13 Best Shopping in Central North Carolina, North Carolina

This shop and gourmet sandwich counter offers kitchenware, cookbooks, local produce, and specialty foods, as well as wines, chocolates, teas, coffees, and scads of candy. Breakfast is served until 11 and into the afternoon on weekends. Lunch lasts until 4 pm. Gift baskets can be shipped all over the country.

This shop is known for its pimento cheese. Take some to go, or have it spread on a shrimp BLT to enjoy at the tables just outside.

Durham's funky 9th Street is lined with shops and restaurants and has a distinct college-town feel.

With more than 1 million square feet of showroom space, this complex, the biggest furniture retailer in the world, makes an IKEA look like a corner store. This goes far beyond an average shopping experience---a visit here could easily take all day. Customers register with the front desk and are given tips by a Furnitureland consultant on how to maximize their time in the sprawling store, which includes innumerable galleries from leading manufacturers and a discount center. Meals and refreshments are available at a Starbucks and a Subway (the largest one in the United States, of course).

Deep discounts are part of the draw to this furniture store. Don't be put off by the nondescript brick exterior beside the highway—inside, expect more than 150 well-known brands and some pieces offered at below manufacturer-direct prices. The Discount Furniture Warehouse and Furniture Value and Clearance Center, at 2035 Brentwood Street, is only one exit from the main store.

Contemporary and traditional works from nearly 400 craftspeople fill this gallery and shop in Winston-Salem's arty hub. The organization has held an annual fair in November since 1963.

Located between Greensboro and Burlington, this is the world's largest seller of discontinued and active china, crystal, flatware, and collectibles. It stocks more than 12 million pieces in 425,000 patterns. Free tours of the massive warehouse are offered every hour until one hour before closing time.

Open year-round, this 75-acre market is the place to go for locally grown fruits and vegetables, flowers and plants, and North Carolina crafts. There is also a host of restaurants serving down-home cooking.

This village-like mall has restaurants, a movie theater, and nearly 150 stores, including Nordstrom and Crate & Barrel.

Solo and group shows rotate through several exhibition spaces at this sculpture and painting gallery, in the same massive IHFC building as the High Point Theatre. The frequent art openings are always open to the public. Closed Saturday--Monday.

Raleigh's first shopping center continues to reinvent itself with new upscale boutiques and restaurants. Expect everything from home decor to yoga studios to locally roasted coffee.