Philadelphia Shopping

Shopping is a big attraction for visitors to Philadelphia, especially because the state of Pennsylvania has no sales tax on clothing or shoes and sales tax on other goods is only 7%.

Center City has hundreds of clothing and jewellery stores. The granddaddy of them all is the John Wanamaker building, on 13th Street and Market Street, now occupied by Macy's. It was designed to resemble Paris' Les Halles, and the enormous Grand Court is crowned by a 30,000-pipe organ, on which concerts are given daily.

The Gallery at Market East has a large selection of stores (170 in all) stretched across four levels. For a touch more luxury, head instead to The Shops at Bellevue, 200 South Broad Street at Walnut Street. The Shops at Liberty Place, 16th Street and Chestnut Street, is a good choice, with gourmet foods and restaurants as well as shops.

Rittenhouse Row is the city's upmarket shopping and dining district. Jeweller's Row, on Sansom Street, and Antique Row, on Pine Street, run for several blocks in the Washington Square district. South Street has several blocks of funky, eclectic shops and boutiques, while Fabric Row, on Fourth Street, between Bainbridge Street and Catherine Street, offers fabulous textile stores.

The expanse of the Italian Market, South Ninth Street (see Further Distractions) offers a range of foodstuffs every Tuesday to Saturday 0900-1700 and Sunday 0900-1400, while Head House Square offers an outdoor craft market during the summer months.

Shoppers come from all over the East Coast to the enormous King of Prussia Mall, 24km (15 miles) west of the city, on North Gulph Road. The shopping complex encompasses The Plaza and The Court, with eight major department stores and 365 speciality stores, including upmarket names like Versace, Hermes and Tiffany.

Franklin Mills, 26km (16 miles) from Center City, at 1455 Franklin Mills Circle, is a huge factory outlet mall with more than 200 stores selling name brands at 20-70% discounts.

Major department stores are open Monday to Saturday 1000-1900 and Sunday 1000-1700. Most of the downtown shops close at 1800 or 1900, although those in the large malls may stay open later. Many shops and department stores also stay open until 2000 on Wednesday. The big malls outside the city centre are open Monday to Saturday 1000-2130 and Sunday 1100-1800.

There are no tax refund schemes currently available to visitors to Philadelphia.