# Garage Opens 20 Profitable Stores Yearly as Gen Z Returns to Malls *Canadian fashion brand proves physical retail still works when the product and placement match the shopper.* By **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA, Principal** — The Stash Edge, Hako Shikin LLC. Published 2026-07-10. Canonical: https://www.pops4.com/stash/articles/garage-canadian-fashion-brand-2026-07-10t06-3 Subject: Garage (Canadian Fashion Brand) Tags: retail expansion, gen z, brick and mortar, pop-up retail, mall strategy, unit economics --- Garage, the Canadian fashion brand, is opening **20 profitable stores per year**, including recent locations in London and Manchester, as Gen Z drives a return to brick-and-mortar retail, according to Glossy. Since November, the brand has opened stores in Louisiana and Hawaii, with its London flagship opening this week. The brand is running a disciplined retail expansion playbook: open stores in malls and high streets where Gen Z already congregates, stock product that photographs well for social sharing, and ensure each location is profitable before the next cohort goes live. Garage is not testing the thesis—it is scaling a proven format. The **20 stores per year** pace is not speculative real estate gambling; it reflects repeatable unit economics. The mechanism is simple: Gen Z wants physical spaces to discover product, try items on in person, and create content around the shopping experience. Malls provide foot traffic, concentrated competition that signals category demand, and lower risk than standalone street retail. Garage's product—trend-forward basics at accessible price points—fits the browsing and impulse behavior that malls encourage. The brand is not reinventing retail; it is reading the data on where its customer spends Saturday and putting stores there. The profitability claim matters because most retail expansion stories bury the P&L. Garage is stating each store makes money, which means they have the contribution margin math working: rent as a percentage of revenue, labor cost per transaction, inventory turn, and shrink are all inside acceptable bands. That allows the **20-unit annual pace** without venture capital or a patient investor subsidizing losses for reach. The steal for a small physical-product brand is to place temporary or pop-up presence inside the same malls Garage is targeting. Identify a local mall with Gen Z traffic—look for Aritzia, Urban Outfitters, or Zara as anchor indicators. Contact the mall leasing office and ask for short-term inline space or kiosk terms: **60 to 90 days**, often available between permanent tenants. Budget **$3,000 to $8,000** per month depending on market, plus build-out. Stock your best **50 to 100 SKUs**, the items that move fastest online. Staff the space Thursday through Sunday, your highest-traffic days. Track revenue per square foot weekly. If you clear **$200 per square foot per month**, you have a model worth repeating in the next mall. If not, you learned the product or the placement was wrong before signing a five-year lease. The broader pattern is that Gen Z is not abandoning physical retail—they are abandoning bad physical retail. Stores that offer no discovery, no trial advantage, and no social experience are closing. Stores that let a shopper touch product, see fit, and leave with something Instagram-ready are printing money again. Garage's **20 stores per year** is not an anomaly; it is the leading edge of a reopened category for brands with product-market fit and disciplined site selection. ## The takeaway Gen Z mall traffic is real—test it with a 90-day pop-up before signing a long lease. --- ## Publisher **Hako Shikin LLC** — Virginia Beach, Virginia. Founded 1997. ASI 217876 · DUNS 18-204-6339. Principal and author: **Jenny Huang Goodman MPA MSc MHSA**. - Author: https://www.huanggoodman.com/about - LLM context: https://www.pops4.com/stash/llms.txt - MCP endpoint, for AI agents: https://mcp.pops4.com/mcp - Client dashboard: https://dashboard.pops4.com/ - Catalogue: 70,000+ products, 200+ brands