62 Best Places to Shop in North Carolina, USA

At this unusual bookstore and bar, you can relax on an overstuffed chair or sofa while sipping one of 80 wines and champagnes by the glass. The inventory includes more than 20,000 secondhand books, with special strength in Civil War, American history, and North Carolina subjects. It's pet friendly, too, with an "espresso dog bar." 

The biggest and arguably the best art gallery in town has changing exhibits of regional sculpture, paintings, fine crafts, and photographs.

Shopping is excellent and local all over downtown Asheville, with around 200 boutiques, including more than 30 art and crafts galleries. Several streets, notably Biltmore Avenue, Broadway Street, Lexington Avenue, Haywood Street, and Wall Street, are lined with small, independently owned stores. In fact, there are only two chain retailers in all of downtown.

Offering a heavenly trifecta of books, coffee, and chocolate, Epilogue has a diverse selection of titles, lovingly chosen by the staff. The café serves hot drinks, Mexican treats like churros and conchas (sweet bread), and locally made chocolates. The adjacent Prologue has rare and used books, and hosts community events.

The line often extends into Pack Square at this premium chocolatier for truffles, ice cream, cookies, brownies, various kinds of hot and cold chocolate drinks, and specialty coffees and teas. Adjoining is the grab-and-go Chocolate Boutique. The owners also have a small chocolate factory and tasting room at  821 Riverside Dr., with guided tours daily, starting at $12.

Just before its opening in 1929, the Grove Arcade, which covers an entire city block, was trumpeted as "the most elegant building in America" by its builder, W. E. Grove, the man also responsible for the Grove Park Inn. He envisioned a new kind of retail, office, and residential complex. Grove died before completing the project, and a planned 14-story tower was never built. Still, the building is an architectural wonder, with gargoyles galore. Now it's a public market with about 40 locally owned shops and restaurants, along with apartments, office space, and an outdoor market. A self-guided architectural tour (download a map from the website) takes about 45 minutes.

This is what an independent bookstore should be, with an intelligent selection of new books, many author appearances and other events, and a comfortable café. Staffers speak many foreign languages, including Hungarian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, French, and German.

Somewhere between an art gallery, an antique mall, and a craft fair, a stroll through Marquee is like touring a museum of Asheville's most creative visual artists. Offerings range from whimsical decor to functional furniture. There's an on-site bar to sip while you browse, and leashed dogs are welcome. 

This is the original Mast General Store, built in 1882–83, with plank floors worn to a soft sheen and an active, old-timey post office. Everything from running shoes to nails-by-the-pound are sold here. You can take a shopping break by sipping bottled "dope" (mountain talk for a soda pop) or a cup of coffee for 5¢ while sitting in a rocking chair on the store's back porch. An annex dating to 1909 is just down the road and now houses most of the store's outdoor-oriented clothing. Mast General Store has expanded to 10 locations, but this one still has the most authentic atmosphere.

Odyssey has the largest number of working clay artists in the region. It has two ceramics galleries, plus pottery studios and clay classes. Browse the ceramic works, both functional and decorative, as well as figurative and abstract sculptures by juried clay artists. 

This shop and gourmet sandwich counter offers kitchenware, cookbooks, plush toys, and specialty foods, as well as wines, chocolates, teas, coffees, and scads of candy. Breakfast and lunch is served 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 BLT to enjoy at the tables outside or a pink banquette inside.

This is the nation's oldest Native American co-op. It displays and sells items created by more than 250 Cherokee craftspeople. The store has a large selection of museum-quality baskets, masks, and wood carvings, some of which can cost hundreds of dollars.

The Platonic ideal of bookstores, Scuppernong has a well-chosen selection of new and used books, with plentiful staff suggestions and reading lists, along with a café serving hot beverages, wine, and beer. The back room hosts book clubs, story times, author readings, and open mic nights for poets and authors.

Open year-round and seven days a week, this 75-acre market is the place to go for locally grown fruits and vegetables, flowers and plants, and North Carolina crafts. There are also a few restaurants serving country cooking for breakfast and lunch, and Calabash-style fried seafood.

