61. Oilily
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 366-6111
Address: 6401 Morrison Blvd.
Description: The only Oilily shop in the Carolinas, this Netherlands-based boutique carries high-end clothing and accessories from newborn to size 12, as well as styles for women. Bright, fun, and funky, Oilily designs incorporate interesting pattern combinations, vibrant colors, and a lot of texture through beads, sequins, and felt appliqués. The SouthPark-area shop also is known for its scents, lip balms, and other cosmetics that have been featured in Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Elle.
62. Payton’S Closet
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 987-2100
Address: 16835 Birkdale Commons Parkway
Description: This children’s boutique carries designer girls’ and boys’ apparel, as well as baby items and monogramming services.
63. Arthur’S
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 366-8610
Description: This gourmet food shop with gifts, coffees, teas, baskets, chocolates, candies, and baked goods also has an award-winning wine selection and a great restaurant. Founded in 1972, the shop is neatly tucked away on Belk’s first level and features a complete selection of California and imported wines, along with one of Charlotte’s largest wine bars.
64. Center City Green Market
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 332-2227
Description: Started in 1998 to generate weekend traffic Uptown, the Center City Green Market has been a huge success with folks from all over the city. The open-air market is held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sat from mid-May through late Oct. A scaled-down version of the market is available weekdays during that same time period. Stroll through Uptown’s skyscrapers and cultural attractions to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, just-out-of-the-oven bread, pastries, seafood, cut flowers and garden plants, ready-to-eat meals, and local arts and crafts.
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Address: 1715 Yorkmont Rd.
66. Dean & Deluca
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 643-6868
Description: Grab coffee and a danish; take lunch to go; relax on the outdoor patio with wine, cheese, and baguettes; or pick up an after-dinner dessert at this gourmet market with three locations, plus a wine room. Hot take-out meals, specialty meats, a salad bar, made-to-order sandwiches, and hard-to-find items from French soda to Italian gelato are also available.
67. Fresh Market
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 365-6659
Address: 4223 Providence Rd.
Description: A neighborhood specialty grocer, each store is filled with the sights and aromas of fresh vegetables, freshly ground coffee, cheeses, an old-fashioned butcher’s shop, fresh seafood, a bakery, wine, and all sorts of unusual items for the gourmet. Customers also can shop online or through a catalog.
68. Healthy Home Market
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 536-4663
Address: 5410 East Independence Blvd.
Description: This store has hundreds of foods that you can buy by the ounce or by the pound. It also sells natural foods, natural personal-care products, vitamins, wines, herbal teas, gourmet coffees, baking supplies, and more. The store offers a full-service deli featuring homemade soups, sandwiches, and salads.
69. Kings Drive Farmers Market
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 392-5948
Description: Open Tues, Fri, and Sat from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is a great option just outside the downtown area. Farmers and produce companies, mostly from nearby Union County, offer big fresh tomatoes, corn on the cob still in the husks, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and other vegetables, as well as apples, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, and watermelons. A great place to pick up a fall pumpkin, too.
70. Trader Joe’S
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 334-0737
Address: 1133 Metropolitan Ave.
Description: People in Charlotte were all a dither over Trader Joe’s coming to the Queen City. The stores are kind of weird, not really designed in a typical fashion and the selection of products is all over the map, but that’s part of the charm. Don’t expect to do all your food shopping here, but it’s a great place to pick up organics and unique items, and the prices are reasonable.
71. The Buttercup
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 332-5329
Address: 343 Providence Rd.
Description: This shop offers a wonderful selection of all types of paper goods and distinctive gifts. You’ll find unique items for entertaining; for birthday, baby, anniversary, or graduation gifts; and for those little touches that make a house a home. The entire upstairs is devoted to stationery supplies, with hundreds of invitations and announcements for all occasions.
72. Paper Skyscraper
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 333-7130
Address: 330 East Blvd.
Description: Stop in on your way to a party for everything from the card to the hostess gift to the wrapping paper at this eclectic shop in Dilworth. A longtime favorite of hip Charlotteans, Paper Skyscraper carries a great selection of irreverent, laugh-out-loud, and alternative cards. It has stationery, journals, notebooks, and calendars, but it isn’t your mother’s Hallmark. There’s also a noteworthy book section with many coffee-table editions on photography, art, and architecture, as well as funky candles, bath products, frames, toys, home accessories, and gag gifts.
73. Papitre At Morrocroft Village
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 364-4567
Address: 3908 Colony Rd.
Description: This south Charlotte stationery store carries a wide variety of in-stock invitations and can even perform the miracle of 24-hour turnaround when needed.
74. Blackhawk Hardware
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Address: 4225 Park Rd.
Description: One of Charlotte’s true treasures lies within Blackhawk Hardware, an old-fashioned hardware store crammed with quality tools, household items, gardening supplies, kitchen wares, paint, laugh-out-loud greeting cards, birdhouses, planters, and home accessories. If you’re remodeling, building a home, or looking for a quick project, Blackhawk also has one of the biggest selections of cabinet hardware, house numbers, and door hardware in town. Plenty of helpful, friendly handymen offer grandfatherly advice, and the first thing you smell as you enter is freshly popped corn in the machine at the registers. This has been a Charlotte institution since 1977, and don’t miss the garden center just a few doors down from the hardware store.
75. Blacklion
City: Charlotte, NC
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (704) 541-1148
Address: 10605 Park Rd.
Description: Individually stocked and decorated show spaces at BlackLion’s two locations feature antiques, artwork, lamps, rugs, furniture, home accessories, gifts, and Christmas ornaments. Consider this your central location for home furnishings and gifts. A great rainy-day retreat.