Are malls open in Montreal right now?

With the province's different regions shifting in and out of different levels of lockdown, different business sectors are being affected. Question is—aside from restaurants, bars, libraries, museums and so forth—are malls open in Montreal right now?

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If you want the short answer? Yes, Montreal malls are open right now.

The long answer gets a bit more complicated: Yes, they're open, but there are restrictions in place and different malls have taken different approaches.

Back on September 8, 2020, the Quebec government unveiled a new regional, colour-coded alert system that could help people living in the province understand what stage of lockdown a region was in. Within a month of that alert system being established, Montreal went from yellow, to orange, to red alert status.

While malls and general retail stores have been permitted to stay open in Montreal and in surrounding regions that are also under a red alert status—Laval to the north and Montérégie to the south—there's a few things to take into consideration: Hand sanitizer is generally available and encouraged, masks are mandatory, social distancing markers have been placed on the floors and customers are supposed to stay two metres apart (unless visiting together), and new fixtures like touchscreens for maps have been deactivated.

Montrealers should generally check to see if the mall of their choice is open when they choose to go, but they're generally open seven days a week. The only thing to note is that opening hours have been reduced in general. For example, Centre Eaton (at the time of this article's published date) opens at 11am and usually closes at 7pm (5pm on Sundays) while Carrefour Angrignon opens at 10am and usually closes at 6pm (9pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays).

...so yeah. Check before you plan on visiting, as it's unlikely these hours will be extended for the Christmas season, even with Boxing Day sales.

On top of this, the stores within Montreal's malls aren't required to adhere to the hours of the shopping mall they're located in, so it's easier to check the hours of the store(s) you plan on visiting. Anecdotally, Time Out Montreal editors have heard and seen firsthand that stores may close early for the day if business is slow.

So that's the state of affairs right now in Montreal. It's a controversial issue right now, as many other businesses are left wondering—despite taking all the precautions required of them to stay open—whether they will be allowed to reopen following Quebec's renewed lockdown measures in October, or if malls too will be asked to close.

If you want to stay updated on what's happening in Montreal, follow @TimeOutMontreal on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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