King Street East is known for its high-end furniture retailers like Roche Bobois and UpCountry, so it's a bit of a surprise to see the logo for everyone's guilty pleasure, IKEA, on a classy King Street storefront. Torontoist reader Sofi Papamarko asked us to investigate this mysterious downtown presence of the eco-conscious Swedish giant, suggesting that it could be an office furniture location or a boutique IKEA (similar to the Leon's planned for the......

Gift cards may make convenient presents for Christmas, but they're a lump of coal for the environment. According to the Consumers' Association of Canada, Canadians will spend $3 billion on gift cards this year, which means a lot of rectangular pieces of plastic will end up in the garbage. Gift cards can be reloaded to extend use, but a person who receives multiple gift cards for a retailer usually keeps only one to reload......

December is party season, but what if you don't feel like dancing? There's more to holiday dressing than disco-ball metallics and electro-shock hues. Indeed, in today's ever-flashier scene, you're most likely to stand out in a standby—the little black dress. Luckily for you nineties types, local label Common Cloth is a step ahead on the road back to minimalism. For their current fall/winter collection, scissor sisters Melanie Talbot and Kristina Bozzo cut refined, modern......

Last Wednesday, legendary Canadian music retailer Pindoff Record Sales sold off their 72-store Music World chain. Two days later, the new owners filed for bankruptcy protection and and will likely lay off 648 employees by the end of January. And so it goes. According to court documents, Music World plans an "orderly wind down," including closing stores and liquidating inventory. The retailer has been in dire straits for years, propped up by the Toronto-based......

"Hey kids, let's dig out that cowboy gear we bought for Halloween last year and hum the theme to Bonanza on the way to the Western Days hoe-down in Don Mills! Don't forget the toy gun, pardner!" Suburban shopping centres used plenty of gimmicks in the early days to get consumers to hop in the car and drive out to stores where they didn't have to worry about paying for parking or carrying their goods......

The Apple Store Yorkdale will feature the second Toronto Area Photobloggers event on Sunday, February 26th at 6:30pm. Presenters include Chris and Jessica of istoica, Payam Rajabi of ColourBlind.ca, Irina Souiki of StillMemory.ca, Sam Javanrouh of Daily Dose of Imagery, Shahin Edalati of Foto Project, and Taku Kumabe of media smaku with the latest issue of U&IMagazine. Plus, arrive by 6:30 pm and receive a 10% off Full Retail Price coupon good for anything......

The Drake Hotel, the Queen West nightspot all the cool kids are contractually obligated to pretend they hate, is throwing down the gauntlet this All Hallow's Eve with their Dead Artist party. Dress as your favourite deceased cultural type and have the chance to win 300 bucks, they say on their website. Torontoist guesses Andy Warhol fright wigs won't be enough to bring home the bacon. You could tape over an ear and go......