As you may well notice when you visit Barcelona, it is fast becoming a city of “flagship stores” for large brands and for fashion chains. Brands are attracted by the many tourists who the visit the city, as well as by Barcelona’s cosmopolitan image. The area around Plaza Catalalunya and Passeig de Gracia is the most desired retail spot in the city, and this is where the cities first Mac store was opened in 2013.
One of the next flagship stores to open will be the expansion of the Zara store located at the corner of Gran Vía and Passieg de Gracia in Barcelona. With over 5,000 square meters of retails space this will become one of the largest Zara stores in the world. Zara belongs to Spanish textile giant Inditex, who also run Mango, and Mango will soon open its biggest store in Spain on Las Ramblas.
In Plaza Catalunya, the Catalan fashion brand Desigual has recently opened its largest store in the world, with a floor space of 2,000 square meters, which is planned to be further extended in 2016 to be bigger still.
This year, H & M will open its largest store in Spain, again on Passieg de Gracia, close to where Levis will soon open as well.
The list goes on! The arrival of flagship stores in Barcelona is great news for the city. While Barcelona already boasts many small local one-off boutique stores, up until now these have not been matched by the presence of large international chains.