Clothes retailers are selling out at some of the country’s best malls.
In Ottawa’s Centre Block mall, stores are selling for as little as $20 a piece, while at the other two malls in the area, stores have sold for $200 or more.
That means that even though many people in the Ottawa area will be able to afford to buy a pair of jeans and a t-shirt for $60, they won’t be able afford to spend $400 at a clothing store.
The mall in Centre Block is being sold out of jeans.
The Toronto Eaton Centre mall is selling out of shirts.
The Vancouver Mall is selling only pants and t-shirts.
But the mall in Hamilton has had to sell out of coats and boots.
The malls are just a snapshot of what is happening across Canada, and that’s because of a change in the federal government’s rules for determining which mall a retailer has to open up in.
Under the rules of the Canada Revenue Agency, a mall that sells a lot of merchandise, such as clothes, can open a store for a much lower price.
The rules have always been about limiting supply.
So it’s not surprising that most stores that are open are closing, says Lisa Hallett, the director of consumer policy at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“The big retailers are the ones that have been operating this way for a long time,” she says.
But Hallell says the CRA has been trying to tighten up the rules, and now the rules have changed.
The CRA has now put the maximum allowable price for a retail outlet at $100.
That is not the maximum allowed price that the retail outlets are allowed to charge for merchandise.
So now, a retailer that is selling clothing and shoes and socks and so on for $100, that’s not allowed to open a retail location.
And then that retailer is now only allowed to have one retail outlet.
Hallewts says that makes it hard for consumers to shop for products and services in a store that isn’t actually selling anything.
The biggest problems for shoppers in Ottawa include the mall’s ability to sell the same item for $150 and $200, or $200 for $80.
So shoppers who want to shop in a clothing or footwear store in Ottawa, they can’t go in there and buy a $100 pair of socks and a $200 pair of pants.
And that’s really problematic.
In Hamilton, the shopping centre that has been closed for a number of years, the retailer can sell up to $200 in clothing items for $75, but that is only a fraction of the price that a consumer can get at a grocery store, Hallewitz says.
In other words, there is not enough inventory at the Hamilton mall to compete with a grocery shop in the neighbourhood.
That makes it difficult for consumers in the Hamilton area to shop, she says, because the mall is not able to compete at the retail level with a big chain store like Walmart or Target.
The government has now changed the rules for mall retailers.
“We have changed the policy, we have made it clear to the industry that the rules need to change,” Halleitt says.
The change will affect a lot more retailers, because it will mean that retailers will have to re-evaluate what they are able to offer to consumers, Hargelts says.
“If they’re going to keep doing the same business as before, they need to do more to get back in the game.”
Hallews says the changes to the rules were made after the CRA said in a recent report that it was going to “dramatically reduce the amount of tax revenue that we collect from retailers.”
The CRA said it would also stop the agency from charging more than 30 per cent tax on a retailer’s profits, and reduce the threshold for the retail outlet from $100 to $75.
“I think the retail industry is very pleased,” Hargells says.
Hargllts says the government is trying to “take a long-term view” and keep the business model in place for retailers.
It is also trying to help businesses by making it easier for retailers to attract more employees and attract more business to their malls.
But, she adds, the changes may be too little too late.
“It’s been a very, very slow-moving process,” she said.
With files from CBC News