Topshelf, an established Dutch sports retailer with five megastores, has pounced on two top locations that became available earlier this year after the bankruptcy of Vroom & Dreesman (V&D), a major Dutch department store chain. Several Dutch newspapers report that Topshelf has taken over the leases of former V&D stores in Groningen and Nijmegen, after the opening of a new Topshelf megastore in the former V&D in Arnhem. The sports retailer reportedly has its eye on another four of these locations. Topshelf has long been trading with five stores, in Rotterdam, Utrecht, Leerdam, Beuningen and Cruquius, selling mostly sports and fashion products – with a concept based on large stores that are visible from busy motorways. However, the offering in the new megastores is to be widened with products such as cosmetics, perfume, travel gear and chocolates, making them similar to a department store rather than a sports store. The Nijmegen store has a surface of more than 10,000 square meters, compared with over 7,500 square meters in Groningen and more than 8,400 square meters in Arnhem. The new stores are to open from the second half of 2016, to form a network of 12 stores spread around the Netherlands in two years' time. Decathlon and Hudson's Bay are two other retailers that have apparently been studying V&D locations – often prime real estate and of adequate size for large-scale city center stores. Dutch media have reported that Decathlon intends to open a store in the V&D building in the center of The Hague, along with other city center stores in former V&D stores in Amsterdam and Utrecht.

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