Shoppers are waiting hours to get into stores at Vaughan Mills

Blogto.com
July 6, 2020
Becky Robertson

Vaughan Mills is among the malls that go the go ahead to reopen to the public on June 19 as York region moved into Stage 2, while Toronto was still left waiting haircut-, patio- and mall-less back in Stage 1 along with Windsor-Essex and Peel.

But even after malls like the Eaton Centre and Sherway Gardens were finally permitted to resume operations as of June 24, Vaughan Mills has still been consistently busy, with long lineups at many of its stores.

Sixteen days after opening once more, customers looking to hit up some of the shopping centre's stores are experiencing long waits just to get in their doors.

Athletic wear stores like Nike, Adidas, Foot Locker, Asics and Puma seem to have the most people happy to queue to get their hands on some merchandise in-person.

The Nike store in particular was so long it snaked down the hall and outside one of the mall entrances.

People have been complaining about the overcrowding, wondering why so many shoppers are taking the risk of venturing to such a busy indoor space when there are tons of other (safer) alternatives right now, like online shopping.

People are also noticing that despite new health and safety measures that the facility has put in place -- such as signs to remind shoppers of proper physical distancing rules -- very little mask wearing or social distancing is being practiced.

The chaos has even sparked calls for Vaughan mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua to implement a mandatory mask policy in indoor public settings like malls -- something Kingston and Toronto have already done.

Those who have been desperate enough, for whatever reason, to head to the mall lately have also noticed that not only are people failing to allot at least two metres between themselves and others while browsing in stores or roaming the centre's halls, they also haven't been spacing themselves out well while lining up.

Many are now wisely vowing to keep away from Vaughan Mills until others get their fix and the hordes die down a bit. But they likely won't be heading to another shopping centre in the area instead, as long lines seem to be a continuing problem at select stores in malls like the Eaton Centre, too. Though we all know that people in the Toronto area love to line up for basically anything -- from donuts and ice cream to White Claw -- hopefully the novelty of being able to do normal activities like walk around a mall for the first time in months will soon wear off and people's common sense will kick in.