WASAGA BEACH, Ontario (Reuter) - Canada's growing obsession with its topless debate shifted from the streets to the stores when the first topless shop opened in this popular Ontario resort town.

Crowds of gaping onlookers gathered Saturday as several customers -- both women and men -- agreed to shop topless to promote the opening of Tom & Tina's Topless Surf & Sport, a clothing store fronting Wasaga Beach's most popular strip of beach.

``It's a free-spirited store,'' said shop owner David Blackstone, 35.

He said he decided to make the store ``top optional'' after the Ontario Court of Appeal in December overturned the conviction of a woman who was charged with indecency after she walked topless down an Ontario street in 1991.

The court ruled the law was discriminatory, paving the way for Ontario women to go topless in public as long as it was not for sexual purposes.

Krista Wagner, 24, doffed her bikini top and danced briefly in front of the surf shop on Saturday alongside friend Mike Huismans, 22, also topless, in exchange for an item of her choice from the store's merchandise.

``I don't see anything wrong with it in a beach area. I don't know about walking around downtown Toronto, but here it's fine,'' said Wagner, who shopped for about half an hour dressed only in her bikini shorts.

Onlookers had mixed reactions.

``These girls are attention-seekers. Canadians are not used to this and we're trying to instill something counter to our culture,'' said one man who stopped to watch Wagner shop.

But one woman said the issue was being blown out of proportion.

``It's no big deal. People do it all over in Italy,'' she said.

Police patrolling the thin strip of beach that threads through Ontario's prime resort area on Lake Huron said there were only a few ``confirmed sightings'' of topless women on the packed beaches on Saturday.