Spacing magazine to open retail "city store" in October

Spacing magazine, which has been an innovator in many things, has now officially announced that it is going into the retail business this fall, opening Toronto's first "city store" on the ground floor of 401 Richmond Street. The store -- which is hoping to open October 4, the night of Nuit Blanche, will be offering all kinds of items celebrating Toronto and Canadian cities.

"Spacing‘s new home will be at 401 Richmond, the massive arts and culture cluster near Queen Street West and Spadina that is home to over 140 amazing organizations, galleries, and arts/media-focused businesses," the magazine says in a post on its blog. 

"We believe our new home will let us offer our readers something hardly any other Canadian magazine can: a real retail experience. Our new space will be a storefront, created just for us, with direct access right off of Richmond Street West, between Spadina and Peter. And housed within our store will be the office of our magazine staff."

Spacing has been working with a number of local designers to bring new items to the e-store, which it says will eschew touristy kitsch. But it will have the famous Spacing buttons, depicting subway stops and landmarks from cities across the country.

"While the move is rooted in our philosophy about public space, it’s also a business decision. The way magazines have operated for decades is no longer a model that works in the digital age. By opening up a retail store we are diversifying our potential revenue as well as creating greater awareness of our brand (we’ll stop the biz jargon now)."