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Shopaholics love the City of Brotherly Love for its style—funky artwork and highbrow housewares, fine jewels, and haute couture.
Indeed, Philadelphia has spawned some influential fashion retailers. The Urban Outfitters chain was born in a storefront in West Philadelphia. Its sophisticated sister, Anthropologie, also has its roots in Philadelphia. Lagos, the popular high-end jewelry line, was founded here, and all items are still produced locally. High-fashion boutiques Joan Shepp, Knit Wit, and Elle Lauri, all in the Rittenhouse Square area, are well regarded by locals for designer clothing and accessories.
Some of the most spirited shopping in town is also pleasing to the palate. The indoor Reading Terminal Market and the outdoor Italian Market are bustling with urban dwellers buying groceries and visitors searching for the perfect Philadelphia cheesesteak. Equally welcoming is the city's quaint, cobblestone Antiques Row, the three-block stretch of Pine Street crammed with shops selling everything from estate jewelry to stained glass and vintage furniture. Also worth a trip is the Third Street Corridor in Old City, home to scads of independent, funky boutiques. In Northern Liberties, the Piazza at Schmidt's is a giant mixed-use development inspired by Rome's Piazza Navona, which houses 100,000 square feet of retail space bursting with creative entrepreneurs.
Neighborhoods are presented clockwise starting from the Old City, a commercial waterfront turned arts enclave on the Delaware River, moving south to South Philadelphia, then west to Center City and Rittenhouse Square, across the Schuylkill River to University City around the University of Pennsylvania campus, and ending in the north with Northern Liberties.
The charming, worn-in feel of this store lined with wooden shelves befits the merchandise for sale: the focus is on rare, small-press used and new books, although it's not unheard-of to find a $4 Hardy Boys paperback next to a first-edition Edward Gorey. The store also acts as a venue for fringe musicians from near and far.
For more than 30 years, Fat Jack's has been a mecca for local comic devotees with fresh-off-the-presses copies from major and independent publishers, including Japanese mangas plus 3-D posters, action figures, and the obligatory Dungeons & Dragons supplies.
This is the original New Age bookstore that hails from the days when hippies arrived on South Street in 1972 and turned it into an arts enclave. Follow the smell of incense and step inside to find books on astrology, tarot, shamanism, and world religions and cultures, plus a large selection of jewelry, crystals, and candles.
Sunlight streams into the front windows of this well-curated indie bookshop. It's the kind of place that attracts regulars who sit sipping tea and reading for hours with a dog curled at their feet. This inviting shop has become a meeting place for the local literary community—both the readers and the writers.
Despite its location in a brownstone flanked by University of Pennsylvania fraternity houses, there's nothing fratty about this erudite bookstore. Its two floors of rambling rooms with shelves reaching up to the soaring ceilings boast an enormous amount of literature mixed in with course books for Penn students and used books. Spend a frivolous hour perusing books in a place that makes you feel like you're back in college.
The 60,000-square-foot store, operated by Barnes & Noble, is one of the largest academic bookstores in the United States. Highlights include tomes from the University of Pennsylvania faculty, loads of Penn-insignia clothing and memorabilia, a multimedia section, and a children's reading room. You can also find a Starbucks and the requisite best sellers.
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