Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC)
Monday, December 21st, 2009
A wondrous playground! A place where you’ll find treasures! A place where you can while away the hours, darting from rack to rack!
Don’t mind me, we’re half way through watching “Where the Wild Things Are”.
Mountain Equipment Co-Op is a chain of co-operative outdoor stores, where basically you have to be a member to buy stuff there, and gear is usually cheaper there. They’ve got stores across Canada, and they’re all very cool. The good news is that a lifetime membership only costs $5, yes, $5. Not sure if you get a certificate with it, but you do get a card, and your phone number is attached to your account so anyone can then use that phone number to be able to purchase stuff. Not that I’d condone that sort of thing.
Still, it’s a great place to start if you’ve just landed in Vancouver and haven’t got your layers sorted out, or if you’re starting to realise they weren’t kidding when they called it “Brollywood” or the “Lower Rainland”.
We visited the West Broadway store yesterday to pick up some stuff before we head to Mexico on Thursday. Water purification stuff, as well as emergency meals, just in case we get sick of burritos and tacos. Or something.
Here’s the outside, and a quick street view too. This one is on Broadway right near a bunch of other outdoor stores, so if you’re in the mood to sniff Gore-Tex and Polarfleece, this is the area for you!
For the record, it got to a high of +10c over the weekend, quite warm! I’m not kidding, after a week or two of close to zero or less, it’s funny how warm 10 feels. Well, not that warm…
