Downtown Raleigh

If you’re looking for the best collection of local, unique stores in Raleigh, downtown Raleigh is the place for you.

Overall, there is a large collection in the Fayetteville St District, the Warehouse District, and some in Glenwood South as well.  

There is a large collection of clothing and apparel retailers, many of which focus on vintage style offerings and/or formal wear.  With these stores being mostly small businesses, you will have a truly custom feel to the clothing.

There are also quite a few art galleries spread throughout the city, along with several jewelry stores and even a few home furnishing and antique retailers.

And one of the best parts of being downtown, is you’ll be amongst some of the best restaurants in Raleigh!

Check out Downtown Raleigh’s website to see a map of the locations and a link to their websites.  

Village District

Just west of Downtown Raleigh is the Village District and has quite a lot of stores to choose from in a small area, which will help maximize your time.

Like Downtown Raleigh, there is also a large collection of locally owned clothing and apparel stores for both men and women, several jewelry stores as well as furniture stores with unique offerings.  

There are also name brand stores, like Barnes and Noble, Fleet Feet, Jos A Bank, Sephora, Talbots, and local to the surrounding area, the Great Outdoor Provision.

And like Downtown Raleigh, there are some great restaurants at the Village District, so you can easily spend your day here.  

Check out their website to see their full list of offerings.

North Hills

North Hills is centered on an old mall that has been revived into one of the main entertainment destinations in Raleigh.

At North Hills, you can expect a little more of a hybrid selection when it comes to the type of stores, as while there are some locally owned, small businesses, the majority of stores are more well-known nationally.

Again, you’ll find quite a few clothing stores like Anthropologie, Vineyard Vines, and Lululemon.  There are actually several furniture stores like Ethan Allen and the brand new, three story Restoration Hardware that has a beautiful restaurant on the third floor.

There are multiple jewelry, beauty and handbag stores, stores focused on children, and there are even retailers like REI and Peloton.  And on the bottom level, there is a target as well.

And there are plenty of top notch dining options along with a movie theatre, and many times live music on the weekends, that allow you to make a full day out of your trip.

Check out the North Hills website for the full list of stores.

Fenton

The new Fenton Shopping Center in Cary is continually adding new retailers, but will have a very similar feel to North Hills, just smaller overall.  It has a great atmosphere though, especially in the winter time as it has an outdoor skating rink, a decorated yard to meet Santa, and a movie theatre as well.  It’s Sports and Social restaurant is also a popular nighttime hangout location.

Shopping wise, there are mostly name brand stores here that again are a mix of clothing, beauty, jewelry and furniture.

There’s stores like Altar’d State, Athleta, Lululemon, and Nike, but also more regionally known stores like Vestique.

Blue Mercury and Sephora are two of their beauty shops, and there are also some home goods stores like Rejuvenation and Williams and Sonoma.  From a furniture standpoint, Fenton has an Arhaus and Pottery Barn.  

This is another location where you can really enjoy a long afternoon and evening at with plenty of entertainment to mix in with the shopping.

For a full list of stores, check out the Fenton Website. 

Lafayette Village

This next one is on a much smaller scale than the rest, but I wanted to share because it’s such a unique experience.  Lafayette Village in North Raleigh is a French themed “village” that specializes in boutique style stores.

This is not a place where you go to get all of your shopping needs completed in an afternoon, but it has a collection of specialty stores for woman’s and children’s clothing, gift shops, dog shop, and even a craft beer store.  

There are also quite a few spa and self care salons and boutiques, as well as some really great restaurants, like my favorite, Simply Crepes.  

This is a great place to enjoy a French themed experience with a variety of specialty offerings.

For a full list of stores, check out the Lafayette Village website.

Crabtree Valley Mall

Let’s now move into the malls, but before we do, if you have any real estate needs in the greater Raleigh area, our team is one of the top teams in Raleigh and would love to help you!

Crabtree Valley Mall is Raleigh’s main mall, and it has a wide variety of offerings that are going to mostly be your typical name brand stores that you would expect at a large mall.

Looking at the directory, you’ll see it has everything from your typical clothing stores to furniture, children’s stores, and more.  And while it’s not a high percentage, there are a number of locally owned stores as well.

Looking at the map, you’ll see that Belk and Macy’s are the two main department stores.  On the Lower Level, there’s stores like Loft, Ann Taylor, H&M, Foot Locker, and J Crew on the north side, and Forever 21, American Eagle, Lego, Coach, and Hollister on the south.  Notably, Kanki Steak and Sushi is an excellent, cook in front of you Hibachi style restaurant.

On the Upper Level, there’s Express, Yankee Candle, Brooks Brothers, Oakley and Pac-Sun on the North Side, and Athleta, North Face, Apple, and Sephora on the South Side.  There’s also the food court on the upper level, which is actually really good.  Check out Sarku Japan, a local gem.

Visit the Crabtree Valley Mall website for the full list of stores.

Southpoint Mall

The other major mall in the Raleigh area is Southpoint on the south side of Durham.  This is a really nice mall, and it has both an indoor and outdoor portion that make it a great place to shop into the night.

It’s going to have very similar stores overall to Crabtree.  It has four department stores in Macy’s, Nordstrom, Belk, and JCPenney.

Starting on the lower level, there’s Sephora, Vineyard Vines, Michael Kors, and Forever 21.  On the upper level, there’s Claire’s, Buckle, H&M, Express, and Finish Line.

The upper level also has the food court, which has a pretty good selection as well.

Moving outside, you’ll see stores like Pottery Barn, Apple, Lululemon, Barnes and Noble, and Lush.  There are several restaurants as well, like Maggiano’s Little Italy, Firebirds, which is a good all-around restaurant, and the Cheesecake Factory.  There’s also a movie theatre to round out their offerings.

Check out Southpoint Mall’s full list of offerings on their website.

Triangle Town Center

Triangle Town Center in North Raleigh is Raleigh’s 3rd major mall; however, there are quite a few storefront vacancies in the mall and I would caution you to be careful safety wise, especially at night, as the mall has had some safety incidents in years past.

Its’ department stores are Dillard’s, Belk, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Macy’s.  

On the lower level it has stores like GameStop, American Eagle, AT&T, PacSun and Champ Sports.  The food court is also on the lower level.

The upper level features Loft, Bath and Body Works, Reeds Jewelers and Chique Prom.

Check out Triangle Town Center’s website for a full list of their offerings.

Cary Crossroads & Brier Creek Shopping Centers

Closing out with major shopping centers, I’ll cover two of the largest in Cary Crossroads and Brier Creek.  These are your typical, outdoor shopping centers filled mostly with your larger, name brand stores like Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Michaels, Old Navy, Party City and so much more.

These are great places to just knock out all your shopping in one location given the wide variety of stores, and many of these more nationally known brands offer more affordable options than the more designer focused stores in the previously locations. 

So if you’re not looking for the custom, unique offerings of the other locations, both Brier Creek and Cary Crossroads are great places for efficient and affordable shopping.

There are obviously plenty of other shopping areas and centers around Raleigh that have these types of stores, but these two shopping centers are by far the largest.

For a full list of their offerings, see Brier Creeks website and Cary Crossroads’ website.

Check out our other blogs on the best things to do in Raleigh during the holidays and where to take visitors in Raleigh!

If you need help finding your next home in Raleigh, Durham, or anywhere else in the triangle, our team at the W Real Estate Group would love to help!

Please reach out via our contact information below:

Phone:  919-504-5265

Email:  alison@thewgroupraleigh.com

Website:  www.thewgroupraleigh.com