Vancouver shopping options?
 

Hi any good shopping options in Vancouver? Is Pacific Center good?

Please follow the discussion as the thread moves to the Canada forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Starting another new thread of yours again - please kindly see here first and/or continue ... this isn't a fishing trip with a net for useful info, without further particulars. Thank you :D http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/canad...vancouver.html

Since we are dealing with Vancouver maybe OP is shopping for a fishing trip? :p

Overall Vancouver malls are terrible if you've been anywhere from Europe to the US, Singapore to Sydney. They all need to be bulldozed.

Forget shopping and Vancouver.

i would generally agree.

shopping in YVR is not something it is known for. never has and never will be although there is a good concentration of quality outdoor products stores - one should hope.

There are lots of shopping options however the problem is variety and price.

These shopping malls are pretty much the same, same stores, same inventory with higher prices.

If you want variety - this is not the place. You can purchase the exact same items in a different country.

The quality of the malls is tragic though, like stepping into a time machine and going back 20 yrs. I have never seen a city of this size to be so low (and sub par) in shopping options.

Having said that I have read that Edmonton has the biggest mall in North America (15th largest in the world) that is supposed to be quite impressive. :)

I'm not a big Vancouver mall shopper myself and will +1 the comments around variety and price in general on shopping in Vancouver.
However, I'm not sure what the big appeal is to West Edmonton Mall even though it's the largest in North America. While I haven't been there in about 5 years, it was just meh/just a mall to me.

Do:
Robson St. for anything
Yaletown for yuppie things
Gastown/gentrifying parts of Downtown Eastside for hipster things
Pacific Centre for mall things

Avoid:
Metropolis at Metrotown or any other suburban malls. Absolutely disgusting.

Vancouver has most of the major retailers in one form or another (with Nordstrom's coming to downtown soon) - But it's definitely not a 'shopping city.'

I would postulate there are a few reasons for this -

- Staggeringly high real estate prices means the 'middle class' doesn't have a lot of money left over for consumerism - The wealthy do have shops that cater to them.

- Vancouver is a casual, outdoorsy city. People are hiking, not shopping, and when they are shopping, they're shopping for casual.

- General sentiment among many in Vancouver that rampant consumerism serves no purpose and in the end is just bad for the planet. I'm kinda sorta in this camp. Our car is 10 years old and runs fine. I don't need more shirts or a stainless steel coffee machine. Why would I bother 'shopping' when I don't need anything? I'll just take the kids to the beach and build sand castles.

People may say its rampant consumerism. I think they are broke and spend all their money on housing.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1358175/va...ex-gets-worse/

We're not 'broke' - It's just that after paying our mortgages we don't have a lot of money left over for stuff we don't need anyway.

Cash poor...whatever you want to call it.

I'm one of those who cashed in, have lots in the bank, drive a 10 y.o. car too, wear clothes until they're frayed or about to be broken (my wife made me give away my ratty 23 y.o. coffee maker when we sold our house). Don't buy stuff for buying's sake (though not having a house to stash away the stuff probably helps). I am quite atypical though.