I rarely drive to work at Metrotown. I just don’t like the fairly depressing ride from downtown Vancouver out to Burnaby, the Skytrain is cheaper and faster than driving in traffic and frankly I need the workout of walking to Burrard station. However I’ve done the drive a few times, and because I’ve got a staff Christmas party after work I drove today.

The few times before today that I have driven parking at Metrotown has never been a problem. Today I spent twenty minutes driving around and around the underground parking lot before finally finding a spot tucked into a back corner. With a parking lot that full I imagined a mall filled to the brim with happy consumers buying the gifts that their children all believe Santa made. Instead I found a mall that while not empty, was certainly not as busy as the parking lot would indicate.

Where are the shoppers? My only theory is that they’re all at the movies watching Narnia and King Kong.