But AmEx notes that a new class of
Canadian luxury consumers has emerged, one that before 2007 didn't make a single purchase from any of the hundreds of luxury brands AmEx monitors, but that now represents 50 % of the consumers and 35 % of spending.
Not exact matches
Both represent bets that
Canadian consumers are already well - served at the cheaper end of the market but there is room for growth in
luxury retail.
So as long as demand for
luxury goods is here, which it will be, we want to be able to offer the
Canadian consumer something in Canada so they don't have travel to the U.S., where there's going to be a foreign exchange headwind.
Add in the fact that
Canadian consumers have less of a taste for
luxury brands than Americans do and having two upscale department stores operating in a market with a population roughly equivalent to that of California makes even less sense, adds Smerdon.