Shop Local, NJ! Ocean City’s Asbury Avenue

by Alice Magdziak • December 17, 2014 • Cape May, Shopping • Comments (0) • 3625

Revisit your favorite shore town in the winter and you’ll find everything you love about it in the summer without the traffic. Ocean City is waiting for you!

Only seven more days of shopping left! Why not spend the day at the shore while supporting local businesses and finish up buying your gifts?

Driving Asbury Avenue in Ocean City, our eyes were caught by Artisan Body’s fantastic window display.

This luxury boutique’s soaps, lotions, bath products and much much more lined the shelves and counters. Luckily, the shopkeeper Ione Talese was there to walk us through some of her personal favorites and popular customer picks.

One of the things we also noticed was that the store was nicely fragranced from all these products but it wasn’t overwhelming. I think that speaks to the natural ingredients in the products. There’s nothing artificial and heavy, just the natural scents from whole ingredients. We also learned that coffee beans act as a natural restart button when smelling many different scents.

Ione was very knowledgeable and helped us pick out gifts for people who are hard to shop for.

We really liked these one-time use soap leaves. Leave them out for guests and no one has to pick up that wet soap bar. Neat!

7th Street Surf Shop has everything you need for new and experienced surfers in your family.

Somebody on my gift list took their first surfing lesson this summer from 7th Street Surf Shop so I made sure to get a few logo tees for his family. Seeing all the surf equipment brought back a lot of memories of our summer vacation too! That’s a local shopping bonus you can’t get from a mall.

Of course, they have all the surfing and boogie boards you could ever want to choose from.

And, they have a great shoe collection, too. Some children’s size Tom’s shoes made it into my bag for being cute and charitable!

Pacific Soul is a store filled with unique pieces of art, home decor and clothing from Bali. Each year, the store closes in January and February while the owners go back to Bali to find new products for their store. So get to the store now before you have to wait for March 2015!

Look how gorgeous this egg made of shells is when it’s lit up.

And, who couldn’t use a hand-beaded change purse?

A variety of hand-carved Buddhas and home decor items would make great gifts, too.

They also have a beautiful clothes, scarves and many many more gift ideas.

There are many more stores to choose from in Ocean City. Here are a few more of our favorites.

Know a child who loves dolls? You’ve got to check out Kay Jay’s Doll Shoppe. Just a few of the lines they carry are American Girl, Bitty Baby and Frozen along with games, music boxes and tea sets. They also have Kay Jay’s Doll Hospital to repair a favorite doll.

B&B Department Store is a small New Jersey chain that has a great selection of clothing and gifts for just about anyone. They also have a large Ocean City section for everyone who loves Ocean City.

Mew to You Resale Shoppe is two great things in one storefront. They are a resale shop with lots of cool household decor and gifts. And, they have two rooms of kitties up for adoption! They work to support Cape Atlantic CATS.

Making Waves is a cute store with women’s clothing and accesories.

Hoy’s 5 and 10¢ store is a great place to pick up small gifts for teachers, petsitters, gardeners and the like. And what a fun place to browse!

I love a good hardware and Wallace Hardware is just that. Lots of gift ideas can be found here.

Interiors by Joann is chock full of furnishings and art. If you need a gift for a new home-owner, this is your place.

P. Francis has gorgeous gifts for anyone left on your list. Tabletop pieces, bath and body, candles and kitchenware that’s all stunning.

We’ve only scratched the surface of the amount of stores on Asbury Avenue in Ocean City so I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed by your shopping trip to Ocean City. You know you aren’t looking forward to braving the malls this weekend. Just head to OCNJ and shop to your heart’s content in a stress-free environment. Shop Local, NJ!

Here are all the pictures from our visit to Ocean City’s shopping district: