Shopping areas in the city of Vancouver
Written: Nov 23 '00 (Updated Jan 09 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of shopping malls, places, cheap C$
Cons: Rains too much
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| maceyr's Full Review: Vancouver |
Being a past resident of Vancouver for twenty some odd years, I've decided on writing a few reviews on Vancouver. This is one of a series of reviews on the major shopping centers, malls and shopping areas of the Vancouver region.
Vancouver has grown quite quickly in the last decade due to the influx of immigrants from Asia as well as other regions of the world. The diverse mix of cultures of its residents as well as the mild weather makes Vancouver one of the most popular destinations to visit. While you're visiting Vancouver, you can't help but visit at least a few of the many shopping malls and shopping areas since the exchange rate compared to many currencies are quite low. Our "loonie" is currently about 65 cents to the US Dollar or a US Dollar is about C$1.54. The sales tax here in Vancouver consists of the 7% GST (Goods & Services tax) taxed on everything including food plus 7% provincial sales tax which adds up to 14% of your purchases are paid in taxes. But, foreigners to Canada can get a rebate back on the taxes. Many tourist brochures have forms (as well as the Airport) that allow you to send in documentation to have your rebate back. Anyways, here are some of the main shopping malls and areas to visit when in Vancouver.
Robson Street is Vancouver's answer to Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive, boasting an assortment of expensive, designer fashions and some hip clothing stores. The Robson "strip" pretty much starts on Robson Street at Burrard in downtown Vancouver and continues for two blocks until Bute Street. Once you pass Bute, there are still many shops for another block but the crowds have thinned out by there. Don't expect to be able to get much bargains there as Robson Street is usually quite busy (with hefty rent) and thus any "bargain" will hardly turn out much of one. But, it's a great place to window shop because of the numerous selection of stores. Here you will mostly find clothing stores such as the Gap, Club Monaco, Cotton Ginny, Boca, Roots. Other stores and restaurants found along the "strip" include the Nike Store, HMV, Planet Hollywood and Virgin Megastore (at the corner of Burrard and Robson Street), Starbucks (at diagonal corners of Thurlow and Robson Street), TGIF, Cactus Club.
Robson Street is a great place to do some people watching. You can sit outside at any of the many coffee shops along Robson Street and watch people. Since the street is almost littered with people all hours of the day, street metered parking is almost impossible to find. It's suggested to take a bus to downtown and do your shopping on foot rather than pay for pay parking. Also, if you stay there long enough, you'll notice something funny. Many "hip" guys tend to "cruise" the strip with their polished convertibles and blasting bass overloaded dance music in hopes of picking up a chick or getting some recognition of their "coolness". Huh. I find it quite funny to see. This becomes quite obvious especially in the evenings. I guess some Vancouverites have nothing better to do. I don't know.
While you're in downtown Vancouver, you may as well walk up a few blocks, passing by the Vancouver Art Gallery to Granville Street and continue your shopping experience at Pacific Center Mall. The semi-underground mall is connected to a much smaller Vancouver Center mall and has over 200 stores. At one time, the Vancouver Center was busier than it is today, boasting of expensive apparel when expensive jewelery store Birks was located there.
The Pacific Center mall pretty much starts underground from Eatons department store at the corner of Granville and Robson and continues to Granville and Dunsmuir, there, becoming two leveled on the other side of the street at the corner of Granville and Georgia. A mall extension was opened at the block from Dunsmuir to Pender, on the other side of Granville and Dunsmuir and that extension is three leveled with an underground level of a Food Court selling fast foods. You can either reach the extension by taking an escalator to the lower level of the extension, crossing the street or taking an escalator to the upper level and crossing the street via a skywalk.
The main level caters to the usual consumer with some interesting shops such as the Museum Store. The mall connects to two main department stores: the Bay and Eatons. Due to the recent bankrupcy of Eatons, the mall has suffered somewhat but hopefully when the new Eatons (through a buyout by Sears Canada) reopens that it will get busier again. The third level of the mall (like most others) caters to an upscale shopping crowd with money to spend.
Once you're finished with Pacific Center, you may continue your walk by strolling down Granville Street until you reach the Station, which was once a railway station but now transformed into a Seabus terminal and Skytrain (subway) station. You can sit at the benches inside and look up at the painted walls and murals. A few shops and a Starbucks (they're everywhere in Vancouver) fill the Station. You can take a Seabus to West Vancouver or take a Skytrain by taking an escalator. You can continue a path to the Waterfront Center shops which connects to the Pan Pacific Hotel and Canada Place Exhibition Center. Or, you can walk along Cordova Street and make a left turn along Water Street to reach Gastown.
Gastown is more of a landmark attraction than a shopping area. The Gastown area streets are covered with cobble stone. The main attraction of the area is a statue of "Gassy" Jack Deighton, a saloon owner who essentially made Gastown to the popular attraction it was because it was the nearest saloon to the sawmill closeby. Businesses grew around the saloon and the community of Gastown was formed.
Also located in Gastown is the world's first steam clock. Every quarter of the hour and every hour, the steam clock will whistle a short note or tune. The architecture of the historic buildings and the atmosphere of the surroundings make it almost like you're stepping back in time. Souvenir shops are abound in Gastown. There are some nice restaurants around. The Spaghetti Factory is always busy, the Brothers is also quite busy with men dressed in shrouds is quite a sight. There are many other smaller restaurants and bars with Lamplighter Inn and the Pump among the few well known ones.
