Commuting and Shopping to Carrefour Laval

Like most Montrealers, I get around with BMWs (snazzy lingo for Bus Metro Walk) to get to point A to point B. However I noticed how obsessed people are about their commute time. How long are people willing to travel to shop?

A look inside Farfelu novelty and trinket store.

I asked myself this question when it came upon trying out Carrefour Laval as my guinea pig location. The Carrefour Laval is famous being the gargantuan mall with over 200 stores on the northern island and most consider Laval to be “pretty damn far” due to inconvenient commuting roads. Since the completion of three new metro stops on the Orange line extending to Montmorency, I decided to give it a whirl to see exactly how long will it take to go there.

Commute time? 1h15 mins.

The starting point was my home, in the far east of Montreal on the Green Line; this commute included bus and walking as well. You might be able to shave off 15 mins if you’re really lucky and get everything on time. Also take note that you will have to spend a minimum of $7.50 (for a roundtrip) since Laval’s transportation system does not belong to the STM and the three new metro stations will charge you extra if you try to come back to Montreal from those stations.

Shopping in Carrefour Laval has its good points and drawbacks though.

The Good

1) During winter time, it’s a blessing to have everything in one single spot. You can shop for home improvement at their indoor Rona to buying daggers, swords and peasant clothing at medieval themed store La Table Ronde.

2) Laval’s Simons (pictured above) is perceptually larger as its store concept is much more open and square, and lacks the chaotic mess as the one downtown. It also boasts a very modern and attractive home and bath section full of colorful towels and rugs.

3) Indoor garden-like atrium, one time I saw macaws inside huge bird cages there.

4) A couple of very trendy home deco boutiques like Le Living (similar to Zone) and some quirky colorful ones like Farfelu.

5) They have an authentic Build-A-Bear workshop store, we have something similar called Univers Toutou (formerly Atelier Toutou) which extends to other animals other than bears, located in the Old Port.

The Not So Good

1) Bring good walking shoes, you’ll be there for a while.

2) Their H&M only has the uber trendy collections, none of that hip office look like the one I can find at the Rockland Center.

3) The Apple store isn’t all that fantastic unless you’re a computer/Apple fan.

4) You can pretty much find all of these stores in the downtown area.

So the novelty of being in the Carrefour Laval is that it’s just so darn huge. But fashion wise, there is little to attract outsiders looking for a good deal or a unique store. After a while it feels like a copycat Houston mall with Canadian labels, and there’s nothing fantastic about that.

If you’re willing to kill a lot of time, feel free to make the trip, but I doubt there would be any reasons for Montrealers to leave the island to go shopping elsewhere. It’s a shame though, it’d be nice if the shopping experience can be expanded to the city surroundings, it would make the commute feel more like traveling to a fun and different place instead of winding up to a place where you can get the same thing on the island.