Army & Navy Department Store

Army & Navy is pretty much the most old school department store ever. You know what though? They’ve been around since the 1920’s and have had to compete with some much bigger stores, so its pretty impressive that they’re still here.
Two reasons I like Army & Navy? They carry my cats favourite treats, and they have Vanilla Bean Jones Soda, both of which I can’t find anywhere else. I’ve also bought umbrellas and rain boots here in the past.
They seem to focus a lot on outdoor stuff, so if you’re into fishing or camping you’ll probably love it.
If you’re brave, you can try the in store café on the Cordova side. They have a small selection of sandwiches, hot dogs and other gas station style treats to choose from. There’s also a bunch of tables and chairs so you can relax, kick back, and enjoy the scenery. This neighbourhood is never short of local entertainment.

Army & Navy Department Store has been a staple in the Downtown Eastside since the days of Woodwards. I remember going here for cheap hot dogs and playing on the giant scale on the Cordova Street side as a kid.
Nowadays, it mostly inexpensive work clothes, no-​name brand clothing, «fake» NHL merchandise, fishing and camping gear and no-​name brand groceries at really cheap prices. Most items are FINAL sales or NO refunds, so make sure you want it before you buy it.
The security guards and staff here are super friendly in one of Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood. I don’t think the interior or exterior has changed since they open.

We stopped by to check out fishing gear and I was totally awestruck!
I knew this place was big, but I had absolutely no idea just how big. We took some time to hunt down the fishing gear, as Boyfriend had heard they had a great selection — and they did! There’s a giant section of the bottom floor dedicated to fishing and camping. We wandered the tents for a while (so cool), checked out a toilet bucket (no thanks), then moved on to the crab and shrimp traps (YUM). They have a good selection, and also have floats and rope, and everything else you could need.
They have a large fly fishing section, with feathers and pretty things of every colour (I liked that part, shockingly), tons of rods for every occasion, downriggers, bait, and every kind of hook, flasher, and wedding band you can imagine! I had to hold Boyfriend back from buying 800 more trinkets to attract the fishies.
Good prices and a great range of items makes this a great stop for all your tackle needs (yup, I’m giggling. Such a child.)

Before I learned that you can buy cheap stuff in the states I used to come here. Great deals on clothes, some in style just second run or out of fashion. Lately it has been hit and or miss but I do come out with a treasure or two. I have been here a few times in the past few months getting cheap disposable clothes for Coachella. To be honest I am here mostly for the great deals on the home décor and kitchen items. This isn’t the place to just go in and out. You will be suckered into staying later. This happens every time. Customer service is more miss than hit.

This store is a classic. It’s been here forever and a day. It’s kind of difficult to review because the merchandise changes out pretty often, but the main discounts day in and day out are clothes, shoes and sports gear. It’s a good place to wander through and seek out deals and treasures.
It is in gas town and sometimes a little dicey, so be aware of parking issues, lock your car, be safe if it’s after dark. I’m pretty sure the store «security» is just for show.

For those of you who remember I went down to the old Army & Navy on East Hastings in search of their old fashion chocolate malt. Maybe I’m dating myself but I’m sure there are people out there who know what I’m talking about.
Turns out that they haven’t made malts there for a long long time! The lady working there gave me a funny look when I asked her for a chocolate malt and she said after the malt machine broke many years ago they stopped serving malts! Darn! I wanted to relive my childhood…
Into my heart an air that kills
From yon country blows;
What are those blue remembered hills
What spires what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content
I see it’s shining plain
The happy highway I went
and cannot come again
Ok without checking your internet I’ll buy anyone lunch if they know who wrote the above poem!!!
Ok… back to it… This must be the first time I’ve been in Army & Navy in 25 years! I think its in great shape! The store in clean and inviting. They have lots of security around. I have to say for what it is… «Canada’s original discount store» it lives up to it’s own billing!
Ok now I’m going to get on my soapbox! What a f*cking mess the neighborhood is! People living on the margins of society all over the place! Lost souls wandering aimlessly. To tell the truth it was a bit sad! I’ve travelled so this is not the first «slum» I’ve been to, and to tell the truth this is not the worst slum I’ve seen. But we live in a first world country not a 3^rd world country! Canada is part of the G7! We’re a highly educated and industrialized country! Can’t we do better than this? Can’t we take care of our needy with more compassion than I see in 3^rd world countries?
I’m a bit long winded I know just one more point… a few weeks ago a friend of mine D.O. said something and I jumped on him! He made some statement like… oh Obama is such an idiot! He passed this bill… now look at the situation… He should do this… instead! I said to D.O. so you’re saying you’re smarter than Obama hey? You’re smarter than a Harvard law school grad hey? I continued by saying you (D.O.) see 1 inch of the issue. President Obama has to consider 10 miles of the issue!
It’s a long winded way of saying I don’t know all the issues involved in East Van homelessness and poverty. All I can see and comment on is what I see, and what I see looks pretty darn miserable!

I love army and navy and go there quite often for shopping but unfortunately yesterday had such a bad experience while dealing with one of their customer service staff called «Jocelyn». She was talking to me in a really bad and demeaning voice tune and finally I had to talk to her manager. Surprisingly while talking to her supervisor she wasn’t listening at all to my complaint and instead was labeling some panties! I just hope that army and navy managers retrain staff like her.

Confession; most of my shoes come from Army and Navy.
This is a weird store. Designer pumps 100 yards away from crab traps.
It can be fun poking around in this store. I’ve had tremendous luck with shoes (year round, not just at the shoe sale) and also kids clothes and grocery items.
You have to keep an eye on prices though, because not everything is cheap in here,
some things are more expensive. There’s also a fair bit of stuff that is pure junk.
If they have an elevator, I can’t find it… which prevents me from shopping there as often as I would like to because it isn’t stroller friendly.

This store is always for the most part very clean and very organized considering the location of the store. The staff members are amazing and work very hard to maintain their level of customer service and their efforts to keep their store in high standings for its guests. Gin, who works in the show department is absolutely amazing! I had an endless experience trying on shoes that I could not find in my Size! I gave up and went with my friends to the women’s shoes. There I found the same shoes I was looking for in the men’s but in a women’s size. Gin saw me attempting to try on these shoes. She came up to me quickly and asked if I checked the men’s style and sizes, I told yes but with no luck! She told me she would verify there was no more of that size! Soon enough she had a stock member bring me out my size in MENs! She is always so sweet when you interact with her! I appreciate your services Gin! Thank you again!

Cheap discounted items, long hall mazes and plenty of name brand steel toe shoes for the hubs. I stocked up on plain t shirts, snacks and canned goods, candy and flip flops. I’m ready for summer!

Cheap place to get anything really. Came here for school supplies and although there was limited stock I still found what I needed, best of all it was much cheaper then the bigger chain stores.

Closest thing to Superstore in terms of buying junk food cheap: chips, chocolate bars, candy.
as well as household items like soap, detergent.
Did come here to buy steel-​toe boots for ball hockey, was impressed by selection.
It’s actually a bit more done-​up than the area suggests.
too bad they don’t sell their famous malts back in the day.

just b/​c they likely are the last place ever to still exist after the great fire; oh yeah and the period furniture/​luggage etc.
Is this a store or museum?
people watching– marvel at the shoplifters working within view of the ‘security guards’…

Army and Navy. I have been going there since about age 13 or so.
Even 10 years ago, they would get lots of things from other companies that were going out of business, or that wanted to bring in new stock of great stuff so they were forced to get rid of stuff and would sell it to Army & Navy at a discount who would then pass the savings onto the customer!
That’s how it worked.
you would see actual army supplies next to lots of spam and a few dollar store items. You would see soaps from china (then more rare) and fans, and hotpots and everything would be cheap like Kmart.
They would have show stores once a year from actual designers. it would run $ 10 — to about $ 130 a pair.
Fast forward to 2013, when 3^rd class countries are engaged in «Race to the bottom» and companies would rather just throw out lots or merch rather then sell it.
Army & navy is a huge overpriced dollar who charged the same prices as all the other stores. Most shoes start at $ 60. I bought a fan this summer for $ 50 there. like, a cheap from china plastic fan. their stuff breaks, its sometimes even more expensive then other places, the purses start at 30 and run to 90 even though they are worth 5 — 30.
WHO SHOPS HERE?
I give them two stars only becuase of the food counter, the accessible bathrooms, the old fashioned scale, and the fact that when a pair of earphones broke (and the aforementioned fan) I got to return both.
I also buy the .50 cent ear plugs and once in awhile some hair bow or scrunchy (dont wander over to the drug isle — all the stuff they have is pricier then other pharmacies!)
The worst part is they serve the poorest of people who are not known for either their disposable incomes nor their common sense, so overcharging makes me madder.
NO DEALS TO BE HAD HERE.

this place and all the ppl in it (shoppers, workers) are stuck in time and takes me back to the woolworth or kmart of the 80’s where I used to go shopping with my grandparents. the presentation and some of the wares is straight throwback. some good quality stuff tho… especially for men

The A & N Boutique is stuffed full of bright, colourful, wonderful summer stuff! Just days before the giant shoe sale, I checked out pre-​sale stock. Some very nice DKNY, Born, Tahari, BenSimon sneakers, lots of colourful flip-​flops.
This is the place to stock up on picnic napkins, plastic serving ware, and very stylin’ duvet covers. Plus the faux raw silk drapery panels were cheap and trendy. The entire store was lookin’ chic, nice displays, easy to find stock, and genuinely friendly staff.
Check out the grocery section for Lisc jams. Just like what your Polish grandmother used to make. Oh wait; Lisc is made by Polish grandmothers!
A great store with cheap, wonderful stuff for home, and camping and fishing gear.
The neighbourhood is fine. Really.

While the area is not the best (not that bad, only a few homeless people), and the store’s details/​decoration is very minimalist. This place is cheap and I mean CHEAP!
Being from Seattle, everything in Vancouver seems double the price. However, Army & Navy is balls cheap! BALLS CHEAP!
$ 4 Flannels, come on! We went to a so called «thrift store» across the street and they were selling practically the same thing used for $ 15!
Definately will be coming back to make some purchases.

Pretty pretty pretty good.
Needed a few cheap pieces and although the hoodies weren’t as inexpensive as i would have thought (or numerous or in my size) i did find a basic toque for $ 1! That got me pretty excited. That and the wine gums…
Definitely worth a look if you are looking for cheap goods that don’t have to be of great quality.
Best part though was how everyone opens the door for you! I must have gone through the different sections at least 3 times and every time I felt like I was in a different era! Nice touch A&N, nice touch.

This place has a little of everything and most of it at a low price point. We wandered in here because it looked interesting and thought there might be something we couldn’t live without.
They did have soap here (read hotel review) so we picked some of that up. A lot of pharmacy fare as well as low priced dvds, clothing, camping gear and inexpensive snack food and drink.
We picked a few other essentials a camping mug (see hotel review again) and a few other items for the duration of our stay.
Fun to look around and see what they have. Apparently, one of Canada’s leading discount department stores. I’ll definitely check it out again if I need sundry type items.

This large department store is good for surprisingly few of its departments, notably grocery sales and cheap clothes.
The «in season» clothes recall a lot of the poorly tailored, awkwardly patterned selections from Wal-​Mart, with similar prices on all selections. Be warned, the knock off converse shoes here lasted my girlfriend and I approximately three weeks. In all fairness, as both bus riders and dance floor demons we used them much more than most people. Despite their poorly designed casual shoes, I can still recommend them for work boots, socks, pants, etc that seem both well made and priced. In the winter wool ankle socks are only a dollar!
Their groceries go higher or lower than supermarket prices, depending on the sales. I avoid buying most kitchen staples from here, which are inexplicably not arranged in the typical supermarket ring around the racks. Search for discounts on coffee and cereal, but dont bother looking for a true produce, bulk, or meat department.
The diner counter is cheap, about equivalent to an IKEA breakfast. Although I’m a fan of cheap grease, I couldn’t recommend this place to anyone with more than a dollar to their name. Go next door to Save On Meats.
Another quick tip: the two halves of the store are connected underground by the sports department, so you can avoid the weird and smelly alley if you’re scared by crackheads.
Overall an unimpressive shop unless you come looking for specific items. Keep in mind that they also have large sports and home furnishing departments full of stock I haven’t browsed through. Army and Navy is definitely discount retail from the downtown eastside.