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Seatle Centre fountain, Seattle

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Shopping in Seattle

Shopping in Seattle is diverse and eclectic.

Key areas: 

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. Ballard offers a number of Scandinavian gift and food shops, as well as Sonic Boom Records, 2209 Northwest Market Street, an independent record store with a good selection of new and used CDs and vinyl. 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. Bluebottle Art Gallery & Store, 415 East Pine Street, is a colourful shop to browse for crafty gifts. For the best selection of handcrafted jewellery, artwork and antiques, Pioneer Square is your destination. Nautical flags and antiques make up much of Cuttysark Nautical Antiques' inventory, 320 First Avenue South.

Markets: 

Seattle's Waterfront and the Pike Place Market, on First Avenue and Pike Street (Monday to Saturday 1000-1800, 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 Alaskan salmon for visitors to ship home. The market, which first opened in 1907, is the oldest continually operating farmers' market in the USA. The market also runs heritage tours Wednesday to Friday at 1100 and Saturday at 0930 (for a charge).

Shopping centres: 

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, Macy's, Pacific Place Mall, Barney's, Nike Town, Anne Taylor, Barnes & Noble and more. Fifth Avenue is famous for its designer shops, including Louis Vuitton, Escada, and St John.

Opening hours: 

Shopping hours are 0930-1800 on average, including Sundays. Seattle sales tax is 8.8% on non-food items.

Tax information: 

Unlike other US states, visitors are unable to claim tax refunds on goods purchased in Seattle.

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