Shoppers outside Orchard Park Shopping Centre, Sept. 2, 2022.

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca)

For the first time in years, Kelowna’s Orchard Park Mall is seeing a boost with its back-to-school season as restrictions have eased around the pandemic.

“This is a different Back to School shopping season than we have seen in the past couple of years with COVID having played a large factor previously,” said Catherine Whittingstall, regional manager, via email.

At one point at the beginning of the pandemic, restrictions on store capacity meant long lines, masks, empty parking stalls and store closures.

READ MORE: Kelowna’s Orchard Park Mall eerily quiet

Now, with the increase in shoppers, it appears like any other normal season, with shoppers hitting all the main backpack, shoe, school supplies and clothing stores, Sept. 2.

“In the last couple weeks, we’ve definitely seen an influx in tourism. Tourism has been amazing and while people are here during their tourist time, they’re also doing some shopping during their tourist time because this is one of the biggest malls in the Okanagan area,” manager Caleb Rosenthar, with The Artful Hand, a gift shop in the mall that features local artisans, said.

Orchard Park Shopping Centre is the largest mall in the Interior between the Lower Mainland and Calgary.

“We have seen an influx in sales, it’s been mad, it’s been busy almost every single day,” he said.

Visitors from Alberta, Ontario and from the region like Salmon Arm are stopping in at the gift store.

Back-to-school season has also been boosting sales, as kids are actually returning to the classroom this year and students have been coming through and buying bracelets, crystals and lotions, he said.

It’s still early to tell if this back-to-school season will be a record at the store, but August was busier than compared to pandemic years.

For Castlegar shoppers Tamara Grischin and her family, she said the mall is the perfect back-to-school shopping spot as their community doesn't have as many stores.

“It’s everything from clothes to school supplies,” she said. Her daughter got a backpack yesterday and has been looking for t-shirts.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Carli Berry or call 250-864-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2022