Forever XXI

Busy as heck, and the largest one I’ve ever been to… we have some pretty crowded ones too, for such amazing deals on clothing that men can ever dream of. We need more stores like these. One-​time wears lol.
Full line of men’s clothing on 2^nd floor.
Strategically good corner section, as well as the market of Ryerson students right there.
When I was there a few weeks ago, they were giving out $ 10 gift certificates on purchases over $ 50. Forever’s pretty good in general with sales, as now they have a 10% off for online orders.

Decent location. Always packed, but they have a lot of stock. If you can’t find what you want here, ask them to call the location in the Eaton Centre. It’s less than a 10 minute walk away. I tend to shop online, so I come here mainly to return items. And they are pretty quick and cool about it.

Yeah, this location is not good. Like everyone else has said, it is always a complete messy disaster. And always swarming with people, mostly young girls. I try and get in and out as fast as possible, but that’s not always possible as the lines for both the cash and fitting rooms are always crazy. I would say skip this one and go to the one in the Eaton Centre, but that one is only marginally better.

A few short sentences will say it all. Always too busy, usually swarming with youngens with only one goal in mind, SHOP no matter what. Staff are extremely rude and not very knowledgeable.
After all that let me just say, I Love Forever XX1. Therefore, word to the wise, shop online. Much more convenient and such a broad selection to choose from.

How sad is it when a middle aged woman like me walks around brandishing a yellow bag that screams «FOREVER 21»? It’s sad indeed but like Lauren M. said it’s like a love/​hate relationship but I still can’t resist, the prices and accessories make this place retail catnip for shop-​a-​holics like me.
This bricks and mortar store is a nightmare! It’s two floors of sartorial disorganization and often a mecca for annoying under twenty-​somethings and unless you enjoy listening in on tween conversations about why Robert Pattinson is so hot (eck!!) while endlessly queueing for the changerooms/​register, I HIGHLY SUGGEST ordering from Forever 21 on-​line. The selection is vast, and often delivery is free (and within 3 days in T. O!) if you spend within a decent amount and best of all you can shop all hours without having to stomach the horrors of having your personal space invaded by bratlings that smell like baby prostitutes!

this forever 21 is pretty big compared to most that i’ve been to. this doesn’t include the one in downtown sf.
saw this girl on my flight to toronto with a realllly cute red coat and she said she got it at forever 21. she also said it was around 20 bucks. but i found out later it was actually around 40. boo on her. lol.
anyhoo… this store is poorly organized. usually i find that each section has a color theme. or at least all the coats are in a certain section. and dresses are in their own section etc… but not at this store. i literally saw like 8 different red coats placed all over the store and on different levels. what a pain in the butt to go through all of them!
in the end i didnt find my coat but i was so frustrated with trying to track them all down that i didn’t buy anything else. and the prices are surprisingly higher here.
PS. i ended up buying my coat online so i’m a happy camper now :)

This is one of the most crowded and small Forever’s I’ve been too. The only redeeming factor is that last year on Boxing Day I got a free gift card worth $ 21. This year there was nothing… maybe I just got there too late.
The stuff here is sometimes cute, but very rarely decent quality. Most of the stuff is very very cheaply made, thus the cheap prices. You really get what you pay for here.

Officially despise this location. It’s always messy, I can usually never find a salesperson or the item I want, and their store rules just make me roll my eyes and walk out.
I went her looking for inspiration for an evening out. I saw a skirt I loved on the mannequin and asked if they had it.
No.
I asked if I was able to take the mannequins.
No, as they only dress mannequins every week. The loss of a sale because you don’t want to dress the mannequin a week early.
I then tried to go to the cash upstairs to pay for my other item. After watching 3 salespeople talk about how a mutual friend’s man is cheating on her (I don’t understand why Susie is so clueless over this guy either!), they let me know that only downstairs cash was open. I walk downstairs to see 3 people behind the counter, one actually working and a long line. If the leggings hadn’t been stirrups at 5.50, I would’ve thrown them anywhere and walked out. But I guess that’s why they make moolah – they still made a sale off of me, albeit a small one.

