Most recently I have been shopping alot at Pacific Boarder in Vancouver. Pacific Boarder is a complete board shop that is located on West 4th close to Burrard Street, actually right across the street from Westbeach, with products from snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing.
Pacific Boarder website
1) Shop setup / Visual merch
The Pacific Boarder shop is really big, definitely one of the biggest in the lower mainland. Once you walk into the store you’ll see straight ahead the men’s clothing / outerwear area and to the left, in the next room is all the woman’s accessories. This is really good because they have a store size area just dedicated for women’s wear. Along the back wall is all the hardgear from skateboarding to snowboarding to surfing.
Pacific always has some type of display in their large street front windows, from what you can see in the picture above. The store front displays are pretty artistic and they always grab my attention everytime I walk by there…I really liked the new Rome Artifact display done about a month ago.
2) Variety
In terms of variety Pacific Boarder has it all, carrying the big name brands in snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing. Some of the brands that they carry from a snowboarding perspective are Burton, Rome, Ride, Capita and Salomon. Pacific Boarder is also a Burton Coalition shop, so you can get all the Burton limited edition products.
In the summer Pacific Boarder’s inventory is mostly surfboards, wetsuits and skateboarding products. They also keep their snowboard equipment out in case you want gear for the summer snowboarding sessions on the Blackcomb glacier in Whistler.
3) Product Pricing
The price of the merch in the shop is relatively the same as any other shop you might find and Pacific Boarder rarely has sales and their sales only occur during the thanksgiving weekend (less than 10% off) and at season end (20% to 25% off). But Pacific Boarder employees are cool and you might be able to get a deal from them if you chat them up a bit. I got a deal on my new Burton Un..Inc, $60 off, just by talking to the guys helping me out.
4) Customer Service
When it comes to customer service Pacific Boarder is really good. The staff there is always will to help out and are really friendly. One of the good things about this shop is that most of the staff actually ride the boards they are selling, so you are getting an expert opinion on how well the gear you think of buying is.
When I bought my board I was help out alot by the staff letting me know how the board rides, durability, etc. They really made my decision process easy because of their first hand knowledge of riding some of the boards they sell.
5) Overall
Overall Pacific Boarder is a really cool shop with a good variety of gear, excellent customer service and really knowledgeable staff. If you are in the area and looking to buy gear definitely check out Pacific Boarder because you will get honest opinion without the sales pitch forcing you to buy.
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