This past summer I was fortunate to visit New York with my family. While I was there I was thrilled to see Canada’s Aritzia, opening on the most upscale street in the world in Midtown Manhattan, on the corner of 49th and 5th Avenue. Aritzia’s largest flagship store, will be comprised of 2 floors in 13, 000 square feet. Evidently, this highly sought after piece of property came with a costly price tag. Briana Mussatto recently attended an event which was hosted by the founder and CEO of Aritzia, Brian Hill. In her blog post “Artizia Spends 10 Million in Rent for New 5th Avenue Store” I learned that Aritzia will pay $10 Million in rent per year, which calculates to just under a million per month. Briana raised a question about their forecasts for revenue. She was unsure how Aritzia would be certain that their revenue would cover their large costs for the expensive piece of property.
Aritzia is aware that their store on 5th will bring in plenty of revenue, however I do not believe that was their sole reason for opening in the luxurious location. I believe that their true motive for moving to 5th Avenue is for marketing purposes, such as positioning. Aritzia is positioning their store in a location that is high in traffic. Not only does it attract locals, but it attracts global consumers who are tourists or visitors to the city.
This is a clever tactic of promotion, because consumers from around the world visit 5th Avenue for fashion. Furthermore, I believe the opening of the store on 5th will be beneficial to the company in regards to future expansion, as the world will become better aware of their products.
Aritzia already has a store in Soho New York, however the publicity they will recieve on 5th will be incomparable to any other location in North America. In conclusion, I am very proud that a Canadian retailer has taken on the risk of opening on 5th Avenue as a marketing strategy.
Below is a link to Aritzia’s website, which includes details on their grand opening:
http://aritzia.com/hello-5th-avenue