[First in Shanghai] Toys R Us, Pop Mart Lead in SH Retail

First in Shanghai is our column documenting the rise of Shanghai's "debut economy," a model built on being first, fast and everywhere at once. What started as a policy initiative has morphed into a citywide phenomenon: part economic strategy, part cultural spectacle. In this series, we explore how brands – both local and global – are choosing Shanghai not just to launch products, but to create moments. It's retail as ritual, commerce as event, and we're here to unpack what it all means.

Shanghai keeps finding new ways to turn shopping into something you actually want to leave the house for. The latest wave of splashy flagship openings across the city leans hard into experiential retail, where buying stuff is almost secondary to the vibe. From Pop Mart and Toys"R"Us to deli world, KYO'KYŌ × OUDÁV'KYO, and Black Tree Thai Tea & Coffee, brands are rolling out oversized, hyper-designed spaces covering everything from designer toys and stationery to fashion, collectibles, and niche drinks.

These aren't your standard shops – they're part showroom, part playground, part brand world, built for wandering, touching, and posting. Once again, Shanghai proves itself the go-to testing ground for brands looking to scale up, get weird, and see how far storytelling and atmosphere can carry a retail experience.

Pop Mart

Pop Mart just leveled up the toy hustle on Nanjing Road E.: their brand-new Shanghai City Flagship swung its doors open on November 29, 2025, and the pedestrian street instantly turned into a slow-moving, selfie-snapping conveyor belt of hypebeasts and curious aunties.

Right at the threshold, two towering display towers – Labubu grinning on one side, The Monsters mugging on the other – pulled the crowd in like a kawaii black hole. People queued three-deep to paw through blind boxes, debating the odds of scoring that one rare chase figure they'll probably flip online before the weekend's over.

The stats? Nearly 800 square meters of retail playground, stuffed with 100-plus IPs – Molly, Skullpanda, Labubu, you know the drill – and close to 10,000 bits of vinyl temptation. Biggest Pop Mart on the planet, apparently. Bring your wallet, your patience, and maybe a stepladder if you want to see the stuff on the top shelves.

So... a huge snow-globe made of glass – that's the new Pop Mart flagship. Four monster IP zones, one permanent DIY corner (finally, a place to mangle your own vinyl), and enough photo-ops to melt your phone battery before you hit the cash-wrap.

Ground floor breaks out like this:

Labubu Forest Village – Think "Nordic cabincore." Pine-scented ASMR, fairy-light glow, very hygge, all orchestrated so you accidentally adopt ten mischievous gremlins on keychains.

Dimoo Cloudscape – A cotton-candy skybox dotted with plush cottages where everyone's wearing pajama pants and talking about "symbiosis." Feels like napping on a marshmallow inside a Studio Ghibli dream.

Skullpanda Cosmic Lounge – Low-saturation pinks and purples, soft-focus planets drifting by. It's a moodboard for "finding your inner self," which apparently involves space helmets and pastel ennui.

Molly x Tabby Studio – Bright, pop-art blasts of primary color. Molly's here, Tabby's tagging along, and both are demanding prime real estate on your living-room shelf.

Pro tip: some of the juiciest vinyl grails are strictly museum pieces–look, drool, move along. Your wallet's safe…for now.

Up the escalator, the vibe switch flips again – every two steps feels like a new pop-up, a mini fever dream stitched onto the last one. It's a multi-story Instagram reel in real time.

The headline act is the forever-running DIY Lab, where Pop Mart finally admits the obvious: half the fun is playing Frankentoy yourself. Grab a blank, pick your colors, then glue/lacquer/swear until you've birthed a one-of-one monstrosity you can proudly post before the paint even dries. Keychains? Easy. Or toss an extra ¥39 on the pile and they'll turn eight of your favorite snaps into a desk calendar – heat-pressed while you wait, so fresh it's still warm when you stick it in your tote.

Collect it, hack it, flex it on socials, repeat. That's the whole loop, neatly wrapped up on Floor Two.

