Shopping in Bluffton

Baby Genius's award-winning children's products teach babies and toddlers essential skills through the power of music. Based on a bounty of research, the company's DVDs enrich the learning experience by merging classical pieces and familiar songs with vibrant images, keeping kids entertained for hours. Parents can sit back while animated animal educators teach pocket-size pupils better motor skills, dictionary-defying vocabularies, vampire-free counting, and nap-inducing dance moves that ready little ones for kindergarten and beyond.

Harbour Town Toys, a store as fun as its inhabitants, welcomes kids and their parents to play with a train set, felt food, and dollhouses. A friendly staff member stands by to answer questions and do the robot while kids load up plastic dump trucks or sit around a little table set for a tea party and discuss how to leverage the current lemon shortage for the highest profit margins at their lemonade stand. The shop shelves Playmobil, Melissa & Doug, and Corolle and is always bringing in new items to keep imaginations growing and choices fresh.

Direct Tools Factory Outlet outfits toolsheds with new and reconditioned equipment at up to 75% off the retail cost. Brands such as Ryobi, Homelite, and Hoover craft grills for summer cookouts and power tools for both small and large home-improvement projects. The shop's assortment of discontinued, reconditioned, and factory-blemished tools, like predictions from most fortunetellers, includes a warranty of at least a year.

Owner Jim Carpenter opened the first Wild Birds Unlimited shop in Indianapolis in 1981 in order to turn his love of nature and bird watching into a full-time career. Today, Wild Birds Unlimited has spread to more than 275 stores across the United States and Canada, with each location helmed by avid ornithological enthusiasts. Wild Birds Unlimited visitors find a huge inventory of quality bird and bird-watching supplies, from feeders to birdbaths to binoculars. Guides make short work of identifying feathered tree dwellers, and the store's special seeds help attract elusive birds, such as the Boston Larry.

Tom and Ryoko Nadeau founded Nadeau in 1991 with a goal of providing customers with quality home furniture and a wealth of product knowledge. The business quickly evolved into something larger: The duo now has 19 retail stores and a team of buyers who travel the world in search of one-of-a-kind, handcrafted pieces of solid-wood furniture. Nadeau has earned mentions from numerous media outlets—including the Washington Post, CBS Chicago, and Charleston Home magazine—for its unique selection, which includes a cache of more than 6,000 pieces ranging from rare side tables and chairs to dining sets. Pieces are never mass-produced, allowing customers to bring the flavor of different cultures into their homes or provide an adopted tree with a new friend.

A mother-daughter team happily helps clients craft stylish looks with colorful and creative blouses, dresses, and accessories that fit current junior and misses trends. Walls twinkle with a wealth of necklaces and earrings fitted with silver, turquoise, and precious stones. Racks and mannequins invite browsing in search of seasonal outfits ranging in color from earthy reds and browns to bright pastels and light bulbs.