Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
9
Shopping with
Your Kids
When I talked t o other Chicago
parents about shopping with their kids,
sell thousands of differ
ent buttons, for
example.
For more on shopping for adults in Chi-
cago, pick up a copy of
Frommer's Chicago.
This chapter concentrates on the M agnifi-
cent M ile, State Street, and sev eral tr endy
neighborhoods, where you'll find one-of-a-
kind shops and boutiques that make shop-
ping such an adv enture. It also includes a
sampling of retailers organized by merchan-
dise category.
they often joked, “The best shopping expe-
rience is
no
shopping experience!” True,
shopping with kids can be a strain, and
maybe this chapter is better titled “S hop-
ping
for
Your Kids.” To keep kids interested
during y our shopping expeditions, I' ve
included some stor es that wouldn 't neces-
sarily be consider ed childr en's stor es but
which kids find fascinating—stor
es that
1
THE SHOPPING SCENE
SHOPPING HOURS & SALES TAXES
As a general rule, stores are open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 6 or 7pm, and
Sunday from noon to 6pm. N eighborhood stores tend to keep later hours, with some
remaining open until 8pm M onday through Saturday and until 6pm on S unday. Many
stores are open later on Thursday, and almost all have extended hours during the holiday
season. Nearly all the stor es in the Loop ar e open for daytime shopping only , generally
Monday through Saturday from 9 or 10am to no later than 6pm. ( The few remaining
big downtown department stores have some evening hours; see below.) Many Loop stores
not on S tate Street are closed S aturday; on S unday the Loop—ex cept for a fe w restau-
rants, theaters, and cultural attractions—shuts do wn.
You might do a double take after checking the total on your purchase: At 10.25%, the
state and local sales taxes on nonfood items is the steepest in the countr y.
SHOPPING DISTRICTS
The Magnificent Mile
The nickname “M agnificent M ile” r efers to the r oughly mile-long str etch of N orth
Michigan Avenue between Oak Street and the Chicago River. As Chicago's top shopping
destination, the M agnificent Mile is magnificent not because of the sightseeing or the
architecture: The stores are the thing. The density of first-rate shopping is, quite simply,
unmatched anywhere. Even jaded shoppers fr om other worldly capitals ar e delighted at
the ease and convenience of the stores concentrated here. Taking into account that tony
Oak Street is just ar ound a corner (again, if y ou want to hit H ermès and Prada, I must
