Suburban shoppers have enjoyed scoring deals at H&M at Fairview Pointe Claire, Centre d’Achats Rockland and Les Galeries d’Anjou for a couple of years now. Downtowners are all in a tizzy because they have finally opened smack in the heart of the city at Peel and Ste. Catherine. Families worldwide have been flocking to this European-inspired knock-off queen of the hottest new styles. North American companies lag, as they only do a few buying trips a year, but at this chain the trends reach here faster – and they’re very affordable. Made in places like Bulgaria, Roumania, Turkey and China, you’ll find lots of cotton – make sure they’ll wash and wear okay. On August 28th a second location closer to St. Denis will open with more of an emphasis youthful fashions. Old locations: Centre d’Achats Rockland (514-340-7763); Les Galeries d’Anjou (514-352-8150); Carrefour Laval (450-682-8220); Mail Champlain (450-766-1371).

New locations: 1100 Ste. Catherine W.; 450 Ste. Catherine W. (opens Aug 28)
Hours: Regular plus Sun 10-5
www.hm.com

This well entrenched musical emporium has been open for114 years and offers all your music needs. It has a huge selection of CD’s, sheet music, books, DVD’s, toys, video games and instruments to play the music on. They have just opened a new store in the the Ste-Dorothee Mega-Centre so are enticing you to come visit the new location – 3 for 2 on just about everything in the entire store (except pianos, video game consoles and special orders). On the first evening of the special, July 17th at 5 pm, there will be entertainment by France D’Amour, Florence K, Alfa Rococo, Michael and Anik Jean. Some of the profits from this sale will be donated to UNICEF.

Sale Location: Mega-Centre Ste-Dorothee
Corner: Highway 13
Phone: 450-719-2020
Dates: July 17th – July 20th
Hours: Mon-Fri 9-9, Sat & Sun 9-6
www.archambault.ca

Just opened to the public for the first time (due to their move to a brand new state-of-the-art facility), Expresco, a manufacturer of brochettes, is offering you chicken and pork souvlaki. You must buy it in bulk of 40 skewers to a package. The chicken ones are 90 g each for $48.00 and the pork ones are 100 g for $36. They say that these would sell for about $2 each in the stores. You let me know.

Location: 8205 Transcanadienne
Tel: 514-344-9499 ext.252
Hours: Mon-Fri 8-5
www.exprescofoods.com

Grande Taille Maximus, 2nd location, 3852 boul. Taschereau, Greenfield Park. Phone: 514-380-5650. It is so hard to find clothing for men who are tall or large-sized, so this store with its new South Shore location is a blessing for them. In some well known names (Sean Jean, Pelle Pelle, Big Daddy, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, Columbia, Axis, Calvin Klein) you will be able to buy everything in your wardrobe right down to your underwear and sox. Sizes go from 1X to 6X and XLT to 7XLT, pants and jeans are here up to 66 and shoes to size 17. Tall men will be thrilled to find 39″ sleeve lengths and 38″ inseams. Casual shirts might be as low as $39.99, and made-to-measure is also available. Original location:3284 Jean-Yves, Kirkland.

Just eyeballed a new West Island location for Basse at 3643 boul. des Sources (514-683-0111). Around for 15 years, this Mid-Eastern family business (5 brothers) has been oil-roasting and dry-roasting all kinds of nuts: 6 types of pistachios or almonds (tamari, bbq, candied), pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts and caramel pecans. Other interesting goodies abound: roasted chick peas, corn nuts, double roasted hot peppers, dried kiwi, peanut/rice crackers and roasted peas. Grocery items to be found might be blossom or rose water, bags or jarred zaatar, bitter orange jam, stuffed zucchini and, if you need them, gallon jars of hot peppers. Other locations: 9360 Charles de Latour (514-387-8828); 4555 Autoroute 440 Ouest (at the plant 450-781-1255).