I'm not saying no one does it (though, like I said, I can't imagine why), I'm saying there's a very good answer to OP's question of:

> Why go to Nordstroms [sic] in Vancouver when you can hit the one in Seattle?

Also...are you familiar with Vancouver or Seattle? New York, Paris, Milan, LA are shopping meccas in a way that Seattle isn't. Heck, Seattle isn't even a shopping mecca in comparison to Vancouver. I actually am having a hard time picturing someone going to Seattle with an empty suitcase unless they live in Yakima or something. Maybe an empty icebox, if they're real into fish.

You are sort of right about Seattle, but not Bellevue. Bellevue is a high end Nordtrom store (so is Seattle, but Bellevue has a lot more stuff these days). And Bellevue these days caters a lot to Indian and Chinese shoppers (like it does in Vancouver). There is also Seattle Outlet malls that is way north of Seattle and is pretty much just luxury brands with a bunch of BC plates in the parking lot.

>(though, like I said, I can't imagine why),

wow, that's a tough one to accept. surely, that can't be true, but my guess is you're limiting your imagination to shopping for essentials vs shopping for the experience or retail therapy type of shopping sessions. destination shopping is absolutely a thing. maybe not a thing you do, but it is an industry

I'm not sure if I'm expressing myself poorly or we just disagree on this point, but for the record: I understand why someone might destination shop in a place like NYC, LA, Tokyo, etc.; I can't imagine why someone who lives in Vancouver would destination shop in Seattle.