Leaving downtown Vancouver, there are still a few shopping malls around that are worth a visit. City Square is a relatively small shopping mall located on 12th Avenue and Cambie Street. It was developed from two historic buildings. There is underground parking. If you shop at any of the stores at the mall, you can get a free half hour parking pass. The mall houses a Safeway, Fitness World exercise complex, an expensive Chinese restaurant named Kirin. One thing to note is that an episode of the X-Files was filmed at the mall. The first season episode called "Tooms" in which a liver-eating mutant Eugene Tooms hibernates under the escalator is the elevator of the City Square Mall. So, for X-files fans, this may be a stop worth going to.
Oakridge Center is located at the corner of Cambie Street and 41st Avenue. It has 156 stores including department stores such as the Bay and Zellers. There is a multiplex cinema, a White Spot restaurant, and Safeway. The mall has many upscale and expensive clothing stores such as Harry Rosen as well as many other "regular" stores such as Fairweather, Hallmark cards, Electronic Boutique, Purdy's chocolates, Benneton, Eddie Bauer, etc. It is a one leveled mall that was renovated a few years ago to revamp their Food Court area to utilize and efficiently use its space. It's not very busy but it certainly isn't a dead mall. Periodically, the mall showcases fashion shows featuring the newest styles and wares of the fashion world.
Granville Island is located under the Granville Street bridge to downtown Vancouver. You can enter it through the winding 4th/6th Avenue (it changes as it curves around). The indoor public market is a stop not to be missed. The market houses many fresh seafood, produce, deli meats, breads, as well as arts and crafts. It is almost Vancouver's answer to Seattle's Pike Market as produce is stacked in such a way that it almost looks artistic. Fish and seafood are sparkling in the light, a sight rarely seen at markets.
The waters of False Creek separate Granville Island from downtown Vancouver and provides a beautiful view of parts of the Vancouver skyline. You can choose to sit outside on a beautiful day but beware of the rats, pigeons, seagulls and other animals that are eagerly awaiting for their bite of your food. These little critters are not afraid of people and some will be aggressive enough to grab your food away from you. I'm not kidding!
There is a cute little "ferry boat" that can take you across the False Creek, but of course, at a price. If you take a stroll around the grounds of Granville Island, you can find many stores and art studios displaying works of local artists. The Emily Carr of Art and Design School is located there, thus the art design influence. For those with kids, there is a two storey Kids Only Market located at the entrance to Granville Island. They have 24 stores catering to kids and at the back of the Kids Only Market there is a children's playground with waterslides and other water fun filled activities. Be sure to bring bathing suits and a towel.
The Granville Island Brewery is also located there at the entrance. With appointment, you can take a tour of the brewery and sample what it has to offer. Parking can be a bit of a nightmare at Granville Island as it is quite busy most of the day. You may want to take a bus to get there. I believe that you can get there by taking the #51 bus at the Broadway and Granville bus stop.
Fourth Avenue along the Kitsilano area is a place where interesting shops are found. The popular area starts along Fourth Avenue from Arbutus Street to around Larch Street, although there are a few shops that goes down the other way to Burrard Street but the main "area" is from Arbutus to Larch. The several blocks of Fourth Avenue has quite a following of shoppers. There is a health food supermarket called Capers that sells health food and organic produce (but at hefty prices), a bookstore called Duthies, a classical CD shop called the Magic Flute, a comic shop called the Comic Shop, a outdoors shop, Starbucks and many other coffee shops, and other specialty stores.
The area is a combination of an older neighborhood but yet many buildings have been torn down and rebuilt with newer looking stores. Don't be surprised to find that pedestrians jay walk along Fourth Avenue as there seems to be many shoppers along the area and they're not very patient in waiting for the crosswalk lights.
South Granville located on Granville Street just at the foot of the Granville Street bridge around 6th Avenue to 14th Avenue is another area of shopping for those looking for something different. The majority of the interesting stores are found from Broadway to 14th Avenue but there are a few small art galleries of local artists from 6th to Broadway. Some stores are catered for upscale clothing shopping as many local designer stores are located there. Of course, there is a Starbucks coffee shop as well as a Blenz and other smaller shops (the News Hound, etc). Megabook store Chapters is located at the corner of Granville and Broadway, tearing down the old, historic Aristocrat restaurant. There are some jeweler stores around the area, a Chow Sang Sang jewelry store (for those from HK who know the name), MK Jewellers, an all you can eat sushi restaurant called Granville Sushi (which took over from an old White Spot), chocolate stores Callebaut, House of Brussels Chocolates. Another health food store Capers is located at the corner of 14th and Granville as is a yuppy Bread Garden, a popular sandwich place that provides some healthy alternative "wraps" among other menu items.
Chinatown is one of the largest in North America, after San Francisco. Chinatown is mainly bordered by Keefer, Gore, Hastings and Columbia Street. The area has many shops featuring Chinese merchandise. There are many "cute" stores that sell Japanese cartoon branded merchandise and other trinkets. There are bookstores selling books and imported Chinese newspapers and magazines in the Chinese language. There is a Chinese CD store called MAL that stocks a large selection of Chinese CDs as well as imported English CDs. There are several Hong Kong style coffee shops around the area, featuring Hong Kong style coffee and tea and Chinese baked goods and pastries. Chinatown is known for the fresh Chinese typed produce, and fresh, tasty BBQ meat. They are in abundance and reasonably priced.
Vancouver has many malls and shopping areas to visit. I have only listed a few of the main places I think may be interesting to the visitor.
So, that's it on the major shopping areas of the city of Vancouver. Stay tuned for the other shopping areas of the areas surrounding Vancouver. I hope that my review has helped those make a decision on the places to visit.
Be sure to check out my other review on Vancouver:
A city that almost has it all
http://maceyr.epinions.com/trvl-review-73A8-AE0F416-392F0BF8-prod1
Thanks for taking the time to read and rate my review.
Recommended:
Yes
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maceyr
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