I love Forever XXI but I hate this location!
Besides the fact that this location is always a mess, it also has the most ridiculous lineups!
I purchased two pairs of jeans at their fairview store (which actually carries size 14). I tried on the one pair and decided that since they were both identical, there was no need to try the second one on… right? Wrong!
The next day I realized that there was a giant hole in the seam. Fairview is about a 2 hour transit ride from my house and I decided to bring the jeans to this location to get a credit note. The girl at the cash first looked confused as to what to do, so I helped her out: «I bought them this way so just issue me a credit note or if you can someone swing it a refund!»
She checked with a manager who barely stopped what he was doing and told me «we don’t carry those so we don’t take them back!» I told him I lived really far from fairview and that I would gladly just take a credit note. The answer was still no and then he walked away.
I have never heard of a store unwilling to return its own merchandise even if one specific store doesn’t carry it; isn’t that what in-​store transfers are for?

I am a huge fan of Forever 21. The clothes are inexpensive, fit well, and are so much fun! It is rare that I will leave a Forever 21 store empty handed.
I visited this location on a Wednesday afternoon and it was PACKED! I was surprised at how busy it was considering it was only a weekday. The store does have two floors but I also believe there is an elevator. I saw a mom with one of those heavy double strollers on the second floor. I am also 95% sure I saw an elevator — I am always on the lookout for these things since I am a mom. So, moms with strollers or those who are unable to climb a flight of stairs, don’t shy away!
Something I have noticed is that the majority of American chain stores are typically wheelchair accessible and have baby changing stations.

Forever 21!
Okay, I’m not going to even try to deny that i shop here. It’s my number one place to get stuff. It’s so inexpensive and you can pretty much always find something here.
Their jeans are so cheap and they are my favourite — i have ditched my overpriced ones for F21 jeans.
I used to be ashamed of my love for F21, now I have learned to embrace it.
Tips:
If you can, go during the weekday. Weekends and «afterschool» the place is overrun with teenage girls
Stock runs out so fast — if you like something, buy it! You can always return it and get credit. Or don’t return it, because it was 7 dollars.

I didn’t want to give it 4 stars but I had to only because their prices are CHEAPER than H&M!
Only problem is. they run out of inventory so quick its insane!
Personally I love their jewlery. very trendy/​affordable.
The store gets so busy sometimes tho that the jewlery table is a mess and girls are throwing things around to find what they want.
I feel like im in a zoo somtimes.
Clothes shopping is also a pain in the a**.
Most of the store is disorganized. The sales people don’t even know where half the stuff is either! If you plan on shopping, plan on taking a good couple hours out of your day.
First you have to search threw racks and piles of clothes.
Then you have to wait a good 20min to try on the clothes.
Next, paying can take a little while too.
Alot of lines. alot of waiting. alot of mess. alot of pre-​teens.

This is the worst Forever21 store i have visited in any city. The stock is sold out within minutes, or they just don’t receive all the stuff that is shown online. The lineups are ridiculous and the store is PACKED all the time.
I love the cheap trendy clothes I know I wont be wearing more than 2 seasons and the cute+cheap accessories Just wish this store was better stocked so I am not forced to go to the Buffalo Galleria F21(heaven!) or to order stuff online.

LOVE-​HATE-​LOVE-​HATE-​LOVE-​HATE
I have such an unhealthy relationship with this place.
LOVE — the clothes, the prices, the accessories!!!
HATE — the line ups, the queues, all the f*$king WAITING!!!
I can’t stop going back, even though I spend 20 mins waiting to try stuff on, plus another 15 mins to pay for whatever I’m buying.
Buyers beware — if you decide to visit this place, plan for AN HOUR. Today I visited at 1:30pm on a Wednesday hoping for the best, but NO, it was just as bad as Friday evening or Saturday afternoon!
But…but… the clothes! the prices! the accessories! all keep me coming back. So good. So bad.

Forever 21 is one of those institutions that people either love, or love to hate. The process of fast fashion costs much more than you see on the price tag; inhumane labor practices, pollution in cotton fields, sludge contamination of drinking water near fertilization plants, –It’s just one cost too many.
The price tag to shoppers who don’t really want to think of the environment is also massive. Do you really want to go sifting through 10 000 different items in an overcrowded store? The price tag of their regularly-​priced merchandise isn’t low enough considering the quality.
The few things bought there when they first opened have been donated just a few months after buying them. I wore them once, despite all intentions and excitement over the price. A $ 20 blouse can be $ 20 dollars too many if you never manage to wear it.
Of course they don’t take returns. For a store that doesn’t restock once an item is sold out is telling you that they don’t believe in their product enough. So they keep bringing in new colourful merchandise to keep shoppers distracted. I learned my lesson a while ago, and I’ll never be involved with fast fashion here again.

