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 | United States of America Shopping | Tips 1 - 10 of 87 |  |
 typical setup by PA2AKgirl It's not really a shop. It's people selling stuff out of their car/truck or from a little stand. Every day, these people get out in the sun and set up card tables to present their jewelry or other locally made crafts. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out where they went to the bathroom...there was literally NOTHING but desert for about a 20 mile radius at the place we stopped...which was just a turnout.
The jewelry is excellent--I always support local artists/"merchants". And it's a great price considering what you would pay in a store. The people are SO nice--if you buy something. Jeanette was a little hesitant at first b/c these stands are all up and down the roads and she wanted to look around, but she said it reminded her of Guatemala--people trying to sell you anything and everything. Somewhat of a hassle. I bought a necklace right away--I loved it and it was $8.00. So, the guy and I talked about where we were going, where we had been while Jeanette was bartering.
Depends on what you buy. Necklaces were $5.00-$20.00 and rings went up to $25. I didn't get a chance to price everything. Leave a Comment Theme: Local CraftAddress: Navajo NationDirections: All over the place--you're bound to drive by a few if you're in the four corners area.
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 Carsons Pier Scott, Chicago by Paul2001 Inside Carson Piers Scott is your standard North American department that largely catters to middle class families. However it is the architecture of the building that makes, for me anyway, Carson Piers Scott interesting. Once I saw the fantastic metalwork facade, I had to go inside to see if the inside compared with the exterior. I was a wee bit disappointed but just the same the store is worth a visit if you are in Chicago's Loop district.
This is your standard American large department store. Therefore you could probably pick up virtually any imaginable item while scanning through this huge store.
Prices are about average. Leave a Comment Theme: Department StoreAddress: 1 South State Street.Phone: 312-641-7000Directions: The Loop at Michigan Avenue.
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 Disney Store: Glen Allen, VA by b1bob Don't live near Disney World (in Orlando, Florida) or Disneyland (Anaheim, California)? Well, no problem. You can at least buy much of the same rubbish they sell in stores at the parks in all 50 states of the USA plus a few foreign countries. Disney Stores have become almost as familiar a fixture in most malls as The Gap.
You can find toys, games, movies, music, clothing, small home furnishings, art, and collectibles at any one of hundreds of these stores. Leave a Comment Theme: GiftsDirections: At a mall near you.
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 Hot Topic by b1bob Folks, this is not what you might call a b1bob kind of store. I put it here not as a recommendation, but as something for folks from outside the U.S. to be on the lookout for as a curiosity when they shop at an American shopping mall. It was founded on the premise that no other retailers were taking timely advantage of the direct correlation between music videos, alternative artists, and teenage fashions. Hot Topic keeps up with music videos, concerts, and music magazines and claims to always be well ahead of the curve. They say that if it's happening in music related fashion, it's happening at Hot Topic right now.
Some of the ugliest fashion called alternative can be found here as well as all manner of accessories. It's always fun for a square like me to come in here and check things out (like Spencer Gifts was when I was a kid). Leave a Comment
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 Museum Gift Shop by b1bob At just about every museum worth its salt, there is a gift shop selling whatnots of that particular museum. The quality of the products sold varies widely, but it's usually overpriced because the museum has unique rights to sell the whatnots dealing with its subject matter. Some museums covering a controversial point in history take one side in that particular point of view and drive it home like a railroad spike. Some of these gift shops are inconvenient to access when the museum is short on staff. Some of these gift shops are too convenient in their strategic placement. Some museums make the gift shop the only point of non-emergency exit. Leave a Comment Theme: Local Craft
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 Spencer Gifts by b1bob When we were kids going to the mall, my brother and I would always ask Mama and Daddy to let us wander into Spencer Gifts, not to buy anything, but to see all the weird merchandise they had for sale. The last time I went was at university when I went along with Matt Rogers and Dave Coolidge in Dave's rice burner (Japanese car) to the location at Springfield Mall for Dave to buy a can of fart spray (a worse odour than the real thing). It was back in the days when I was compact enough to fit in the hatch of the Honda CRX.
All manner of joke items, party favours, and other rubbish made in Red China. Leave a Comment
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 As Seen on TV: Fair Oaks Mall by b1bob If you've been in the USA for any length of time, you have seen numerous commercials advertising a lot of interesting gadgets you might not have thought possible. The good news is, you no longer have to wait 6-8 weeks for it to be shipped to you. You can now go to a mall near you and pick up your Houdini Corkscrew or whatever it is you're looking for.
As Seen on TV offers a lot of intersting things like a liquid leather repair kit, various innovative cooking tools, and a flat screen telephone that can double as a calculator. Some things sold here border on the absurd, but some things can be useful.
The prices are pretty reasonable. Many things are only $19.95, but that's a bargain when you consider you won't have to pay shipping and handling. Leave a Comment
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 The Great Indoors by b1bob The Great Indoors is a gigantic store for those who are into remodeling and redecorating. (Menfolks, don't get dragged or coerced into going here, go to Bass Pro Outdoor World instead. She says, "It'll only be a few minutes." Remember, "Gilligan's Island" was supposed to be a 3-hour tour.) Its 50 showrooms in about a dozen states are about 130.000 square feet (about 40.000 square meters) are full of decorative-type items you wouldn't find at most other home furnishing stores. Obviously, this is not a b1bob kind of store.
You will find all sorts of different faucet styles, appliances, decorative patterns, but you won't find things like fertiliser, garden tractors, and things like that, which sets this place apart from Home Depot or Lowe's.
Just from the locations the company chooses to put its showrooms, it's a bit more expensive than Home Depot or Lowe's. Leave a Comment Theme: Home Furnishing
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 Send a Hallmark! by b1bob Hallmark is a nationwide greeting card company. It has a store at nearly every strip or shopping mall worth its salt.
They offer cards for all occasions which you can imagine. They also sell party favours, gifts, candies and seasonal items. So, folks, if you step in it with both feet with respect to someone you love, Hallmark is your one-stop shop on the road to making it right again.
Hallmark cards are reasonably priced, but the gifts and candy are a bit on the high side. Leave a Comment
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 Sur La Table by b1bob For those of y'all from Roxboro, NC, Sur la Table is French for on the table. For those who know me well, this upscale kind of store would seem an odd fit for a cheapskate like me. However, I'm a smart cheapskate. Over the long haul, it actually costs LESS to pay more upfront for well-made cookware that will last decades than to buy the cheap stuff. Many folks might not know it, but I love to cook.
As a rule, I hate shopping, but I enjoy browsing all the cookware, cooking tools, and recipe books. Some cooking tools I had never even heard of (not even on The Food Network) before doing my Christmas shopping here. I had the most fun giggling at some of the trendier items like cruets labeled huile and vinaigre (I'm fluent in French, folks, but this is the United States of America.) On top of that, they have in stock some of those giant economy sized pepper mills you see waiters carry around at many snooty restaurants. If you can envisage it in a kitchen or a restaurant, you'll find it here.
Most things lean to the upscale, but there are some reasonably priced things too. When you don't know what to get the Emeril wannabe you know, get 'em a gift certificate. Leave a Comment Theme: OtherDirections: Sur La Table is located in 15 states plus the District of Columbia. The one nearest to me is at Stony Point Shopping Centre on the southside of Richmond, VA.Website: www.surlatable.com
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