They are available at every place that Legion members meet.  Thirty years ago they seemed to be sold by volunteers at lots of places.  Now you mention it I haven't seen any being sold anywhere around town this year.  Guess maybe I should get myself down to the Legion and offer my services!

the safeway close to campus used to have them at customer service......

I'm sure I'll be able to find a place!  It just seemed that they used to be available at every single cash register, and now you have to seek out the places that have them.  Maybe they are just offering them for a shorter time frame?

They seem to be in all the usual places around here. If you can't find a veteran to sell you one, the Tim Hortons are all selling them.

Got mine today at the local pharmacy. Lack of poppy boxes is not something I've ever experienced. I generally get two or three every November, because I lose them constantly. 

I usually get one in the mail sometime around the end of October, but I see poppy sellers at the entrances to every shopping mall, at least here in Victoria. I found one on the ground yesterday and added it to the one I already had just because I didn't want to leave it on the ground.

A good way to keep the poppy from falling off your clothes is, after you've pinned it, to bend the pin upwards and poke it through the bottom of your poppy, then straighten it out again so that it doesn't poke you. I do that with mine now, and I lose them much less often.

I ran some errands this morning.  3 different places and no poppies.  It's weird, I'm used to no poppies being the exception.  Here this year it seems to be the norm.

That probably has to do with the fact that the veterans are all aging - the average age of a World War 2 vet is something like 84. I finally picked up a poppy at my local Tim Hortons today - still a good supply there. 

Somegal, is it the veterns themselves who do the dropoff/pickup for the businesses that have the poppies?  I've not used to seeing veterns themselves give them out if that's what you're referring to.

I am like Chansen, tend to lose them.

They were at the restaurant that I was at yesterday, and a woman had a stand at the grocery store.

I have seen some this year. It is not just the veterans who sell them, the cadets have taken on that task now. Our local cadet corps is very active and can usually be seen around town, at least on Saturdays leading up to Remembrance Day. 

Often the veterans have tables at the malls and outside local businesses around here, but I haven't been to the mall in the past couple of weeks and haven't seen the vets or the cadets at any of the stores that I have been to. Tim Hortons didn't have any vets or cadets, but did have a basket of poppies along with a donation can.

we had them at the customer service desk where i work,

Somegal, the way you describe Tim Hortons is what I usually see at most businesses.  Most years I don't actually see the veterans.  I haven't been to a Tim Hortons this week, but I was in a food court and didn't see them.  I also didn't see them at other stores.  I never actually ended up with one, as I wasn't up to going out on trips that weren't necessary.

Next year I'll be sure to take one as soon as I see one!  I think this is the first year I didn't end up with a poppy.  I did catch some of the ceremonies on tv.

I bought my poppy from a Korean War Veteran and struck up a conversation about the many medals he was wearing. He explained how he got them and told me how many "gooks" he had killed. He then went on to say how we still have to defend ourselves from the muslim "gooks". I felt like throwing my poppy away but I didn't.......one mans testimony shouldn't tarnish all I reasoned, but still..........