Big White shopping is somewhat limited and it’s shrunk in recent years. This isn’t a bustling village like Whistler Ski Resort with a huge array of shopping, or even like Sun Peaks where you can stroll through the village and browse various ski shops and art galleries. There are only a handful of Big White shops. These will cover off any basic requirements and a little bit of souvenir shopping, but they won’t keep a shopper-aholic entertained for very long.
Big White Ski Shops
Altitude is a large ski shop located in the day lodge, offering lots of variety with respect to ski apparel and accessories such as helmets, goggles and gloves. They have lots of reasonably high end outerwear brands, as well as loads of thermals and mid layers, some of which are emblazoned with the Big White logo. The ski shop also sells lots of other souvenirs.
Ski hardwear can be found at the Dizzy’s Big White ski shop across from the village day lodge. Don’t be fooled by all the retro boots they have on display. These are definitely just for decoration and they are very reputable boot fitters for modern ski boots! The ski-in ski-out location also makes it a great place to buy some new boots because it’s easy to pop in to get any necessary adjustments. Dizzie’s also sells a variety of ski accessories and lots of performance skis including fat skis.
The Rider is a snowboard shop located downstairs in the village centre mall (day lodge). It’s somewhat cramped but the shop is jam packed with lots of goodies including an array of snowboards, boots, bindings, and lots of snowboard clothing and street wear.
General Shopping Big White
Like many other Canadian resorts, Big White does the souvenir trade reasonably well. The shops have great local and Canadian keepsakes that are actually worth buying, and plenty of Big White memorabilia. Altitude has a large range of logo wear. and there’s a small shop near the supermarket that specializes in souvenirs and customized Big White T-shirts. Mountainside is another shop that has Big White souvenirs and other giftware.
If you need some decent retail therapy you’ll need to head down to Kelowna. On some days the resort has a shopping bus that takes shoppers to SuperStore in Kelowna. Enquire at the activities desk.
Grocery Shopping
The Market is a medium sized grocery store located in the Village Centre. They have a good variety of groceries, a deli with meat and cheese, and some fresh produce such as fruit and vegies. They run on a ski hill currency and it’s rather expensive, so if you can stock up on supplies in Kelowna you’ll save a few loonies. There are lots of supermarkets in Kelowna, some on the road out to Big White (e.g. Cooper’s Foods, MarketPlace IGA). Alternatively you can order groceries and get them delivered from supermarkets such as Save-On-Foods.
The Market also sells alcoholic beverages including beers, wine (BC and Australia) and spirits. The prices for alcohol seem reasonable.