Online
Shopping - Canadian Style, eh?
Sun Review December 2, 2000
This holiday season, why not cruise the aisles from the comfort of your own home? Here are some Canadian sites to help you cross those names off your list.
Books and Entertainment
Canada's largest bookseller Chapters (www.chapters.ca) makes it easy to find your favourite books, music, movies and computer games in their well-designed online superstore. All prices are listed in Canadian dollars. Chapters just opened a new home & garden store (www.villa.ca) which is also worth a browse. Chapter's rival Indigo (www.indigo.ca) also has an endless selection of books and a time-saving system for tracking your orders. Find music at HMV (www.hmv.com), which offers free shipping in Canada until December 18th, Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.ca), the virtual box office that lets you give the gift of live music and sports, Tickets.com (www.tickets.com/canada), where you'll find tickets for everything from book readings to the ballet across Canada, and for the non-top 40 crowd, check out Montreal's Cheap Thrills (www.cheapthrills.ca) for a catalogue of 10,000 titles ranging from jazz to African.
Movies, Games and Toys
Movies are easy to find at Rogers (www.rogers.com/video), which gets the thumbs up for a giant selection of video and DVD releases, or try Movie Madness (www.movie-madness.com). For software, computer games and CD-ROMs, visit Camelot (www.camelot.ca), Futureshop (www.futureshop.ca) or the online bargain bin at Dragon (www.dragon.ca). Canadian toy e-tailers include the Grand River Toy Company (www.grandrivertoys.com) where you can shop by age or by category, or educational toys, games and materials at BC Playthings (www.bcplaythings.com), Scholar's Choice (www.scholars.on.ca), and Mastermind Toys (www.mastermind.ca), an online specialty toy store with specials that change regularly.
Electronics
If you're shopping for electronics, computers and techno-gadgets, visit Futureshop, Radioshack (www.radioshack.ca) and Factory to Home (www.factorytohome.ca), which guarantees the best prices on the Web.
Bath and Beauty
Show them your softer side with gifts from Cranberry Lane (www.cranberrylane.com), the BC-based company that sells make-it-yourself natural body care kits, Pure Radiant Energy (www.pureradiantenergy.com), Vancouver-made spa-quality products at prices that people can afford, Ambrosia (www.ambrosia.mb.ca), an essential oil apothecary, and Lush Canada (www.lushcanada.com), purveyor of fresh handmade cosmetics.
Fashion
Danier Leather's online store (www.danier.com) showcases a wider array of products and bargains than can be found in their brick-and-mortar stores, old favourites Roots (www.roots.com) and Eddie Bauer (www.eddiebauer.com), and for those hard-to-shop-for men on your list, visit Just White Shirts (www.justwhiteshirts.com), which actually carries a large selection of mens wear, despite its name.
If you still can't decide, let them decide for themselves with an electronic gift certificate from major e-tailers or visit www.giftcertificates.ca, the one-stop site with gift certificates for a range of Canadian retailers including La Senza, Sport Chek and Home Depot.
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