Further retail opportunities

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Geo: 43.6667, -79.4167

St Lawrence Market is a great place for food shopping. It goes back to 1844 when it served as the first City Hall. The food market began in the 1900s. It is a paradise for food lovers. In its cavernous hall on the ground floor are several butchers, many cheese merchants, a number of bakers and food outlets/cafes. There was a fabulous kitchen utensil shop. What you can't find there is probably not worth having. In the basement are more grocery shops, health food shops, more eating places, chocolate shops, bakers and other type of stalls. It's a great shame that I couldn't bring a lot of the produce back to the UK. A combination of lack of luggage space as well as import restrictions. But there are ample opportunities for tasting what's on offer.

Another lovely food shop is Loblaws. The one I visited was their flagship store not far from the gay area of Toronto, in the Maple Leaf Gardens. It's definitely more up-market than St Lawrence. Enormous, clean, bright and cheerful. Very North American. The range of goods on offer was huge. It was a great place at for a wander.



The Eaton Centre is an altogether different sort of shopping experience; a lot like any other shopping malls found all over the word. You can find all the international brands here.

Dundas Square is a new happening place in Toronto. It's their answer to Times Square, Piccadilly Circus or Shinjuku. It's new, vibrant, edgy and surrounded by enormous billboards and light displays. In the summer the place is packed with people drinking coffee and soaking up the sun, so the guidebook says.

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