Shopping in the Great White

This weekend's Shopping Cart feature has lead me to thinking about one of my most often thought of fashion dilemma... Canadian Plus Size retailers.

I discovered this site; http://www.plussizefashion.ca/ which lists what is available to Canadian women wearing plus size but frankly, more than half of them are still just American sites who just happen to ship to Canada. If these retailers want Canadian customers, why have none of them set up shop here?

That is my real question.

Why do we have only a handful of retailers carrying plus sized clothing (and 3 of the 5 that come to mind are all owned by the same company.. but more on that later!)?
In recent years we have seen some of the US favorites like American Eagle, H&M or Forever 21 (which does have a plus size line but doesn't have a store on the east coast OR carry it in most of their shops???) but not one of the major plus stores have opened up in the Great White North.



...I hope it's not because people like me use phrases like 'Great White North'?!!

So if we want great items from places like Torrid we have to order online. I've done this & the shipping was quick but... expensive. Torrid offers free shipping deals all the time to their US customers but doesn't extend the same courtesy to us Canadians. They also don't offer us a flat fee for shipping (like say the UK's ASOS does - $14!). I paid almost $40 in shipping for my last order.
It really does not cost them much more to ship to us in Canada, so why not offer free shipping? I mean, we will probably have to pay giant duty fees on our purchases anyways, so make it easy on a girl, Torrid!
Forever 21 stores have reached Canada but not the east coast AND to make matters worse a) only a couple locations carry the plus line & b) they don't even carry the full plus line on the Canadian version of the website! (Check out a previous post all about that!)

Okay okay, enough about what we can't get (for now...*sigh). What CAN we get? Where can we big Canadian girls, walk in & buy something? Here are the big hitters;

• Pennington's - plenty of locations & an online shop (flat shipping, free returns). These tend to be large stores in plazas carrying wide selections of items... problem is they tend to be almost all for the older demographic of plus size's. You can occasionally find something fun & current there though.

• Addition Elle - Guess what? This store is owned by the same company as Pennington's!  It tends to sell higher end (higher priced) items that are more for the 20-40 demographic.  They also carrying a younger line called MXM. Probably my favorite thing to purchase there, besides camisoles are dresses & bras. They have an extensive assortment of bras & panties.



• Reitmans - Canadian chain that carries petite, regular & plus size clothing. Specializing in casuals, denim & cotton basics. Oh & guess what? This company owns Pennington's & Addition Elle! Strangely I find their jeans are better fit & at half the cost.

• Old Navy - we are all familiar with this large chain, owned by Gap. Their sizes in Canada only go up to 20 though (...while their US counterpart goes to 30!).
• Walmart - I don't really think I need to describe this hallow hell, do I? hahaha

I think our only salvations at the moment are Etsy & the speciality boutique. Beautiful shops & people who have the sense to know & care that there are women beyond the size 12/14. But I'll have more* to say about that in another post.

So what are your shopping experiences like, plus sized, east coast, west coast, online - I want to hear it all! Share in my misery (or rant)! 

In Montreal, wearing Torrid, Addition Elle & Winners

*If you are an east coast shop owner or Canadian website who would like to talk to me about what you have to offer plus size shoppers please feel free to to contact me - I'd love to hear from you!