If you go

Address: L1 & L2, West Zone, Shanghai Shimao Festival City, 829 Nanjing Rd E. | 南京东路829号,上海世茂广场西区L1+L2

Deli World

For those of you not familiar with the deli world brand, it's a Chinese stationary leviathan that got its start in Ningbo in 1981. They have been cranking out pens and staplers and growing into Asia's biggest paper-pushing empire. Today, the company ships everything from student pencil cases to office printers to more than 130 countries, with sub-brands covering tools, art supplies, and all the cute IP collabs your desk can handle.

The brand just dropped a 1,500-square-meter stationery mothership smack in Jing'an Joy City, throwing its doors open on November 29 and instantly flooding the place with pen nerds and notebook hoarders.

We're talking China's biggest paper-and-plastic playground: tens of thousands of SKUs lined up like soldiers – student pens, premium fountain nibs, cutesy IP collabs, artsy desk toys, "creative culture" trinkets, plus every stapler, washi tape, and office doodad you never knew you needed till three seconds ago.

Call it the Costco of kawaii stationery: grab a shopping bag the size of a sleeping bag, try not to black out from the smell of fresh ink, and remember – binder clips are light until you buy 200 of them.

Deli World's new flagship is "experience + tech + IP" on steroids – basically Blade Runner for stationery heads. Every aisle's a mini theme park: swipe, scribble, selfie, repeat.

Their gadget roster runs the gamut from whisper-smooth notebooks to art-room candy, but the real flex is the Hexagon Warrior line. That tri-ball gel pen? It's the Voltron of writing instruments – three tips, zero drag, and pure "Made-in-China" bravado that'll have your signature looking like cyber-calligraphy.

The top floor is the IP playground where Gen Z flocks for limited-edition collabs and TikTok-worthy merch drops. Consider it the store's beating neon heart – and the fastest way to torch your paycheck in a cloud of pastel-inked glory.

Deli's entrance has gone full blockbuster: a floor-to-ceiling Ne Zha 2 installation that is impossible to miss the second the doors slide open.

Inside, the IP carnival keeps rolling. Capybara Lulu drops vanished faster than a flash sale on Singles' Day, and the Link Click merch kept getting yo-yo restocks as collectors wiped the shelves clean every couple of hours. Chalk it up to Deli's killer formula of big-name IP × shiny new product × Insta-ready set-piece – a feedback loop that turns browsing into a contact sport.

If you go

Address: L2, Jing'an Joy City, 166 Xizang Rd N. | 西藏北路166号,静安大悦城L2

Toys"R"Us | 玩具反斗城

Born in New Jersey, rehired in Hong Kong. After the 2017 US flame-out, the Asian arm kept the giraffe alive, ballooning to roughly 460 stores across the region and more than 230 on the Chinese mainland alone. It runs as a totally separate company, so bankruptcy ghosts don't haunt the aisles here – just wall-to-wall Lego, Bandai, and nostalgia trips for kidults.

Now, Toys"R"Us is back with a vengeance, this time rolling out its very first "Trendy Fun Flagship Store" right here in Shanghai. Forget the birthday party aisles of your youth – this one is pitched firmly at grown-up toy fans, with a mantra of "Flagship · Trend · Fun" and enough global pop culture IP to make your wallet nervous.

The concept? Step inside, and you're on a carefully engineered journey: enter, explore, play, and – in theory – catch feels. Expect eye-candy displays, a wall of exclusive collectibles, and a layout that practically begs you to Instagram it all. The vibe is less "kid in a candy store," more "adult with disposable income reliving childhood." Welcome to the new temple for toy collectors.

Right out front, you're greeted by a 2.2-meter-tall Optimus Prime, looking like he just walked off the set of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and straight into your Instagram feed. He's made from fancy materials (artificial stone, if you're into that), and he's frozen in that classic, stoic Optimus pose – standing guard, eyes to the future, like a bouncer at the world's geekiest nightclub.

