Shopping in Canton

Look + See's eyewear studio is as swanky as any art gallery, with pale-green walls lined with mirrors and sculpture-esq wooden shelves displaying glasses. Their stock of fashionable frames from around the world was smelted in the factories of top designers. Frames from OGI run between $100-$269, Vera Wang rims cost $150-$280, and Gotti’s chic eyeball offsetters are $315-$558.

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The daring design duo of Michael Byzewski and Dan Ibarra creates meticulous screen-printed posters. Utilizing their mastery of the three key senses—sight, touch and paper-cut evasion—the crafty companions fabricate award-winning designs that garner attention from publications such as Rolling Stone and Print magazine. Their mutual appreciation of music and design has propelled their poster-making prowess and allowed them the opportunity to create posters for acts such as Josh Ritter ($10+), The Decemberists ($30), and The Dead Weather ($25+). Supply dull walls with interesting conversation points with a poster from Surlyfest 2010 ($20) or the Fifth Annual No Coast Craft-O-Rama ($20), or show affection for the second dimension with a Flatstock 12 poster ($20).

SVS Optical Center’s founders opened their first shop in Sterling Heights, Michigan, in 1974 to help the community clear up its vision. But even these optical gurus never foresaw their humble business expanding to more than 50 locations sprawled across 10 states. Today, each shop continues the tradition of ensuring ocular health and crystalline sight, beginning with exams from seasoned optometrists. Afterward, patients head to the optical dispensary, where they try on frames by Coach, Tiffany, Nike, Versace, or Ray-Ban. The staff then fits the stylish selection with polarized and scratch-protected prescription lenses to help guests read books clearly or see a charging moose from a distance. Most of SVS Optical Center’s frames can also hold sunglass lenses as well, eliminating squinting during summer months and tropical vacations.

Mary Starring realized her goal of helping local artists step into the spotlight when she opened her gallery in 2005. Since then, Mary's space has featured the work of more than 50 talented creators, each showcased during Northville's First Friday Experience. This monthly after-hours collaboration by the town's merchants unites the community in appreciation of the work of these local artists. To further highlight this local talent, Starring populates her shelves with their art and gifts—elegant, locally blown glass, original paintings, and stylish jewelry. A regularly rotating selection of crafts helps returning customers find the perfect birthday present or replacement for a macaroni necklace they mistook for dinner.

Visitors of all ages can find something to entertain them at My Hobby Place & Toys, where the inventory ranges from toys that foster education and development to hobby supplies for older children and adults. The store stocks products from more than 40 name brands, including Lego Star Wars and dinosaur sets and the Fisher-Price corn-popper push toy that kids must demonstrate mastery of to graduate kindergarten. Baby Einstein's Discovery cards teach toddlers to recognize animals and master basic vocabulary, and art supplies by Crayola and Melissa & Doug stimulate artistic impulses more easily than séances with Michelangelo. The Celestron travel telescope kit fits a telescope, a tripod, and two different eyepieces into a backpack-style carrying case, and the Model T rock tumbler polishes up to 3 pounds of stones using a 115-volt motor and four grades of polishing abrasives. Grownups can play trivia and humor-based board games or wrestle with jigsaw puzzles of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe.