Winners

I went here this afternoon during my lunch break to shop for some random accents at Home Sense for our apartment. When I looked up this location online beforehand, I didn’t realize that it was a 2-​in-​1 shop with Winners that shared the exact same space. I didn’t realize it until I arrived there since the other Home Sense locations I have been to actually have a whole store to themselves. My overall description of this Bloor location in a few words would be like 85 percent Winners and 15 percent Home Sense. The Home Sense was literally one small room hidden away on the second floor, which took me a few minutes to find, while Winners has several floors of its products.
Of course, that one little Home Sense room had a very limited selection of stuff. However, on the plus side, I found two high quality items that were on sale for quite a bargain. Luckily, the letter holder that I’ve been looking for was on sale for $ 4.99 and was still in decent condition but it was the last one at this location so I quickly claimed it, leaving that aisle with only those cheap unatractive looking metal ones remaining. I also found a pack of high quality bottle stoppers for only $ 6.99.
Customer service was satisfactory but nothing exceptional. The guy who helped me out seemed a bit flustered. He was like «Oh no, the previous customer forgot her container. I’ll be with you in a minute» and he rushed after her. When he finally came back and completed my sale, he still looked absent-​minded and probably didn’t hear me saying «Have a nice afternoon «because he didn’t respond back.
In conclusion, this store location has high quality items for good prices but I think I’ll come back here only for Winners products and stick with other Home Sense locations when I specifically need stuff for our place.

I always like the cleanliness of this winners but they have cut down their runway section. It’s still pretty good for jeans and tops but only a handful of dresses. Seems college now beats them for that section. I do like their men’s sections here though as there’s more selection and much more in regards to accessories for them here. This location k have yet to be lucky in the shoe department as o find more at the college location. Overall, the store spans over two floors and you are bound to leave with at least one item.

I love Winners, but I’m continually disappointed in this Winners. Being on Bloor and Avenue there is a much higher percentage of high end designer goods. There’s actually a separate section for them. I love to stare and touch all these gorgeous items. Some are decently priced (still expensive but at least somewhat in reach as a one time treat).
But the rest of the Winners is cramped (women’s clothing section) and has dim lighting and surprisingly not a lot of good selection. It’s like yawn.
I do like the shoe section and the jewellery section and he home section, but the clothing section is seriously lacking. They draw you in with the beautiful high end designer section and then a huge letdown with the clothing for the regular people like me.
I’ll always stop in when I’m in the area just to see what bargains I might find (oh the lure of a bargain can make me go anywhere. lol) but I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything at this location,

Of all the Winners in the city, this or the one on Front are the best ones. I’ve gotten good jeans, shirts, t-​shirts and cologne here at good prices. Bonus marks for the fact that it’s in Yorkville without the boosted prices. Also, their sunglasses rack sometimes has Ray Bans and Oakley’s. Staff is friendly.

This Winners location at Bloor and Avenue probably carries a lot higher end brands than the other locations because of the proximity to Yorkville. Also, the women’s clothing, shoes and handbags departments takes the most space of the two floors.
Since the renovations, the layout has significantly improved making the shopping experience a more enjoyable one. The store still gets a lot of customers, but it’s definitely not as chaotic as the Winners at College Park.
This Winners is also attached to a HomeSense store on the second floor through the men’s department, so definitely a convenience if you’re looking for houseware items and miscellaneous seasonal items as they always have plenty of selections.
The staff are usually friendly, fast and efficient like most Winners as they manage the lines pretty effectively. So checkout is often a breeze and you never wait longer than 5 – 10 minutes.

The way I feel about Winners is the way I feel about cupcakes. It makes total sense that I should love it and eat it more often than the average person, but I can’t seem to ever walk away with anything. Sure, I’ll go in and gawk for hours on end, try on their boots, feel the bathrobes and imagine myself in them, but for some reason, there’s never anything that blows me away.
Then they added HomeSense, and I thought, YES, now that I have a place to furnish, this will DEFINITELY be the place to go! Lovely new renovations, always new things to pick up and ponder about. But nope… never a purchase again!
Despite all this, I still have deep Winners love. I love it in the way that I feel like, one day, it’s all going to click and I’ll be buying things nonstop! Until then, they are my source of endless strolling and «maybe today!» checking in.

I’m a Winners advocate. Always have been, always will. I do like this location because they usually have some awesome bags. But like any Winners, you must go frequent and with no expectations to be surprised. If you’re in the neighborhood, pop in and see if anything catches your fancy.

I got some earrings, a wallet that my Iphone can fit in and 3 pairs of shoes. That’s if for a plus size girl like me. The clothing section was so pathetic that it shouldn’t exist. Why bother wasting money on signage when there’s no clothes?!!

I think this store gets a better shipment of high end name brands than the one at College. Come here if you are looking for higher end clothing.

We went to visit this Winners to pick up some luggage (And an Iron Man Mr. Potato Head. Tony Starch! hah)
We had a question, and asked a girl named Rosa. It was a seemingly simple question, but took a little more work than we thought. Rosa stuck with us the whole way, finding out who we had to speak to, and getting everything done for us.
Simply great customer service.
Also, I like how the selection tries to be Yorkville, but the prices are still very Winners.

I frequent this Winners since it’s on my walk home from work (I usually dream up something I «need» about two seconds into my walk). I actually prefer the selection at the Yonge and College location, but that place is a zoo and out of my way. The line ups here are much shorter (tip — they have checkouts on the 1^st and 2^nd level) and don’t make you want to rage out.
I had a return to make here yesterday and I was super impressed by how painless it was! I had accidentally bought the wrong strength of mousse («Strong» instead of «Lighweight»…makes a helluva difference — it was like putting concrete in my hair) and was really worried that they’d make a fuss since it had been opened. I nervously approached the returns desk and started to bust into my long drawn out concrete-​hair-​tale-​of-​woe and the cashier just stopped me and said it wasn’t a problem. Anyone who has ever tried to make a return before will appreciate how easy it is here!

I like this Winners. Not only is it a refreshing change from the many overpriced clothing retailers in the Yorkville area, but the mens section actually has a good amount of variety. I’ve managed to find everything from nice casual denim and collared shirts up to more formal work slacks, dress shirts and even a couple of ties.
I’d say its a toss up between this one and the College Park for what I would consider to be the best Winners in Toronto, so it’s definitely worth a stop in if you’re up for some rack digging as per the usual Winners shopping style requirements.

I find certain Winners much easier to find things in than others.
This is one of the ‘others’
I really like it and all, and I guess based on its location I have noticed it had more ‘higher end’ names than some of the other locations around the city (or is that my imagination?) but when I’m in a cheap-​o mood, that often results in leaving the store empty handed.
And finding your way up and downstairs always confuses me even though I’ve been there a gazillion times.
It’s quite pretty, though.

My best experience here was when I needed some athletic gear for baseball. Just had to get a handful of inexpensive t-​shirts that I could roll around in and not get mad if it ripped or got dirty. I thought for sure Winners selection would be mad corny — which it was — but they also had some really quality Puma and Adidas gear for dirt cheap. I wound up getting about 4 – 5 simple t-​shirts for about 7 – 10 bucks each. Even grabbed a really nice Puma zip-​up for less than 20 bucks!
I try to swing by this location once and awhile to see if I can dig up some quality clothing, but the odds of finding something I find decent are usually pretty slim. Once came here hoping to find some new jeans and was greeted by some of the ugliest Jersey Shore-​esque designs I’ve ever seen. It’s like the Toronto club district exploded in front of my face. Same usually goes for a lot of their shirts, but it’s always worth checking out. 9 times out of 10 though I tend to find some great Ben Sherman or Penguin article that’s way too small for me.
Sometimes the line-​ups at the checkout are ridiculous and unbearable. There’s actually been a couple of times I’ve had a purchase in my hand that I was already on the fence about that I wind up discarding because the line is a mile long. Women seem to love this store and they can easily roll up to the cashiers with a whole new wardrobe.

The bonus of working the night shift is that I had the whole day free to peruse Winners, something that takes quite a bit of time. Or frequent visits.
Winners works in weird ways. It’s hit or miss if you want to find something good. I found as I was looking through racks and racks, that with all the ugly clothes you wouldn’t wear, you find something that is remotely okay, and you send up putting it in your pile to the dressing room. If you saw the item on it’s own, you would never grab it. I really had to evaluate the choice before I bought them.
If you go in without a plan, I think you’ll come out with something you didn’t need, or get frustrated or come out with a hidden gem. If you want something specific, it’s like you need to visit the store after every shipment to see if they have that thing you want, and you have to be close by.
No matter what, either you find it or you don’t. Don’t go in expecting to walkout with an item. Or be really really patient.
I like how the sizes are marked on the hangers for easy elimination. Not much choice in this store for the Smalls, more Mediums.
It’s also a great choice to find basic purses, belts and fancy housewares.

This place is dangerous. Though the truly fantastic finds are far and few in between, it’s a struggle for me to walk out of Winners without something in hand.
On the things I look out for… on the first floor, the woman shoe selection is ever changing and excellent eye candy. The skin/​perfume section is eclectic, though with some interesting brands and things with beautiful packaging, if you spent a bit of time searching the shelves.
The women’s clothing selection on the second floor is so-​so despite the breadth of merchandise. The men stuff is really dismal though. Again, there’s a wide selection, but I really haven’t been able to find anything good in there.
The stand out for me at this Winners is the home productions section! There’s always so many pretty things in there that I just want — lovely notebooks, interesting pillows, random things like SIGG water bottles on the cheap.
Winners always kind of feel like a large garage sale to me, but if you’re willing to hunt and have a bit of time, there is treasure to be found.

This is my favourite Winners in the city (I haven’t visited them all, but most). Since it’s located in Yorkville, they carry a lot of higher-​end fashion brands.
The second floor has accessories (shoes, handbags, belts, hair accessories, soaps & shampoos, etc). Plus a really nice jewelry section (not all Winners have $$ bling bling $$ jewelry)
The 3^rd floor has all the clothes (mens & womens), swimwear, lingerie plus kitchen & bath products and the change rooms at the far end. It’s mostly clothes, really.
Like most Winners locations, the change room facilities kind of suck, I always get a slow-​moving attendant coping attitude and treating me like a criminal even though I just want to try on clothes.
Check-​out is also somewhat sucky, usually meriting a 5 – 10 minute wait to pay, but nothing extreme.
The awesome clothes/​deals make up for the customer service faux-​pas’.

Winners feels like an Outlet store’s Outlet store. The ‘good deals’ and ‘fashion finds’ are practically nonexistent; all the supposed good finds have been picked. Maybe woman find the good deals but from a Male’s perspective, it’s just a waste of time. Unless you’re a size XXXL, you’re not going to find anything worth buying. And good luck finding the entrance if you come from Cumberland and not Bloor Street. I was fed up before I even entered the place.
The whole Winners «experience» just feels depressing. The fluorescent lighting, the rusted metal racks, clothing fallen to the floor from misshapen wire hangers, the sad looking staff. I think as a brand they need to put as much effort into the store as they do in the advertising.

I really struggled with how to rate this Winners…
First of all I don’t like the store layout. If you are trying to access it from the Bloor street doors you are fine, but any other entrances require a map, a compass and some patience!
All bitching aside, once you enter this location it’s actually pretty descent selection of shoes and handbags. I never venture upstairs to their clothing and house wares department. I find their clothing selection mediocre especially their dresses rack. They due however carry a few designer lines as part of their Runway collection.
Checkout at this place is sort of a nightmare. There is one checkout on the first floor and half the time no one is there. There is a jewellery counter checkout but since everything is under glass they are usually busy with helping customers with jewellery. There is a bigger checkout area upstairs but again there is usually no one there and the lines can get pretty long.
Even though this store is kind of disappointing for a Yorkville location, I am going to give this Winners a 3 star; they do manage to carry some nice merchandise. They are by far not the worse or the best Winners I’ve been to and I would only recommend it if you are in the area.

This location has slowly been going downhill for the last two years. I usually stop in every few months to see what is there but I rarely find anything I like. The appearance of the store has also been in decline, I find more and more that it is frequently disheveled looking with clothing strewn about on top of the racks and on the floor.
Despite this, the last time I was in there the line ups to pay were wrapped around the store so some people must be finding things that they like.