Step inside and it's zone after zone of toy-lover catnip: themed displays, rows of glass cabinets, and a showstopper in the form of the first-ever Autobot combiner, the 2025 Age of the Primes Devastator – a name that somehow sounds even bigger in Mandarin. The place is a shrine to Optimus Prime in all his incarnations, spanning the original G1, Hollywood blockbusters, and even the gaming multiverse. Transformers nerds: bring tissues.

There are more than 100 pieces of merch to drool over, from toys to actual lifestyle goods, plus a Transformers × Hot Wheels exclusive box set you won't find anywhere else. They're also launching 10 brand-new products on day one, alongside a handful of popular gift sets. Basically, if you ever wanted to drop your paycheck on plastic robots, this is your moment.

This place has gone all-in on die-cast cars, with a wall-to-wall matrix that makes it a legit pilgrimage site for everyone from casual Hot Wheels kids to hardcore, white-gloves collectors. Brands run the gamut: Hot Wheels, Matchbox, MINI GT, Bburago, Maisto, Majorette, JADA, and a whole lot more.

You'll find everything from European and American supercars to JDM classics, F1 racers, movie and animation IPs, original designs, plus a stash of Toys"R"Us exclusives. We're talking 1,000+ SKUs in total – spanning everyday grabs to limited-edition collabs – so whether you're chasing something specific or just browsing for that "didn't know I needed this" moment, you're covered.

There's also a Fufusoul concept store tucked inside, offering a calm, oddly comforting detour into plush art and fragrance – a nice palate cleanser after all that automotive eye candy.

And then there's Bicycle. Yes, that Bicycle. The legendary playing card brand has set up its first-ever offline experience center in China right here. Expect more than 50 designer decks, including IP tie-ins like Gundam, Sanrio, and Disney, plus over 30 offline-only releases. If you're even mildly into cards, this is one of those "oh wow" corners you won't want to skip.

If you go

Address: 6/F, North Bldg, Jing'an Joy City, 166 Xizang Rd N. | 西藏北路166号,静安大悦城北座6层

KYO'KYŌ×OUDÁV'KYO

The Shanghai debut store of KYO'KYŌ × OUDÁV'KYO has opened at TX Huaihai.

OUDÁV'KYO is a gender-neutral fashion label under the Japanese minimalist brand KYO'KYŌ, focusing on refined simplicity, well-tailored silhouettes, and distinctive fabrics – delivered at an accessible price point.

Founded in Tokyo, the brand follows the aesthetic principles of traditional Japanese culture: natural, disciplined and minimal. Most designs feature oversized cuts that are relaxed without looking sloppy. This "refined sense of ease" is one of the brand's defining characteristics.

If you go

Address: L1, TX Huaihai, 523 Huaihai Rd M. | 淮海中路523号TX淮海L1层

Black Tree Thai Tea & Coffee | 泰茶

Black Tree landed in Shanghai on October 31, opening its first-ever local outpost at Gate M, West Bund Dream Center – and immediately turned into the area's latest queue situation. Regulars report that the full experience, from lining up to ordering to finally getting your drink in hand, can easily clock in at over an hour.

The brand hails from Southeast Asia and puts Thai tea front and center, giving the region's famously bold, creamy flavors a more modern spin. Using locally sourced Thai tea leaves and updated brewing techniques, Black Tree focuses on crafted Thai milk tea alongside more traditional tea-forward options.

If you're only ordering one thing, make it the "400-Whisked Lava Thai Milk Tea." It's deeply aromatic, well-balanced, and capped with a layer of coffee-infused milk foam that adds an unexpectedly nice textural twist. The "Thai Milk Tea Mini Ice Cream" is another solid pick – small, indulgent, and very easy to justify after standing in that line.

If you go

Opening hours: 10am-10pm

Address: L1K-8, Gate M West Bund Dream Center | 西岸梦中心L1K-8