Papiiro opens doors, journals in Village ‘Your friendly neighbourhood stationery shop’ joins push to fill high-value vacant spaces, local BIZ exec says By: Malak Abas Posted: 7:24 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 3, 2026

At Papiiro, the fine arts of stationery design, decoration and curation are taken to another level.

The 109 Osborne St. shop’s offerings range from basic pens and notebooks to the hyper-niche tools of a journaler’s dreams — stickers of all sizes of anything you can think of, colourful clamps to hold down papers down while you work, even posture-correcting stuffed animals to lean against to stop hunching while you work.

But owner Cay Iledan’s favourite thing is simple: a customizable multi-pen that can be filled in-store with different ink colours and even mechanical pencil graphite. It’s a range of options all in one spot, much like the store itself, which has stocked imported stationery from Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines since it opened one month ago.

“It’s things that we don’t often see in Winnipeg, we often see stationery shops that carry what we have in bigger cities like Toronto or Vancouver. It’s just giving the people in Winnipeg a lot more options in terms of stationery, not just only from Staples or from (Canada-wide chain Japanese goods store) Oomomo or something like that,” Iledan, 39, said Thursday.

“We’re like your friendly neighbourhood stationery shop.”

Papiiro’s brick-and-mortar shop is new, but Iledan and her 14-year-old daughter Zoe have been selling inventory at markets since 2024, after she said the pair caught the business bug after buying stationery stock for a craft school sale at Zoe’s middle school.

They had always bonded over their shared love of all things stationery and, eventually, Iledan was convinced to leave the corporate world of project management for a pharmaceutical company to open Papiiro, her first go at running a business.

Now, Zoe helps run the shop after school — and has a say in branding, marketing, inventory and all the other entrepreneurial decisions.

“She’s always involved, because I want her to use those skills when she’s older,” Iledan said.

Papiiro joins several mother-and-daughter-owned businesses in the adjacent buildings: jewelry shop Silver Lotus, Small Mercies Café and Hen boutique, according to the Osborne Village Business Improvement Zone. About 60 per cent of businesses in the Village are owned by women.

The new shop has stayed steadily busy in the month since it opened. Iledan credits its success to the variability of journaling and stationery as an activity: window-shoppers and passers-by will wander in and find affordable starter stickers, while the hardcore journaling fanatics have a spot to purchase high-end, pricier products.

For people on all ends of the stationery spectrum, the shop offers “community journaling tables” — spaces for people to work on their own notebooks. Iledan said she wants the shop to host more events as time goes on.

“We want to build a community around our shop, and we want people to feel welcome and safe,” she said.

“A lot of people like to come here and just sit at our journaling table, and it’s the best thing ever, and they also find new friends or new people to journal with, which is such a really cool part of the job.”

Papiiro is the latest in a spurt of openings in high-value vacant spaces, said Osborne Village BIZ executive director Zohreh Gervais. The building was last filled with clothing store Shop Take Care, which closed in 2022.

“We are super happy to have that spot filled. It hasn’t been vacant for a lack of interest in the space,” she said. “The landlord was just very particular about what he wanted to go in there, so he was holding out for the perfect tenant.”

Its wares are reminiscent of a previous area art shop staple, Desart, which closed in 2015 after 47 years.

“People come to Osborne because they’re looking for something different, not the same things that they can go and get at the mall, right?” Gervais said.

Last month, golf simulator club Joyhouse Golf had its grand opening at 120 Osborne St., another previously vacant space that has been filled after a lot of interest, Gervais said.

Both Papiiro and Joyhouse Golf reflect a growing trend in Osborne Village and beyond: young people moving away from nightlife and focusing on activity-based gatherings.

“People want these in-person experiences, doing things together, whether it’s playing golf or journaling and doing really cool paper craft stuff — all of that speaks to that trend,” she said.

“It’s really interesting to see that shaking out in Osborne, which has always been kind of a trend-setting area.”

While she didn’t offer any names, Gervais said other new businesses are coming to the Village this summer.

“It speaks to the community’s interest in investing and continuing to invest in Osborne village, and like with any area, things are cyclical,” she said.

“I feel like we’re now into a cycle where we’re seeing a lot of really great new spots opening up in Osborne.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca