Uniqlo Expanding in Bay Area

Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. (Yamaguchi, Japan) will be expanding its popular Uniqlo chain in the U.S. – particularly in the San Francisco area.

After opening a flagship on Powell Street in San Francisco a year ago, the Japanese retailer is adding four stores in the Northern California region by next month: in Hillsdale Shopping Center (San Mateo), Stonestown Galleria Mall (San Francisco), Westfield Valley Fair Mall (Santa Clara) and Bay Street Emeryville, according to Pambianco News.

“The strategy of the company has been to open flagships and then expand in proximity to those flagships,” explained Larry Meyer, chief operating officer of Uniqlo U.S. “Our goal as a company is to be part of America and so we want to use the presence of those first flagships to be known. Then, when commuters go home or people shop on the weekends, they can go to malls or to various centers, where we want to become their store of choice.” 

Uniqlo is using the San Francisco and New York area markets as its U.S. hubs. In the next two months, it has six openings scheduled for the New York region: Bridgewater (N.J.) Commons Mall, Menlo Park (N.J.) Mall, Staten Island (N.Y.) Mall, Atlantic Terminal Mall (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Smith Haven Mall (Lake Grove, N.Y.) and the Westfield Trumbull (Conn.) Shopping Center.