Shopping
Whatever “shopping trip” means to you, you’re sure to find satisfaction shopping in the Twin Cities. There are tiny neighborhood shops, heady metropolitan areas, and suburban malls that carry everything from sports to celebrity memorabilia; specialty grocery complexes that sell novelty items and foods from around the world; and stores that carry everything you’d ever need to have a successful and beautiful wedding, professional social event, or child’s themed birthday party. Here is a taste of what the Twin Cities have to offer the antiques buff.
Shopping - The Arts
The Greater Twin Cities have been dubbed a “cultural Eden on the prairie,” where people widely support more than 100 theater companies and classical music ensembles. Sir Tyrone Guthrie pumped up the theatrical boom back in 1963, enrolling large-scale local assistance to establish the classical repertory company named after him. The Twin Cities are now regarded as a top regional center of American theater, and at any given time there are dozens of professionally produced shows playing across the metro area.
Minneapolis and St. Paul are also serious museum towns, with a number of important collections housed in several world-famous buildings. Many, many more little galleries spread throughout the metro area take up any slack the major museums might have missed, displaying everything from concrete anatomy molds to metal mechanical sculptures.
More than 100 performing arts groups and organizations flourish in the Twin Cities area, ranging from tiny neighborhood-based production companies to full-fledged touring troupes.
No matter what your artistic passions are, you are likely to have them stoked and satisfied in Minneapolis–St. Paul.
1. City Salvage And Antiques
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 627-9107
Address: 507 First Ave. NE
Description: Mantels, archways, buffets, stained glass, and other high-end items salvaged from pre-1950s buildings fill this architectural-salvage store. The changing inventory has at times included Charlie the Tuna lamps, a full pub complete with booths, and church pews. Owner John Eckley has more than two decades’ experience in architectural salvage.
2. Amazon Bookstore Cooperative
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 821-9630
Address: 4755 Chicago Ave. South
Description: Amazon opened in the late 1960s, making it the oldest independent feminist bookstore in the country. The bookstore in south Minneapolis stocks some 10,000 fiction and nonfiction titles as well as gifts, music, and art all by, for, and about women. The bookstore, which specializes in titles from small feminist presses, is a worker cooperative, and the friendly staff will steer you to titles of interest.
3. B. H. Biermaier’S Books
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 378-0129
Address: 809 Fourth St. SE
Description: Bill Biermaier has been selling used books from his Minneapolis location for a quarter century and is proud of his success in locating hard-to-find copies of out-of-print or obscure books. Arts, literature, and children’s books dominate the store’s collection in sheer number, but Biermaier’s is a good source for just about any genre of book, including rare and collectors’ editions. With ceiling-high stacks and books spilling out into the aisles, this place practically begs you to browse for hours. Finding a specific book can become a daylong challenge, but if you need to get out in a hurry, Bill can find it for you awfully quick.
4. Big Brain Comics
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 338-4390
Address: 1027 Washington Ave. South
Description: This small, well-stocked comic book store focuses more on unusual and underground comic books and magazines than the superhero type that Marvel and DC put out. There are lots of imported comics in the stacks, as well as American independent and collectible comic books. The staff are friendly and enthusiastic, and look precisely the way you’d expect comic store employees to look.
5. Book House In Dinkytown
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 331-1430
Address: 429 14th Ave. SE
Description: The Book House has been a mainstay of the U of M’s Dinkytown area for more than 30 years, carrying used hardcover and softcover books. With more than 150,000 volumes in stock, this store has bookshelves that run from floor to ceiling and has excellent fiction, drama, and poetry sections, not to mention rows and rows of foreign language material and an entire basement level dedicated to scholarly works. Book House buys tons of used books, so it’s worth checking back regularly to see what’s new in stock.
6. Birchbark Books
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 374-4023
Address: 2115 West 21st St.
Description: St. Paul has Garrison Keillor’s Common Good Books, and Minneapolis has Birchbark, the shop owned by Louise Erdrich. Erdrich is a Native woman, and her store offers an array of books and crafts that particularly celebrate—you got it—Native women. Given that Erdrich is often called Minnesota’s greatest living writer (sorry, Garrison), the shop is a must for bookworms both visiting and local.
7. Booksmart
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 823-5612
Address: 2914 Hennepin Ave. South
Description: BookSmart is the place to go to buy cheap used books, with a huge selection of mysteries and a great biography section. Turnover is quick, so if you see something you want in stock, you’d better buy it or someone else will.
8. Cummings Books
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 331-1424
Address: 417 14th Ave. SE
Description: This is a used bookstore for book lovers. The variety of books includes literary criticism, special interest, and Canadian history. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, the friendly staff can help.
9. Dreamhaven Books & Comics
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 823-6161
Address: 2301 East 38th St.
Description: DreamHaven is a dream destination for fans of comic books, Japanese anime, kung fu movies, and everything pop-cultural, from Dr. Who to Asterix. After many years in a prominent Lake Street space, DreamHaven recently moved to a more intimate (and cheaper) storefront in the Powderhorn neighborhood.
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Address: 3038 Hennepin Ave.
11. Magus Books & Herbs
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 379-7669 or (800) 99-MAG
Address: 1309 Fourth St. SE
Description: Magus Books sells new books on Wicca, magic, tarot, astrology, alchemy, Buddhism, Taoism, midwifery, UFOs, Bibles, and aphrodisiacs, to name a few subjects. The bookstore also sells herbs, candles, incense, scented oils, jewelry, and meditation and New Age tapes and CDs.
12. Once Upon A Crime
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 870-3785
Address: 604 West 26th St.
Description: One of two independent bookstores in Minneapolis devoted to crime and mystery novels (Uncle Edgar’s is the other), Once Upon a Crime is a true family business: Not only are its owners married, they were married in the store. The underground Uptown store is packed with books representing every corner of the criminal mind, and it hosts a constant parade of writers who read from their work, as well as a book club and other events.
13. Paperback Exchange
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 929-8801
Address: 2227 West 50th St.
Description: Paperback Exchange carries more than 300,000 used paperback books covering pretty much any subject, from pulp mystery to criticism, depending on what’s in their current, quick-turnover stock. You can get a better discount on your book purchase if you bring in paperback books to trade. The store also rents hardcover books for nominal charges, many of which are brand-new and not yet available at local libraries.
14. Present Moment Books & Herbs
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 824-3157
Address: 3546 Grand Ave. South
Description: A major purveyor of herbs and homeopathic remedies, Present Moment also offers more than 36,000 new and used book titles. Whether your New Age and wellness needs run to Cooking with Herbs or The Spirit of Place: A Workbook for Sacred Alignment, you’ll find it at Present Moment. Their specialties include books on alternative health, world religions, New Age, Wicca, and yoga, as well as women’s studies and environmental issues.
15. Uncle Edgar’S Mystery Bookstore/Uncle Hugo’S Science Fiction Bookstore
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 824-6347 or (612) 824-99
Address: 2864 Chicago Ave. South
Description: Specialization is the name of the game for many independent booksellers in these days of giant chain bookstores, but Uncle Edgar’s/Uncle Hugo’s was at it long before the trend began in the late 1980s. Uncle Hugo’s opened in 1974, and Uncle Edgar’s opened in 1980. The two shops merged into one location in south Minneapolis in 1984. With a huge selection of their respective genres, both new and used, they sponsor many author readings every month. Check the Web site for information about upcoming events.