they are there.
     
  2. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips? Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    What I have found here in Ottawa us that the three new stores are carrying identical stock, I cant see the Rideau Centre one lasting too long as its size means it goves the impression that the store is half empty. The St Laurent store is generally busy (it was apparently the best performing HMV store in the area and one of the last HMV's in Canada to close) . However I find the Place de Orleans store the best organized. The original Sunrise store at Carlingwood is a waste of time.

    Still prefer to shop at Vertigo and The Record Centre!
     
  3. dance_hall_keeper

    dance_hall_keeper Forum Resident

    Has anyone made this their "go-to" store?
    I fell out of favour with the old Sunrise when they introduced their version of the dreaded membership card.
    Rely on giving good prices, not on gimmicks.
     
  4. SoundAdvice

    SoundAdvice Senior Member

    Location:
    Vancouver
    I have one friend who's gone on a blu-ray buying binge once a month with their low end pricing after recently discovering the format and having limited alternative out in the burbs.
     
  5. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips? Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    Are all the 70+ stores now open?
     
  6. VatiBobo

    VatiBobo A Scotsman in Canada

    Interesting to see some of the comments on here - many of them align with my experiences so far. I've yet to buy anything since the local stores opened despite a few visits. Over the past few months I've taken a look in stores in Cambridge, Guelph and Toronto. They all have a decent selection of vinyl and CDs but nothing that screamed "must buy". I'm fairly close to the Cambridge and Guelph stores and on the couple of occasions I've gone in to look for something specific, they haven't had it.

    Some of the LPs that I would consider buying are either things that I'm not desperate to have right now or their prices are too high. For example, they are selling The Band vinyl boxset for, I think, $209. Online at Music Vaultz it's $149 with free shipping. As much as I'd like to support local stores, that's a huge difference, even allowing for the difference of online versus physical store.

    I hope they succeed but I'm not sure how they can. This area has some good and popular independent record stores (e.g. Millpond Records and Books in Hespeler, Cambridge) but in each of the Sunrise locations I've been in they have been very, very quiet. I think that the most other people I've seen in a store is 3 or 4, and I can't recall ever seeing anyone buy anything.
     
  7. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips? Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    I had a spare morning last Friday so popped over to Gatineau to check out the two new stores there.

    Both have the same stock as the Ottawa stores, however the cd's and records are filed in alphabetical order including first names ie. Bowie Under "D" Van Morrison under "V" ect. Is this unique to Quebec?
     
  8. VatiBobo

    VatiBobo A Scotsman in Canada

    That's weird - I've never seen a store do that before. It would certainly be confusing at first. I wonder if bands beginning with 'The' were filed under T :laugh:
     
  9. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips? Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    To protect the employee im not naming the branch.

    Was in one of Sunrises stores in Ottawa last Friday and I bought the Bowie Heroes 7". I asked the person behind the counter how much the box set will be, their reply "We're too expensive, buy it on Amazon"!!!

    They were right, the vinyl box is listed $90 more expensive and the cd box $50 more expensive.
     
  10. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips? Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    In Sunrise in Ottawa this morning, Bowie Box $349....Vertigo ordering it for me for $285!!

    Cd box is $199, suspect they will lay on the shelves for a while!
     
  11. VatiBobo

    VatiBobo A Scotsman in Canada

    There are comments from the VP of Operations below the article that state that Square One wanted another tenant to move into Sunrise's location but only offered Sunrise another spot for 3 months. They've moved the store to a mall in Scarborough instead.
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2018
    Sean likes this.
  12. VatiBobo

    VatiBobo A Scotsman in Canada

    Interesting to see that the article also states that they had a decent first year and also that they are looking to start an online store. Pricing will be interesting for the online store as they will then be competing more directly with Amazon et al.
     
  13. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Something similar happened to another store when their lease was up for renewal. They wanted to renew and SQ1 didn't. They wanted a different store in as they're re-branding that mall.
     
  14. VatiBobo

    VatiBobo A Scotsman in Canada

    I haven't been to Square One in probably 3 years or so. What kind of re-branding are they doing? Taking it more upmarket, Yorkdale style? I'm rarely in Mississauga these days so am out of touch with the malls. I wonder if they will have plans to get back into Mississauga in future (e.g. if there are any openings in somewhere like Erin Mills) as it seems too big a city to not have a store in.
     
  15. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Yup from what I've been told they want to smarten up and have been doing that for some time. Lots of expanding. I'm sure they're looking to increase rents as well. It's probably almost unrecognisable from three years ago. I don't go shopping there but a friend used to work in one of the barber shops so I'd meet him there after work for a couple of beers.
     
  16. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips? Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    The Rideau Centre store closed last week and is apparently moving to a much smaller store in the same mall "sometime in February"
     
    Sean likes this.
  17. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips? Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    Sunrise posted today they are opening a store at Bayshore Mall, presumably the nearby Carlingwood store will close. Carlingwood is a dead mall anyway, even more so now that Sears has closed.
     
    Sean likes this.
  18. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips? Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    The new Rideau Centre store is open, it is much smaller than the other one.
     
    Sean likes this.
  19. Torontotom

    Torontotom Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    The Scarborough Town Centre location has opened (near the Walmart). It's very narrow, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the selection of CDs. There is definitely an attempt to stock more catalogue titles. It's not perfect but it was much better than I expected.

    The Blu-ray selection is okay. I had to laugh that the Blu-ray of the Goldie Hawn/Amy Schumer movie "Snatched" was going for... $49.99.

    BTW, I've heard that the Fairview Mall store has "temporarily" closed. It's supposed to reopen in July, possibly in another space in the mall.
     
    Sean likes this.
  20. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips? Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    Sunrise have opened their 5th store in Ottawa at the Bayshore Shopping Mall.
     
    Sean likes this.
  21. Sean

    Sean Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa
    I've been to the two Sunrise locations in the east end of Ottawa, recently.
    Both now have "Clearance" bins. Two bins in each location. Records at 25 per cent off.
     
  22. VatiBobo

    VatiBobo A Scotsman in Canada

    I saw on their Facebook page that they were offering records at 25% off. Their online store has also launched. Seems ok, if a little basic so far.

    I think it's probably been about 2 or 3 months since I was last in one of the stores as I've been able to get everything I wanted from my local independent. Sadly that store is closing at the end of the month (on the plus side I was able to get 2 albums, 1 12" single and 8 or 9 7" singles for $76 incl tax in their clearance sale). That may mean that I go into Sunrise a bit more often going forward as the other main independent is about twice as far away from me as the local Sunrise. The other independent will probably become my main store but sometimes it will just be easier to check out Sunrise.
     
    Sean likes this.
  23. Brenald79

    Brenald79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Does Sunrise do a sale for record store day?
     
  24. VatiBobo

    VatiBobo A Scotsman in Canada

    I was in the one in Cambridge after doing RSD at the local independent. Sunrise had their usual 25% sale on a select group of vinyl, and had maybe 10 RSD titles. I believe that their stores that are in cities/towns that don't have independents will have more RSD stuff.
     
    Brenald79 likes this.
  25. Brenald79

    Brenald79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Thanks. They probably don’t have sales on CDs.
     

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