Shoes are often the final piece of the back-to-school outfit puzzle (see what we did there?), and Joe King’s (45 N. Main St.) is a perfect fit for all the small-person footwear you could possibly need. There are snazzy dress-type shoes like these, plus tons and tons of sneakers and all sorts of accessories. There’s even plenty of sport-specific options available. No bowling shoes, though – at least not from what we could see. But assuming your kid isn’t off to Ten Pin Pines University, you’ll find what you need here.
Bona Fide also has teensy stainless steel water bottles for the little ones. They even had some super cool mats that take the place of plastic wrap or foil and store your food in a dishwasher-friendly reusable wrap.
While it’s true that not everything inside Bona Fide Green Goods (35 S. Main St.) is actually the color green, as we were led to believe, it is true that the fine people there have a ton of stuff to make lunch time much more eco friendly. Lunch boxes sure have come a long way from the Dukes of Hazzard one we proudly rocked back in the day – Bona Fide has a wide selection of stainless steel food containers with separate compartments for all the food groups, like chocolate, jelly beans and chocolate jelly beans.
There’s plenty more than clothes at OutFITters, including these handy laptop bags and backpacks.
OutFITters Thrift Store (20 S. Main St.) is a great place to find back to school clothes at remarkably affordable prices. Ruth Pratt told us they always have some clothing that is half off, and there’s a rotating lineup of items for $1. We found this sweet T-shirt that we would have bought if it was in our size (we wear extra shmedium).
There’s also the wildly popular Night Before trilogy, featuring The Night Before Kindergarten and it’s equally successful prequel and sequel. If you’re one of those crazy people who likes to live on the edge, go ahead and read them all in one night.
Gibson’s for Kids at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St.), which we think is the former Imagination Village, has plenty of books to get the little ones ready for the adventures ahead. But it was even educational for us. For instance, did you know that kindergarten is apparently a place with lots of farm animals?
Back to school isn’t only for kids, though, and that’s why we highlighted the above book and glass display, because we agree that wine makes mommy clever. And back to school shopping makes mommy need even more clever juice than usual.
Caring Gifts (18 N. Main St.) may not seem like a back to school haven, but it had a ton of useful stuff, like these colorful mugs with names on them. Think of them as those trendy Coke cans without all the high fructosy stuff. Now your child will never be left out during espresso time, which is a huge part of the school day.
Well, we didn’t actually buy you anything. But we did spend the afternoon downtown to prove that you can get just about anything you need from local merchants on Main Street so you can avoid rabid seas of big box shoppers
