Vaughan to Grove City Premium Outlets: the big outlet run by chauffeured Sprinter

Grove City, and why the extra two hours

Grove City is the outlet trip Ontario shoppers make when Buffalo's Fashion Outlets and the Walden Galleria have been done: a hundred and thirty stores at the I-79 exit in the farmland an hour north of Pittsburgh — Coach, Kate Spade, Michael Kors and Tory Burch; Polo Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, J.Crew, Banana Republic; Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and Columbia; Le Creuset, Williams-Sonoma and the kitchen stores; Carter's, Gap Kids and the children's brands — with prices and a selection the nearer outlets do not match, and a two-hour drive past Buffalo that makes it an overnight rather than a day. The overnight is the arithmetic: 48 hours out of Canada earns CAD 800 per person duty-free, including children, which for a family of four is CAD 3,200 of outlet purchases without duty at the booth, and the Sprinter's bay carries it home. The outlets' site has the store list; the border guide has the bridge and the CBSA rules.

The road

From Woodbridge the 407, the QEW, the Peace Bridge, I-190, I-90 west past Buffalo and along Lake Erie to Erie, Pennsylvania, then I-79 south for an hour through the Pennsylvania hills to exit 113 at Grove City — five and a half hours by the estimate and five and three-quarters with the booth and a stop at Erie. Erie's Presque Isle is on the way for a summer family that wants a beach hour, and Pittsburgh is an hour south for the family that turns the outlet overnight into a city weekend.

The stores, and the arithmetic

The outlets' savings are largest on the American brands whose Canadian prices are set high and whose Canadian outlet presence is thin — the leather goods, the men's tailoring at Brooks Brothers and the sportswear — and smallest on the goods whose Canadian price is already close; a shopper who checks the Canadian price before the trip knows which of the hundred and thirty stores the drive is for, and the outlets' directory is current. The duty is the number to subtract: on a day trip everything pays duty and HST at the booth, with North American-made goods often paying HST only; on the overnight the CAD 800 per person exemption removes it for most of a family's shop, and the alcohol and tobacco limits inside it are the CBSA page's detail.

The overnight, in shape

Friday at 1 from Woodbridge, the Peace Bridge at 2:40, Erie's exit for dinner at 5:45, I-79 to the Grove City hotels at exit 113 by 7:15; Saturday the outlets' opening at nine — the leather goods first, the men's stores, the sportswear, the children's stores, the kitchen stores last — with the bags to the Sprinter's bay at noon and at three and the chauffeur ferrying from the stores' doors, dinner in Grove City or Slippery Rock; Sunday's second pass from nine for the stores missed, the road at noon, Erie at one, the Peace Bridge at 5:15 with the two-night receipts envelope, the four exemptions applied and the balance paid by card in five minutes, Woodbridge by 7. Two nights, the Sprinter as a return with a Saturday on daily hire, one number in the booking engine, and the travel desk holding the hotel.

The Pittsburgh version

A family that wants a city with the outlets sleeps in Pittsburgh instead — an hour south — and does the outlets on the Saturday, the Pittsburgh post's Duquesne Incline, the Strip District and a Steelers or Penguins game on the Sunday, and the drive home on the Monday with the exemption; it is the version for a family where one parent shops and the other does not, and the Sprinter does the outlets' run while the second parent takes the children to the Carnegie Science Center by the city's own transit.

What the Sprinter carries, and how

The bay behind the last row takes two families' outlet weekend — the boxes flat, the bags in the bins, the shoes in their boxes — and the chauffeur's trips from the stores' doors mean nobody walks the outlets with more than one store's bags; the receipts go into the envelope in the door as the bags go into the bay, sorted by person, with the country-of-origin labels left on. A large item — a Le Creuset set, a Samsonite trunk — is told to us at booking so the bay is planned; the Luxury SUV takes a couple's weekend and the Sprinter takes a family's or three friends'.

What the chauffeur replaces

Five and a half hours each way as a driver with a trunk that is full by Saturday noon; the Peace Bridge twice; I-79's hills in the dark; a booth declaration done from three purses; and the Sunday drive home tired from two days of stores. For a couple the trip is a car's and the site says so; for a family of four with a Christmas list or three friends splitting the Sprinter it is one fare, a bay and an envelope.

