Trip to Royalmount | La Presse

We went shopping in the new temple of consumption that focuses on luxury. The Royalmount has 170 planned stores: 50% are currently open and nearly 90% will be by Christmas, including the Cineplex cinema. Story of a trip to the intersection of highways 15 and 40.

I went there twice: by metro, alone, on a Friday afternoon, then by car, with my family, on Saturday, with my teenagers Inès and Romain, my husband Renaud and Mamie Jackie. It was a shambles.

As soon as you exit the De la Savane metro station, you can only see it: the impressive footbridge. There are many people crossing the 200 meters above the highway, this Saturday afternoon, day 3 of the Royalmount. We feel a bit like we are at the airport, especially since a Starbucks is waiting for us on the other side of the footbridge.

There is a feeling of curiosity. People come to discover the Royalmount as an attraction, they take photos. There have been many publications on Instagram and TikTok in recent days.

We met friends and acquaintances, like us, astonished to see so many people, a real fair atmosphere! There was even a queue in front of some shops.

First observation, the luxury boutiques that we have been told about for three years and that make the Royalmount special are not yet open. Thus, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Balenciaga, Rolex, Tiffany & Co. will open in the coming weeks. Many people are disappointed, because they wanted to do a bit of window shopping.

The welcome is impeccable in the stores. We have never seen so many happy and smiling salespeople. Even at Zara, where usually, from noon, the store is upside down. This was not the case here. In this Zara, the largest in Canada, we find automatic checkouts like at Uniqlo. The queues are therefore less interminable, even on Saturdays.

Mamie Jackie is looking for a bench to rest on. There is a serious shortage of them on the second floor of the center, even though there is the Fou Fou, the restaurant area, which is packed. Fortunately, there are more of them on the first floor. Seeing the crowd moving through the aisles, she exclaims: “I’m the oldest! There are only young people here!” Young people from 12 to 25 years old are there. Moreover, when he arrives at Sports Experts, my son Romain tests the soccer balls in the aisles of the store where he has met friends by chance.

All for the experience

At Royalmount, the focus is on experience. Émilie Mercier, co-owner with her brother Jérémy of M2 Boutiques, a Quebec clothing company for men and women, pampers customers. She has set up a counter where she offers coffee and snacks. The fitting rooms are real cozy lounges. There is even a secret room with large sofas behind a bookcase.

“I’m here because it’s the future and Montreal really needed a shopping centre like this. There are some great brands and some great competition,” thinks Charles Le Pierrès, president of Judith & Charles, a Quebec brand of high-end women’s clothing.

We also tested the huge Rennaï boutique, a local concept (Carbonleo and L Catterton) that aims to be the new beauty and wellness destination. It features 175 brands, hand and foot care services, and facials. We came across Rouge Lefebvre, a very friendly makeup artist, then the next day Jessika, a young French makeup artist who arrived in Montreal three months ago, delighted to have found this job. “I come from the city of Apt, in the south of France, famous for its candied fruits for centuries!” she says while doing my daughter’s makeup, who thinks that even in a makeup chair, she is learning more about her geography… (and me too)! “Rennaï plans to open seven or eight boutiques in North America by 2028,” says Jordana Fleischer, Rennaï’s vice-president of communications and marketing.

Paid parking

The issue of paid parking is on everyone’s lips (it’s free at Carrefour Laval and DIX30). Merchants, employees and customers are unanimous: it’s a real source of irritation. In fact, we’ve seen people parking on nearby streets. The price: first half hour free, then $2.50 per half hour. ” “We want to encourage sustainable transportation, particularly with a covered walkway that we built at a cost of $50 million and which connects our site to the orange metro line,” explains Andrew Lutfy, CEO of Carbonleo and main investor in Royalmount.

According to a quick calculation we made, the revenue from the 1,800 parking spaces can be conservatively estimated at around $10 million per year.

Result of our trip: after having walked 5000 steps in the crowd, Renaud and Mamie Jackie need a whisky to recover, the teenagers loved it, and I tell myself that I would go back to go to the cinema.