HEEDING THE CALL OF THE MALL
Despite cold weather alert and allure of online ordering, shoppers out in full force
Under the watchful gaze of one of Toronto Eaton Centre’s larger-thanlife metallic reindeers, Annette Farrow sat next to a pile of jackets, watching her phone.
As the family’s “co-ordinator,” she waited patiently for her two daughters and two granddaughters to return from clothing stores where lineups snaked outside change rooms.
At 73 years old, Farrow was experiencing her first Boxing Day shopping excursion in the Ontario capital.
The Burnt River, Ont., resident started the day at Vaughan Mills mall north of the city, but left when the family couldn’t find a parking spot.
They ended up at the downtown shopping mecca, bustling with shoppers and sleigh bells ringing across the mall. “This is my shopping day,” Farrow said.
Boxing Day is considered one of the busiest shopping days of the year, even as the city remained under an extreme cold weather alert and in the wake of speculation and reports that more and more shoppers are moving to online bargain hunting.
Lines of pre-dawn shoppers braved the cold outside a store selling computer and electronic gear at the Eaton Centre, while the sporting goods and luxury brand stores at Vaughan Mills were packing them in.
“This is the way Vaughan Mills has been for the last decade,” said Vaughan Mills general manager Stephen Gascoine. “Boxing Day is not really any different for us.”
Claire Santamaria, general manager of Yorkdale, said Boxing Day often attracts large groups and families. The mall’s renovated look and the many new stores that have opened in the past year, make for a unique shopping experience, she said.
“The high ceilings and wide corridors give it a different feeling,” Santamaria said. Some retailers at Yorkdale opened an hour before the mall’s official opening at 8 a.m. with special offers. The mall expected to attract more than 130,000 shoppers by the time its doors closed at 11 p.m.
Next year, Farrow plans to leave Burnt River, 160 kilometres northeast of Toronto, to be in Ottawa for Boxing Day. “I’m hoping it’ll become a new tradition,” she said, “especially with the girls.”