Best Shopping on Mill Avenue 2012 | Meat Market Vintage | Shopping & Services | Phoenix
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Best Shopping on Mill Avenue

Meat Market Vintage

It's not every day that a business founded online succeeds to the point of opening a brick-and-mortar shop. In fact, the story usually seems to go the other way around and is attributed to lack of consumer interest. But that's the story of Cory Martinez and Ben Funke's Meat Market Vintage, an eBay shop that grew to take over the Mill Avenue space that Three Roots Café formerly occupied. The couple's delight in finding vintage oddities makes their boutique a must-see. Visit for a heaping helping of kooky patterns, blasts of bold color, and uncommon silhouettes. Not sure if you can rock those giraffe-print pants? Martinez and Funke will help you embrace your funky side and assemble a one-of-a-kind look.

Best Men's Section

Bunky Boutique

It's a rare occurrence when boyfriends, hubbies, and, well, any dudes can stay entertained during a shopping endeavor. Bunky Boutique is the exception to that rule. Granted, it neighbors Matt Poole's Giant Coffee, so no excuses for dozing off are acceptable while in a 50-foot radius. But what it really comes down to is the inherent style of its owners, Rachel and Jim Malloy, who pride themselves on a selection of pieces that are, as they like to say, timeless with a twist. The men's section is stocked with supersoft eco-heather polos and hoodies, lit-inspired T-shirts, offbeat neckties, Baxter grooming products, bike accessories, and plenty more for him to keep busy with while you're trying on that pile of must-haves in the dressing room. Don't worry. He'll be in line right after you.

Best Hardware Store

Six Points Hardware

Those of us who like nothing so much as a hardware store that offers old-fashioned DIY advice must now stop our whining. Because the folks who work at Six Points Hardware are so nice and so helpful that we sometimes wonder if we've stumbled onto the set of an Andy Griffith Show rerun. Sure, they sell lumber and nuts and bolts and paint and power tools, just like a hardware store is meant to do. But what sets Six Points apart is the warm-hearted help we always get from the staff here. We recently were advised against buying a particular type of paintbrush to go with the interior flat latex we were purchasing — and the brush the nice clerk recommended cost less than the one we were going to buy! Sometimes we call just to ask a home improvement question, and we're never disappointed by the advice we receive — even when we're not shopping at this down-home, well-stocked, friendly hardware store.

Best Place to Get Your Typewriter Fixed

Mesa Typewriter Exchange

Bill Wahl's happy to be disturbed at work. The local typophile and his stockpile of typewriters continue the tradition of the business that's occupied 30 South MacDonald in Mesa since 1949. Wahl’s surrounded by old, rusty machines that local diehards and newfound typewriting hipsters have dropped off at his shop for repairs. The walls are lined with Coronas, Smiths, Hermes, Remingtons, and Royals with enough carrying cases and musty typewriter smell to put any sucker for vintage stuff over the edge. It’s in Wahl’s shop where you’re likely to spend an afternoon plinking on old keys and warming up to the lack of a backspace button and real ink on paper (ah!). If you look carefully, you might catch a glimmer of Hipstamatic hope for the future of the typosphere.

Best Cheap Vinyl

Revolver Records

We recently decided we liked Sonny and Cher, and we knew just where to go to get a big pile of their super-groovy records for next to no money. Revolver Records never lets us down when we're on a musical whim. Whether we're stuck on Leonard Cohen or the 1910 Fruitgum Company, the nice boys at Revolver always have at least one slice of licorice pizza that we're looking for. That's probably because they stock more than 25,000 vintage vinyl record albums on any given day. We always make a beeline for the dollar-a-disc room, where we've been known to score cool platters by Sergio Mendez, Isaac Hayes, and even a whole album of songs by Chad Everett! Only at Revolver Records, which buys and sells albums, CDs, and music paraphernalia seven days a week.

