MR.DIY opens a 700 sqm store in Kadıköy Çarşı, does a big high-street store pay?
MR.DIY, the retailer founded in Kuala Lumpur in 2005, has opened a new three-storey store of about 700 sqm at a central spot in Kadıköy Çarşı, the market area of Istanbul’s Kadıköy district (Perakende.org, 12 October 2026). The store has a yellow facade and sells home organisation, decoration, hobby and everyday products. According to the company, the aisles are planned for easy browsing.
If you are weighing a store in a busy shopping district, here is what it means. A large floor in a neighbourhood centre makes sense for a format that sells many product lines and grows the basket by item count. The report gives no opening day, street address, investment figure or current store count.
What do we know about MR.DIY’s new store in Kadıköy Çarşı?
Four facts are known: location, size, floors and product groups. The store sits at a central point in Kadıköy Çarşı, covers about 700 sqm over three floors and has a yellow facade (Perakende.org). The shelves carry home organisation, decoration, hobby and everyday products. The report does not give the opening day or the street address.
Which businesses can make a three-storey, 700 sqm store in a district like Kadıköy Çarşı pay?
A business that sells many low-ticket items together and grows the average basket by item count. Home organisation, hobby and everyday goods invite unplanned buys. A shopper can come in for one thing and leave with three. For a single-category, high-price business with infrequent visits, the same floor space is a heavy load.
High street or mall: how should a retailer like MR.DIY decide where to open?
On three measures: where the traffic comes from, how fixed costs are built and why the customer is visiting. A high-street store relies on foot traffic and local habit. A mall offers common areas, parking and event support. The desk’s reading is that a multi-category format fits a district centre where people drop in as part of their daily routine.
Which local shops and retailers does MR.DIY’s Kadıköy store affect?
Local shops selling the same product groups feel it most directly: hardware stores, homeware and stationery shops, hobby stores and small home textile retailers. The possible winners are cafés and service businesses next to any new traffic in the district. The indirect effect may show up in local window standards and rent expectations.
Small hardware and homeware shops should not race on price
The way to stand apart is expertise and service. Key cutting, cutting to size and fitting advice rarely find room in a big store’s shelf layout. A customer may buy basics in the big store and still come to the corner shop for the right advice.
How does a store in a district like Kadıköy Çarşı become visible in local search and on maps?
Through its business profile, map listing and searches that use the district’s name. A “near me” search typed while walking is a natural source of customers for a district store, and an incomplete profile does not show up. A well-known sign like MR.DIY gets this advantage through its brand; a small business gets it through a well-built profile.
What should a business owner considering a store in a district like Kadıköy Çarşı do this week?
Test the location with data before signing a lease. The desk’s recommendation is to spend a week counting at the candidate site, observing neighbouring stores and finishing a scan of digital competitors. These three jobs move the floor space decision from gut feeling to arithmetic.
A location checklist helps before you commit
Count foot traffic separately on weekdays and weekends, mornings and evenings. Note the category, window and till activity of the stores next door. Set rent, service charges and stockroom needs against your sales per square metre target, then search the district’s name and study competitors’ map positions and reviews.
Digital preparation should start before opening day
Your map listing and business profile should be ready before the doors open. Building location analysis together with digital visibility is part of our digital consulting work.
Quick Summary
- MR.DIY opened a three-storey store of about 700 sqm in Kadıköy Çarşı (Perakende.org, 12 October 2026).
- The store sells home organisation, decoration, hobby and everyday products (Perakende.org).
- According to the latest confirmed data, MR.DIY Türkiye reached 50 stores in its eighteenth month (Ekonomi Gazetesi, June 2023).
- The report gives no opening day, street address or current store count.
- A large floor in a shopping district suits a multi-category model that grows the basket by item count.
Short Glossary
- SKU
- SKU is the stock code used to track each product variant a store sells separately.
- Sales per square metre
- Sales per square metre is the productivity measure used to show how much a store sells per unit of floor space.
- High-street store
- A high-street store is the term used to describe a retail unit outside a mall that opens directly onto the street.
Frequently Asked Questions
Next Step
If you would like to weigh the high street against a mall with your own data, fill in the Consult Your Expert form.
Sources: Perakende.org, MR.DIY Kadıköy Çarşı store report, 12 October 2026 · Ekonomi Gazetesi, June 2023 · Para Dergi, June 2022 · Investment Office of the Presidency of Türkiye, 2021 (linked in the text)
Updated: October 2026
Sık Sorulan Sorular
The report has no 2026 figure. The latest confirmed number dates from June 2023, when Dilara Neyişçi Çağlı, speaking as COO of MR.DIY Türkiye, said the company reached 50 stores in its eighteenth month (Ekonomi Gazetesi). The tenth store opened in Istanbul in June 2022 (Para Dergi). Any number for today would be a guess.
According to a 2021 news item from the Investment Office of the Presidency of Türkiye, MR.DIY opened its first Turkish store in Istanbul, and the group then had more than 1,600 stores worldwide. The June 2023 statement put direct investment at about USD 25 million by the end of 2022. The first-stage target was USD 45 million (Ekonomi Gazetesi).
In a neighbourhood centre, rent is one of the heaviest fixed costs. As the floor grows, sales have to grow with it. If sales per square metre fall short, the till goes quiet and the store looks bright in the window but weak on the books.
Every floor is a threshold where a shopper can give up. The ground floor gathers traffic, and if the way upstairs is not visible, people turn back there. The company says the store is built around easy movement through the aisles, so the link between floors is treated as a design question.
On three floors, each level has its own needs for tills, aisles and stockroom. If the rota is not built floor by floor, one level sits empty at peak time while another has a queue. For a flexible shift example, see Rossmann Türkiye’s two-days-off model.
A high-street store catches people walking home from work, heading to the market or walking to the ferry. The facade and window work as direct advertising, and a yellow front fits that logic. You also set your own opening hours.
A mall is safer for a business that wants weather-proof traffic, parking and shared marketing. In autumn 2026, malls are using events to draw visitors, and we look at one example through Akmerkez’s Live Well programme. In return, service charges and lease rules are more binding.
Count passers-by at the candidate site on different days and at different hours. Watch the tenant mix around you and the type of basket your neighbours sell. Check where competitors in your product group appear in search results, because a store that is hard to find online is often hard to find on the street too.
If a big store draws new visitors to the district, footfall may rise for the café, tailor or locksmith nearby. A neighbour that sets its window up for this flow can pull some of those new customers through its own door.
Multi-category formats are moving into district centres. For large home improvement stores, that means shoppers may have a closer option for small everyday needs.
The correct address, opening hours, product categories and current photos. In a multi-floor store, photos showing what is sold on each floor help customers reach the item they want.
Customers want to know whether an item is in store before they set out. A simple stock or category page lowers the risk of a wasted trip. If a product is gathering dust on the shelf but invisible online, the sale is lost before the customer reaches the door.
At openings, campaigns and season changes, ads aimed at a tight area around the store use the budget well. The message should show where the store is and what is new on the shelves that week.
Store openings in Türkiye fall under Law No. 6585 on the Regulation of Retail Trade. Licence and permit conditions can vary by activity and municipality. Verify with the official source; this is not legal or financial advice.
Perakende.org’s report of 12 October 2026 does not give a street address or opening day. For the exact address, check the brand’s official channels.
If you sell the same products at a higher price, you may feel price pressure. A shop that stands out with expertise, service and quick advice can take a share of the new traffic.
Read the term, rent increase, deposit and fit-out clauses before you sign. Verify with the official source; this is not legal or financial advice, so consult a specialist first.