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Streeter: Everyone Loves a Winners

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streeter.gifHeading to Chapters on Bloor (by Yorkville), this Torontoist staffer was shocked to realize that the bookstore had been morphed into a Mega-Winners-HighEnd-Superstore. Upscale and Winners goes together just like a swiss chesse, nutella, and chopped liver sandwich on focaccia bread. Venturing into the shoe section of the store, it was mere moments before we realized that this Winners was full of losers.
Fancy woman to her fancy woman friend:
“Pointy toes! Ucchchghgh! All those middle-class mothers are wearing them now!”

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Comments

  • http://www.jillmurray.com Jill

    Oh. My God. Good find, Shari.

  • T

    The better to kick those “ladies” with.

  • Karen

    It has come to my attention recently that people take their Winners very seriously.

  • http://hame.ca/one/ Hamish Grant

    Umm the Chapters hasn’t been there for a while… Indigo got rid of it ‘cuz their flagship store is right around the corner on Bay St. s/o Bloor in the Manulife Centre.

  • Nik B.

    Way to be metro, Torontoist. You shame me. 2004 was it, when Chapters moved out?

  • Tony

    yeah, Chapters left that location like 15 years ago. okay, i’m lying, it was more like 2. or maybe 1. but it’s been gone for quite sometime. i’m not sure what i like less though – giant mega bookstore with American coffee chain inside that likes to destroy and/or eat little bookstores, or giant mega department store that sells expensive brand names at super cheap prices to “middle-class mothers.” sorry, but i’m afraid i might prefer the latter.

  • shari k.

    sorry for being unaware of the chainstore changeover. i don’t really notice that sort of stuff and i’m not usually in that part of town. it couldn’t have happened tooooo long ago…..a year ago maybe? dunno?!?!?!

  • http://www.beingtheremag.com Adam

    Yeah, it’s pretty old news at this point. I used to visit that Chapters pretty regularly in my U of T days.
    I seriously don’t get the Winners appeal at all. Back when I was a 12-year-old boy who didn’t really care about style it was great, but to me the store has about as much class as Zellers or Wal-Mart, but I agree with Karen that people who shop there take it very, very seriously.

  • Tony

    c’mon people. this is sounding pretty snotty, about as much so as the people you’re slagging for shopping there. if you don’t want to support Winners because it’s a giant department store that hurts the smaller retailers, that’s sound, or maybe you don’t like the clothes there, but attacking it on a “class” basis is pretty elitist.

  • rek

    I don’t shop at Chapters, but I didn’t know it had been replaced there either.
    I’ve only been in a Winners twice: once to discover the store didn’t have a men’s outerwear department (I was desperate for some snow-proof pants for snowboarding the next morning), and once to see what they actually sell in the clothing racks. Neither time left a good impression.

  • t.

    That Chapters store left about a year and a half ago, and the new Winners was the source of much outrage among its snooty neighbours. It was bad enough that they had to deal with the hot dog vendor on the corner of Bloor and Bay.
    Good to see that they’ve since embraced it. They have a new haunt downtown in the Scotia building, opened last month.
    I heart Winners, but only the old-skool ones. It’s all about the thrill of the hunt.

  • http://www.delineated.com Carrie

    I like the idea of Winners, but I have zero patience to actually go through the racks to find the hidden gems. Drives me insane!

  • Chris Dart

    Winners is pretty dope if you have the time.
    The Winners haters are all snobbing out. Although, the phrase “upscale Winners” is friggin’ wrong.

  • princess_sarah

    Fact: Winners on Bloor opened their door approximately 1 year ago. I know this because Breakfast Television did a live spot from the store on opening day and I remember thinking about how awful it was that BT was flogging a big retail chain who gets publicity on its own just by having big signage, instead of doing a piece from one of the small stores that Winners will be putting out of business.
    Anyway, I know many a woman who visit Winners religiously and take it very seriously. It’s the church of discount retail.
    I liked Chapters much better. They had more chairs than Indigo……

  • Gloria

    I visit Winners, but it’s a store like any other to me. The quality of clothing has perceptibly dived recently, but I still go for shoes and jeans. I just like the fact there are lots of different labels in one store — convenient.
    Others might take it more seriously though.

  • shari k.

    i like winners! however, the big winners in yorkville area is strange and i was shocked to hear comment about pointy-toed shoes and middle-class women (although i’m neither a mother nor a wearer of pointy-toed shoes). i guess pointy-toed shoes are WAYYYYY out of style!?!? i wanted to go to chapters to wander around and kill some time with ron. ron was looking for black, leather gloves (and he was unsuccessful at finding them). please let ron know where he can find some BLACK, leather gloves (not brown). by the way, what ever happened to BiWay?

  • Hey

    The old Chapters had a much better feel than the Manulife Indigo. Plus it worked well with the Sbux, as people could get a coffee and wander around. Now that Sbux is jammed beyond belief and is useless to try and do work at, while the Sbux in Manulife Indigo isn’t as well staffed (not fast or attentive).
    Winners is sheer hell. I’m hoping that they go out of business, or at least get out of my neighbourhoods. It was bad enough when they went into College park, but to have them in yorkville and Baystreet.. ugh. Only very patient and determined women can shop there. If you don’t go frequently, or want to actually be able to see the merch, it is worthless. Quite like the main Sportinglife on Yonge, which is stuffed to the rafters with too much merch. Thank god SportingLife at Sherway and Collingwood and the Bikes and Boards store actually are functional.

  • someone

    You must have been looking in a mirror.