New York's
shops cater to
every possible taste, in any
combination and in many cases at
any time of the day or night. As
such, they're a great reason for
visiting the city, even if the
invasion of chains, like Barnes
& Noble, Filene's Basement
and even the world's largest
K-Mart have caused some worry.
Nevertheless, many of the oddest
and oldest stores remain, and
nothing beats discovering a
quirky, independent shop that
may specialize only in vintage
cufflinks or rubber stamps.
Remember that an 8.25 percent
sales tax will be added
to your bill; this is bypassed
sometimes when paying cash in a
market or discount store.
Finally, wherever you're
shopping, be careful.
Manhattan's crowded, frenzied
stores are ripe territory for
pickpockets and bag-snatchers.
Antiques
New York is the premier antique
source in the country, excellent
for browsing, with
museum-quality pieces available
(typically costing a fortune) as
well as lots of interesting,
fairly priced stuff at the
junkier end of the market.
Prime...
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Books
Book lovers bemoan the steady
disappearance of New York's
independent bookstores, and
attribute their loss to the
phenomenon of Barnes & Noble
superstores, but there's still
no shortage of places to find
books , no matter how esoteric
your...
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Clothes, fashion and
accessories
If you are prepared to search
the city with sufficient
dedication you can find just
about anything, but it's the
designer clothes and the snob
values that go with them that
predominate. Secondhand clothes
, of the...
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Department stores and malls
DEPARTMENT STORES Barney's 600
Madison Ave (at 61st St) tel
212/826-8900. Mon-Fri 10am-8pm,
Sat 10am-7pm. Though a proper
department store, Barney's
actually concentrates on
clothes, particularly men's,
with the emphasis on...
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The Diamond District
The strip of 47th Street between
Fifth and Sixth avenues is known
as the Diamond District .
Crammed into this one block are
more than 100 shops: combined
they sell more jewelry than any
other block in the world. The
industry has traditionally...
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Food and drink
Food - the buying as much as the
consuming of it - is a New York
obsession. Though you can find a
deli on pretty much any corner,
it's in the gourmet markets and
specialty shops - cheese, bread,
smoked fish, what have you -
that the city really...
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Music
While the top music megastores
in New York are the British
chain HMV, Tower Records and the
Virgin Megastore, specialty pop
music stores are clustered in
the East and West villages.
CHAINS HMV 2081 Broadway (at
72nd St) tel...
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Sporting goods
The sporting goods scene is
dominated by chains such as Foot
Locker, The Athlete's Foot,
Sports Authority and Modell's,
though there are a few other
options - "theme park"
sports clothes stores, as well
as stores tightly focused on...
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more >>
