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Home - City Guide - Dallas - Shopping | ||
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Shopping For many people 'Dallas' means 'shopping'. This is where Nieman Marcus, 1618 Main Street, began its fashion business in 1907 as an 'exclusive woman's ready-to-wear store'. Now, all manner of big names have gravitated around it, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Rodier Paris, Tiffany & Co and Lord & Taylor. The huge department store chain JC Penney also originated in Dallas. Today, the city's slogan is 'If it can't be found in Dallas, it can't be found anywhere'. Not content with numerous huge malls and shopping centres containing all kinds of individual and chain shops, there is now the Dallas Market Center, just to the northwest of the downtown area, either side of the Stemmons Freeway (I-35). On completion, it was the biggest wholesale trade complex in the world with its eight different buildings turning over US$7.5 billion in annual retail sales. Other malls to spend some 'retail-therapy' time in are Galleria, modelled on Milan's Vittorio Emanuelle and even housing an ice rink, at the north side crossroads of the Dallas North Tollway and the beltway I-635, and Highland Park Village, with its Spanish-inspired design. Others to look out for near the downtown area are Crescent, Inwood Village and Snyder Plaza. Out at DFW airport, there also is the enormous Grapevine Mills. The malls are usually daily around 1000-2100, although shorter Sunday hours (1200-1800) can apply. These huge malls are, of course, packed full of restaurants, fast food outlets, entertainments and coffee shops. On a more human-scale approach to shopping there are antiques and crafts shops scattered throughout the downtown, as well as specifically along McKinney Avenue and the West End Market Place, which are also good places for generally browsing. There is a large Farmer's Market just west of downtown at South Harwood Street and Marilla Street, open daily 0700-1800. Sales tax is 8.24% and Texas Tax Back, 326 North Park Center (tel: (214) 361 5877; fax: (214) 361 7422), can provide information on claiming it back. |