Winners and Home Sense

The 5 stars are for Stephanie only, she was a superstar salesperson!!! I purchased to sofas from this location, and Stephanie was very helpful, and patient… I was asking a ton of questions and kept wanting to see the sofa, and check it over for defects. By the way, whats wrong with people? There was a lady that was sitting on another couch, with her shoes off, feet on the couch!!! Really? Here toddler was laying on the floor and then crawling onto the sofa with her!!! I don’t want to buy furniture that people are all over… sorry…that’s gross.
Well, I got my sofas… I’m super happy… and it’s all because of Stephanie, i wish I had gotten her last name.

It’s a good combination of store to have and they’ve got a decent selection.
The only downside is the parking for Save-​on, Home Depot, Winners and Home sense is all underground and is a cluster –F. I think the location loses a few point because of the bad parking and accessibility options.
The complex around there is a life savor though for anyone living downtown! Thumbs up for CAMBIE!

If you want 30−50% off original prices at all times, then Winners and Home Sense is the place for you! Located at Metropolis, the store probably needs a bit of renos by now and they should get more higher end, or trendy brands and styles in at this location for clothes. You can still score a deal if you are willing to dig around the piles and racks and by the clearance sections. I usually just come and buy my sulfate-​free shampoos here. Despite the out-​dated styles and brands, it is still a good place to get good deals if you don’t need to be top of the list in fashion. They also sell snacks, kitchenware, smaller furniture pieces, home décor, bedding, toiletries, women, men and kids section, jewelry, handbag, books, office section just to name a few. The store basically covers everything you might possibly need at a lower price for off season items. Staff are usually A-​ok with service.

I’ve been around long enough to see it open for the first time. My experience here isn’t so great.
Usually very messy, disorganized and I find what they have kind of expensive. The place is little too crammed and light isn’t lit super well. I really hate to not able to find what I am looking for at the correct department.
People who works here seems to not know what they carries either. I asked them for item B and they said they don’t have any. I went to look around anyways and I found item B, but not exactly what I was looking for. Things like this happens a lot to me and I find it annoying.
One time, my friend and I went here to find her a pants. She found THE pants so she brought it to the register with me. They couldn’t find the device to unlock the security tag and spent like 30 minutes looking for it. They still couldn’t find it and they said they can cut off the lock. We were like how? But we watched as this person cut.
Well, they ruined her pants by cutting the fabric pretty badly.
She already paid it by card and she said she doesn’t want it anymore because it’s ruined. She gave a receipt to the register and they somehow tried to not let her do it. We really didn’t understand why and within 5 minutes of talking, the register lost the receipt.
We were like WHAAAT? HOW? Register & manager looked around and found it in garbage bin. My friend finally returned it and I can’t believe they put up such fuss. We lost like an hour because of this.
I don’t like this store so I don’t shop here anymore.

This and the Market Crossing one in Burnaby are probably the biggest ones I’ve been to in GVRD – b/​c the West Kelowna one is absolutely humungus, but I’ll digress as usual.
I like the Metrotown one too b/​c it’s away from the hustle and bustle of the mall, plus whenever I do buy movie tix 90min earlier, then I’ve got some time to kill here.
thankfully for the men’s section, it’s pretty easy to sift thru the racks to get deals, usually I look for the outerwear, sports, etc. as North Face can pop up.
And the kitchen stuff on the right side, is also pretty fun to look, always something for your kitchen.
Lineups can also be crazy.

clean… nicely laid out… could use a few more cashiers at times, but they usually keep a good eye on that too. Overall, a pretty good Winners addition.

Well I thought it is only fair that I update my review –my last few trips here I did manage to score some good finds :)
These included —
— A Betsy Johnson bow bag with chain handle for only 44 $ !
— A rolling carry on suitcase for 66 $
— Faux leather cream coloured jacket for 23 $
— 5 pack Calvin Klein baby sleepers (retail 44 $ for 16 $)
— A variety of Spring clothing
–A glass and metal tray to display fragrance
The staff is not especially plentiful, but I haven’t had any rude attitude from anyone here so that’s definitely a bonus !
The store was cleaner and better organized, and the variety of products was much better then in the past.
I felt the star rating had defiantly gone up By 2 more stars — Good job Winners Metrotown!

Sorry, But i don;t find anything here that is all these together:
useful, in budget/​comparable price to other shops in mall, good quality
I have a 20 $ gift card from someone for this place so I have come here more than 5 times but haven’t found anything to my taste!
Finally, I am thinking if I should just buy a pot. but wait! Look at the line up at the checkout. might as well come laterzzzz (or never!)

Winners always has a great selection. Coupled with Homesense, you are going to get a large array of clothes, furniture, dishes, food products, entertaining supplies, toys, and whatever else you can think of.
The store reminds me of the old Woolco in the type of flooring (the mottled vinyl tiling that always looks kind of dirty, with fluorescent lighting that’s slightly brown or yellow in order to make the store feel homier), and the product is fairly randomly scattered in the aisles (the food, in particular, has some really cool items, like the lime simple syrup that I picked up, but it was in between gluten-​free biscuits and grapeseed oil, among other things). There wasn’t any staff wandering the store that I could see, but I guess they were severely overworked already.
That part is quite true since there was a huge lineup of shoppers near closing, and 12 checkout kiosks open. I thought only supermarkets got this kind of craziness but apparently not.
It’s not a relaxed experience when you go to Winners, but you will find something awesome if you put your mind to it. However, I’m still trying to figure out who will buy the orange and brown jumpsuit dress with some kind of black lacework that looked like a hideous corset, with the zipper casually placed in the front. For $ 119. And that was a sale down from $ 210.
Winners is also an experience in humor for those kinds of reasons.

