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Lifestyle

On the cheap retail shopping

Rating: NNNNN


Housewares hunting

Beautiful you Fill your closet, stock your kitchen, even get a massage and save your cash. You can buy all kinds of stuff without breaking the bank. Here are NOW’s tips on how to get retail relief.Honest Ed’s

581 Bloor West, 416-537-1574

Toronto landmark Honest Ed’s is one-stop shopping at its finest. The brightly lit labyrinthine store is best for housewares and sells everything from carpets to colanders to shampoo – all ridiculously cheap.

Undies ‘R Them

Super Sellers

474 Yonge, 416-925-5031

For the past 16 years, Super Sellers has been a fave pit stop with the YMCA crowd for dollar-store-esque beauty gear and, more importantly, for the large selection of discounted women’s designer bras, underpants, hose and athletic wear. Don’t be fooled by the raunchy window displays – demure sets are also available.

Shoe time

Joe Singer Shoes

903 Bloor West, 416-533-3559

2852 Danforth, 416-693-6045

Hit these two locations and cruise the bountiful racks crammed full of women’s (sorry fellas) leather shoes. Great for both work and club styles, and prices are often as low as $9.99!

Sock it to you

Chocky’s (B. Silverstein & son wholesale clothing)

327 Spadina, 416-977-1831

Facing St. Andrew in Kensington Market, Chocky’s is a great place to score inexpensive men’s and women’s Ts, undies, socks and PJs, plus casual clothes for bumming around. Look for brands like CK and Elita.

Outlet heaven

No matter where you’re located in the T-dot, factory outlet shopping is always only a 20-minute drive away – so skip Niagara Falls, New York, and keep your bucks on Canadian soil. Those on the east side can head up to Markville Mall (Woodbine and Highway 7 in Markham). It has a huge Winners , great Jacob and Club Monaco outlets, plus a Chapters just in case you’re going there with someone who has more high-minded ideas than clothes shopping Living central? The infamous Orfus Road (west off Dufferin, south of Lawrence) is a heavenly stretch where bargains abound. Just keep walking west and pass the Le Chateau store that sells tops for as little as $5, the original Roots outlet and a new Kitchen Stuff Plus spot.

Dixie Mall (1250 South Service Road) in ‘Sauga is a deal mecca for those on the west side, with outlets including Footlocker , Mendocino and, for jeans and such, Jean Machine , Levi’s and Urban Planet .

Art star

Gwartzman’s Canvas & Art Supplies

448 Spadina, 416-922-5429

This narrow shop is the place to go for huge stretched canvases on an artist’s budget – cheap! It also offers a great selection of art materials like sable brushes, leather notebooks, paints, etc.

Happy ends

Phase 2 Clothing

2383 Bloor West, 416-762-0970

For an eclectic mix of cool vintage, weird one-offs and all sorts of end-of-line pieces, Phase 2 won’t disappoint. New hats and sunglasses are displayed near the checkout. Separate sections for men, women and children.

Men have style, too, ya know

Grreat Stuff 870 Queen West, 416-536-6770 Attention, men. Grreat Stuff is an awesome little shop filled with sophisticated and way inexpensive menswear. For those times when you need to look presentable but lack funds, this is the place to hook you up.

By the book

BOOK CITY

501 Bloor West (and other locations)

416-961-4496

The best discount deal in town goes to the Book City Card, which is $15 dollars per year and gives you 10 per cent off regular and trade paperbacks and 10 per cent off sale books, a whopping 20 per cent off hardcovers and – we love this personal touch – a $5 coupon for use during the month of your birth. And every $300 accumulated gets you a $5 coupon. TORONTO WOMEN’S BOOK STORE

73 Harbord, 416-922-8744

Here you can find one of the best selections on the planet of books by and for women. The book club card offers a buy-10-get-one-free program. Their 20 per cent off Boxing Day sale is killer, too. And check the Web site (www. womensbookstore.com) regularly for the titles of books going for 20 per cent off each month. There’s always some CanLit on that list. PageS

256 Queen West, 416-598-1447

This is the place for cultural criticism, with one of the best mag selections in the city. Student discount gives you 10 per cent off regularly priced books. Magazines, alas, are not included.

