Pacific
Mall
Location:
4300 Steeles Avenue East, Markham, ON, L3R 0Y5
Pacific Mall is located on the northeast
corner of Kennedy Road and Steeles Avenue East. It is right on the
Toronto/Markham city border and is still considered "Greater Toronto Area".
That's why I categorize this page as "Toronto" anime shopping guide.
Description:
Pacific Mall is the largest Chinese mall in Canada located in a Chinese
neighbourhood. It is mainly Hong Kong themed and items are mainly
imported from asian countries. When you go there to shop, keep it
in mind that Cantonese/Mandarin is the main language there. As more
and more non-Chinese who would shop there, English language is mostly accessible.
You might occasionally run into some storekeepers who don't understand
enough English. Lately anime DVDs have become very popular in most
of the DVD stores, so most of them have some sort of collection of anime
DVDs, even the ones not listed in this guide. It is a great place
to contact with asian cultures even if you are not buying anything ^^.
Direction
inside the mall:
The stores are arranged in a systemic
way like little cubes in straight lines. Since the mall looks about
the same on either ends, infrequent visitors can easily get confused with
the location of a particular store they saw on their previous visits.
The easiest way to trot through the mall is to go systemically up or down
one aisle after the other. There are 5 aisles that runs North to
South and a few that runs east to west. The store number starts from
the south east corner (A1) and go up to the north end of the mall.
The stores on the west side are those with store number begins with "E".
There is no store numbers 4, 14, 24, 34, 44, etc....because "4" is considered
unlucky.
Best time
to shop:
Most stores in the mall do not open
till 1pm and close at 7pm to 8pm. The best time to go there is weekdays
from 1pm to 5pm, which is the "non-rush hours" for the mall. My advice
is never go there during weekends or holidays because you won't be able
to find parking. The traffic at the mall parking lot and the nearby
streets is a mess during mall "rush hours", i.e., weekends and holidays. |
North
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E |
E |
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D |
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C |
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Bank |
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72 |
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65 |
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51 |
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Center |
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30 |
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26 |
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17 |
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9a |
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E |
D |
D |
C |
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B |
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A |
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exit |
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Ground level
simplified map not
in proportion
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Anime Related
Stores: (in store location order by the aisles)
Last update:
Oct 7, 2009
My Toys (A17)
A store with lots of anime model
kits and figurines.
Kidult (A18)
Right next to the above store is
a small store for capsule toy machines you can get your anime toys from.
$2 CAD for each turn. They sell little cellphone string figurines too.
Video Square (A30)
Anime DVDs and Japanese and Korean
TV shows in DVDs/VCDs.
Sunny Ltd (B26)
It has a good collection of fandub
anime tapes. Anime accessories including posters, wallscrolls, stickers,
playing cards, tarot cards, keychains, figurines, plushie dolls, etc...
Also sells a small collection of SonMay CDs. Nice and honest store
owner. Non-anime items includes car accessories and stationary.
Store close on Wednesdays except during summer.
Gundam Base (B65)
Anime character and mecha model
shop with things you need to make models.
Anime Express (C09a)
This store fills with a good collection
of anime DVDs. You can find the lastest anime available there.
Friendly store keepers who are anime fans themselves. A recommended
store for anime DVD's.
AV Pro (E11)
Anime and non-anime asian DVDs and
VCDs. Pay attention on the DVD or VCD what kind of subtitles they
have. Some only come in Chinese subtitles.
Disc Mania (E16)
It has a pretty good collection
of SonMay or EverAnime anime CDs and a lot of anime DVD (or VCD) in fairly
good prices. Nice people there who are anime fans themselves, just
ask them for details. Non-anime items includes VCDs from Japanese
and Korean TV shows. Same owner as AV Pro. A recommended store
for anime DVD's.
Uny (E51)
A stationary and accessories store
with Sanrio, anime and other Japanese products. It has some anime
posters, figurines, accessories, etc... They seem to be playing anime
on their TV all the time.
Pacific Gifts Ltd (E61)
It sells and buys trading cards
and has tables for people to play their trading card games in the store.
Other Interesting
Stores:
Ding Dong (C70-72)
A store full of asian imported snacks,
e.g., Pocky, Japanese candies, anime theme candies with collectible items
inside the box. The type of anime theme candies they stock tends
to change a lot at different times. So it depends on your luck what
you'll find when you are there. There are other similar snacks store
in the mall as well, so you can also check them out, but Ding Dong is still
the biggest store.
Utsuwa-no-Yakata: Japan the Art
of Tableware (Second level)
A store with authentic Japanese
tableware run by Japanese. It is a big store in the central area
of second level. You can't miss it.
Miscellaneous:
Currently, the most you see in Pacific
Mall are DVDs stores mainly selling Chinese DVDs. Besides those are
the cellular phone stores and cellular phone accessories stores.
There are also some Hong Kong style fashion jewelry and "genuine" jewelry
stores, Chinese herbal stores, Hong Kong fashion trend boutiques and a
few stores selling authentic traditional Chinese dresses. For those
who like bubble tea, there are a few stores selling bubble tea. There
are a few computer stores in the Mall that sells computer or parts in great
prices too (aisle E). I highly recommend you to buy your new PC there
or check out parts there.
On the second level, there is a "Pacific
Heritage Town" with special traditional Chinese decorations. Inside
there are small shops selling various things like those on the first level.
One of the stores sells good authentic Chinese decors. There is also
a food court selling traditional Chinese food. There is another food
court at the other end of the second level with authentic Chinese food
as well.
Questions?
Feedback? Suggestions? Requests?
Ever since I have created this guide,
I have received many feedback and questions from e-mails, which is very
encouraging for me ^^. It is good to know that a lot of people have
read this guide and finds it helpful. Your feedback is very welcomed.
Anime-related store owners: Want
to get your store listed here? Information about your store need
to be corrected? Want to give me cookies (or discount) for listing
your store here :D ? Please send me an e-mail using this form.
Anime shoppers: Feedback about
this guide? Questions about anime shopping? Something on here
need to be updated? Some good anime-related store that I don't know
about and should know about? Let me know using this form.
This shopping guide is brought
to you by
Rushita,
solely on a non-profit basis. Happy anime shopping! |
