News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 8.6K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 39K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 4.8K     0 

Status
Not open for further replies.
From yesterday

20230423_135956.jpg

20230423_140201.jpg

20230423_140823.jpg

20230423_141003.jpg
 
I’d settle for one on Whyte Ave, as that’s probably the healthiest ‘urban format’ location we could pull off a destination chain like this. City Centre (or elsewhere Downtown, like Manulife/Commerce, Jasper, 104th St) would be great in a perfect world, but the area just isn’t there right now. Whyte Ave is pretty unlikely too, both because Southgate is relatively close and Uniqlo seems to prefer top performing malls for their Canadian roll-out (they do urban format locations in other countries). Realistically, we’ll get one eventually at Kingsway and that’ll probably be it until another regional mall is as desirable (if ever).

They’re finally going to Calgary, with a location at Chinook, which makes sense. I could see locations at Market Mall, CrossIron Mills, and/or the Core afterwards. Maybe Southcentre. But their downtown mall is much healthier and productive than ours. Uniqlo isn’t even in the core of Vancouver yet.
 
Uniqlo is a 1-2 max store it seems and so I don't think we will see anything else from them.

It's crazy (and telling) that neither Simons nor Uniqlo want a more central location ie. Whyte or ECC... alas.
 
IanO said:
Uniqlo is a 1-2 max store it seems and so I don't think we will see anything else from them.

It's crazy (and telling) that neither Simons nor Uniqlo want a more central location ie. Whyte or ECC... alas.
Click to expand...

I don’t think that’s necessarily true. They tend to enter a market and then go big. Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa, I could easily see 2-3 stores. They might stop at Southgate, but with Kingsway, a 3rd isn’t unrealistic. I doubt they‘d go beyond that. Canada doesn’t have a lot of large markets so once they’ve saturated Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, we’re in the next rung. It’s part of why IKEA has many locations in cities much smaller than most of the markets that have one in the US (which in Canada might have 2-3 stores at that size).

Uniqlo, at least in Canada thus far, doesn’t seem like they like taking big risks on locations. They go for standard, modern retail units in well-performing malls. If they don’t even have a location on Robson or West 4th, let alone Queen West, they’re not coming to City Centre. Our downtown isn’t healthy enough.

Simons would be a bit more realistic as they seem more willing to take risks with ”different” locations (I mean look at Londonderry). Stores like Urban Outfitters and (previously) American Apparel were also like this, often prioritizing ‘urban’ locations in trendy or gentrifying areas.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top