Electro-clash

Factory Direct computer outlet

290 College, 416-962-7788

Culture pirates should also head for this discount computer store in the old Cinema Lumiere movie house (ask the ‘rents) near U of T to buy 100-pack spindles of blank CD-Rs for only $39.95. It’s a vaguely limited-time offer. But since the sale has been running for several weeks already, it appears to be an ongoing loss leader. Warning: because the deals are sweet, the lineups at the cash register are often long and slow-moving. Bring some required reading.

CARBON COMPUTING

772 Queen East, 416-535-1999

www.carbonation.com Now on the east side in a massive new showroom, this is still the friendliest place in the city to blow your student loan on a new Mac. Nice service and cheap prices to boot. CPUSED

488 Dupont, 416-533-2001

www.cpused.com The place to pick up a used or refurbished Mac. (PC users should head to www.pcused.com.) Check the wacky Web site for the price list, updated daily.

COLLEGE, SPADINA TO BATHURST

PC users looking to put together a box on a budget have to take the walk down College Street’s silicone alley. Shops like Alpha Plus Computer (287 College, 416-323-0898), Canada Computer (343 College, 416-926-0107) and Inmax Computer (322 College, 416-975-8886) sell gear cheap cheap cheap.

FUTURE SHOP

355 Yonge (and other locations)

416-971-5377

www.futureshop.ca You can buy cellphones and Palm Pilots in corner stores, strip malls and from curious-looking sidewalk dealers these days, but for sheer variety and the lowest possible price, no one beats big-box stores like Future Shop.

Cable guys

Active Surplus ELECTRONICS

347 Queen West, at Beverley

416-593-0909

Past the animatronic gorilla out front that was once stolen and held for ransom are two madly jumbled floors of DIY paradise. Find refurbished phones, disco mirror balls and just about any cable you could possibly ever need: phone extension cords, gold RCA jacked audio lines, computer cables and the coaxial cable and splitters you need to hook up cable TV. Which, as those Rogers-sponsored commercials remind us, is theft.

Graphically speaking

If you’re into comics and graphic novels – the biggest growth industries in lit land – you’re dealing with duelling bookshops, the Beguiling (601 Markham, 416-533-9168) and Silver Snail (367 Queen West, 416-593-0889). The Beguiling definitely has more buzz these days and a wider selection, and Peter Birkemoe, who runs it, is an indie comix visionary, but there are no women on staff. Silver Snail is more for hardcore fanatics and Marvel/DC nerds, and the Snail’s women staffers can give you more of a political perspective.

Cycle deals

Anyone who’s ever had their ride stolen knows that replacing the crappiest clunker is a major expense. Buying a used bike is an even dodgier proposition, especially one from those bike shops on Spadina and west Queen West that – not to mention any names – specialize in warm, previously owned property. Buy a totally legal used bike at this fall’s Toronto police bike auction at the CNE on October 25, where over 400 lost, found or unclaimed cycles will be on the block. Once bought, register the serial number – the only indisputable identification on your wheels – with your local station. Unfortunately, the force’s online registration has been discontinued.

Serious cycle collectors scour Buy & Sell for amazing deals on older bikes and case every garage sale in the Annex, Cabbagetown and the Beach for their dream ride. You can also check out the message board just inside the door at Mountain Equipment Co-op (430 King West, at Peter, 416-340-2667) for both quality used road bikes and off-road brutes. Bonus: MEC is also the cheapest spot in town to buy inner tubes, fenders, lights, bells, helmets and $14.50 Kryptonite-style U-locks complete with three keys, which guarantees that when your bike’s stolen you’ll still have an extra key.

Beautiful you

Rub it in

Sutherland-Chan Student Clinic

330 Dupont, 416-924-1107 ext 10

OK, so a student’s giving you your rub-down. But don’t worry – they follow professional codes, and a one-hour massage will only set you back $32! Book your appointment early and feel free to specify if you’re more comfortable with a male or female massage therapist.

Salon selected

Marca College of hair and esthetics

900 Dufferin, 416-531-3131

2902 Danforth, 416-698-2558

As with any student-provided service, you get what you pay for. That said, deals abound at Marca College. From inexpensive haircuts and colour jobs to manicures, pedicures and facials, you can have all the salon services you crave without needing a fancy budget to pay for ’em.

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