Home furnishing retail giant IKEA Canada is opening its second small format store in the country and first in an enclosed mall.
The retailer will open the company’s newest location August 23 at Scarborough Town Centre.
IKEA Canada introduced its small format Toronto Downtown – Aura store last year. The IKEA Scarborough Town Centre store will embrace many similar solutions displayed in Toronto including the Swedish Deli food experience where customers can enjoy contemporary and classic Swedish dishes including the meatball, veggie dog and much-loved frozen yogurt.
“We are excited to welcome the community of Scarborough to our new store. Every detail was created with the unique needs of Scarborough residents in mind, from the proximity to public transportation and delivery and assembly options, to the wide product range curated specifically to help them with solutions to live a better everyday life at home,” said Odette Walker, Market Manager at IKEA Scarborough Town Centre, adding that the Scarborough Town Centre is one of the largest and most connected retail destinations towards the east end of Toronto.
“They have a huge amount of visitation. I think they see about 23 million visitors. So it’s highly accessible to Scarborough which is an area that previously we know that Scarborough residents faced travel time to meet IKEA. So we’re really working on bringing convenient and affordable home furnishings across Toronto.
“Scarborough Town was the ideal location for us being close to the 401 and also being accessible to transit riders as well. I believe approximately 26,000 daily riders will be in the Scarborough Town area as a hub. We’re off the 401. You can see us when you drive past on the 401. So it’s very accessible to the east end part of Toronto.
“It’s the first format in this size in a mall with this shopping experience in Canada.”
The 7,489-square-metre Scarborough store will feature the traditional one-way flow layout renowned at larger format IKEA locations, with two entrances/exits and check-out lanes at each for a smooth shopping experience. The store will also have digital tools throughout, and a complete range of convenient services including assembly, returns, home delivery and a dedicated Planning Hub. Larger furniture items will be on display, and available to view and order for home delivery or pick up at convenient pick-up locations across the city or the IKEA Pick up Point in the store.
There are two dedicated entrances from inside the mall and from the parking lot.
“At IKEA Canada, we are on an omnichannel transformation journey with a clear objective to continue to meet our customers in an accessible and seamless way,” said Niclas Karlsson-Järnkrok, Market Area Manager at IKEA Canada, in a statement. “As a brand rooted in life at home, we hope our new store in the heart of Scarborough will serve as a convenient and accessible source of inspiration and home furnishing expertise.”
The retailer has 16 locations in Canada.
Ryan Da Silva, Director & General Manager of the Oxford Properties Group, which operates the Scarborough Town Centre, said the addition of IKEA is a significant milestone for the shopping centre.
“This new store format brings a fresh and innovative shopping experience. This is considered a city format. It’s in between a smaller and a larger format. But we’re absolutely thrilled to welcome them here,” he said.
“We know it will draw huge crowds. There’s a ton of excitement from the community and that only continues to grow as we near their opening day.”
The Scarborough Town Centre is about 1.3 million square feet with about 250 stores. It’s the fourth largest shopping centre in the Greater Toronto Area behind Square One Shopping Centre, Yorkdale Shopping Centre and CF Toronto Eaton Centre.
“We have a number of new retail stores that are opening in Scarborough for 2023 and pushing through to 2024,” said Da Silva. “For this year, we have Decathlon which is also opening at STC and they will be located in the former Sears box and that’s just above the IKEA store. That’s roughly a 60,000-square-foot Decathlon store. That will be opening in the fall.
“We have a number of openings. Some unfortunately we can’t announce yet as those deals are being finalized but some key brands and huge new retailers that are coming to STC. We’ll be able to announce those in the next few months as we ink those deals. Some exciting new tenants and they’ll be in their larger formats.”
Recent openings at STC include Studio Dental, Bikini Village, Specsavers as well as a renovated Jack & Jones store.
“We just completed our 50th anniversary at STC. Definitely an exciting time. We are 50 years young as we continue to grow and expand Scarborough Town Centre. It’s quite an exciting time for us here at the shopping centre as we welcome a number of new first to market retailers as well,” said Da Silva.
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Additional Photos from IKEA Scarborough Town Centre
I’m not sure why these Canadian IKEA City stores keep getting cheap-looking rectangular backlit signage. If anything, they should be upping the ante for the urban market. I have little issue with the stores themselves, I just find the outward-facing signage a bit off and off-brand.