Vancouver Anthropologie Opening Day

Today was the Grand Opening of Anthropologie Vancouver  and I did some daaaaaaaamage!! We'll talk about my purchases in a later post. First off, It was a beautiful sunny morning and I'm so glad of that because I had both my toddlers with me and waiting in a lineup in wetcoast rain was not going to be an option. I drove past the store front and saw a few gals lined up early at 9:30 so decided this was quite doable for me and committed to finding a parking spot and unloading the kids ( a cumbersome task!). They ten or so ladies were all dressed in their anthro finest just as I suspected they would be and I got so excited about getting me some real clothes finally and updating my wardrobe. As a stay at home mom, my closet is quite unbalance in the Lululemon  to non yoga clothes ratio, typical Vancouver style. I found some pay parking half a block up at The Red Door Pan Asian Grill which was closed at the time so I wasn't taking a parking spot away from a restaurant patron. I opted to forgo my morning latte so that I would have one hand free to browse and take pictures while my other hand was busy pushing the stroller. I am an amazing multi tasker but today was not the day to prove myself a capable mother. Off we went to stand in the cheerful lineup and as a warm welcome, Anthro staff were handing out mini water bottles. A mother dressed in Anthro pushing her own double stroller and with a baby in her front carrier on her chest walked past me grinning and said "I'm so happy to see another mom like me here, I was so worried about bringing my kids and being that mom" well let me tell you, there ended up being a lot of double strollers and a lot of newborns and curious toddlers and all were quite well behaved. Anthro staff decided to let us in about 10 minutes early and in we all rushed, cheering. 

My first point of order was to scope out the layout and see where the fitting rooms, elevator and all the departments were located. Floor one, no shoes! boo!! I did find a pretty blouse and I grabbed it in two sizes. looped around about 2-3 times and decided to head upstairs. On to the second floor. Markdown area, yes! No shoes, boo!! A few purses scattered around, wallets, homewares, sleep and lounge. I grabbed a few more items, a cute doll note set as bribery for my 3 year old. Grabbed a few more items to try on and lined up in the long, long cue. At this point, the store had filled up rather quickly and was only getting worse and more densely packed. The staff did a great job attending to everyone by grabbing full hands of clothes and organizing them into groups for fitting rooms. It was getting harder and harder to move thru the crowd with my double stroller so I made sure to grab everything I wanted to try on and waited for about 10 or so minutes. The fitting room has approximately 18 rooms and a few long accessible rooms for strollers and wheelchairs. Most of what I grabbed where instant love items and I had a hard time choosing what to put back but once I decided what was making the cut I headed back downstairs and lined up again to pay. That lineup was much worse and curled around several times weaving in and out of displays. It was hard getting to the back of the line with my stroller but once I did I think the lineup took about 15 minutes. 

I had wanted to pick up an Anthropologie hairband similar to the one I purchased a few months ago in Seattle but it was the one item I noticed was marked up higher then the US price. On the website the Flippery Headband is priced at $32 and in store today it was priced at $45 despite the stronger Canadian dollar. I didn't have any other reference points for prices but nothing screamed at me as outrageously priced. I think I'll take a closer look tomorrow.  It was also nice that on opening day there was a well stocked markdown area and I did find some items that I liked but they were later rejected in the fitting room. I was sad that there were no shoes here but I was assured by the salestaff that there is a very strong possibility that this store will carry shoes in the future. All in all, today was a successfull shopping trip and I'm looking forward the launch party tomorrow night. I think Anthropologie Seattle will still be a destination for me as they have shoes at the downtown location as well as a much greater selection of clothes. 

Standing in line to pay.