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1.000.000 Comix
This living archive could document the history of the comic book. Marvel and DC of course but also left-field titles like Crumb and Tom of Finland . It also does a sideline in toys, T-shirts and cards.
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Archambault
Behind the art deco portals you'll find Montréal's oldest and largest book and record shop. Spread over four floors, this emporium boasts a great selection of CDs and books, apart from assorted musical supplies such as pianos and sheet music. Some recordings sold here are hard to find outside Québec.
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Au Papier Japonnais
You'd never have guessed how many guises Japanese paper can come in until you visit this gorgeous little shop. The lamps and kites make great gifts and you can fold them for easy transport. This store has also become a bit of an arts and crafts hub and offers dozens of workshops and seminars a year on things like bookbinding or how to make lampshades.
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Birks Jewellers
For more than a century this upscale vendor of baubles and bangles has been Montréal's answer to Tiffany's of New York. After the business went bankrupt an Italian group took over and completely refurbished the weighty Romanesque-Renaissance building in 2001. Just the coffered ceiling in Wedgewood blue warrants a visit to the sales floor.
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Bodybag by Jude
The brainchild of Montréal designer Judith Desjardins, her Bodybag label is reasonably priced (around C$100 per piece) and full of interesting shapes, volumes and fabrics like microfleece. The wonderful staff are big cheerleaders for the clothes without being pushy.
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Boutique Eva B
In a space reminiscent of a theater's back stage, this boutique is a riot of recycled women's clothing, retro gear and new streetwear. It's the kind of place where 1950s bowling shoes are proudly arranged beneath a flock of floaty feather boas and yet it all seems very normal. The store doesn't have regular closing hours and stays open into the night as long as there are still customers.
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Centre de Commerce Mondial de Montréal
The World Trade Centre is hidden completely behind the old facade of the ruelle des Fortifications. A lane marks the former location of the northern wall of the Old Town. Inside is a sweeping concourse with luxurious Italian fountains, an elegant carved stairway and a section of the Berlin Wall; above lie multiple layers of chic boutiques and stores.
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Centre Eaton
This five-story retailing palace on the main shopping drag is home to 175-plus stores and restaurants, and six movie screens. The tax-refund service Global Refund Canada is on the 4th floor. The Promenade de la Cathédrale is an underground passage of the complex that runs beneath the Cathédrale Christ Church.
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Chabanel Warehouses
Bargain-sniffers from far and wide flock to the Chabanel, an eight-block expanse of old factory buildings in northern Montréal west of boul St-Laurent. Inside are hundreds of 'suites' or warehouse storage rooms stuffed with locally made and imported items. From Buffalo jeans to Monte Calvo coats to Indian skirts, the choice is so huge it's almost paralyzing. Prices are good even if you don't bargain.
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Chapters Bookstore
Peruse three huge floors of English- and French-language books and a fantastic choice of travel-related items in the sunken floor in the back. There's a coffee bar and internet café on the 2nd floor (around C$2 per 20 minutes).
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Cheap Thrills
Montréal's oldest used CD and cassette shop is so full you can hardly swing a cat. The selection covers everything from electronica, noise and indie-rock to jazz, blues and R&B, including hard-to-find imports. Upstairs you can snap up new recordings usually several dollars below prices elsewhere, and there's a decent collection of paperbacks.
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Complexe Desjardins
This 1970s multifunctional complex links three office towers, a shopping mall and a big public plaza with atrium, trees and tinkling waterfalls in what's still Montréal's largest commercial building. The food court in the basement is usually buzzing with shoppers exhausted by the selection from 110 stores.
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Compusmart
Probably the best all-round retailer of computer software and hardware in Montréal - good enough that Future Shop will refer you here if you can't find the right item. Prices are competitive though higher than across the border in the US, but if you need it, you need it.
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Cruella
With a coffin centerpiece and one of the biggest arrays of Gothic and fetish clothing in Montréal, Cruella is undoubtedly the biggest apparition in the Plateau grave-digger's scene. Slip into a chain-link miniskirt, dominatrix leggings or a Victorian shroud to give your party that something extra, or pick up vampire fangs and bondage icons for your pale-faced friends.
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Diffusion Griff '3000
French fashion diva Anne de Shalla studied fashion in Paris and came to Montréal in the 1970s. She now selects from up to 30 Québec designers every year for her exclusive shop collection - stretchy leathers, semi-sheer dresses, blouses and wraparound casuals, not to mention just about every fur in the animal kingdom.
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Felix Brown
Black pumps with 10cm heels, overly ego-stroking staff and suits that mean business are the hallmarks of a shopping-trip to this place. All items are imported from Italy and styles are sharp as a tack.
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Fourrures Dubarry
This place carries oodles of off-the-rack fur jackets, hats, fur-trim capes and coats, plus a selection of sheepskin coats and leather jackets. There are no middlemen, which keeps prices low and you can trade in your old garment towards your purchase.
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Friperie St-Laurent
A friperie is a used clothing store and there are several in this area. This one however gets the highest marks from hard-core secondhand hounds for the general selection, condition of the clothes and the best chances of funky 'eureka!' finds.
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Future Shop
Canada's one-stop-shop for music systems, computers and software, printers, cell phones, video cameras and entertainment gadgets. Watch out for the weekly flyers with awesome sales. Your specialist computer needs, however, are more than likely better served at Compusmart.
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Galerie 2000
Always fresh and entertaining, this eclectic gallery has large, flashy, tasteful displays from classic landscapes to neo-Cubist portraits, with the occasional well-charted flight into the alternative and barely an inch of wall space to spare.
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Galerie De Bellefeuille
Even Montréalers may not know this gallery is one of the top private agents of Canadian art abroad, representing the likes of Nicola Hicks, Stephen Conroy or Jim Dine. Sculpture, paintings and limited edition prints are given excellent space in this grand ex-bank with its winding staircase. The manager, Anthony Collins, is a gold mine of knowledge on the local arts scene.
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Galerie le Chariot
This arts emporium claims to have the largest Inuit collection in Canada. Choose from artistic First Nations art carved mainly from soapstone, as well as prints, walrus tusks, fur hats, mountain goat rugs and fleecy moccasins. It satisfies a variety of tastes and budgets.
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Galerie Orange
Fantastic, bright new addition to Old Montréal's gallery scene, representing established and up-and-coming contemporary artists like Francine Simonin and Elmyna Bouchard and a terrific collection of works on paper.
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Galerie Pangée
Formerly known as Galerie Parchemine, a kind of framing cooperative, the owner recently decided to shut down that side of the business, chuck out all the framing equipment and reopen under the name Galerie Pangée. It's a wonderful, bright space devoted to showing off contemporary art.
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Galerie St-Dizier
This spacious Old Town gallery has always been at the forefront of the contemporary avant-garde scene in Montréal. Works are split between local and heavyweight artists known abroad, including Besner, Missakian, Tetro, and Walker. Its forté is naïve and modernist art and sculpture.
