Since I moved to Toronto in September, I’ve been hesitant about shopping at the ever-hectic Eaton Centre, but nothing could have prepared me for the holiday crowds I witnessed Friday afternoon.
At this point, it’s practically a personal Christmas tradition to shop for gifts at the last minute. So, I trekked over to the mall with the thousands of other locals and tourists who also procrastinated until Dec. 20.
Growing up, I was never really an online shopper. Most of my experience with making holiday purchases could be attributed to the Station Mall in my hometown of Sault Ste. Marie — a 60-store, single-level strip that has struggled to maintain big box brands in recent years. Station Mall’s recent big news was that it finally acquired a Sephora. It is a small town, after all.
Understandably, venturing to the Eaton Centre with its 230 retailers and four floors was a huge adjustment. I was lucky if I could figure out which escalator to use (the Sault mall doesn’t have a single escalator).
The Eaton Centre is not only a massive shopping hub, it also reportedly draws over 50 million visitors annually — about the same number as New York City’s Times Square.
So, the holiday chaos was to be expected.
While most of its stores were relatively manageable to slither through this week, the mall’s corridors and common areas were not, bringing me to my biggest complaint: pedestrians.
Wanting to avoid sounding pretentious, which may not be possible in this case, people genuinely need lessons on how to walk in a public space.
Regular readers of Newbie Notebook will be familiar with my feelings on cyclists and motorists breaking the rules from a law-abiding perspective but I’d argue the social miscues at the Eaton Centre were even more frustrating.
I couldn’t seem to go ten seconds without a distracted shopper bumping into me, or a big family completely cutting me off from a walkway. Few have the courtesy to move over when they’re taking up the majority of space and some patrons were even running — and I mean, full on sprinting — to their next destination.
Most frustrating of all, people who were walking towards me on one side, while I’m on the other, would suddenly veer into my ‘lane’ for literally no reason. That forces me to move to the other side of the walkway so I can avoid running into them. I’m sure I would have collided with many shoppers if I was paying the same amount of attention as they were.
After all, most true Torontonians know to maintain two flows of traffic in public spaces, including on escalators where one side is for people standing still and the other is for locals to run the steps in a rush.
But perhaps I have this incredible ability of drawing people towards me with my own gravitational pull. If I were a superhero, at least I know what my superpower would be.
When I could escape the Eaton Centre hallways from hell and actually do some shopping, I entered Indigo, which appeared to be the busiest store in the entire mall.
For a retailer that prides itself on having a wide selection of books and magazines, swarms of customers mostly wanted to check out clothing apparel, homeware and holiday knick-knacks. I can hardly poke fun though since 80 per cent of my Christmas shopping was accomplished there, in sections that don’t include books. The lineup to cash out initially looked daunting but the cashiers have the checkout down to a science. Within minutes, I was called over by a cashier who looked pretty tired but was braving a smile.
Attempting to make conversation while ignoring the disgustingly high total I just spent on stocking stuffers, I asked the cashier if Friday afternoon was the busiest it had been for them. She mentioned they were expecting even larger waves of shoppers on Saturday — yikes.
Suddenly, I felt grateful for going to the Eaton Centre on the last Friday before Christmas; a thought I wouldn’t have earlier believed possible. I know I wouldn’t have had the patience for Saturday crowds and my definition of “busy” completely changed once I exited the store.
Despite hardly visiting the Eaton Centre before this week, the overall atmosphere felt familiar. The big Christmas tree sparkling, the Salvation Army collecting donations — it was all nostalgic and brought me home for a moment.
That’s when another distracted shopper on their phone bumped into me, which shocked me back into the realities and stresses of purchasing gifts last minute. Thankfully, my shopping is done, at least until Dec. 20 next year. I never learn.
