The line begins to form at six o'clock each morning, three hours before opening. Hudson's Bay Company shoppers, sacrificing sleep for a shot at pricey 2010 Olympic Winter Games paraphernalia.
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There's more out there than red mitts, Olympic shoppers
- February 22, 2010 6:33 PM |
- By Erin Valois
Story provided by
By Brian Hutchinson, National Post
VANCOUVER -- The line begins to form at six o'clock each morning, three hours before opening. Hudson's Bay Company shoppers, sacrificing sleep for a shot at pricey 2010 Olympic Winter Games paraphernalia.
The Bay's landmark store in downtown Vancouver rivals any other Games attraction. About 15,000 people each day are filing into its main floor Olympics mega store, which, on its debut weeks ago, attracted only sparse crowds.
With the Games now on, national pride is surging and so is demand for 2010-related HBC gear. Hence the sustained run on the store's exclusive Team Canada jerseys and floppy red mittens. Hence the daily lineup, too; it routinely stretches an entire city block and bends around a corner and stays that way almost until the midnight closing.
Here's a tip: The same Team Canada goods can be found at any HBC or discount Zellers store, in any other city. So skip the insufferable lineup. Follow the savvier shoppers instead, into the HBC's free-zone "international pavilion."
Slip inside the downtown store through a side door, and walk boldly past perfumes and colognes. Pause for a second at the guarded, waist high barrier that separates you, the side door slipper, from the swarming super spenders. Giggle at the pandemonium and make for the empty escalators.
Proceed directly to the store's fifth floor, where a cluster of creepy mannequins confronts you. Good grief, what was the Bay thinking? The male mannequins are white, headless and draped in various hockey jerseys. The females have no legs. The rest of them are black and topless, their perfect, perky mannequin breasts painted in various flag patterns. It's nationalism and scary sex run amuck.
Detach yourself from this sordid display and meander to the panoply of participating nations. Marvel at the large Russia pavilion, stuffed with distinctive red and white team waist-length jackets (at $439, they don't come cheap) and Sochi 2014 tchotchkes. In a somewhat provocative gesture, the Russians have provided annex space for Team Ukraine.
The Bay's fifth floor pavilion reinforces all sorts of national stereotypes. Based on their minimalist display of outerwear, the Finns are a sombre people. Black and white, black and white. It's really quite depressing, and makes one want to drink.
True to form, the Italians have a sexy, small boutique filled with expensive, smart designs. In addition to their love for the colour orange, the Dutch have a thing for fanny packs. Based on their dowdy $545 parkas, the Chinese are an increasingly affluent but none-too fashion forward nation. Canadians? They try hard and are really, really popular. A large crowd of shoppers at their well-stocked booth demonstrates all that.
Then there's Great Britain, host nation of the 2012 Olympic Summer Games. Rather, where is Great Britain? Oh, it's way over there, beside the doleful French. Save for the inexplicable presence of some severed mannequin hands, and a broken, upended sign, the British shelves are empty. A sad spectacle of neglect from a once-proud people.
Bad show, Brits. Bad show.
Photo: Topless mannequins compete for attention inside the Bay, downtown Vancouver. Monday, February 22. Brian Hutchinson/National Post
About the Author
- Bruce Arthur Bruce Arthur is the National Post's national sports columnist. A Vancouver native, he has been with the Post since 2001, and a columnist since 2005. He is covering his second Olympics, after the 2008 Games in Beijing. He expects these Games to be slightly less propagandistic, and for China to win slightly fewer medals.
- Joe O'Connor Joe O'Connor is a roving sports feature writer with an open-ended beat. He joined the National Post in 2002, and has spent the past seven years bouncing from sport to sport, offering fresh perspectives and delivering unique stories wherever he goes. Whether it has been getting Don Cherry to open up about his love life; George Chuvalo to talk about heartbreaking loss; or racing down the side of a mountain with former Crazy Canuck, Dave Irwin, the veteran Postie chases a story wherever it leads. Before joining the newspaper he was a two-time silver medalist at the National Magazine Awards. Vancouver will be his first Olympics.
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