![]() |
City Guide - Toronto - Shopping | ||
![]() |
||
Shopping Thankfully, Toronto has not succumbed to mall culture to the same degree as its neighbours in the USA - most malls tend to be firmly located in the suburbs. The one important mall that has managed to take root downtown is the Eaton Centre, located at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas Streets. The Eaton Centre is a mall for non-mall types - lots of shopping in a more soothing environment, with a huge fountain, a ceiling that is a vast arch of windows, and a famous sculpture of flying Canada geese. As a vital, densely populated hub, the city centre is filled with open-air high streets, each with its own character. Queen and College Streets attract style-conscious twenty- and thirty-somethings. Fashions are original, often with an emphasis on obscure labels, both domestic and imported. Queen Street also offers a variety of furniture shops, some offering cutting-edge modern designs, and others displaying second-hand pieces from ten to 50 years old. Yorkville features more upmarket shopping - Prada, Versace, Louis Vuitton - including Holt Renfrew, a Toronto equivalent to New York's Saks or London's Harrods. Yonge Street offers shopping of every variety from its beginnings near the waterfront right to the northern tip of the city. Church Street is filled with pawn shops offering deals on second-hand cameras, musical instruments and jewellery. The bounty of the vast Canadian landscape can be experienced at St Lawrence Market. Here, visitors can take in the sight of piles of fresh fish laid out on beds of ice, pick among butcher shops, choose between three delicatessens, five bakeries, and many fruit and vegetable shops overflowing with produce. Across town, Kensington Market, tucked in just behind Chinatown, gives a sense of the city's multi-ethnic make-up with residents from over 30 cultural backgrounds. The market has been around a long time, since the 1790s, and its winding narrow streets are filled with fruit stands, butcher shops, cafés, Asian markets and local fashion designers. Apart from offering a wealth of good shopping, Toronto is of particular interest to the international traveller due to the relative weakness of the Canadian Dollar. Shopping is available seven days a week and stores are generally open 1000-1800, although its common to find some open as late as 2200, especially on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. A sales tax of 15% is added to the listed price of a good or service, 7% of which can be redeemed by non-residents by contacting International Tax Refund Services (tel: (403) 274 1113) or the National Tax Refund Service (tel: (450) 434 5555). |