Winners

I looked at their prices on fitness goods, I thought it was overpriced. I’m pretty sure I can get it cheaper at their competition.

Like a bizarre treasure hunt, where you never know what you’re going to get!
I desperately needed new workout clothes and summer sandals, so I stopped by to see what they’d got. As usual, there were swarms of people rifling through racks upon racks of sometimes organised, sometimes all over the place clothes. I found a few pairs of workout pants to try, although the shirt selection was slim. The sandals were almost non-​existent, I imagine they’ll be making their way onto shelves in the next few weeks!
The changing rooms are weirdly, starkly lit, but they are roomy enough to change comfortably. The lighting isn’t great for seeing how things actually look, but it’s good enough.
I feel like Winners is an odd necessity when hunting for bargains.

Don’t really get the point of this store.
It’s cheap, but it is sooo disorganized and it seems clothes and shoes are all hard to find in your size because they only carry a few of each. Kinda like going to big sales at other stores a bit too late. Many fewer staff than security cameras ;)
But I wouldn’t really grade it so low if it wasn’t for my experience buying Nikes for my preteen son. $ 25, a total bargain (size 8, so not just a kiddy model price). Really low, in fact almost suspiciously low for Nike. Even though they also looked uncharacteristically shabby for that brand.
Things is, within 4 months, both the left and right shoe had big holes in the front. Nike is what it is, but they don’t usually make shoes that fall apart so quickly. And this is the only time it happened so quickly to my son’s shoes.
An imitation Nike? A discontinued/​rejected model, due to quality problems? Dunno, but it hardly ended up being a great saving. So, hardly worth shopping in that mess of a store.
p. s. Just recently, there was a CBC article about their habit of inflating retail prices of items in order to «compare at» their prices more advantageously. To quote: «In the U.S., Winners’ parent company, TJX, is the subject of a class-​action lawsuit accusing the company of misleading pricing tactics in its U.S. T.J. Maxx stores, which also use „compare at“ pricing.»

Winners ist quasi die kanadische Antwort auf Marshalls, Ross, Tkmaxx oder Tjmaxx, alles eine Firma! Hier werden Restposten und Saisonwaren zu Schnäppchen-​preisen raus gehauen.
Auch hier darf man sich vom ersten Eindruck nicht blenden lassen. Da dieser Laden übergehend auf Einzelstücken basiert, sieht es meist aus wie in einem unaufgeräumten Ramschladen. Man sollte Zeit mitbringen und muss Glück haben, definitiv nichts für Shoppingmuffel. Am besten nichts bestimmtes suchen und sich nicht auf irgendetwas einschießen, dann läuft es auch mit dem Shoppen… mal mehr mal weniger, daher halten wir so gut wie in jeder Filiale an… denn was es da nicht gab, kann in der anderen schon wieder ganz anders aussehen. Auch mit den Größen muss man Glück haben und des öfteren Enttäuschungen in Kauf nehmen, weil ein Teil zu groß oder zu klein ist und es genau in der benötigten Größe nicht gibt! Von RL, CK, Herschel, Gola, Timberland, Roxy, Quicksilver, Nike, Diesel… ist hier alles anzutreffen und man kann durchaus das eine oder andere Schnäppchen schlagen! Ich liebe Winners und Co!

BRA selection is the WORST I ever saw anywhere!
RETHINK your offers Winners. NOT EVERYONE in Vancouver is Chinese !!!
I have news for you Winners ! There are other sizes in Vancouver than 36 C.
Your downtown store NEED HELP in BIG way! You had 4 horrible and I mean horrible bra’s above 38 D ONLY 4 :(
Organization is POOR!

I saw the big Winners sign on the outside of a the building on Granville but didn’t see where the door was! It’s located on the 3^rd floor where you go in to Future Shop (now Best Buy but they haven’t changed the signs yet even). We headed up the escalators up to the 3^rd, and I went to the men’s section.
It was lunch time so there were a few people in the store but not crazy busy. I found the outerwear section and was disappointed with the selection. For mediums, there were like 5 jackets including a Dockers brand. Not much of a selection and didn’t meet the needs of what I was looking for. There wasn’t many in the large sizes either.
Walked by a few other departments but nothing caught my eye so headed for the exit.

