Shopping in Vancouver

Unlike many cities where suburban malls have taken over, Vancouver is full of individual boutiques and specialty shops. Antiques stores, ethnic markets, art galleries, gourmet-food shops, and high-fashion outlets abound, and both Asian and First Nations influences in crafts, home furnishings, and foods are quite prevalent.

Shopping Neighborhoods

Robson Street

Stretching from Burrard to Bute, Robson Street is the city's main fashion-shopping and people-watching artery. The Gap and Banana Republic have their flagship stores here, as do Canadian fashion outlets Club Monaco and Roots. Souvenir shops and cafés fill the gaps. West of Bute, the shops cater to the thousands of Japanese and Korean students in town to study English: Asian food shops, video outlets, and cheap noodle bars abound.

Alberni Street

One block north of Robson, Alberni Street is geared to the higher-income visitor and is where you'll find duty-free shopping. At the stores in and around Alberni, and around Burrard, you'll find names such as Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Coach, Hermès, and Betsey Johnson. The latter is the veteran New York designer whose fans include Cameron Diaz and Courtney Love.

Gastown & Chinatown

Treasure hunters like the 300 block of West Cordova Street in Gastown, where offbeat shops sell curios, vintage clothing, and locally designed clothes. It's also the place for souvenirs—both kitschy and expensive. Gastown is becoming the place to be, which means that the hip crowd is starting to move in—restaurateurs, advertising gurus, photographers, etc.—so the boutiques and cafés are getting cooler. Bustling Chinatown —centered on Pender and Main streets—is full of Chinese bakeries, restaurants, herbalists, tea merchants, and import shops.

Yaletown

Frequently described as Vancouver's SoHo, this neighborhood on the north bank of False Creek is home to boutiques, home stores, and restaurants—many in converted warehouses—that cater to a trendy, moneyed crowd.

Granville Island

On the south side of False Creek, Granville Island has a lively food market and a wealth of galleries, crafts shops, and artisans' studios. It gets so busy, especially on the weekends, that the crowds can detract from the pleasure of the place; you're best off getting there before 11 AM.

South Granville

About two-dozen high-end art galleries, antiques shops, and Oriental-rug emporiums are packed between 5th and 15th avenues on Granville Street, in an area known as Gallery Row. Granville Street, between Broadway and 16th Avenue, is known as Granville Rise, and it's also lined with chic fashion, home-decor, and specialty-food shops.

Kitsilano

West 4th Avenue, between Burrard and Balsam, is the main shopping strip in funky Kitsilano. There are clothing and shoe boutiques, as well as housewares and gift shops. Just east of Burrard, several stores sell ski and snowboard gear.

Main Street & the Punjabi Market

Main Street, between 20th and 30th avenues, is an up-and-coming neighborhood, rich with ethnic restaurants and antiques, collectibles, and vintage-fashion shops. A growing number of eclectic boutiques here showcase local designers' creations. In the Punjabi Market area, Vancouver's "Little India" on Main Street around 50th Avenue, curry houses, sweets shops, grocery stores, discount jewelers, and silk shops abound.

Commercial Drive

Guatemalan crafts, Italian shoes, and espresso bars with soccer matches broadcast live from Italy come together on Commercial Drive, between East 2nd Avenue and Venables Street, Vancouver's world-beat, off-beat melting pot.

Richmond

In suburban Richmond, south of downtown Vancouver, several large shopping malls—centered on and around No. 3 Road between Cambie Road and Granville Avenue—mix chain stores with small boutiques and eateries that cater to the area's upscale Asian residents. Aberdeen Centre could just as well be in Hong Kong.

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