When Downtown was the place to shop. (Cincinnati, Northgate: sales, salon)

[BJLundy]

A walk into the past - going shopping on a Saturday, start at Shillitos, down to Kleins, over to Bonds and JC Penney. The next leg would be to Rollmans, Mabley & Carew, maybe Potter's for shoes, then double back to Pogues and end at McAlpins. All family owned businesses and great shopping. If you had move money you could also do Gidding Jenny. Top of all the shopping with a nice meal - you choose.

[jlrosen]

Downtown still is a great place to shop, especially if you want to go to locally owned stores. In the Gateway Quarter there are a bunch of locally owned businesses with some neat products.

I believe there are more stores Downtown than in the Kenwood Towne Center (about 200 to 180) and the same number of department stores (Macy's/Saks v. Dillards/Macy's)

[Hartwell Girl]

Shhh! Dont tell anyone about the great shopping downtown! The shorter lines are what I love most.lol. I especially love to go there for holiday shopping, some of the least crowded stores in the area as well as great parking. And all the window decorations and street decorations, make it so pretty! Nothing like that in a mall!

[goyguy]

It's still a shocker to see McAlpin's and Shillito's made over as condo lofts! My first job was at Pogue's in Tri-County, but the downtown store was the best. Hard-core shoppers didn't have to leave the building when they needed lunch or a snack, with the "soup bar" on the 7th (?) floor and the "ice cream bridge" over the Netherland Arcade. Department store shopping was more fun when you had to ride escalators instead of walk for seemingly miles through a single-story "big box."
The holiday season is still fun downtown, although the days of fancy store-window displays - and photo ops with Santa - are over. Cincy has its own version of NYC's Rockefeller Center with the Fountain Square skating rink, and C G & E/Cinergy/Duke Power/whatever keeps the electric trains running to delight generations of kids and kids-at-heart.
Another change yet unaccustomed to is the transition of Gidding-Jenny to TJ Maxx. In canine terms that's like comparing a pound mutt to a groomed French poodle wearing a sweater and hair ribbons, LOL! That store was an anachronism long before it closed, with its elevator operators and excruciating (to men and most kids) Paris salon atmosphere. When you bought a gift certificate there, it was placed in a heavily-perfumed box and ostentatiously wrapped - a far cry from a plastic card and plain envelope.
Ms Hartwell is right, the throngs of shoppers and tourists have yet to return downtown in numbers sufficient to clog the sidewalks and make drivers circle entire parking garages before snagging a space. But it's reawakening slowly but surely. Graeter's has opened again, YAY, and the new version of Pigall's is packing 'em in along with its "sister" restaurant Jean-Ro. Lovers of cooked cow are enjoying the need to choose between Palomino, Morton's, and Jeff Ruby's. Kenwood may bag a lot of stores looking to open in Greater Cincinnati, but nowhere else except downtown boasts local branches of Saks and Tiffany's. The Aronoff Center and new CAC are a draw for artsy types. So, before long downtown should be lively as well as still alive.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by Hartwell Girl

Shhh! Dont tell anyone about the great shopping downtown! The shorter lines are what I love most.lol. I especially love to go there for holiday shopping, some of the least crowded stores in the area as well as great parking. And all the window decorations and street decorations, make it so pretty! Nothing like that in a mall!

A couple of years ago my youngest needed a prom dress... after fighting crowds at Macy's in Tri-county and Dillards in Western Hills, we went to Macy's downtown.

We pulled right into the parking garage, walked to the almost deserted dress department and had the dedicated attention of the sales lady.

For a guy who does this type of thing out of love for his daughter - it was indeed a good experience.

But going back, I remember shopping downtown during Christmas time. The hustle, the crowds, the windows a Shillito's .. made it part of the season.

[Hartwell Girl]

Originally Posted by The Don

A couple of years ago my youngest needed a prom dress... after fighting crowds at Macy's in Tri-county and Dillards in Western Hills, we went to Macy's downtown.

We pulled right into the parking garage, walked to the almost deserted dress department and had the dedicated attention of the sales lady.

For a guy who does this type of thing out of love for his daughter - it was indeed a good experience.

But going back, I remember shopping downtown during Christmas time. The hustle, the crowds, the windows a Shillito's .. made it part of the season.

Come on now The Don, shhh!
But seriously, your dead on. People are just so into malls, they forgot about downtown for the most part. But it is still there, in all its glory, and I love it.

[northeastgirl]

If you have never experienced NYC around the holidays you do not know the magic a BIG city has.

New Paltz (college town) and Woodstock are eclectic and unique. Something for all tastes, New Paltz in particular, hemp shops, funky clothing stores, crystal shops, shoe stores (not DSW or god for bid Parade of Shoes), Tibetan stores, American Indian, great vege eateries, bakeries and awesome microbrew pubs. I wish this area had something along those lines...

[goyguy]

NYC is definitely one-of-a-kind in a whole lot of ways, and no more so than after Thanksgiving. It really does have a "magical" feeling when all the Midtown stores are open well into the night and the sidewalks are as thronged as they are during the daytime. One of the smells in Goyguy's heaven is going to be the aroma of roasted chestnuts. I think there's a chestnut vendor on every street corner south of Central Park down to at least 14th St, LOL, and on many in the Upper East and West Sides too, during the holiday season. Downtown Cincinnati once had that kind of energy too. The big department stores would turn their "OPEN TONIGHT" signs on, their revolving doors would swoosh-swoosh around non-stop, elaborate displays filled the huge windows along the sidewalk, and once you'd taken the escalator up enough floors there was Santa Claus! I don't remember smelling chestnuts in Cincy, but do recall the red Salvation Army donation kettles and the bell-ringing "Santa's elves" who tried to coax spare gift money from the hordes of passersby. Who knows, with a skating rink in Fountain Square and the new stores opening nearby some of that "magic" may be returning.

(Side note: There may not be any entire towns or city neighborhoods with that eclectic and "earthy-crunchy" feel to them in SW Ohio, but some pale imitations are out there. Most noteworthy is the vicinity of Ludlow Ave in Clifton: Thai, Indian, etc restaurants, shops along the lines of "earth friendly toys," and so on. There's also some uniqueness and "ethnic" vibe tucked in among the yuppie boutiques of Hyde Park Square and in O'Bryonville.)

[price hill will]

Originally Posted by northeastgirl

If you have never experienced NYC around the holidays you do not know the magic a BIG city has.

New Paltz (college town) and Woodstock are eclectic and unique. Something for all tastes, New Paltz in particular, hemp shops, funky clothing stores, crystal shops, shoe stores (not DSW or god for bid Parade of Shoes), Tibetan stores, American Indian, great vege eateries, bakeries and awesome microbrew pubs. I wish this area had something along those lines...

How about Yellow Springs?

[The Don]

Price Hill Will's name just reminded me of another issue - for large portions of Western Hills such as Price Hill, Delhi, Covedale and even Brigetown, downtown is really the most convenient place to shop. It's a lot closer than Northgate.
The downtown council should try to capitalize on that.