Getting ready to go out

It’s holiday party season! And New Year’s Eve is just around the corner. And you know what that means—get your hair done, find an outfit, and everything in between!

Can we come to the party? We’ll bring the sparkly numbers, courtesy of the latest data from the Survey of Household Spending, which tracks average household expenditures on a variety of goods and services.

And, courtesy of data from the Canadian business counts, we’ll let you know where all the stores are.

Personal care

Canadian households spent an average of $689 on personal care products in 2021, including makeup, skin care, manicure and fragrance products ($198), hair care products ($89), and personal deodorants ($19).

The largest expenditure in the category of personal care services was hair grooming services ($515). It all starts at the top!

Clothing and accessories

The average Canadian household spent $2,303 on clothing and accessories in 2021. Women’s and girls’ (aged 14 and older) wear, including footwear, accounted for $844 of that total. The same category for men and boys came in at $570.

Other household expenditures in the clothing and accessories category included watches and jewellery ($125 on average) and accessories ($117).

Need to get that dress or suit cleaned and pressed? The average household spent $63 on laundromats, dry-cleaning and laundry services in 2021.

Over 17,000 stores

Twice a year, we release detailed data on the number of businesses across industries. Our most recent data is from June 2023, when there were 21,451 clothing and clothing accessories retailers across the country. Businesses in this industry primarily sell new, ready-to-wear clothing and accessories, and may also provide alterations.

Included in this industry tally were 5,996 business locations retailing women’s clothing, another 5,474 for family clothing, 2,095 for clothing accessories, and 1,421 for men’s clothing.

Nanaimo, Red Deer, and Quebec cities lead shopping destinations

Breaking the numbers down by census metropolitan area (CMA) and population, you can get an idea of where the best places to shop are!

For example, the CMA with the most potential to be dapper might just be Red Deer, Alberta—there were 0.69 men’s clothing retailers per 10,000 residents, which was tops among all CMAs. Close behind were Trois-Rivières, Quebec (0.62) and Nanaimo, British Columbia (0.61).

But it was in Nanaimo that shoppers might have the best chance at completing a look, with 1.39 clothing accessories retailers per 10,000 residents, followed by Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (1.01), Toronto, Ontario (0.97), and Vancouver, British Columbia (0.84).

Trois-Rivières (2.35) and Saguenay (2.35), Quebec, had the highest number of women’s clothing retailers per 10,000 residents, followed by Belleville, Ontario (2.25), and Kelowna, British Columbia (2.21).

Time to head back west to Red Deer with the famjam! Its 2.68 locations per 10,000 residents might have you covered best if you prefer to one-stop shop at a family clothing retailer. Close behind were Victoria, British Columbia (1.91), Moncton, New Brunswick (1.90) and Barrie, Ontario (1.88).