‘We’re super sad’: Bedford IHOP set to close its doors

IHOP and Toys “R” Us are shutting down in the Halifax Regional Municipality.

After a three-and-a-half-year run, the International House of Pancakes in Bedford, N.S., will close its doors by the end of the month.

“It’s a little bit surprising in some ways because IHOP is a big, internationally well-run, very successful breakfast place in the U.S. But sometimes companies make mistakes when they go international,” says retail analyst Bruce Winder.

It wouldn’t be the first time an American brand struggled in a Canadian market.

Winder says it can be compared to when Target closed their doors nationwide, almost as quickly as they opened them.

“Canadians, you know, they’re not dumb,” says Winder. “They were able to shop at Target in the U.S. and look at the price differential and say, ‘this doesn’t make sense.’’ I think the same thing happened with IHOP.”

Although Winder finds its closure surprising, Janick Cormier, the Atlantic vice-president for Restaurants Canada, says she doesn’t.

“Generally speaking, restaurants are having a hard time paying their bills right now, so it’s not entirely surprising that we’re seeing closures,” says Cormier.

She says restaurant closures are going to be “more common” in the coming months, especially as Canadians become pickier with their spending.

“Canadians are very price aware right now… and they are looking at the less expensive items on the menu. They’re going to go without the glass of wine these days and stick to water, for example,” says Cormier.

In the case of Dartmouth Crossing’s Toys”R”Us, another store set to close, Dan Shaw, the MBA program director at Dalhousie University says they’re not only competing with cheaper alternatives, but steady online competition.

“People are deciding category by category where they can sacrifice the drive and where they could sacrifice, whatever service. And I think we’re looking here at a category that there’s not a lot of service that comes with it,” says Shaw.

“So, we’re seeing that people are wanting to buy more and more things online.”

Still, Cormier says IHOP’s closure came at a difficult time.

“I think it was very brave of them to open in that climate,” says Cormier. “We were still in the height of COVID times. There were closures of restaurants across the board… we would be able to reopen, but under a lot of restrictions.”

There’s no word yet on what will replace the restaurant, but some are disappointed to see it go.

“We’re really upset about it because this is a restaurant that we loved to come to together as a family and we love the pancakes here so we’re super sad,” says Tanya MacAdam.

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