The Bargain Shop, a Mississauga, Ont.-based value retailer, will open 65 new stores across Canada by the beginning of the new year.
The company completed the acquisition of a large number of SAAN Store Ltd. leases last August, and will be reopening them under The Bargain Shop banner. This brings the total number of locations to just over 250. About 90% of the company’s ad budget goes to flyers and newspaper inserts.
With the opening of the new stores, The Bargain Shop released a four-page tabloid-sized advertorial that contained no product information. “It walked people through one of our stores and the benefits of doing business with us,” said Michael Roellinghoff, the retailer’s president.
The company had to dispel misconceptions held by consumers, like The Bargain Shop is a dollar store.
Approximately 60% of The Bargain Shop’s business is electronics, apparel, food, toys and beauty products, while the 40% includes opportunity buys like overruns, cancellations or discontinued products that the store picks up at a discounted rate.
“There are disadvantages to the name…it does convey certain things about the business,” said Roellinghoff.
