Canada Post, the shipping and delivery company, will be opening Maple Grove, a city of commerce within SL that will hold many of the RL stores and brands that Canadians know and trust, including Toys'R' Us, Sears, The Shopping Channel, Brookstone, SkyMall, Red Canoe, Everything Olive, and Hudson's Bay Company.

"Today's net savvy consumer values convenience and relevancy in today's market," says Laurene Cihosky, senior vice president for Canada Post's direct marketing division. "Maple Grove is our way of meeting those expectations; a virtual place for friends to meet, shop, and enjoy the culture that Canada has to offer."

On Saturday, November 3rd, Maple Grove will officially launch in Second Life with a six-hour virtual live music festival, from 3 to 9 PM SLT. On the bill will be Grace McDunnough, Montain Gulruth, Juel Resistance, Rosedrop Rust, Shiger Seattle, and Louis Volare. You can get more information about the event here.

(Thanks, Schuyler!)

The IBM group exploring the business opportunities of virtual worlds and Sears announced that they are launching a Sears presence in Second Life at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier today. According to Mark Wallace of 3PointD, the build will consist of floors showing off different consumer goods and allowing greater interactivity with the products than a conventional website would allow. Users will be able to customize the look and feel of both appliances and the environment, allowing them to test out how the appliance would work in their actual spaces.

It is refreshing to see Sears taking the initiative in embracing new technologies and markets as they are emerging. Sears has a track record of pioneering new methods of sales, with the Sears catalog redefining sales in the late 19th century. Hopefully this will be a reemergence of the brand as a pillar of innovation.

Update1: I removed the original image on Mark Wallace's request (See the comment 1 below). Mark I am sorry for any problems this may have caused you. Also I removed the language of "the store seems to have languished in recent years," as I think it may have been stronger then what I was trying to convey.