caretaker

Canada's Incredibly Ugly Centennial Tartan, the Canadian Tuxedo, touques... you're right, we have no national sense of fashion. I feel spiffy even when I get new work clothes and underwear. Business will chart our spending patterns as we re-emerge from lockdown, and will conveniently place the hole for us to throw our money down.

BristolUK

This Winners talk probably illustrates the two nations of Canada.
I can't speak for Winners specifically but my stepdaughter works at HomeSense which is part of the same group and probably less essential than Winners who, I gather, sells clothing in addition to other household stuff.
Apart from that initial month of 'lockdown' I think it's been open all the time.

BristolUK

This always remind me of my old office. There was a woman who dressed like Alison Moyet in her Yazoo days.

Hearing that I was leaving she said "I like Canada. They don't care what they look like."

Jerseygirl

Like the last time shops reopened…I do not intend to ‘shop’ for a week or two. I refuse to stand in line outside a grocery store, so I am certainly not waiting outside non essential shops.

Teaandtoday5

i went to the dentist last week, and the hygienist was really looking forward to Homesense reopening. I got quite a detailed review of the place, and her purchases.

BristolUK

Well that's even more illustrative than I thought. HomeSense and Winners. Closed in Ontario open over here.

scrubbedexpat091

Same in BC, aside from early in the pandemic last year when some stores voluntarily closed, it's been business as usual for retail in BC.

I can say literally nothing restriction wise has affected our day to day living.

Jerseygirl

As of 12.00am Friday they are open in Ontario…15% capacity.

Just called at Sobey’s about twenty people waiting to get inside. Stuff that…didn’t get out of the car.

BristolUK

We've not eaten out since January last year, but we've had a variety of meal delivery instead. I even had a poutine - albeit a butter chicken one
And grocery shopping has mostly been delivery of course.

I've done 4 big store grocery shops in the last two months and pretty much monthly to Giant Tiger since last summer. Not a sign of a queue.

Maybe there should be an app to see what the waiting time is.

scilly

There haven't been any real queues to get into a grocery store here, except maybe waiting for the person in front of you to be checked by a store employee as to mask and hand sanitizer, while his companion made sure that the cart handles were wiped ............. and even that was only in the first few weeks last March/April.

The grocery stores were only closed for about 2 weeks in March last year, not even long enough for us to have to worry about doing an online shop. That was the length of time it took the stores and the health officials to work out how to operate safely, to mark out the floors for safe distancing, etc etc.. Then grocery stores were declared essential, and fully re-opened. That also included the little neighbourhood ma-and-pa groceries. There was no change in the way they were operating in this last wave.

Now, there may have been queues at certain busy times, but we never experienced any. Of course, we don't go shopping at 5 pm on Friday or Saturday lunch time, or other known busy times!

Our only problem was with the usual pre-pandemic "I'll just leave my cart here while I go 2 lanes over ....", or "Hi Jane, how lovely to see you, let's have a chat ..... " thus blocking up the whole aisle, (which of course is the only "down" aisle in the frozen foods section)

Nor have most other stores been closed again after they re-opened last June/July, except for some restriction on numbers.

This is why some of us have been so disturbed when people in Ontario have constantly complained how bad it has been. On and PQ are really the only 2 provinces that have been so harshly treated, for so long yet some are describing it as the whole country's experience. It wasn't, and isn't.

dbd33

My experience in Ontario has been that, in the first couple of weeks, there were some queues and a few items, flour, toilet paper, Marmite, London Pride, were hard to obtain. After that, there have been no queues to speak of at Loblaws or Sobeys and everything has been in stock (as much as usual anyway). The butcher's and the tack shop served through windows which isn't a problem if you know what you want but limits browsing. The longest queues, at shops I go to, were at the LCBO but they're not very good at retail and are often in disarray without the pandemic.

So, for shopping it hasn't been bad at all, I even bought a car during the pandemic, as easily as at any other time.

Jerseygirl

I must admit I have rarely seen a queue outside supermarkets, but I did today. I have noticed before that Sunday afternoon seems to be a particularly busy time for some odd reason.

scrubbedexpat091

I haven't seen a line to get into a store since maybe last June.

scilly

BC now in Stage 2 of loosening of restrictions.............. over 75% eligible have received at least the 1st jab.

dbd33

This is loosely related to coronavirus and, being someone who has always ranked Eric Clapton down there with Coldplay, it made me roar (even the video at the end):

https://www.avclub.com/still-not-tir...pro-1847097548