Shop without Dropping

Charleston City Market Hall

We departed Waterfront Park to forage further into the historic district of Old Charleston. In just a few minutes we reached the old Charleston Market, which had been the subject of several scenes in the book that had drawn us to the city, “The Invention of Wings”. The slave named Handful had shopped in the Charleston Market almost 200 years before and Jan was excited to see what wonders the modern day had brought to Charleston that could be accessed via Visa.

The Market was originally a long shotgun shed of a structure spanning several blocks between Market and East Bay Streets. The Market dates from the 1790s and the open air structures are still there with both hawker and patron sweating equally despite the overhead fans. The modern technology is saluted by an air conditioned area of about a third of the span complete with indoor plumbing. I was grateful for both conveniences as I have come to rely on them.

We made some minor small family souvenir purchases in the City Market and moved on up Market Street, finding a high dollar shopping area, The Charleston Place, which was built around the gorgeous Belmond Hotel. The Belmond rooms went for double our Hilton in Mount Pleasant, so we made sure we wiped our feet before entering even though it wasn’t raining. We made some more extensive purchases including a dress I spied in a window while cooling my heels with the other footsore old guys. I’m a notorious end cap and window shopper and while I’m sure stores hide tremendous bargains deep in the clothes racks I’ve never wanted to venture there. If something is worth buying I figure they will display the item proudly so a casual stroll through should be enough. We bought that dress as my souvenir of Charleston and the memory I have of my wife in it a couple nights later for dinner made it a satisfying choice.

Charleston Place empties out into the mecca of shopping in the city, the famous King Street. Think of any expensive store in London and you would find a twin on King Street. There is a colonial feel to the street despite the posh updating as rich people have been strolling down King since Revolutionary times, patronizing the fine merchants while being patronizing to any riff raff they encountered along the way. Riff raff equating to tourists like us.

Despite all the opportunity to spend big money, we stumbled across an actual bargain shop obviously left as lure for riff raff called The Oops Company. Oops stocks things that have made someone say “Oops” at some time like The Tangerine Bear who had his mouth sewn on upside down and was left in the window sun too long until his fur faded. At the Oops Co, we found several of the really light cargo shirts at about a third of normal price. I couldn’t find a defect on them except maybe they were last year’s stock. That doesn’t really bother someone who may not have completely joined the 2K century anyway.

Jan in the Window Shop Dress