Shopping in Brighton

Ace Hardware's handy employees help customers to navigate shelves stocked with home-improvement implements, household appliances, and domestic essentials. The shop’s technicians are certified to perform warrantee repair tasks for more than 100 manufacturers, including Honda, Kawasaki, and Stihl, returning your snowblower or Statue of Liberty replica to working order. In addition to its wide selection of hardware, paint, plumbing, and electrical supplies, Ace Hardware dedicates ample space to gifts, home décor, men's and women's clothing, and housewares.

After passing through double doors located at the bottom quarter of a massive storefront record, patrons emerge into Record Archive's quirky shop whose red and yellow walls disappear behind shelves of used CDs, DVDs, vinyl, and cassettes. A 35-year veteran of the Rochester music scene, the shop judiciously buys and sells tunes and movies in most formats. In the shade of bikes dangling decoratively from the ceiling, clients can special order hard-to-find works to complete collections or destroy the traces of their brief solo jazz career. Despite the music specialty advertised by the store’s name and its eclectic calendar of in-house performances, Record Archive also takes a stance against mass-production with caches of vintage clothing, unique furniture, quirky toys, and incense.

Joette's on Monroe adds glam to skin with a collection of jewelry and accessories embellished in pearls, rhinestones, and crystals. Rows of necklaces hover over miniature velvet décolletés, which flaunt earring and necklace sets. Sequins and bright colors pop from handbags resting on shelves, and silk gloves reach out to slyly steal patron's wallets.

Under the leadership of Valentin Skorsak, the tailoring team at Valentin's Clothiers & Custom Tailoring imbues each stitch and lapel of their custom wares with a combined 70 years of expertise. Using material supplied by high-end brands such as Sartoria Tosi and Gino Monti, Valentin and his colleagues tailor personalized men’s and women’s business suits, shirts, and ties in one-on-one sessions in the shop or at clients' homes and offices. Along with their tailoring services, the drapers at Valentin's Clothiers & Custom Tailoring alter any hem or length for clients who have outgrown their clothes or need room to smuggle extra watermelons into a business meeting.

After witnessing his first store, Port of Pittsford Gifts, thrive in its eponymous locale, owner Michael Miller decided to shepherd his success to his hometown. Today, he complies Seasons of Fairport's selection of wearable souvenirs, thoughtful gifts, jewelry, and accessories, bestowing travelers and locals alike with tokens that commemorate Fairport. Life Is Good clothing and accessories herald positive vibes along the shop's shelves, which teem with baubles such as stuffed animals, figurines, and pet accessories. Specialty lotions and soaps pamper skin, and gourmet dips and wine jellies pamper nude tortilla chips. The eclectic, immense inventory includes trinkets and cards for all occasions, such as holidays or baby's first 5K.

Steve and Tom Sanna oversee Bristol's Garden Center, a verdant, 11-acre garden and nursery that has been greening up the Rochester region for more than 25 years. Their flora emporium blooms with more than 900 varieties of trees, shrubs, and specialty plants ranging from red maple and spruce to dwarf evergreens and ornamental trees. Cacti, houseplants, and cascading fountains fill their tropical greenhouse with sweet scents and calming sounds, and leafy residents in the covered greenhouses include perennials, ornamental grasses, and hostas. The center's garden store arms DIYers with tools, soils, and fertilizers, and professional landscapers lend out their services to customers whose thumbs are flesh-colored instead of green.