The Greater Toronto Area is getting its second Microsoft store, with Microsoft Canada confirming this week that its next Canadian retail store will be coming to Mississauga, Ont.
The Mississauga, Ont. store will be located at the Square One Shopping Centre. An opening date has not yet been announced. It will be the fourth Microsoft store for the vendor in Canada, although only one – the location at Toronto’s Yorkdale Mall – has opened.
Microsoft has announced store locations that have yet to open for Edmonton’s West Edmonton Mall and Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby, BC just outside of Vancouver. These locations were announced in July. The Edmonton location will open on Saturday, Oct. 26th with a special live performance by Dierks Bentley in the Ice Palace at the West Edmonton Mall.
There are also Microsoft specialty stores/mall kiosks with a more limited selection of Microsoft product currently open in Edmonton’s Southgate Centre, Burnaby, BC’s Metropolis, Vancouver’s Oakridge Centre and the Toronto Eaton Centre.
The Yorkdale Mall location opened Nov. 16, 2012 with hockey legend Wayne Gretzky officiating and a performance by the band Train. The stores are designed to showcase Microsoft’s range of hardware and software solutions and offerings from select partners, with a special emphasis on showcasing touch-enabled Windows 8 devices.
While Ontario is getting its second store, and Alberta and British Columbia are also covered, Quebec remains noticeably absent from the list of store and kiosk locations. When asked about this earlier this year, former Microsoft Canada president Max Long didn’t indicate there were any roadblocks such as language to entering the province.
“I’m excited to try to get Microsoft store coverage across the country,” said Long. “And I want that to include all the provinces of the country, including Quebec. Right now, stores are primarily in the U.S. and English Canada; I’m not aware of anything beyond that.”