Pop Mart Opens Fifth Bay Area Store at San Mateo's Hillsdale Shopping Center

Labubu collectors on the Peninsula got a local destination last Saturday when Pop Mart opened its fifth Bay Area store at Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo, the latest foothold in a regional push that already stretches from Union Square to Pleasanton.

The March 14 grand opening brought the Bay Area total to five: two stores in San Francisco, at Stonestown Galleria and Union Square, plus locations in San Jose and Pleasanton. The San Mateo store sits inside the newly renovated Hillsdale mall, though sources differ on which level, with NBC Bay Area placing it on the first floor and other reports putting it on the lower level.

Pop Mart, founded in 2010, built its reputation on the blind-box format, where you pay for a sealed box without knowing which character is inside. The model works the same way collectible baseball card packs do: rarity drives value, and chasing that rare pull is half the point. Labubu exploded the brand into mainstream awareness in 2025, but the lineup runs deeper than that one character. Dimoo, Hirono, and Skullpanda all live in the same universe, each with their own chase figures and secondary-market followings. The San Francisco stores have seen shoppers queue overnight for limited-edition drops, and the Stonestown Galleria location was photographed with sold-out shelves as far back as July 2024, which tells you everything about demand relative to supply in this market.

Tyson Bolliger, Pop Mart's head of retail operations for the Americas, framed the Hillsdale opening in the company's standard terms. "We're excited to open our newest Bay Area location at Hillsdale Shopping Center and introduce more fans to the world of POP MART," Bolliger said. "Our goal is to create a space where art, storytelling, and collectible design come together, giving visitors the chance to discover their favorite characters and experience the imagination behind our brand."

Jacqueline Fitch-Little, senior vice president of leasing for Northwood Retail, which manages Hillsdale, pointed to the brand's global pull as a draw for the renovated property. "Pop Mart has built an incredible following around the world through collectible culture, original creations, and playful design," Fitch-Little said. "We're excited to introduce this vibrant concept and bring a new kind of discovery to Hillsdale."

The San Mateo store is one piece of a much larger footprint. Pop Mart now operates more than 65 brick-and-mortar stores across the United States and more than 550 globally, spread across 20-plus countries. In the U.S. alone the brand runs more than 130 Robo Shops alongside its physical retail, and its e-commerce platforms reach customers in more than 90 markets worldwide.

For Bay Area collectors, the practical upshot is shorter drives and, potentially, a less picked-over shelf on drop days before word fully spreads about the new location.