Shopping
Seattle’s Waterfront and the Pike Place Market, on First Avenue and Pike Street (Monday to Saturday 0900–1800, Sunday 1100–1700), offer all the crazy souvenirs imaginable, from wooden slugs (which look a lot like the real thing) to Space Needle hats and, of course, enormous sides of smoked Alaska salmon for visitors to ship home. The true Downtown shopping core, however, is between First Avenue and Sixth Avenue and Olive Street and University Street, including the flagship Nordstrom Store, Old Navy, the Bon Marche, Pacific Place Mall, Barney’s, Nike Town, FAO Schwartz, Anne Taylor, Planet Hollywood, Barnes & Noble and more. Belltown, north along First Avenue from the city centre, has unique boutiques with everything from locally designed clothing, imported shoes, antiques, used clothing and more. Ruby Montana’s Pinto Pony, 1623 Second Avenue (website: www.rubymontana.com), is an emporium of kitsch, both modern and vintage, from salt and pepper shakers to furniture. Ballard offers a number of Scandinavian gift and food shops, as well as Archie McPhee’s, 2428 Market Street, an institution, known in the USA for its whimsical toys. Capitol Hill corners the market for high style and quirkiness, with shops such as Le Frock, 317 East Pine Street, which specialises in vintage designer wear, and Area 51, 401 East Pine Street, a city block full of home furnishings from the middle of the last century. Lipstick Traces, 500 East Pine Street, offers the latest from local, independent designers, while Fugio, 1507 Belmont Avenue, specialises in antique Asian furnishings.
Shopping hours are 0930–1800 on average, including Sundays. Seattle sales tax is 8.8% on non-food items. Unlike in other states, visitors are unable to claim tax refunds on goods purchased in Seattle.
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Shopping