In terms of selection, this is by far a better Winner’s/Home Sense than the one downtown in terms of selection. I have tried on many occasions to get clothes that suit my style, however, unless I want to dress like a 50 year old secretary, no thanks. I can’t even by a basic blouse to pimp. As for the prices on clothes, there’s not much of a discount break and 9 out of 10 times, you can buy some of the designer clothes for the same cost.
Believe it or not I go to this location for the packaged food market that has gourmet gluten free and baking stuff at reasonable cost. I was able to score a 1 oz bottle of pumpkin pie spice extract for my own home made pumpkin spice lattes.
I have also scored some reasonably priced Chia and hemp seeds from winners compared to other grocery stores.
If it is busy, be patient with the lines and listen to your ipod with relaxing music… you will need it as often people don’t know how to move up in line, stand in line properly and not know how to keep their kids under control while they run around in line. True test of patience is always a game in itself in a line at Winners. No worry as you’re divided between the many tills and walls of last minute impulse buys to entertain you.

I love Winners and Homesense. I literally visit both stores on a weekly basis just to check out if they have anything new.
However, this store just rubs me the wrong way. The selection of items, meh, you start to know what you can expect at Winners/​Homesense. The store is decently clean but never pristine. What do you expect when hundreds of people are rummaging through the racks right?
What’s extremely annoying about this store (and hence the 2 star review) is how they treat the customers. I’m not sure if it’s just the hiring policy or what but I always feel like I’m a farm animal when I go to this store. Every time near closing they start shooing people out of the store. Literally. I have had staff corral me towards the door as I head in the opposite direction trying to find my boyfriend. I get a «That’s not the direction of the door!» Oh, thanks a million! I hadn’t realized which way I came in! Or while I don’t want to stand in the closing rush line up, I browse a few more items while I meander my way towards the checkout, I get a reminder «You can’t shop any more. The store is closed». Oh really? Like the last 20 announcements you made over the last half an hour was not obvious enough? Seriously, if the staff were actually at the checkouts helping the line-​ups instead of roaming around the store being rude for being rude’s sake, maybe the line would move faster.
So:
— Winners/​Homesense, still one of my favourite stores and this one is not too different.
— Do not go visit this one close to closing time
— Seriously get some better staff

Meh. It’s ok. Even comparing with other Winners stores its only ok. They don’t seem to get a lot of new stock. Their men’s selection is … well not even worth looking at.

I dont wander in here often other than to take a quick peek in the housewares and kitchen gadgets sections. or the kids toys during Christmas. Its usually a mess in the kitchen-​to-​bed sections, shoes. and well, the rest of the store other than the general square walkway. prices are not bad, but the line ups can keep you there for quite a while. Do yourself a favor and hit up the Winners on Cambie and West 8^th.

I love going to Winners for all my home décor or kitchenware. I had to buy a pitcher last night and found one within 2 minutes. Not only was it half off the original price, it was really high quality. I even saw the same pitcher in the mall for $ 6 more. I just happened to stumble onto that, but I usually don’t like to shop around too much.
A quick in and out and back home to enjoy my new pitcher, — Yay for Sangria season!

I don’t know if they do it at every Winner’s, but I know for sure they do it at this one.
Although most of their productss are very affordable, there are things that are going on behind the scene that shouldn’t be. I had a primary source tell me this, and then I asked 2 others that works there to see if it was true.
What I was told, «I was upset because they were throwing away cups of candies. I can understand because the candies were overdue by a day, but the cups, were totally reusable and still brand new! We were told by the manager to break them. I asked if I can bring them home or donate it, but they said that ‘they might think we’re stealing it.’ I was quite upset because those were perfectly good reusable cups, and we were told to break them all.» (This is only one example, there were more similar ones).
First off, this can be a hazard for getting cuts (for the workers, garbage collectors, and homeless). If the reason to break those cups in the beginning was maybe so nobody off the streets will dig through the garbage. If they do get hurt, we’ll end up paying for them through our taxes anyway.
Secondly, I was told that they didn’t see them recycle it. Or at least the people who worked there say, «I’m pretty sure we put it in the garbage afterwards.»
This is very upsetting; I think they should change somethings in their policy about this. Maybe even donating it to families that are poor (the reusable items, rather than breaking it and chucking it.
Please tell me if I am completely wrong, because that’s what I would like to hear, if not, please tell me your side of the story to add to this so I can confirm and try to make a difference.
Thank you.

These two combined stores are a great place to stock up on things for your home and your closet, all on a budget!
In the Home Sense side, find a ton of cute kitchen gadgets, wine glasses (Set of 4 Reidel wine glasses for under $ 40!), cook books, bbq tools, bathroom towels, you name it. I just picked up a stainless steel kitchen compost bin.
In the Winners side you’ll find a great deal on brand name clothes and accessories. In the past I have picked up Nine West shoes, Mexx dress pants, and recently a pretty Matt and Nat purse. Score! The prices are about half off regular price and may be a little out of season, but if that doesn’t bother you, you can score some great deals here. It’s a good place to get nice work clothes on budget. I was contemplating a pretty BCBG top I really wanted but even with the discount it was still too much, but it just goes to show, that if you are willing to look through the racks, you can find some pretty nice stuff.
When this place is busy it gets pretty messy, because people are slobs and throw stuff on the ground rather than hanging things back on the racks if they don’t want the item. The shoe section can get especially messy.
The staff at the check outs have always been quite pleasant at this location. You’ll have a hard time finding anyone on the floor to help you, though.