Ok, I understand that this is a discount place but that’s no excuse for bad service.
I was at the Winners on Robson this week to see if I could find a skirt. I found one that I liked but it wasn’t the right size. So I asked one of the people who worked there as I know they sometimes have stuff from the change rooms that they haven’t re-​hung yet. She glared at me and said «I don’t know», turned around and walked away. I was stunned. Not a bit of effort to help me.
I guess there really is a connection with price and service at Winners.

I actually come here a lot. I come in here to kill time before a concert and to browse in the discount section, however, in terms of selection for a decent sized store, it is not as great as the Metrotown section. Their culinary section is very lacking which explains why when it comes to this location I tend to do more browsing than actual buying.

Winners is a headache
It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack
They rarely have what I want. but sometimes.just sometimes. they have something worthwhile
Not a great experience, but I’m not a shopping kind of guy, either

Different Winners have different types of merchandise I’ve found. This downtown store has WAY more button up shirts and suits than the others. The shoe selection is a bit different too… a little more business formal and casual shoes than the others. Works for me… if I’m looking for that kind of thing. Still very much a ‘treasure hunt’ though… most often I leave empty handed, but occasionally I score a bargain (more often at this store than some of the others).

I instantly realized when I entered this store.
It is «Ross»!
Looks so similar.
But you know what.
Everything was way more expensive than Ross.
Everything is more expensive in Vancouver in general…

I’m not crazy about the selection at this Winner’s, everything seems jumbled and usually when I’m downtown shopping I don’t have enough patience to sift through every piece of clothing.
In addition, I recently got reamed out by a salesperson at the changing room because I didn’t realize I had to take a number to go in (my mistake, I know, but I had thought the lineup started further into the changing room area due to a lady waiting for a friend or something). Anyway, nobody stopped me as I slowly ambled my way in with arms full of pants after pausing at the desk without acknowledgement.
When I came out and realized my mistake, rather than being polite about it or even just asking to check to make sure I didn’t stash a bunch of pants into my laptop bag, the saleswoman berated me in front of two of her other colleagues as if I was an 8 year old. This is despite the fact that I’d already apologized at this point and acknowledged my own mistake.
Actually I take that back, even when I was 8 nobody ever talked down to me like that.
Haven’t been back.

As long as you’re willing to hunt for the deals, esp. for the men’s clothing on those forever racks, sure… just not for me. But i’ll admit it feels good when u do find that perfect jeans with the right waist & right length so you don’t need any alterations.
A bit smaller than Richmond’s but nevertheless, more selection than a man really ever needs in terms of clothing. Also a decent section for men’s toys, handbags too.
It’s esp. convenient if you’re on the way to this area for Future Shop ;) Being on the top floor, I prefer using the elevator to save time from their slow escalators.
I do find their customer service at the checkouts much faster than their other locations.

You have to spend waaaay too much time here separating the wheat from the chaff. And granted I arrived at the end of the day, but the store was very untidy and quite grimy. I am not sure if it is like this all of the time but I was not impressed.
I am not expecting to find Vivienne Westwood in the so-​called «Runway at Winners» designer section but I expected a whole lot more than some skittles colored Jones of New York t-​shirts. For the most part the garments I saw throughout the store were not particularly well crafted and were of some really strange fabrics.
My one find was a beautiful pair of wool lined Italian calf skin gloves for about half the price you would pay at a higher end retailer. They literally were the only nice pair among an end cap filled with weirdly colored, damaged and ill-​fitting gloves.
If you have tons of time to find the 1% of decent garments in among the schmatta then have at it. I just won’t be there with you.

A friend kept raving about how great Winners is and how she got a pair of Hunters for $ 60.00. I went in assuming it was a discounted shoe warehouse but they offer primarily discounted men/​women clothes from high end brands, med price range cosmetics, and practical/​luxury accessories. Really impressed with the brands they offer and their prices considering how much I like shopping at Holt Renfrew and Yaletown boutiques.
The store can be a big clutter but if you want to look for something you like you really have to spend 1 – 2 hours searching. I went in looking for shoes (I am a size 6 or 5.5) but it was not that easy to find items that perked my interest in purchasing but I did find a pair of CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN HEELS for $ 700 that is a few hundred dollars cheaper than what you get at Holt Renfrew.
I browsed around some more and found the selection of underwear decent with Walmart prices.
If you don’t take the time to search, you might be disappointed. Lastly if you hate dogs steer away from this store… Dogs aplenty.

