shopping

Buying local, without leaving home, a popular choice for Okanagan holiday shoppers

OKANAGAN - It’s already well known that online shopping has taken over a large piece of the Christmas retail pie, but that doesn’t mean people are giving up on buying local to fill the stockings this Christmas. You don’t have to go out to a farmer’s market or holiday craft fair to buy local, you...

Vernon’s Village Green Centre celebrates 40 years in the community

VERNON - After four decades the Vernon mall still offers something you can’t get with online shopping: a social, community atmosphere. Much has changed at the Village Green Centre since its grand opening Aug. 6, 1975. Now, friends can meet at Starbucks for a cup of coffee before strolling through the automatic doors. You can...

Canadian Tire to reinvent former Vernon Target space by next spring

VERNON - Shoppers will have to wait until at least next spring to see inside the former Target space in the Vernon mall. Scarce details are being released from the Canadian Tire Corp., which announced it was buying 12 real estate leases, including the Vernon location, last May. Canadian Tire spokesperson Joscelyn Dosanjh says in...

Empty stores a worry for Vernon mall merchants

VERNON - If you’ve been to the Village Green Centre lately, you might have noticed less variety in the 40-year-old mall. Currently, seven stores in the shopping centre are vacant and merchants are feeling the void. The Target closure left a large, 103,000-square-foot hole in the mall, but there are other gaps too. Ricki’s has...

Vernon mall says goodbye to another retailer

VERNON - Shopping options continue to shrink at Vernon’s Village Green Mall. Ricki’s, a fixture at the mall since the shopping centre opened 40 years ago, will close its doors by the end of the month as part of a company restructuring plan. The news comes not long after Target announced it was pulling out...

Vernon city councillor suggests softening up parking rules

VERNON - A Vernon city councillor hopes to make the downtown core a more inviting place by giving shoppers a grace period at the parking meter. Coun. Brian Quiring led a motion to have city staff investigate the possibility of establishing a five minute grace period at expired meters. “I think you should be able...