Ottawa Trainyards

I’m conflicted on how I feel about Ottawa Trainyards, despite shopping there like every week. It has good stores that I like to shop at, but it is so spread out. It is reminiscent of Heartland Town Centre in Mississauga. It’s a plaza as opposed to a mall, so you have to go outside to go to different stores. To go from some stores to others you will have to cross the parking lots and/​or streets. I am not a fan of this when it is –30 degrees outside and cars without snow tires are skidding across the parking lot and drivers who don’t brush the snow off their car properly have a hard time seeing pedestrians! Under those conditions, I go to an indoor mall.
My favourite store here is Marshall’s. Designer brands for discount prices, what’s not to like? This Marshall’s has a fairly large what they call «Red Carpet» section with luxury brands like Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Ferragamo. They also have more affordable Contemporary brands like Coach, Kate Spade and Michael Kors. I mean sure that Valentino clutch is super cute, but $ 1200 for a hand bag is too spendy for my blood. They have the usual Marshall’s/Winners brands too (e.g. Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Max Studio, etc.).
I like the RW & Co. here too. It’s usually less picked over than the one at the Rideau Centre and I find that there are more sizes at the Trainyards one.
The Michaels here is fairly large and well organized.
There’s a Banana Republic Factory Store here. Now I’m a hardcore shopper, and it has been my observation that the items for sale at the Factory Store were never in the retail stores. Which leads me to the conclusion that the items at the Factory Store were made exclusively for Factory Stores and are different than items sold at the retail stores. In my opinion, items at the Factory Store are of poorer quality than items at the retail stores. So caveat emptor! I wish that they had what I call a «real outlet» store (or the outlet stores of days past) where they sold items that were actually in the retail stores (past seasons, colours that didn’t sell, sizes that didn’t sell, etc.)
There’s a Sail at Trainyards. I think this is the only Sail in Ottawa. It’s huge and they often have good sales.
There’s also Ottawa’s only David’s Bridal here.
They are planning on opening a DSW in 2016!
There’s stuff here for everyone. They have a Walmart, Dollarama, Think Kitchen, Chatters, Aldo, Moores The Suit People, Carter’s Osh Kosh, Addition Elle, Bed Bath and Beyond, Sleep Country, Cleo, Ricki’s, and much more. All they are missing is a stand-​alone drug store (there is a pharmacy in Walmart though). They even have a medical centre (AIM) and a gym (Movati).
As for food, there’s a Kiwi Kraze (frozen yogurt), Mucho Burrito, Five Guys Burgers, Subway, Roger’s Italian Bistro, Coconut Palm (Vietnamese cuisine), Scores, Wendy’s, Tim Hortons, and a Starbucks. Note that they are spread out across the plaza, not all together in one location. You can also eat at Farmboy as they have a nice eating area (and their prepared foods are pretty good).
I guess overall there are more positives than negatives, so yeah, I like Trainyards.