Seeing and experiencing an H&M store made me think of Ottawa. More specifically, the fact that many people here would love to have an H&M in Ottawa.  If you Google it you'll find many people talking about it as shown here, here, and here. There's even a Facebook group called Bring H&M to Ottawa. Still despite the fact that there are currently 56 H&Ms in Canada, including 9 in the Montreal region, there are none in Ottawa. Why is that? Could it be that Ottawa is just not ready for an H&M? 

I often hear people going on shopping trips to Toronto, Montreal and even New York to find stylish items. I do it too. The last time I went on a shopping spree was on my last trip to Montreal earlier this summer. I think the problem is the "best" Ottawa has to offer in terms of trendy shopping downtown is probably the Rideau Centre. And compared to a lot of fashion forward cities, it's not impressive nor inspiring. And the bridge it such an eyesore.


I wrote a post last year about how Sparks street could use a little help becoming more fashionable. A commenter said, maybe if H&M would come first, it would help revive the area. But this made me think, maybe one of the reasons why they are not in Ottawa is because it's unappealing in the first place.  Ideally if they came to Ottawa it should be downtown, but where? And who or what would be around them? If Sparks street was better maintained, it could be a great place to shop. But this street is far from looking like a high fashion district. Most of the occupants offer nothing for passerbys to look at. Window shopping is non existent. It's kind of depressing if you ask me. Instead of waiting for H&M to become the anchor, perhaps Ottawa needs a makeover to become more visually appealing. We are talking about fashion here. It has to look good!