Best CD Store

Stinkweeds

If you've spent any time identifying the indie songs you hear in hip coffee shops or in your even hipper friend's car with the help of iPhone's handy Shazam app, you can take that list straight to Stinkweeds, where employees can find the correlating albums and make a few suggestions. We love Stinkweeds because we don't have to surf through Flo-Rida's latest to get to the Freelance Whales, or Tina Turner classics to get to the latest killer sounds by Tennis. Stinkweeds specializes in indie labels — which, yes, means more than a thin leather headband and a V-neck shirt — and is home to more than 6,000 hard-to-find CDs and vinyl LPs . . . that we'll likely be using to create our own impressive playlists for as long as it's around.

Best Movie Posters

Victor Moreno's Cult Classics

Local designer Victor Moreno has had a lifelong love affair with movie posters. Gowing up in the 1980s, he was fascinated by legendary artist Drew Struzan's action-packed one-sheet for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, as well the iconic poster for Robocop. "I can always remember movie posters being something that stuck with me, even when I was little." Such arresting imagery still sticks with Moreno even today and has influenced the custom movie posters he creates for his Cult Classics film series. Much like such renowned indie repertory houses as Austin's Alamo Drafthouse commission limited-edition prints for special screenings, Moreno designs unique one-sheets influenced by the vintage sci-fi, fantasy, and horror flicks he's showcased every month at local cinemas, including Mill Avenue's MADCAP Theaters and Pollack Tempe Cinemas. For Army of Darkness, he reproduced the moment when badass protagonist Ash held his boomstick aloft, while Back to the Future's poster re-created the moment when the DeLorean was struck by lighting. And Moreno brought things full circle last year when he crafted his own Robocop poster for a showing of the 1987 cyberpunk film. It seems only fitting.

Best Costume Store

Easley's Fun Shop

If you buy into the theory that the end of the Mayan calendar will coincide with the end of the world this December, then it's about time you picked out your apocalypse ensemble. As it very well could be the last thing you ever wear, why not have a little science fiction-inspired fun along the way? Perhaps you'd like to outfit yourself as an uprising primate, à la Planet of the Apes, or embrace the end as a zombie from The Walking Dead. Goofy green aliens and Star Trek characters also could work just as well. For any of the above and, oh, so much more, Easley's Fun Shop is the place. Of course, they're your go-to costume emporium when it comes to Halloween, but the family-owned store is open to suit your dress-up needs year-round and, if that Mayan legend holds true, until the end of time.

Best Place to Buy Vinyl Toys

Lulubell Toy Bodega

You don't see many of Fuei Shokai's eerie Slender Man dolls selling alongside other vinyl playthings at chain stores like Urban Outfitters or Zia Record Exchange. In fact, the sought-after collectible is so scarce that they can't be purchased anywhere in Arizona, except at Lulubell Toy Bodega. The quirky emporium, which moved to downtown Mesa from Tucson last winter, focuses on selling ultra-rare figures and obscurities imported from Japan, particularly Kaiju monsters and custom rarities made by little-known and micro-size manufactures. Co-owner Luke Rook frequently visits the Asian nation to search through boutiques and toy shows and scoop up these gems while partner Amy Del Castillo minds the store. Though you can also purchase cutesy works created by local artists or popular designer favorites from Frank Kozik and Kid Robot at the shop, it's a niche operation geared toward hardcore collectors. That's a toy story with a happy ending.

Best Comic Book Shop

Gotham City Comics & Coffee

With all the geekery that's found a home in downtown Mesa, it's no surprise the main drag is also home to a comic shop that's busy with Daredevil, Wolverine, and Joker fans alike. Store owners Kevin Johnson and Miguel Vega and have played host to video game tournaments, book-signings, action figure showdowns, late-night Wi-Fi sessions, and plenty of good-hearted debate on the latest Marvel masterpiece. It's been called the next best thing to a geek mall, and with the buzz served up behind the counter, we could stay well past curfew.

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