In blatant defiance of the popular chant that US retail is dead, and despite not yet being in profit itself, the Canadian “cultural department store” operator Indigo plans to open its first store in the US next summer, starting in New Jersey, with four more to follow.
The New jersey store will be in a 30,000-square-foot location in the Mall at Short Hills, a high-end New Jersey shopping centre.
Said Indigo CEO Heather Reisman,
We’re going to probably do three, four, five stores over the next 24 months and test the market response to the concept, and then if we experience what we think we’re going to be seeing, then we’ll look at further growth. We will definitely open a couple before making any major commitments.
IMAGE Raysonho, Creative Commons
Indigo saw record-breaking revenue in Canada this past quarter. Not enough to put it into profit, as the company has been ploughing the cash back into developing digital, marketing and new stores.
Investments also included a distribution facility in Calgary, which Reisman said was purchased at an “extremely beneficial cost” to serve the retailer’s future growth across Canada.
As well as the 89 Chapters Indigo superstores Indigo also fields 122 small format stores in Canada including The Book Company, SmithBooks, Indigospirit and Coles.
