More than a dozen global brands are opening this fall at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto necessitating a job fair to help staff all the new retailers and existing retailers in the mall.
William Correia, Director of Yorkdale Shopping Centre, said 10 of the new stores have already opened and four or five will open in the near future.
The new brands opening at Yorkdale this season include ACNE Studios, Diptyque, Allbirds, Emporio Armani, Ganni, TWG Tea, Mejuri (first shopping centre boutique), Fendi, Offline, Psycho Bunny, %Arabica, Vinfast, Café Landwer, Alo Yoga and Mango. BVLGARI, Cartier, Aritzia, OVO, Bath & Body Works and Browns Shoes are some of the expanded and renovated stores opening this season as well.
“It’s exciting to see international brands continue to join Yorkdale’s world-class retail mix, giving Canadian and international customers one of the best shopping experiences possible,” said Correia. “The appetite for in-person shopping is incredibly strong. Existing brands are expanding the size of their stores and hosting more in-store events than ever before in response to consumer demand.
“In recent years we’ve offered a world-class retail mix here and I think that international brands, Canadian brands, just on the world stage, people are looking at Yorkdale now and we continue to increase the luxury offering that we have. So it truly is the centre of style when you look at shopping centres and I think that’s why a lot of these brands are looking to be part of the Yorkdale family.
“It really is a unique and brilliant place to shop.”
The shopping centre has about 270 stores.
“We’ve seen this happen prior to the pandemic. With first-to-market brands and luxury brands added to our retail mix, it really creates for a unique shopping environment. I think that our retailers will all benefit from 10 or 14 new retailers coming into the mix,” explained Correia. “It creates some excitement. It creates some additional traffic. And that’s going to translate into increased sales not only for these new tenants but for some of the existing retailers we also have.”
Correia said beyond this fall the shopping centre continues to discuss opportunities with other retailers with more deals coming in the next 12 to 18 months with new additions and first-to-market brands.
“Some retailers the Centre has not had here before,” he said. “I think you will continue to see this trend over the next year or two and it’s going to be quite exciting to see different areas of the shopping centre have a new retailer mix. It’s going to be quite exciting for everyone.
“A lot of people thought your bricks and mortar shopping was going to suffer and I think we’ve experienced the opposite of that since the pandemic. The traffic is coming back up. We’re almost to where we were prior to the pandemic which is fabulous. Sales are increasing for a lot of our retailers and overall in the shopping centre.
“The general public is just ready to get back and to go and to enjoy the shopping experience. And I think that shopping experience is something that people miss and that people want to have in their lives again. We’re expecting for the holiday season to be very, very successful – as a matter of fact, the most successful we’ve ever had. That’s just because of all the excitement we’ve seen so far with these new retailers, the traffic trends. I think people are ready to get back and experience a shopping centre like Yorkdale and everything it has to offer.’
Correia said Yorkdale will be holding a hiring event Thursday October 6. It provides retailers the opportunity to meet applicants face to face and the applicants can meet up to 35 retailers that are looking for staff.
Participating retailers include:
- Sport Chek
- Maison Birks
- Honey
- Lululemon
- Ugg
- Sephora
- Athleta
- Pottery Barn
- Alo Yoga
- American Eagle
- Nespresso
- Versace
- Sporting Life
- Banana Republic
- Psycho Bunny
- Aburi Tora
- Yorkdale Guest Experience
Retailers are looking to fill part-time, full-time, permanent and seasonal positions. Interested jobseekers can visit Yorkdale.com for more information.
Yorkdale is Canada’s leading retail destination, named the country’s most successful shopping centre four consecutive years by the Retail Council of Canada Shopping Centre Study (authored by Retail Insider’s Craig Patterson). Yorkdale is managed and owned by Oxford Properties Group and co-owned by AIMCo. It is the first shopping centre of its size in North America to achieve LEED Gold Level Certification. Yorkdale is located at 3401 Dufferin Street, off Allen Road, near the 401.
