Happenings at the Aritiza Warehouse Sale

  

The annual Aritiza warehouse sale, a special event that most Vancouverite women and their mothers will flock to each fall. Prices under 50% call out and lure shoppers through the doors. The aisles and aisles of disorganized clothing keep girls trapped until they surface again 5 hours later, parched, hungry, and poorer. Remember to tell your family where you went because while you thought you'd just "take a look", you were never more wrong.

I experienced the sale in two waves. First as a shopper at the ticketed Family/Friends day, a day before the sale opened to the general public (having a friend at corporate office with an extra ticket is a boon). Second, on the 4th day of the 5 day sale.

People really want the advance tickets. Girls lined up for the pre-sale even without tickets in the hopes of scoring one from, what appeared to be, very subtle scalpers. I overheard friends chatting about who could and couldn't make it, who did and didn't find a ticket; this was Willy Wonka Golden Ticket type stuff. All these women readily wanting to part with their dollars and I was one of them. Having acknowledged this, I can only commiserate my fate as a sucker for consumerism.

In comparison to the Friends/Family pre-sale date, the actual sale was less organized and all the best items were mostly gone. None of the sweaters had survived to day 4 except a few here and there. Still, there were at least, if not more, than 60 long aisles of clothing left. Lines still existed for changing areas but entry lines seemed only present for the early morning shoppers. I walked right in around 3pm on Saturday.

In David's words, "this looks like hell"

I paused to watch the teenaged workers try and clean up after tsunamis of shoppers took things off racks and discarded them. Working at a Aritzia sale is a sad existence and a lesson in futility.

What amazed me was that Dedicated Boyfriends were also present at the ticketed pre-sale date. An actual ticket, that could have gone to a real shopper, was wasted to torture a man slave for hours. If there are not multiple reasons to revolt over this then the world is not a just place. 



Another tip, shop people's discard piles. Better yet, scout someone about your size, and shop their discards. It's effectively a cherry picked pile of clothes already with your sizing.

People were leaving the sale with XXL bags stuffed with clothing at the pre-sale and it only differed by degrees on the later date. I scored three really awesome outwear pieces, a few tops, a dress, a skirt. some gloves and a pair of pants. The prices were just crazy. I bought items marked at $400 for $150, $200 for $50 etc. David responded with, "Just goes to show how the market is overvaluing Aritzia"...true say, dear...true say. 

I feel like I'm supposed to show the stuff I bought now but I don't have quite the energy (or the help) to do another one of these. But I will say that I wore this to the event on day 4:

I'm sure everyone has a variation of "The Sale Outfit". A note on underwear, modest seamless bottoms and bra in nude are the best way to go. This is type of outfit I wear all the time to warehouse sales, its easy to get and out of and allows for quick mirrorless layering if necessary.

I'm pretty happy with how my sale experience turned out and maybe I'll muster up energy to showcase a few of the pieces I got. Toronto has a lot of things going for it but I do miss the Aritzia and Plenty warehouse sales in Vancouver where I often find really good pieces. Super shout out to Cindy for hooking me up (I really appreciate it). Until next year!

Ever attend an epic sale?