A $15 receipt from Inges Laundromat counts as one entry in this year's Roncesvalles holiday contest. So does a $15 receipt from Another Story Bookshop, Pollocks Home Hardware or Rowe Farms. The Roncesvalles Village BIA's ShopRoncy2Win started on November 2. Each weekly winner keeps $500, and the other $500 goes to a local business.
The holiday shopping season on Roncy this year runs on the errands already on the list as much as on gift buying, and every weekly draw sends money back to the avenue.
The rules, in plain terms
ShopRoncy2Win runs from 12:00 a.m. EST on November 2, 2026 to 11:59 p.m. EST on December 13, 2026. Entrants must be legal Ontario residents aged 18 or older. Here's how entries work:
- Receipts: each one must be at least $15, tax included. Upload a photo of it.
- Digital and delivery-app receipts count too.
- Online reviews of local businesses are a valid entry, and no purchase is needed to enter or win.
- Weekly cap: 20 entries per person.
- Prizes: seven in total. Six are $1,000 cash prizes, split between $500 for the winner and $500 for a local business. The seventh is a $1,500 grand prize that the winner keeps. Every entry goes into the grand prize draw.
The dates and the prizes fit together. November 2 to December 13 is six full weeks, Monday to Sunday, and there are six weekly prizes. With a cap of 20 entries a week, one person can enter up to 120 times over the whole campaign, and all of those entries also go into the $1,500 draw.
The BIA's own announcement says this is a Roncesvalles Village only initiative. It follows the 2024 ShopRoncy2Win and the 2025 TapCanadian2Win. In practice, every entry and every business share stays on this one strip.
The participant list reads like a week of errands
The list on the contest site is long, and much of it isn't gift shopping at all. Here are some of the businesses it names, sorted by the kind of trip they cover:
| The errand | Participating businesses named on the list |
|---|---|
| Groceries and produce | Amey's Produce Co, Maple Produce, Pearson Fruit Market, Shangri-La Fruit Market, Good Earth Market, Evergreen Natural Foods, Sobeys Urban Fresh High Park |
| Meat, fish and deli | Chicago Butcher Shoppe, Russell's Butcher & Deli, Rowe Farms, The Meat Department, Anchor Fresh Seafood, Benna's Bakery and Deli |
| Bread and baking | Hot Oven Bakery, Mabel's Bakery and Specialty Foods, Fantail Bakery Café |
| Household and laundry | Pollocks Home Hardware, Inges Laundromat, Aspen Cleaners, Greenfield Dry Cleaners, Brite Star Cleaners |
| Pets | Pet Valu, Roncesvalles Animal Hospital, Roncy Village Veterinary Clinic |
| Coffee | Cherry Bomb Coffee, Reunion Island Coffee, Affect Coffee Co, Cafe Russo |
| Gifts and books | Another Story Bookshop, Scooter Girl Toys, Ecotique, Kim Drosdick Jewellery, The Mercantile |
The list also has banks like CIBC, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank and Royal Bank of Canada. It has dental offices, physiotherapy clinics, pharmacies, Kumon Math & Reading Centre, Tim Hortons and McDonald's. This time of year the gift shops get most of the attention, but the contest weighs a $15 hardware run the same as a $15 stocking stuffer.
For dinner out, the list includes Chopin Restaurant, Café Polonez, Barque Smokehouse, Alimentari, Toasted, Round the Horn, Spanish Pig and The Ace, among many others. Delivery-app receipts count, so takeout from any of them works too.
Reviews are a way to enter without spending
Online reviews of local businesses count as entries, and no purchase is necessary. That gives the contest a second way to help the avenue. A receipt shows money already spent on the strip. A review gives a Roncesvalles business something it can keep long after the draws are over. The site doesn't say a review has to be positive, so honest ones are fine.
Online reviews count toward the same 20-entries-a-week limit as receipts. The official contest rules linked from the campaign page give the full no-purchase entry option and the odds disclosure.
The Monday grocery run moves to Sterling Road
The contest covers the businesses on Roncesvalles Avenue. The neighborhood's other big weekly food stop moved indoors for the season the same week the contest began.
The Sorauren Farmers' Market is run by the Sorauren Farmers' Market Association, a nonprofit that has operated the market since 2008. Its first indoor market of the season was Monday, November 2, billed as a "Pajama Party." For the indoor season, the market sets up at Henderson Brewing Co., 128A Sterling Rd. Henderson's events page calls the brewery the market's "winter home." It lists local produce, meats, breads, cheeses and household goods, plus ready-to-eat food that "pair perfectly with a Henderson beer."
The market's calendar lists 3 to 6:30 p.m. for its November dates at Henderson. The market says it takes only two Mondays off a year, the last Monday in December and the first Monday in January. This season that means December 28 and January 4.
The market moves back outdoors in spring. In 2026 it returned to the Sorauren Town Square on May 4, according to a Sorauren Park post dated May 16, 2026. That post also notes the association's board includes vendors.
The market is the one fixed weekly routine this season that sits outside the contest's footprint. On a Monday, a household could pick up vegetables at Henderson and still enter a receipt from Pearson Fruit Market or Russell's Butcher & Deli later in the week.
Six contest weeks, laid against the rest of the calendar
By publication day, the contest is in its second week. The table below lines up the contest weeks with the dated events established for each one.
| Contest week | Dates | Also on the calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nov 2 to Nov 8 | Sorauren market's first indoor Monday, Nov 2, with the Pajama Party at Henderson |
| 2 | Nov 9 to Nov 15 | Sorauren market at Henderson, Nov 9 |
| 3 | Nov 16 to Nov 22 | Sorauren market at Henderson, Nov 16 |
| 4 | Nov 23 to Nov 29 | Sorauren market at Henderson, Nov 23 |
| 5 | Nov 30 to Dec 6 | Sorauren market at Henderson, Nov 30; Home Alone at the Revue, Sat Dec 5, 12:30 p.m. |
| 6 | Dec 7 to Dec 13 | Ernest Saves Christmas at the Revue, Fri Dec 11 and Sat Dec 12, 7 p.m.; contest closes Dec 13 at 11:59 p.m. EST |
The Revue's Christmas Classics dates come from the cinema's series schedule. Revue Cinema is on the contest's participant list, so a receipt there of $15 or more counts in the last two weeks like any other.
Getting to the shops on the King service change
Since November 1, the TTC's service adjustments have run the 504 and 304 King streetcars as one branch between Dundas West and Broadview. The 504C and 304C replacement buses run between Sunnyside Loop on Roncesvalles Avenue and Distillery Loop as part of the TTC's plan for the King Street watermain and track work. For shopping on the avenue itself, the businesses on the list are still where they've always been. Only the vehicle running past the south end has changed.
Coming from the Sunnyside end, Sunnyside Provisions, Sunnyside Dental and Sunnyside Medical Pharmacy are all on the contest list.
Where the $500 business shares come from
The contest is a BIA program, sponsored by the Roncesvalles Village BIA. Six weekly draws at $500 each means $3,000 is set aside for local businesses over the six weeks, on top of the $4,500 paid to entrants across the six weekly prizes and the grand prize. For a Roncy shop, that money reaches the till through a winner's entry during the holiday shopping weeks.
Whoever is shopping the avenue this season, the entry process is the same. Keep the receipt, take a photo, and upload it before the December 13 deadline.
Our team works from the Bosley Queen West office, and Roncesvalles Avenue is part of the West Toronto we know well. If you have questions about the neighborhood, or just want a recommendation for where to spend your next $15 receipt, Kim Kehoe and the team are happy to talk. Contact Us any time.
