top of page

The Metropolis at Metrotown

The Metropolis at Metrotown, in Burnaby, British Columbia is one of the largest malls in Canada. The Metrotown Station on the Skytrain line is right outside of the mall.  The mall is also a main hub for buses running in and around Vancouver and the surrounding cities.  

For travelers visiting the mall from outside of the Greater Vancouver area, presenting your drivers' license or passport will get you a discount card for use at participating retailers. 

We were grateful that the Tourist Information Booth was open (May-September only) when we first arrived in Burnaby.  We stocked up on a boatload of maps and pamphlets with assistance from the very friendly staff.

Everywhere you look around the food court there are people on their cell phones.  Perhaps, some are even checking the map of the mall, online. There's an app for that!  If you don't have an online version make sure you pick up a map on the way into the mall. The recycling program is amazing. You leave your food tray at a recycling counter and everything gets sorted correctly, no guessing required by you, freeing up more time to shop!

We live in a changing world.  Technology has advanced so quickly that we never have to leave home.  Anything can be yours simply by ordering it online. 

What can be more convenient than shopping in your pajamas while streaming the latest movie?  The goods are delivered right to your front door.  Sounds like a pretty great deal for most people and online sales have shot through the roof in Canada in the last few years.  Competition is good for the consumer, right?

Retailers now have to compete with online mega-sellers for market share.  This weekend saw the closing of Sears Canada, a retailer that had been in business contributing to our economy and local charities since 1953. 

It's always a shock to see another Canadian company fall victim to a new and more demanding market.  It's tough to keep up with the lower prices that online sellers and retail giants can command from their suppliers.  

The Bay re-organized and cut over 2000 jobs and is suffering huge financial losses at this time.  More jobs lost.  More families struggling. Mega malls, like The Metropolis at Metrotown, are seeing their flagship tenants close up, never to return.  No amount of recycling programs are going to bring them back. 

How does a mall survive the loss of revenue from a huge retailer like Sears Canada?  In Sudbury, after Zellers closed and then Target pulled out, there was a huge hole in the retail market and job market.  It has taken those malls years to recover and find new tenants.

Have we become a by-product of our own need to make everything easier, cheaper and quicker?  Are the generations coming behind us going to have anywhere to hang out other than online or at a gym?  I guess there is always Starbucks.  Tim Horton's is looking rather odd these days, since the minimum wage hikes have taken hold.  Can malls survive in the long run?  

For now, I am going to continue shopping Canadian and watching the ducks that come every year to raise their young in the pond, outside the Metropolis at Metrotown.

bottom of page