Shopping in Bainbridge Island

Not content with the blasé options found in the kids section of big-box clothing stores, friends Theresa and Sabrina decided to take matters into their own hands and curate skate and surf gear for stylish young tots. Their venture, aptly named Rockbebe, fills shelves with a collection of local and brand-name clothes, including miniature replicas of the Etnies, Billabong T-shirts, and Roxy skirts that epitomize West Coast living. Local designers add their mom-created clothing collections to the mix, including handmade tutus, headbands, and other items that give kids a way to express their own unique style without wearing a dress made from copies of their fingerprints.

JamTots Baby & More Store outfits parents and guardians with a massive array of infants' and children's accoutrements culled from top-name brands, including a large selection of shoes and Melissa & Doug toys. In addition to extensive online resource materials, the store dispenses copious diaper accessories, organic bath products from Little Twig, safety gear for precaution-requiring activities, and a plentitude of playthings. The store also outfits mothers with abundant gear including diaper bags, carriers, and strollers. JamTots Baby & More Store tests most of its stock and warmly receives any customer queries about each potential purchase's durability, safety, or probability of inspiring newborns to utter their first words in Latin.

Blurry vision is not just an annoyance; it’s a health risk. So when the owners of Factory Optical saw a chance to vertically integrate their business model—and cut down time between an eye exam and obtaining glasses—they jumped on it. The optometrists inside their chain of retail stores can now send prescriptions to their own onsite labs, where technicians can create custom-fitted standard, progressive, and googly-eye lenses. The labs constantly seek out the latest technologies to improve vision, including digital lenses that decrease peripheral distortion and custom cuttings that alter lenses to accommodate the tilt of chosen frames.

Each store stocks a supply of more than 4,000 frames, including options from designer brands such as Coach, Armani, Ray-Ban, and Oakley. Every store also offers a two-for-one deal for each pair of prescription glasses sold, allowing clients to give a pair of glasses to a family member or pair their purchase with prescription sunglasses to avoid darkening regular specs with a whiteboard marker when leaving the house.

The fashion-savvy staff at Mangos Boutique stocks riveted-metal shelves and bounteous clothing racks with seasonal women's and men's garb from Canadian and international labels including Diesel, Miss Me, and William Rast. They outfit the shop’s wooden hangers with a selection of jeans, dresses, and tops, such as designer T-shirts that flatter physiques and accentuate extra arms. In addition to full ensembles, the staff ensures ladies’ feet find their groove with an assemblage of boots or heels, and that gentlemen look sharp from tip to toe with stylish belts, hats, and spring-loaded stilts. Their line of accessories includes necklaces dangling feathers, and reptile-pattern clutches that fashionably secure money, identification, and other valuables.

Perfect Look Optical's team of eye care professionals and lab technicians help remedy near- and farsightedness with sight tests, a variety of prescription lenses, and an array of designer sunglasses and glasses to fit each visitor’s facial features. The centre's exams test sight for conditions such as astigmatism and for visual acuity and depth perception. Their Guess and Marc Jacobs sunglasses, available with or without prescriptions, bear polarized lenses to protect eyes from the sun's UV rays and attempt to instigate pie-throwing fights. Preparation time varies depending on the prescription and type of frame, but technicians may be able to fill some orders within an hour.

Sooke Video To Go's owner Bryan Davis oversees an entertainment emporium that has been doling out movies for rental and purchase since 1982. Customers cruise new releases of video games and movies on DVD and Blu-ray and take breaks to challenge fellow film buffs to matches on the resident air hockey table. The store's expert staff updates Blu-ray firmware, and patrons can send in DVDs or CDs by mail before they undergo dips in disc-repair machines, from which they emerge as scratch-free as a newborn turntable.