Aritzia
Category: Apparel
Coming from: Canada
Current stores: At least seven, including at the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey, at Bellevue Square in Seattle, and at Water Tower Place in Chicago.
Planned openings: Unknown
Average store size: Between 4,000 and 10,000 sq. ft. Target audience: Trendy, fashion-conscious women between the ages of 18 and 35. But they have to have deep pockets—Aritzia’s jeans reportedly cost upward of $200 a pair.
Buzz: One of Aritzia’s main points of distinction is that approximately 80 percent of its merchandise is designed in-house, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s John Bemis. In Canada, Aritzia stores bring in as much as $1,500 in sales per square foot, he notes. Even if the chain’s volume in the U.S. won’t reach that threshold because of greater competition, it’s still likely to be a “very, very strong performer.”
