Chicago, IL

Many people flock to the city of Chicago from neighboring towns, suburbs, and even other states for one reason and one reason alone: The shopping! Like other major cities, Chicago has a wide variety of shops available, depending on your shopping needs. There are department stores, discount shops and boutiques. Although every neighborhood in Chicago has shops that may be of interest, today I will just focus on two key shopping areas in Chicago, both of which are great for your holiday gift giving.

The Magnificent Mile: This is the name given to the stretch of Avenue from Oak Street to Wacker. It consists of mostly high-end department stores and trendy boutiques. Examples include Lord & Taylor, Coach, and Burberry. It is also home to the Apple Store, Borders, Filene’s Basement and the Ghiradelli Chocolate Shop.

State Street: The State street shopping area, which extends roughly from Lake Street to Monroe, has its fair share of department stores, but also has some cheaper options. The most famous is Macy’s, which was, of course formerly Marshall Field’s, but there is also an Old Navy, Nordstrom Rack, and the newest kid on the block: Loehmann’s.

I headed into Loehmann’s to check it out this week and I found it to be somewhere between Marshall’s and Nordstrom Rack in terms of clothing. They are mostly a clothing store, but also have handbags and some gifts. Both photos are from Loehmann’s.

Hopefully this will give you some ideas of how to start your Chicago shopping!