Ikea job calls net 3,000 applicants for 350 positions
Winnipeggers aren't just excited about shopping at Ikea, they're also pumped to work there.
The iconic Swedish furniture-maker's nearly 400,000-square-foot location is nearing completion - it's on schedule to have its ribbon-cutting ceremony in late November or early December - and it has been inundated with people looking for work. In the month following the announcement that it was planning to hire up to 350 "co-workers," Ikea received more than 3,000 online applications for everything from working on the shop floor and behind the cashier, to IT, design and restaurant staff.
Stephen Bobko, the manager of the Winnipeg store, said he has begun the process of hiring his management team. Conducting interviews, he noted, is considerably more difficult when your workplace is under construction.
"I don't have an office for people to come to so we have to find a mutually agreeable restaurant or other place to meet in town," he said.
Bobko said he expects the store will draw customers from neighbouring provinces and states upon its opening.
Tourism Winnipeg agrees and says that should be a boon to local restaurants, hotels, gas stations and the province's tax coffers. Its forecasts call for visits to Winnipeg to increase by 6.3 per cent next year, driven by a combination of Ikea and the opening of the Journey to Churchill exhibit at the zoo. Visits are expected to jump by a further 6.5 per cent in 2014, the year in which the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is to open its doors.
Victoria's Secret out in Winnipeg
The world's most famous lingerie retailer is preparing to open an 8,500-square-foot store at Polo Park Shopping Centre on December 1, just in time for the Christmas rush.
Deborah Green, general manager of Winnipeg's largest mall, said customers have been clamouring for Victoria's Secret for many years. The brand is well known in Winnipeg because many shoppers have visited its location in Grand Forks.
"It's a store for women but men will love it, too," she said.
Any husbands or boyfriends who are nervous about shopping there needn't worry. Founder Roy Raymond, who was inspired after feeling embarrassed buying lingerie for his wife in a department store in the 1970s, designed the store's comfortable environment.
Landmark eatery closes downtown
Winnipeg's long-standing king of the triple-decker sandwich, the Wagon Wheel Lunch restaurant, has closed down after a 61-year run downtown.
It's not that its customer base was waning but its owner, Franny Gomez, was unable to find a new home that would be suitable - and profitable - after her lease ran out in the Norlyn Building on Hargrave Street.
The four-storey building is one of many slated for demolition as Winnipeg's ambitious SHED (sports, hospitality and entertainment district), a more than $600 million project designed to revitalize the downtown, starts to take shape.
On the old Wagon Wheel site will soon rise a $75 million hotel, office, residential and parkade complex.
CentreVenture, Winnipeg's downtown redevelopment agency, did its best to help the Wagon Wheel relocate, but to no avail.
Airport's old terminal torn down
The old terminal building at the James Richardson International Airport will soon be a parking lot.
Rendered obsolete when the new $585 million state-of-the-art terminal building opened last October, the old one has been slowly "deconstructed" over the past couple of months. The site will serve as a parking pad for aircraft until the Winnipeg Airports Authority can find a better use.
One project has already been confirmed. A new 105,000-square-foot home for the Western Canada Aviation Museum is set to break ground in 2015 in time for a 2017 grand opening.
Shirley Render, executive director of the aviation museum, said the extra exposure from being beside the new terminal building should result in a significant spike in annual visitors, which was about 35,000 last year. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to be extremely visible. Anybody going to the airport will have to drive right by our front door," she said.
Homeless given $40K handout
Winnipeg's homeless and hungry have received a much-needed boost to get them through to the fall.
The local office of ScotiaMcLeod, the brokerage arm of Scotiabank, has donated $40,000 to Winnipeg Harvest.
"It's a huge gift," said David Northcott, Harvest's executive director, who noted the donation is timely.
The summer months are typically the leanest at the Winnipeg food bank.
Harvest is able to leverage every dollar donated into $20 worth of food, Northcott said.
According to its latest figures, Harvest feeds 54,000 people per month, up nearly 19 per cent from a year ago.
Corey Johnson, branch manager at ScotiaMcLeod, said the decision to lend a hand to Harvest was made after consulting with his 11 advisers.
"We all felt it was a very worthy cause. We wanted to keep it local and have an impact on the local community," he said.
– Compiled by Geoff Kirbyson
from Western Investor September 2012
