The Bay. The final shopping frontier. Not as chic as Ogilvy/Holt, not as cool as Zara, not as Gappy as the Gap. Yet it combines ALL the high-end brands, including their sales, PLUS a points card, PLUS everything under one roof. PLUS a bathroom, and a nice one at that. Being a mall rat as I am, I know pretty much every single public washroom downtown MTL. In the five-star rating system I keep in my head, I would give The Bay’s a 4/5 stars. Clean, check. Esthetic, check. Always paper, check. Never a line-up, check. Lots of stalls, check. No elevator music, check. It even has a little seating area, (?!) and good hooks on doors. Why the lacking star? Well, to me there is only one bathroom that gets five. My bathroom mecca, if you will. Only used for special occasions, not really downtown either.
The W Hotel in Old Montreal. I would stay in the bathroom were there no rooms available. They were SMART, nothing reflects more about your service than how you maintain/style your loo. Picture this: perfect dim lighting oozes relaxation/zen-ness/sophistication. The sink is a series of faucets over a bed of rocks and pebbles. The thrones are made for royalty. Sensuous lounge music inundates your surroundings. Sometimes I catch girls just drinking and chatting in there, as if it were a non-threatening male-free (most of the time) oasis.
That was a random tangent, back to the Bay (Oh, another honourable mention: The Keg at Place Ville Marie). The Bay tries to stay cutting edge by offering crazy bonuses, mostly in their cosmetics section. This one is just plain ridonculous:
http://www.thebay.com/beauty/lancomegift.aspx
I am all over that, like orange make-up on Ryan Seacrest. Like muscle shirts on Simon Cowell. I don’t even watch A.I. to be honest, I just like poking fun at their people.
In summary, spend 34 bucks, get a gift worth 240. You choose 7 out of 14 products, and get a cosmetic pouch. Insane! While quantities last, til May 9th.
Just do it! (Property of Nike Inc.)
Peace out.
