UNIQLO, the global clothing retailer, announced Tuesday it will open two stores in Toronto, Canada in the fall of 2016, marking the brand’s first entry into the country and its 18th market overall.
The stores will be located at Yorkdale Shopping Centre, one of the highest performing shopping centers in North America and Toronto Eaton Centre, a historic landmark and one of Canada’s best-known shopping destinations. These flagship level stores at 24,000 sq feet and 28,000 sq feet respectively, will offer the brand’s full range of men’s, women’s and children’s items.
“Entering the Canadian market is a milestone for the company and a significant step in our growth strategy,” said Larry Meyer, CEO of UNIQLO USA and Canada. “Our first two stores in the great city of Toronto will mark the launch of the UNIQLO brand in Canada, which we aim to build upon thereafter with a presence in the lovely city of Vancouver.”
Since opening its first store in Japan in 1984, UNIQLO has more than 1,500 stores worldwide.
© Japan Today
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warispeace
It's great that this brand which has been documented (and reported by JT) using contracted, low paid sweat-shop workers is locating a marquee store in an up-scale shopping district. It shows that their way to the top is through spiral down. It's the kind of business model to be proud of.
harvey pekar
Target, an American powerhouse in the world of supercenters with clothes and food, decided to tackle the Canadian market. The problem was they tried to pull a fast one and not offer the same products or the same low prices that the Canadians could get just across the border in America. Now, every Target in Canada is closing down.
So, word of advice, offer a good product at a good price or don't bother because Canadians aren't screaming to get your stores in their country. They'll go elsewhere.
turbotsat
Dude says it's government's fault.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/mark-milke/canada-us-prices_b_6357438.html
KnowBetter
Sorry turbostat but that Huffingtonpost rag is paid for by the lobbyists protecting lazy Canadian businesses. Uniqlo will fail in Canada IF it does not offer prices within the same price range as offered in The USA factoring in exchange rates.
In Canada, most if not all businesses are full of BS stories as to why things are so much more expensive in Canada with the usual lies about duties and taxes and import costs, etc., etc., etc. So you tell me why something MADE IN CANADA is MORE expensive than 2000kms away in some small USA town?
Uniqlo's prices are quite a bit higher in the USA than in Japan last time I checked as are Muji's prices so based on past track records in Canada, they will be even higher (taking exchange rate into account) in Canada. There are plenty of places in Canada that sell a lot of the same staple 'fleece' products but just like in the USA, Canada will need 'fattie' sizes. I'm not big by any means but a Xtra Large Japanese Uniqlo t-shirt is about the size of a medium in North America and if you wash that Uniqlo shirt in anything but cold water and hang it to dry, it becomes almost two sizes smaller.
Things that do not have duties on them such as cameras, TV's, BluRay players etc. are ALWAYS more expensive in Canada so things with duties like clothing NOT made in North America will be priced too high to compete unless they pay the workers making them less or the bosses take a cut on their pay. I'm guessing not the latter. Uniqlo will have a difficult time in Canada. 15 years ago they would have done slightly better but now their product is cheap just like everyone else's crap.
John Galt
I love Canada(the land and average citizens), but the taxes, tariffs, and regulations are ASININE! Best wishes to UNIQLO ;It's going to be an uphill battle.
P.S. Down goods need to be waterproof as well as VERY warm and rugged. Winter is SERIOUS.
CoconutE3
They need to hire better designers. Their 'basic" is getting even 'too basic".
turbotsat
So, the forward-thinking among Canadian retailers should be falling all over themselves, dropping prices to catch the trade that's going south, by that I mean Canadians driving over the border to buy their goods.
Instead of going bankrupt, like Target Canada. Pretty sure Target would rather have dropped prices and caught more trade, if they could, rather than PULLED OUT COMPLETELY and blown all that money!
Googling "why are canadian prices higher than usa" gets around 72M hits, and in the first several I looked at, "country pricing" (where local retailers and foreign suppliers charge more because the market will bear it) was only mentioned once (and not in the following article, IIRC, which otherwise gets into much detail on various aspects of Canadian pricing).
As far as why a Canadian item might be cheaper in USA at retail than in Canada, you might consider that governments have an interest in encouraging exports, USA might not impose tariffs on that particular item, even state pricing might vary wildly. On a drive through Northwest, we noticed clothing prices were really cheap in a small city (Billings or Bozeman or Butte, MN), and we stocked up. Maybe they were dumped? Maybe the local retailers had to accept smaller margins because that was all locals would pay?
http://iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/strategy/why-arent-canadian-retail-prices-coming-down-the-strong-canadian-dollar-and-the-challenge-for-retail-prices