Scottsdale was a shopping town before it was a resort town. Fifth Avenue was a retail street in the 1950s, the Western storefronts on Brown Avenue sold saddles to actual ranchers, and the galleries on Marshall Way made the city an art market. The malls came later and the online era took a bite out of everything, but the districts survived, and the good stores in them are the reason to shop here rather than at home. This is the map. Our shopping section has a page on every place named below.
Fashion Square
Scottsdale Fashion Square is the largest mall in the Southwest and the one people mean when they say “the mall.” Its luxury wing is where the city’s money shops, its restaurants are real (Nobu, Toca Madera), and the Caesars Republic tower grafted onto its north side made it a hotel too. Park in the garage on the Camelback side; the Goldwater Boulevard lots fill first. In summer it’s the air-conditioned walk.
Kierland and the Quarter
The pair across Scottsdale Road from each other in the north. Kierland Commons is the 2000s main-street development with the fountain, the restaurants and the older brands; Scottsdale Quarter is the newer, glassier version with the tech stores, the lawn and a rooftop pool on a steakhouse. Between them they’re the best afternoon of shopping in North Scottsdale and the easiest parking in the city. The Kierland district page lists the restaurants.
Old Town: four streets, four kinds of store
Fifth Avenue is the original 1950s shopping street, now a mix of boutiques, Southwestern jewelry, the coffee cluster and a few survivors like Carmen on 5th and Bronson Guitar Works. Craftsman Court is the courtyard off it.
Brown Avenue is the Western block, and its two old names are gone from the sales floor: Porter’s, the Phoenix saddlery name that outfitted the Parada del Sol crowd, turned its Brown Avenue store into a saloon in 2015, and Saba’s, the hometown name since the 1920s, closed its Old Town stores in 2019 and survives in Chandler. Bischoff’s Shades of the West, the Southwestern everything-store since 1971, is the survivor, and the Rancher Hat Bar will shape a hat while you wait. Our Western heritage note explains why the block still matters.
Marshall Way and Main Street are the galleries: Western and wildlife art at Legacy on Main Street and Trailside, since 1963, a block over on the Civic Center Mall; contemporary at Bonner David and Wilde Meyer, the Thursday ArtWalk that opens them all after dark. Xanadu is the eclectic one.
The Waterfront and Southbridge along the canal are the newest retail, the chains and the restaurants, and the Soleri Bridge between them.
The Native art dealers
Scottsdale is one of the country’s serious markets for Native American art, and the difference between a good dealer and a tourist trap is the whole game. Gilbert Ortega is the big name, with stores on Scottsdale Road and Fifth Avenue; Sewell’s on Fifth Avenue and Territorial Indian Arts on Main Street are the specialists; the weekend Native Art Market near Talking Stick, October through March, sells direct from the artists; Faust Gallery is the museum-grade room. Read our buying guide before you spend real money, and the Huhugam Ki Museum before that.
The stores that survived the malls
- The Poisoned Pen, the mystery bookstore that authors fly in for, and the best-known independent bookshop in the state.
- The Antique Trove, the 140-vendor antique mall on lower Scottsdale Road since 1989, where a Saturday disappears; its neighbor, the Antique Centre, has closed.
- Old Town Candy & Toys on Scottsdale Road, the family-run mix-and-match candy shop that ends every kid’s walk through the district.
- Zoolikins on Fifth Avenue, the mother-run baby and kids’ boutique since 2010: plush saguaros, Arizona onesies and the baby-shower gift that will outlast the party.
- Sphinx Date Co., the date ranch’s store since 1951, and the edible souvenir; the what-to-eat note explains why.
- AJ’s Fine Foods, the homegrown gourmet grocer that is where the city buys the cheese, the wine and the picnic.
- Pendleton in Old Town, the blanket store.
- Bronson Guitar Works and Vintage by Misty, the specialist and the vintage shop that prove the district isn’t only for visitors.
- Cavalliere’s Blacksmith Shop, the 1920s smithy on Brown Avenue that’s still a working business and still a family.
The neighborhood centers
Every district has a center locals depend on: Market Street at DC Ranch for the north, the Shops at Gainey Village and Hilton Village for the middle, Mercado del Lago on the McCormick Ranch lake, the Promenade and Scottsdale 101 for the big boxes, the Pavilions at Talking Stick on the Community’s land. And the ghosts: Los Arcos, the Galleria, the Borgata, whose pages explain what the city used to shop in and what replaced it.
The rules
- Fashion Square and the Quarter for brands, Old Town for things you can’t get at home. That’s the whole division of labor.
- Sales tax is a little over eight percent and it’s on everything.
- Galleries ship. Every serious gallery and Native art dealer will crate and send, and the good ones insure it. Don’t carry the pot home.
- Summer is sale season. The resort shops and the galleries discount from June to September, when the customers are elsewhere.
- Thursday night is the night. The ArtWalk opens Marshall Way after dark, the shops on Fifth Avenue stay open, and it’s the one evening the district feels like the town it was.
The afternoon
Coffee at Berdena’s, the length of Fifth Avenue, Brown Avenue for a hat, Marshall Way for the galleries, the Waterfront for the canal, and the Sugar Bowl at the end because it’s 1958 in there and always has been. Read Old Town on foot for the walking order. The bag you’ll carry home should be from a store that doesn’t exist anywhere else, and Old Town still has a dozen of them.