From a guys perspective, this store is far less organized (though the others are not that much better) than some of the US versions of this store. I agree that the stairs are a bit high for not a large floor. Come to think of it, the appeal for me (having bought anything from XXI) is the huge stores with a massive footprint. This location doesn’t represent the brand well. The store at fairviee is much more representative of what is in America.
Also, don’t totally agree with a pricing comparison made in an earlier review. There might be some items that seem expensive, but the prices aren’t way overboard-​almost-​100% more expensive on the price tag.
Anyway, it’s a great location, just not for this store.
Of course I could be totally wrong and this could be the most successful Canadian store of all time. Then I stand kind of corrected.

This place is not for your «window-​shopper-​turned-​curious-​shopper» If you want to avoid a croud, go right when the store opens. Otherwise, be prepared to courteously ram into tweens while they frantically shop.
This place has a lot of crazy, cute stuff for dirt cheap. I like to go for the accessories alone but there really is something for everyone. You don’t have to be a full on fashonista to shop here but this place is affordable for those who aspire to be Jenny Humphrey.
Great deals to be had by all!

This store is a mess. Chaos is the best way to describe it.
I actually like F21 clothing enough — I’ve purchased online a few times and that’s the way to go (free shipping over $ 75). The clothing is better quality than say. Garage Clothing or Stitches, but nothing to rave about. Very trendy, too. You will probably only get 1 or 2 seasons’ wear out of them before they go out of style.
The lineups at cash and change rooms are ridiculous. There aren’t employees to help you around the store, because they’re too busy cleaning up after everyones mess. People treat this store like an absolute dump. Women can be nasty.
The layout of this store is weird. Who wants to climb stairs while shopping? I know this makes me sounds lazy, but… anyways. Also, its completely disorganized. If you find something you like, good luck finding it in another colour, let alone your size.

My name is Jenni O, and I am addicted for Forever 21.
Now that is out in the open I will note that unfortunately the closest one to Vancouver [where I live] is a good 2 hour drive — so when I arrived in Toronto my first order of business was hitting up this store.
I walked in and was scorned for my coffee, there is a strict «no liquids» rule like at airport security. I had to toss back my morning coffee quickly standing at the front… I found that odd, but once I actually started browsing I understood why.
Shoppers in this store are like angry vultures! The clothes are decently made, cute/​trendy/​sexy/​etc…, and really really cheap. Place that at Younge and dundas and you have yourself a mad house! I had no issue finding things I needed to buy on the spot, my only complaint is they sell through so quickly I had a hard time finding my size.
I went back the next day just because I was in the area, and guessed they would have new stock due to turnover, and it was like a new store. I swear they must never have sales there! Again, I was too successful.
Despite all the craziness the staff was great to boot.

Remember when everyone was losing their minds about this store opening? I remember girls who skipped classes at Ryerson that day to go to the store opening and came back with those bright yellow bags…
Eventually, when the crowds died down, I decided to give this American chain’s first Canadian store a chance. And I tried a couple more times. But I really just can’t stand this place.
First off, their clothes are the cheapest quality I’ve ever encountered. I only have moderate sewing experience but even I can see when the sweatshop workers messed up a seam. Cheap materials, crappy sewing jobs in third world countries… not cool.
And maybe it’s just this location, but any of the «fashion forward» stuff seems to fly off the shelves in minutes, leaving only sleazy club gear like dresses that look like shirts and metallic stretchy things. When I went to the stores in the States, they had wayyy more selection and better looking stuff in general.
Plus the layout of this store is annoying as hell. It was annoying when it was the Gap, and it’s even more irritating now that it’s filled with fashionista tourist teenagers and their moms (and sometimes dads). Stairs in the middle of the floor and too many clothing racks shoved into an already small space. And the tables are always a mess — I am not going to pick through piles of clothes in the hopes that I’ll find one shirt.
My last gripe — NO RETURNS. That’s the surefire way to know that the store can’t stand behind the quality of its clothing. Once you buy it, it’s yours forever, even if it falls apart after you wear it once, and even if you don’t want to wait in a lineup to try it on. I cherish my freedom of having the option to return things, and Forever 21 tries to take that away from me. Well, forget you, Forever 21. I’m not 21 anymore, anyways.