This store is a last resort for buying t’s for t-​shirt design but selection for men’s large, was almost nil to nonexistent. I did find a cute Mat and Nat purse once for around $ 150. It was around the same as what I’d pay at Holt’s, but a season too late, so I can’t really call it a deal. Still, I used it a lot and you’d never know that I purchased it here.
I notice that it’s about 1.5 x amount of what you’d pay at TJ Maxx in the US, which is to be expected, of course.
Lines move quite quickly and the staff is cordial. I really would rather wait and go to the US than to shop here, except that can be a pain and inconvenient. Even the shampoo selection isn’t as good here, if you trust the age/​quality. The women’s clothes are similar to TJ’s but again, more money and around a year late in trends.
So, overall, not a bad place for select essentials when you are attempting to get a better deal than you’d find elsewhere.

I do heart Winners. But there is nothing like a trip to Winners to put me in a bad mood! Especially on a weekend!
Once upon a lifetime when I was a wee young lass I worked at Winners and used to see all the fabulous new things coming in. Now I shop with the huge throngs of people milling around the downtown location. I really have to be in the mood to shop here. If I’m not in the mood to sift through tightly packed racks I can get very irritated. You cannot blame the staff for not being able to keep the place organized as a) it’s crazy busy and b) people are slobs. I always see people knocking things down and throwing them around. Which is probably why when you go to try things on the staff always say «make sure you bring that back on the hanger» (brashly…usually). It’s a bit of a gripe because I always put things back on the hanger, but I don’t need to be told that I have to. Does that make sense? Meh.
If you have the time (and patience!) to sift through the racks and navigate the aisles then GO!
But be warned… they have one of the worst returns policies EVER! I’m to lazy to type any more, but if you want an example then please refer to Exhibit A: My review of Homesense (same company).

¹⁄₂₀ times I visit the store, I usually find the diamond in the rough.
Winners is full of items that cannot sell in regular stores. Clothing and accessories might be outdated or just the fact that they are a little off.
It may be annoying to dig through, but when I’m on the treasure hunting mode, I can rummage through the craziness and usually find something I really love.

Oh Winners. If I had years of dedication to carefully sort through your endless shelfs of crap I would find some lovely things. Seeing as how I don’t, I hardly find the good things.
From time to time there are great finds on designer items that, I kid you not, are sometimes cheaper than Value Village.
Most of the time you can find pretty good iphone accessories, cheap hair products and nail polish. Most of the time I don’t spend enough time looking for the better designer deals.

This Winners is as much a clusterf*ck as the one in Metrotown, but. hey.
I am sad by the lack of children’s clothing though! I know it’s downtown and all, but I like to buy my stepkids stuff sometimes on my lunch hour. Sad face.
However, the thing that really bothers me, and not about just this Winners, it’s all of them. Their ‘hair’ products and whatever other bottled stuff. YOU GUYS, don’t buy it. It’s repackaged crap. Trust me. My Aunt works in the salon/​spa industry and says to save your money and go to the actual Salon to buy products. Please don’t buy it. it’s cheap for a reason.
I have bought a couple pairs of shoes and a dress here, though.

I avoid this Winners for anything other than purses or shoes, but am sure to check-​in every couple of months as they have the best selection I’ve found at any location. I love their purses as they carry Matt & Nat bags. And not just one. In yellow. Hidden in the back row. But tons. They have full sized bags, handbags, and wallets, all for considerably lower prices than what they’re sold for on-​line or in other retail stores. Sure, they’re still over $ 100, but that’s the brand and I would rather that then the regular $ 300 price tag.
Shoes, I can’t really say much about. The size 10+ section is usually fully stocked, and it’s nice to see styles that are also available in the smaller sizes. Somehow they always look like boats though, and while they fit, I think there’s something about the illusion that your size is going to look like the size 6 display shoe, that makes them winners.