My family and I have just come back from a wonderful holiday in the US of A. I have always loved everything about our annual pilgrimage to South Carolina: planning the route, staying in a hotel on the way down, arriving to sunshine and heat, and the shopping…aaaah the shopping!!!
But the golden lure of cross-border shopping has lost a little of its luster (in spite of the surprisingly strong Canadian dollar). I remember the days of excitement heading into Gap, Banana Republic, Victoria’s Secret, Pottery Barn, Bath & Body Works, Coach and J.Crew…stores we Canadians had heard of, stores we may have received catalogues from, but stores we could only visit when we shopped with a passport.
Now I can buy my jeans at the Gap down the street, pick up undies at Victoria’s Secret at any mall, and in mere weeks I’ll be able to pop into Canada’s first J.Crew store!!! Hallelujah!
However, this trip introduced me to a new cross-border shopping find.
I can hear you rolling your eyes (what…I’m a mother?!…I can so hear that!!) and saying, “JenTrend, JenTrend, we have Goldfish crackers up here. I’ve been feeding those cheddar baked babies to my own little babies for years.” I know.
But the flavours (or flavors) that those Americans can access; s’mores, vanilla cupcake, ranch, and my personal fave, pretzel. While we Canadians get a couple of flavours (cheddar, parmesan, whole wheat, and I think I saw pizza for the first time in my grocery store this year), there are entire aisles devoted to the varieties of Goldfish in the USA. Aisles and aisles in Target (which better work on bringing this plethora of Goldfish flavours up to us when it graces our land in 2013!!).
In the meantime, I know what I’ll be asking any of my traveling friends to bring me for the next couple of years.