Zara shuts down high profile store in Toronto

One of Zara’s most notable stores in the city has closed for good, leaving just one remaining in downtown Toronto.

Love it or hate it, Spain-based fashion retailer, Zara, is a giant, boasting more than 2000 stores worldwide, and estimated net sales of about $57 billion USD in 2024, to say nothing of the cultlike following it’s garnered over its decades-long tenure thanks to its consistently fashion-forward yet relatively affordable collections.

Pulling such numbers and consistent support, it might be easy to assume that the brand’s stalwart brick-and-mortars, like its 20-year-old, two-storey property on Queen West, would be able to maintain operations, well, forever.

Such assumptions, though, would be wrong, as Zara’s Queen West location has officially shut its doors for good.

The closure comes in the wake of not only the shuttering of Zara’s Bloor store, but other high-profile closures along the same, seemingly faltering stretch of Queen West, which was once renowned for its slew of major retailers.

In the past two years, the stretch has lost H&M’s original Toronto location, the legendary Black Bull Tavern (which has since been reborn as Score on Queen), and innumerable food options, like Basil Box and Buono, on top of other high-profile evacuees like Gap, Guess and NYX in years prior.

In the case of H&M, the gigantic space remains unoccupied to this day, offering a less-than-stellar example for what might become of Zara’s space amid the seeming exodus of larger retailers from the strip. 

Maybe, like the iconic old HMV location nearby on Yonge Street, it could get lucky and become a cannabis dispensary. This is Toronto after all; you can never have too many.

At the time of publication, Zara has not responded blogTO’s request for comment on the company’s decision to close the major location, and the apparent trend favouring mall locations over standalone spaces, as the closure of the Queen West store also marks the loss of the only free-standing location in the city.

In spite of the seemingly sudden closure, it’s not all doom and gloom for avid shoppers — Zara’s location at CF Fairview will soon be expanding with an additional level, and continues to be accompanied by the brand’s other locations at the Eaton Centre, Sherway Gardens, Scarborough Town Centre and Yorkdale.

Zara was formerly located at 341 Queen West.