I’m not usually a huge fan of malls but when I have to go to a mall I find that this is the mall I continuously go back to. Firstly, Oakridge mall is really easy to get to being on the Canada Line of the SkyTrain, secondly it caters to the local neighbourhood more than anyone else and it tends to be more calm than its big sister, Pacific Center, downtown.  

It has a decent food court area but it’s the variety of different stores that you’ll not find downtown that I like here. Jac is a local designer that has just that one store in this mall, Papyrus, which is a great card shop and a makeup store that, while it isn’t as big as say Sephora, has some of the best service I’ve ever received. The usual suspects like Coach, Lululemon, etc can be found here too but again they are not nearly as over run as the locations you’ll find downtown. The added bonus is that there is a Crate & Barrel, which is a great furniture store, here as well.