Seasons

The Saturday after American Thanksgiving — Black Friday's weekend, a Vaughan work week, the outlets' biggest days and the Peace Bridge's longest waits, which the chauffeur leaves at six for; the back-to-school August weekend; the January sales; the quiet spring, when the outlets are the couple's weekend. Erie's snow on I-90 and I-79's hills are the winter's variables and the chauffeur's watch.

Pairing it

Grove City pairs with Pittsburgh an hour south, with Erie and Presque Isle on the road for a summer beach hour, with Cleveland two hours west for a family that loops home by the Rock Hall and the Peace Bridge, and with the Buffalo outlets as the nearer alternative when the extra two hours do not pay.

Three friends, one Sprinter, in order

Three friends from Maple with three families' Christmas lists on the first weekend of December: the Sprinter at noon on Friday, the Peace Bridge at 1:40 with a fifteen-minute wait, Erie at 4:15 for an early dinner, the Grove City Hampton Inn by 6:15; Saturday's outlets from nine to six with the Coach and Kate Spade queues first, the men's stores for the husbands' lists, Carter's and Gap Kids, Nike and Under Armour for the teenagers, Le Creuset and Williams-Sonoma last, the chauffeur ferrying from the stores' doors to the bay at eleven, one, three and five; Sunday's second pass from nine for the two stores missed, the road at 11:30, Erie at 12:30, the Peace Bridge at 4:45 with three receipts envelopes and three CAD 800 exemptions applied, the balance paid by card in eight minutes, Maple by 6:45. Two nights of the Sprinter's return with a Saturday on daily hire, split three ways.

The Slippery Rock and Volant detour

Ten minutes from the outlets, Slippery Rock is a university town with the North Country Brewing Company's restaurant in an old funeral home for the Saturday dinner; twenty minutes south, Volant is a village of a hundred people whose main street's old mill and shops are the antiques and the Amish-made goods that the outlets do not sell, and the Sprinter's Sunday-morning detour for a mother who wants one non-outlet hour. The Visit Lawrence County site has Volant's shops.

Costs, plainly

The Grove City weekend is a return with a Saturday on daily hire in the booking engine; the hotel and the purchases are the family's own, and the 48-hour CAD 800 exemption per person is the arithmetic that makes the overnight pay. Against the fare are five and a half hours each way as a driver, the Peace Bridge twice, I-79's hills in the dark, a trunk full by noon and a booth declaration from three purses; a couple drives, and a family of four with a Christmas list or three friends splitting the Sprinter book it for the bay, the envelope and the Sunday's sleep.

Pennsylvania's clothing tax, and the arithmetic once more

Pennsylvania charges no state sales tax on most clothing and footwear — the reason the outlets' shelf prices are the prices paid — and it is the second half of the Grove City arithmetic after the exchange rate and the duty: a family that compares the shelf price with the Canadian price, subtracts nothing at the register, and applies the CAD 800-per-person exemption at the booth knows what the weekend saved before the Sprinter leaves the lot. Accessories, sporting goods and the kitchen stores' hardware are taxed; the clothing and the shoes are not, and the outlets' own site does not say so because Americans take it for granted.

The overnight's hotels

Grove City's hotels sit at the I-79 exit beside the outlets — the Hampton Inn, the Holiday Inn Express and the Comfort Inn, with the pools the children want after a day in the stores — and the travel desk holds two rooms for a family or three for three friends; a family that prefers a city sleeps in Pittsburgh an hour south, and a family that wants the lake sleeps in Erie on the way and drives the last hour on Saturday morning to be at the doors at nine.

The March break and the August version

Vaughan families use the March break for the spring-wardrobe overnight — the outlets quiet, the exemption applied, Pittsburgh's Carnegie museums on the Sunday — and the August weekend before school for the back-to-school run, when the children's stores and the sportswear are the list and the Sprinter's bay carries five backpacks' worth home; both are the two-night return with a Saturday on daily hire in the booking engine.

Costs against the Buffalo run

The Grove City overnight is two nights of Sprinter against the Buffalo day's one; it pays when the list is long enough that the CAD 800-per-person exemption and Pennsylvania's untaxed clothing outweigh the extra fare and the hotel — a family of four with a Christmas list, three friends with three families' lists — and it does not pay for a couple buying two coats, who take the Buffalo day or drive. The booking engine shows both numbers and the site is plain about which shopper each is for.

Booking it

Book a return from your Vaughan address with a Saturday on daily hire, or a daily hire for the weekend; tell us the stores, the large items, the hotel, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the receipts envelope in the door.

Book the Grove City weekend