Trained to shop at West Ed

If you ask where Edmonton is you may get blank stares. We are the largest Northern city in North America with a metropolitan population over one million in case you were wondering.

If you are a sports fan, the first thing you think of when hearing about Edmonton is Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers.

If you are a shopper, it's West Edmonton Mall.

West Edmonton Mall is the World's largest indoor mall. There are many stores in there and there seems to be something for everyone. Actually the mall is half shopping half entertainment. There are two theatres, an amusement park, night clubs, mini-golf, a casino, a theme-room hotel and other things. The shopping is interesting too. Some stores have more than one actual store in the mall! The stores range from high end to stuff I would never buy, to wtf, and there are even some places in the mall that I wouldn't even be able to tell you that exist because I just never go certain ways.

I'm not trying to pump it up, but rather just explain what it's like there. I went shopping there with Jackie yesterday and met up later with Arthur and Nick and it was crazy busy. We have a secret spot that we like to park at and even that was busy. The mall was crazy and this is the middle of October. I can't ever remember it being that busy except for around Christmas if you are dumb enough to go at that time.

Anyway that got me thinking, why do I shop at West Ed? Most of the stores that I go to there can be found at Southgate which is only like 10 minutes from my house. Some of the stores can be found closer to my house but I choose to go to West Ed. Why? It's always busy and since so many people shop there, it means that if you find something that you like there, you likely won't be able to find your size because it's already been picked over. It's because we've been trained to shop at West Edmonton Mall....because it has all that we need.

I've decided that unless I have to shop at a store in West Edmonton Mall that's only found there (like Edmonton Mall Coin & Stamp), I want to shop at Southgate or Downtown, with the preference of downtown.

Downtown shopping in Edmonton at Edmonton Centre is far underrated. Most of what I call 'good stores' at West Ed can be found there. There are also much fewer people there so you feel like you can get to many stores much quicker. With fewer people, it also means that you are more likely to find the sizes that you want. Parking there on the weekend is $1 or free so it's not like it's even a big deal to do that. Plus it's the whole aura about shopping downtown that just gives it that much more of a feel.

Here's to shopping downtown!