Pacific Centre unveils 9 new high-end stores

THE#BCBIZDAILY
Expensive clothes, costly weather and cheap Canadian goods

New neighbours
Downtown Vancouver’s Pacific Centre mall will host nine new retailers, including some big names. The mall announced Monday the list of stores that would sit in its new 44,000-sq.-ft. expansion, scheduled to open early summer 2015. One is British high-end fashion retailer Ted Baker London, whose Vancouver location will be its second Canadian opening after Toronto. Here’s the full list:

•    B2
•    BOSS Store
•    Kate Spade
•    Microsoft
•    Pandora
•    Rockport
•    Ted Baker London
•    Tumi
•    Weekend Max Mara

The berry blues
Too much of a good thing could be a bad thing for B.C.’s blueberries this year, which began budding three weeks ahead of schedule due to the province’s unseasonably warm winter. The worry, specifically, is that a cold snap could now cause serious damage to what’s already growing. On the other hand, if that doesn’t happen, 2015 may be exactly the opposite: a great year for B.C. blueberries. (via the Province)

Americans invade
While Canadians are left wondering if a trip down south is worth it this year with a dollar hovering around 80 cents, for Americans the question is the complete opposite: with greater spending power, why not give their northern neighbour a visit? By December 2014, trips from the States into Canada were up 4.7 per cent over the previous year according to Statistics Canada. At Surrey’s Peace Arch border crossing, meanwhile, the number of U.S. passports scanned had increased 20 per cent over the previous years, a CBC report said.