In a 1938 building that once housed a five-and-dime, Woolworth Walk features the curated work of more than 170 crafts artists, in 20,000 square feet of exhibit space on two levels. There's even a working soda fountain, built to resemble the original Woolworth luncheonette.

A near-constant stream of students and staff from nearby Duke University and Hospital, and NC School of Science and Math, are making Durham's funky 9th Street transition from college-kid drag to international-minded destination. Long-standing shops Regulator Bookstore and Vaguely Reminiscent gifts, and beloved restaurants Dain's Place and Banh's Cuisine, have paved the way for popular newcomers Möge Tee boba tea, Tiny toys and kids' gifts, and Szechuan Mansion hot pot.

Sponsored by the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), nearly everything at this downtown market is local. Offerings usually include produce, free-range eggs, homemade breads, cheeses, and crafts from some 60 local farms, bakeries, and craftspeople. Every Saturday morning it covers an entire city block on North Market Street. ASAP publishes a print and online guide to local food sources and tailgate markets.

This 1887 brick building, one of the oldest industrial buildings in Asheville, is a former factory once owned by Moses H. Cone, whose family mansion is on the Blue Ridge Parkway. With an exterior covered by a colorful mural, it's home to a music venue, photographers, boutique seamstresses, and a trendy tattoo studio.

Located in the historic Kress Mall, C. Foy Tonsorial Parlor and its third-generation owner are bringing back old-fashioned (but upscale) barbering, complete with hot-towel shaves, shoulder massages, and shoeshines. There's a shoeshine booth and a chess table to pass the time before your appointment. For the ultimate experience, ask for the New York Mint Julep Cocktail Facial.

This art gallery and shop focuses on upscale crafts, glass and metal work, and fine art by regional artists of every genre. You'll find pottery (it's owned by a local potter), jewelry, wood carvings, and all manner of paintings and prints.

This is the spot for local produce, eggs, plants, and crafts. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

Chocolate truffles and sea-salt caramels are favorites here, but you can also buy made-on-site items such as chocolate in the shapes of cowboy boots and high heels. Most items are sold for takeout, but there's limited in-store seating if you just can't wait to scarf down these delicious sweets with a cup of rich hot chocolate.

Once the headquarters for the largest cotton exporter in the world, this historic warehouse complex now comprises a dense concentration of locally owned boutiques and restaurants—nearly 30 of them—in a rambling maze of courtyards and hallways. Clothing and footwear, arts and crafts, gourmet food supplies, books, and comics are all here. While you're here, check out the Wilmington Walk of Fame honoring local celebrities like David Brinkley, Michael Jordan, Charlie Daniels, Roman Gabriel, and nearly a dozen more.

With working studios and exhibits by about a dozen artists, CURVE Studios displays ceramics, textiles, jewelry, sculpture, and furniture in three storefronts.

One of the first retail stores to reinvigorate downtown Raleigh in 2012, Deco moved to bigger digs a few years ago, all the better to fit items from more than 100 local and independent artists and designers. The place for funky souvenirs and gifts like Krispy Kreme collage art or Holly Aiken leather bags, Deco even has an exclusive line of Carolina Hurricane–themed products.

You won't make it far through this maze of vintage, handmade, and local craft dealers without something catching your eye, possibly an antique ceramic animal, pair of statement earrings, or a T-shirt that reads "I Kinda Like Greensboro." A smaller curation of interesting objects is open to browse next door on weekends, while a second store serves Winston-Salem shoppers at  636 W. 4th St.

With strong local support, this enduring mainstay has survived hurricane flooding to stock an admirable collection of literature on the Outer Banks, cuisine, history, nature, lighthouses, shipwrecks, and folklore, as well as related fiction. Local author readings are frequent. The owners operate a sister store in Duck, Duck's Cottage, that's also a coffee shop.

The main shopping area in downtown Waynesville stretches several long blocks along Main Street, with a number of small boutiques, bookstores, antiques shops, restaurants, brewpubs, and a bakery. Side streets in this charming small town also offer shopping and dining. A few blocks away, Frog Level is an up-and-coming small dining and entertainment section in a former industrial area.