I've been wanting to show you this place for
years now. I first stumbled upon it on my 2022 Vancouver trip since it was right across the street from the AirBNB where I was staying, and it quickly became one of my favorite malls. In fact, it might be my absolute favorite mall, but it's hard to beat
Spokane Valley! So let's just say it's tied for #1. Unfortunately, those 2022 photos didn't even come close to doing this place justice (though I'll probably sprinkle in a few of them as we go through this set), so revisiting this place became one of my top blog-related priorities once I got my new phone in 2023, and I finally made it back in fall 2024.
I'm not sure if I have a favorite shopping mall, at least outside of picking my local mall or picking a mall which hasn't existed, in a positive state at least, in over 35 years! I suppose if I had to pick something not local, it would probably be the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, though maybe that doesn't count! At least when I went there, they had a McDonald's, which I ate at, so at least I could afford something there, lol. Now that McDonald's was evicted, that might not be the case anymore.
ReplyDeleteI quite liked the underground city malls in Montreal. That might also be cheating because that consists of several different malls which are connected, along with non-mall things. Also, while I went there less than a decade ago, I'm sure Covid probably took a bite out of some of the good things down there! Still, it seems like some of the shops I liked are still around, like the French language bookstore Renaud-Bray. I found some good classical CDs there at a deep discount since they were from Quebec labels and, thus, subsidized. Renaud-Bray also owns Archambault, a bookstore and also a large media store. It looks like they still have a lot of DVD/Blu-Rays and CDs/LPs in their modern photos at the Place des Arts location at least: https://maps.app.goo.gl/GhyNLkqDLZ8Am3HN9
Place des Arts is next to the Complexe Desjardins, an office tower with an underground mall like so many others in Montreal. I did go to the Complexe Desjardins mall though. You might like to see it! Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/FqegqfZBBygJzEyr9
Boston has a lot of urban retail like what Montreal has, but I didn't get to experience much of it while I was there. Downtown Boston is still a thriving place where retail does well, even after Covid, and it is free from a lot of the urban ills in other US downtowns. It may not be as much fun as Montreal, but by US standards, it is certainly a destination for urban retail. It is worth checking out if anyone gets a chance! It doesn't hurt that Boston has a lot of variety in the supermarket department as well. No Kroger, though I don't think anyone will miss that, lol.
Hmm, I suppose I was really thinking of North American malls when I said that. There are some pretty neat malls in Europe, and Vittorio Emanuele is definitely one of them!
DeleteThose underground mall/passageway things are interesting too. I'll definitely have to check that out if I ever get to Montreal! Which I probably will some day, though it's not at the top of my list right now. Chicago is somewhere I'm definitely considering going soon-ish, and they have a similar underground mall system. Boston is another place I'd like to visit!