Purchased many items there years. ago when showing horses bought a saddle I always cherished night…read morehorse equipment blankets, brushes, ev thing always great quality and lasted years

In the past I've had very good experiences at Apple Saddlery however I recently went in to buy a…read morehelmet and asked for a proper fitting. The person helping us said she could do one. All she did was look at the helmet on my child's head, asked her to move it up and down and said it fit. I asked another person to do a fitting and they directed me back to the person who'd originally helped us. The person helping us could not have cared less and acted irritated that I wanted to compare different sizes. I was shocked at the poor service for such an important and expensive piece of safety equipment. I have bought helmets there in the past and the fitting was much more thorough. I then went to another store where they spent over an hour properly fitting the same helmet and we ended up needing a different size.

So AUB 44 is pretty much L'Aubainerie from Quebec, but they call it AUB 44 in Ontario (the company…read morewas founded in 1944, so that's where the number comes from). It's a store that sells clothes for adults and kids. It's fast fashion and shall we say not the best quality for longevity (at least in my experience). I would say it's similar to Suzy Shier (which has been rebranded to just "Suzy"), Garage, and Dynamite. Not so much my jam now, but I loved L'Aubainerie when I was a broke student living in Montreal. I got tons of trendy clothes for really cheap. Sure they shrunk like crazy in the wash, but I was tiny (yes, even tinier than I am now, lol) so shrinkage was embraced, haha. And sure they faded in the wash and fell apart, but I was grungy-chic back then ;) The style of this company has changed a bit (they have less quirky stuff), and their prices seem to be a tad higher than I remember (even taking inflation into consideration), so maybe the quality has gone up too, I don't know. I haven't bought anything at AUB 44, as I haven't seen anything that appeals to me. However, I do enjoy poking around and being reminded of all the time I used to spend at the Aubainerie on Mont Royal Ave in Montreal :) This store is in Place d'Orleans and was actually the first store to open outside of Quebec! Lots of free parking in the mall parking lot.

Cheap quality. Bought some shorts and washed them before I even wore them once. Zipper broke. No…read morereturns or exchanges even with a receipt. Spend your money elsewhere.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Marshalls, Winners, TJ Maxx, Ross Dress for Less, and stores…read moreof that ilk (and let's not forget Loehmann's and Filene's Basement back when they had brick and mortar stores, while we're listing my favourite stores, lol). So I was super excited when I learned that Marshalls was opening a new store in Orleans. My parents and brother's family live in Orleans, and like a good daughter/sister/aunt, I visit them regularly. So what a great excuse to go shopping before or after my visits, haha! So all Marshalls look and feel very similar, but I'll tell you what stands out for me with this one. Their makeup section is one of the best. They have lots of higher end brands like Marc Jacobs (love their silky eyeshadows), Gucci, Dior, YSL, etc. compared to other locations. Also, since they are new, their cosmetics are less picked over (i.e. no broken blushes, lipsticks that have obviously been swatched/tried on, etc.). Their clothing section and shoe department is the same as others. Their food section I find has less variety. And they have less designer handbags. No jewelery department, as is the case with most Marshalls I've been to. The parking lot is not yet entirely paved, but it's fairly spacious. If you love shopping and live in or go to Orleans, why not duck in and have a look-see? :)

I've been hooked on Marshalls lately, and decided to take a break from my usual go to Marshalls at…read moreTrainyards and check out this one. It's smaller sized Marshalls than what I am used to but had all your usual departments like mens, womans, babies/kids, housewares and beauty. Some departments were smaller than others, and did not have a lot of selection, so I did not feel too fulfilled on my shopping trip, or maybe I just went on an off day? The one thing that I did love about this location were their snacks. I love coming to Marshalls and stocking up on chips, candies and some vegan jerky. They had loads of snacks by the checkout, which is located in the middle of the store. Which brings me to that...the checkout. The whole checkout situation kinda threw me off. I found the location of it awkward, and it's not very roomy if you have a cart or stroller. There is a HUGE Winners/Homesense down the street, so I was expecting this store to really "bring it" in terms of wow-ness, but it was just A-OK.