Saint Louis Shopping

Okay, so like the areas in the St. Louis area, many of the malls are named for their location. For example, West County Mall, South County Mall, and the easiest to figure out, Chesterfield Mall, cause it is in Chesterfield.

We have some really great malls in our area. West County Mall, aka The Dove Mall, has been totally re-done is really nice. Here you will find stores such as Dick's Sporting Goods (a fun place), Macy's, Nordstroms, Victoria's Secret (my favorite store), JC Penney, a great swim suite store called "Water Water Everywhere" (I will be there this weekend), tons of shoe stores, specialty shops and so much more. There is a wonderful food court, Starbucks and a great restaurant called "J.Bucks".

Don't want to fight the parking hassle? There is valet parking for $5.00, which at times is worth every penny.

This mall was recently voted the best in St. Louis, and I can vouch for that.

What to buy: Just about anything you can think of, you can find it here. This is a Westfield Mall, if that helps at all.

What to buy: Antiques: Cherokee Street in south St Louis and Maryland Ave in the Central West End

High End Shopping: Plaza Frontenac in Ladue (Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Ave, Williams Sonoma, Coach, etc. etc.)

Shopping Mall: The Galleria, Brentwood Blvd (Macys, Dillards, the usual mall stores)

Funky, Eclectic: U-City Loop (Delmar Ave) (Retro, vintage clothing, record stores, beads-n-bangles, etc.)

Boutique-y: Central West End (esp. Euclid, Maryland, MacPherson Aves)

If you are in the mood to shop. West County Center is a great place to go for just about anything you may be looking for. From Dicks Sporting Goods to Nordstrom this mall has it.

What to buy: A must is a visit to Charming Charlies. What a great shop this is. They have everything from jewelery to boots to clothing that you won't find anywhere else. And the price? WONDERFUL!

Charmingcharlie

St. Louis has a lot of shopping malls. The main malls are Chesterfield Mall, Saint Louis Galleria, West County Mall, St. Louis Union Station, Mid-Rivers Mall, Northwest Plaza, Crestwood Mall, South County Mall, Plaza Frontenac, Belleville Mall, and a couple others. The Saint Louis Centre was a nice sized mall in Downtown St. Louis that was built fairly recently, but I'm not sure on its current status, as the City of St. Louis has been seriously considering redeveloping the site that it exists on.

The fudge is good, but the show is better. This particular "showman" would throw a stream of fudge in the air as he would mix it.
This shopping area used to be a rail station. The architecture is very interesting.

What to buy: Fudge

St. Louis has a lot of shopping centers! Some of my favorites are Chesterfield Mall in Chesterfield (Southwest of St. Louis), St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights (East of St. Louis in Illinois), The Galleria (West of St. Louis in Richmond Heights), and West County (West of St. Louis in Des Peres). Also, a new shopping center is being built northwest of St. Louis (In Hazelwood), called St. Louis Mills. I believe it is supposed to be completed by november of 03. There is also a shopping mall downtown, St. Louis Centre. It has MANY empty storefronts, and there just isn't much to do there. But, it has a neat layout and many escalators, so it might be something cool to see. But don't plan on shopping there much, as there aren't a whole lot of stores.

This was budget travel at it's best. We faced parking fees, ticket fees to get in, and, at the Zoo, tickets fees to ride the train. Not to mention food for a small army. The gift shop prices were, well, typical gift shop prices. If this is a major trip and you just have to have something to take back then make use of the shops. Otherwise, skip it.

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Dickies has any sporting good item you can imagine and the kids love to try their luck at the Rock climbing wall.

What to buy: Of course the little girls have to go to Build-A-Bear. At first, when my daughter wanted to go, I thought to myself, "Sierra, you are too old and this is way too expensive for a stuffed animal." But, when I seen her face light up after picking out all the details for her bear, I began to realize how special this would be for her.

West County Mall (also called The Dove Mall - see photo - by locals) was remodled in the last several years and now contains Macy's, Nordstorm, and JC Penny as anchors, and has a Dick's (I think) sporting goods store, along with the usual cast of mall characters - Sephora, The Body Shop, White House / Black Market, American Eagle, etc. etc. It's a big mall. One shop I found refreshing was an independent toy store - Toy Tyme.

There is a food court with the usuals - Sbarro, Auntie Anne's, some teriyaki, etc. And a couple of niceer restraunts, including J Bucks, which is local. There's also an Elephant Bar restaurant right next to, but not in the mall.

What to buy: Clothes, beauty products, toys, etc.

What to pay: Typical Mall Prices

If you want to find an oriental grocery store then after going to Tachibana's for lunch then go across the side street to the small shopping center, There is a grocery store in the corner of that shopping center. Also a few blocks down on Olive there is another oriental grocery. We buy our japanese rice 20 pounds at a time from one of these places plus all the other ingredients one needs to cook oriental foods at home.

What to buy: Oriental ingredients

What to pay: reasonably priced in comparison to other parts of the country.