Upper East Siders must be miffed that their covetable zip codes haven't been graced with UNIQLO pop-up stores when the West Side got two of them, but before a raging East Side-West Side feud breaks out, the Japanese chain has found a space on Third Avenue for another temporary store. The Post reports that a 2,000 square foot store at 1142 Third Ave. between 66th and 67th Streets has been leased to Uniqlo for six months. That's a little bit longer time frame than the three pop-ups currently operating in Manhattan (the third is in the Flatiron District) mainly to promote the two immense flagship stores opening this Fall. Might Uniqlo be looking to test out a smaller format for a permanent location?
It's worth noting that most of the chain's stores in Asia are much smaller units comparable to a typical Gap or American Apparel location in size. A year or so before the global flagship we know SoHo store opened, Uniqlo launched its first U.S. stores with a pair of smaller branches that opened in New Jersey malls. They didn't immediately catch fire with suburban shoppers unfamiliar with the brand. When Uniqlo realized that the large flagships promoted the brand far more effectively outside of Asia, the smaller branches were swiftly closed and the expansion strategy was changed. Now that the brand awareness has been raised, is the chain revisiting the kind of smaller stores that it will require to fully reach its international goals? We may find out more clues when the East Side store opens. if it has a broader assortment that the current pop-ups' heavily edited selection of down jackets, jeans, tees and flannel shirts, then we may be looking at the next phase of Uniqlo's international rollout.
Of course, this is just speculation, and the super-cautious chain might just be testing out the neighborhood for another big store —so stay tuned so we can all keep speculating.
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