Author's note: This was reposted to this blog on February 10, 2018.
* * *
Living in
Canada means I no longer know how to shop
"American."
Target doesn't exist in Canada. It failed grandly in an ill-conceived entry into the
Canadian market over the last couple of years, fraught with corporate stupidity it would seem. Too many stores, too quickly, without the merchandise and prices that Canadians expected, which they travel to the
U.S. to buy at Target.
(Editor's note: I've seen estimates that 75% to 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles/160 kilometers of the U.S.-Canada border.)
Weirdly,
WalMart SuperCentre (and I do mean
centre)
is a lot like Target. The stores are tidy, clean, well-organized, and well-stocked. The staff is generally helpful, too. Now, suddenly, because it's the Canadian Target, I think it's OK to shop there.
WalMart has its own clothing line called
George,
which I don't remember from the U.S. WalMart. However, I used to avoid WalMart
at all costs. "People of WalMart" and all that.
Even big upscale malls like
Square One in
Mississauga have WalMarts. They might hav
e Targets, too, if Target hadn't flamed out.
Macy's doesn't exist, but Sears (yes, Sears) seems like a Macy's at a
second-tier mall. Sears has a Clinique counter, which I don't think is
the case in the U.S. At home, Sears and J.C. Penney's seem to vie for a no-shopper's land between Macy's on the one side and Target and WalMart on the other. Albeit unsuccessfully: I just feel like Sears and Penney's don't know who they are anymore. There's a niche market between the two, but they can't define it. Personally, I'd figure out a way to outdo Macy's in some markets--Pennsylvania for one, which doesn't have Dillard's, only Boscov's in some areas. (I adore Boscov's, by the way, and missed it terribly when I moved away from Central PA.) An upscale version of Target is probably the best option at this point. Otherwise, you're facing a Montgomery Ward's future.
Hudson Bay Company (aka The Bay/La Baie)
seems like a higher-end Macy's (aka Macy's when it was special/before it
took over the world). Holt Renfrew and Ogilvy are more like Saks and
Nordstrom as far as I can tell. In other words, although the clothes are beautiful, I'm not worthy. Saks is planning to open stores soon in Toronto; I would imagine Nordstrom will follow, but, personally, I'd be happier with a Dillard's or a Boscov's.
I'm waiting for Simons to open at Square One. It's one of my favorite Montreal-based stores, one with beautiful housewares and often lovely, affordable clothes, none of which I can fit into anymore. But still, it's nice to dream.
Future Shop was Best Buy, but we do have Best Buy in Canada. So Future Shop is now Circuit City. Only the signs and square footage remain.
In Canada, you can buy decent clothes at Canadian Tire and at Loblaws (grocery store chain) superstore. I have a hard time wrapping my head around this, the same way I do at the thought of buying clothes at Costco, Kohl's, or Target. This makes me realize how class-influenced shopping is in the U.S. Or at least how class-influenced I am.
There are a zillion supermarkets, at least in and around Toronto: No
Frills, Sobey's, WalMart, Food Basics, Whole Foods, Metro, Loblaws,
FreshCo, Longo's, Giant Tiger, and more, not to mention hundreds of smaller markets, many of them catering to Toronto's various ethnic groups. (But not Americans and Southerners as far as I can discern.) So far, I like No Frills, Sobey's, and WalMart. The No Frills in my area is referred to as the "ghetto one" by *some* people I know (not me but Cairo), but it's actually my favorite. There's a crazy variety of fruits and vegetables, many of them more common to Caribbean and Indian cuisine, reflecting the cultural reality of my part of the GTA. And, thus, for a brief moment, I can transport myself back to shopping at HEB in San Antonio, where Mexican fruits and vegetables were quite common, more so than the standard "Anglo" ones. While the Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh rarely sold cilantro, the HEB in San Antonio often sold out. Which speaks volumes about the "quality" of Pittsburgh cuisine. That is to say, if you love that Eastern European root vegetable diet that your babushka used to make, you're in so much effin' luck in da Burgh.
May I never, ever return, except for the occasional visit to see friends and old colleagues.
As far as I know, there's no CVS, no Eckerd, no Rexall, no Walgreens in Canada. Shopper's Drug Mart is the big pharmacy chain, at least in English-speaking Canada. (I think Quebec has a very just-like-in-France-branded Pharmaprix or Uniprix chain. Paris on the St. Lawrence. I'd be there if I could.) The Shopper's Drug Marts have a branch of Canada Post in many locations
so that you can buy stamps and mail stuff even on Sunday's. However,
daily mail delivery open happens Monday through Friday; there is no
Saturday delivery in Canada.
* * *
I share all this because I spent part of
a recent Saturday trying to buy a phone case and laptop bag and had absolutely no
idea where to do so.
I couldn't find the Best Buy,
discovered that Future Shop was indeed closed despite the huge sign out
front, perused some overpriced shirts at the Bay ($118 CAD for a Ralph
Lauren--which means I'm going to wait for a "Bay Days" sale before investing heavily in new clothes), mailed a package at Shopper's
Drug Mart, bought a Canada "XpressPost" regional mailing envelope for my passport renewal application (one of my many must-dos as part of the resettlement process)--and finally ended up at WalMart and bought most of the stuff
on my list.
Which is fitting because I would have normally gone to Target for this stuff anyway.
