Uniqlo to open its first Vancouver Island store in Victoria | Daily Hive

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Victoria — and Vancouver Island as a whole — will get a Uniqlo store before downtown Vancouver does.

The Japanese fast fashion retailer giant announced this week it will open a new location at Mayfair Shopping Centre near downtown Victoria in Fall 2025.

“This is a huge milestone for UNIQLO Canada. We remain grounded in our Made-For-All philosophy, product innovation, and meaningful relationships with new and longstanding customers. I am optimistic about our Canadian growth, and we look forward to bringing LifeWear to even more customers in new locations,” said Yuya Tanahashi, Chief Operating Officer of the Canadian division for Uniqlo, in a statement.

Also announced to open this fall are Uniqlo locations at South Edmonton Common mall, CrossIron Mills mall in Calgary, and Galeries de la Capitale mall in Quebec City.

The Mayfair mall location is owned by Ruby Liu (Weihong Liu) through her Central Walk company. In recent months, she has garnered significant public and media attention for her controversial bid to snap up dozens of Hudson’s Bay store leases to open up a new modern Canadian department store chain named after herself.

With the new Victoria location, there will be a total of six Uniqlo stores in British Columbia, with the other five located in Metro Vancouver at Metropolis at Metrotown mall in Burnaby, Guildford Town Centre in Surrey, Willowbrook Shopping Centre in Langley Township, CF Richmond City Centre, Coquitlam City Centre.

Uniqlo first expanded into Canada in Toronto in 2016, and opened its first B.C. location at Metrotown in 2017. Currently, the chain has 33 stores in the country.

No formal public announcements have been made about a Uniqlo store opening in downtown Vancouver, although the retailer previously told Daily Hive Urbanized it is very interested in such a location, and is actively keeping an eye out for a suitable space.

For decades, up until very recently, there has been an immense shortage of attractive, centrally-located commercial retail spaces in Vancouver’s city centre for major retailers, especially those looking for larger retail units.

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