Part of the problem is the lack of selection in Canada. The mall closest to me has two anchor stores - Zellers and The Bay - both owned by Hudson's Bay company. They sell similar merchandise, though Zellers is a discount retailer. The next largest store is Winners, a division of TJX of Framingham, Massachusetts. There are several generic clothing stores and a couple of lingerie and jewelry stores, and a couple of specialty stores. There is really nothing unusual about these stores, and it is probably quicker to pick something up there than to do it online. None of these shops really have their own brands or work from a finite catalog. Exceptions are the bookstores which work from a catalog of books. I frequently shop online at Amazon.ca, as do many others. Best Buy and Future Shop - electronics retailers - also lend themselves to online shopping. Contrast this with Victoria's Secret which has a finite catalog to shop online from. A former US resident, I also have a VS credit card, which makes my shopping simpler. They also ship from a Canadian address which eliminates Customs charges. And there are no Canadian specialty kitchen stores as far as I can see, but I can select from Williams-Sonoma or Crate and Barrel online. I can also select from LL Bean, Frontgate, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, or any number of large specialty stores that have their own well known brands. And US residents actually receive their paper catalogs in the mail too. Of course Canadians may not realize just what they can do online.