Shopping in Oakland

For more than 30 years, Australia Fair has helped to pair customers with a comprehensive selection of quality Australian-made products and merchandise. As an authorized carrier of R.M. Williams products, the outback outfitter provides premium leather boots and hats, with conditioning products available to preserve sleek finishes. In addition to stocking clothing items, cleaning products, toys, and accessories, Australia Fair unites clients with snacks and candy favored by taste buds in the southern hemisphere, where caramel swirls counterclockwise.

Wireless Gadgets supplies cell-phone owners with accessories and services to keep mobile devices whirring smoothly. Master locksmiths unlock phones with aplomb, and the outfit specializes in servicing iPhones, replacing chargers, and repairing screens left damaged from being used as witches' hand mirrors. A member of the Wireless Gadget staff will deliver the newly restored device to a hotel or office for free. Phone cards and prepaid SIM cards are also on hand to grant the financial peace of mind afforded by limited minutes, preventing old math teachers from forcing you to recite the digits of pi over the phone.

Since its inception in the early 1980s, Underglass Framing has crafted custom frames that have housed pictures, paintings, and even flags. Made up of artists and experienced framers alike, Underglass's staff uses their expert judgment to accent any artwork with custom woodwork, conservation acrylics, or museum-quality frames. Underglass makes decisions easy with mat-board samples and a wide selection of framed examples, and they strive to integrate the work of art into each client's home design, whether it's art deco or an art-deco-giraffe-print fusion.

Optical Works, Phoenix Optical, and Fine Arts Optical have manufactured frames by hand for more than 70 years, resulting in a cache of tens of thousands of contemporary styles as well as more than 3 million unused vintage frames. Artisans handcraft each pair of glasses in French or Italian factories using materials such as bamboo, buffalo and ram horn, traditional metal, and plastics to customize specs and keep up with current ocular trends. A prescription lab forges custom lenses that fit into frames, enhancing vision with polarized sunglasses, hidden bifocals, special coatings, and hard-to-fit prescriptions for nearsighted third eyes. Each store showcases around 3,000 different pairs of frames that both emulate the looks of celebrities and suit individuals’ styles.

Sunshine International founder and native Colombian Patricia Valencia fills her shop with freshly trimmed flowers ranging from roses to carnations, hydrangeas, and mini callas, all imported from Colombia or Ecuador within 48 hours of being plucked. Flowers start their life cycle at a South American farm, where workers pick them according to the buyer's specific requirements. From there, the plants are stored in a cooler before hopping a cargo plane to Miami and San Francisco, then flagging down a truck for a ride to Sunshine's San Francisco Flower Mart location. Before being sold, workers inspect the flowers to ensure optimum quality and confirm that each bloom is free of stowaway guerrilla bees.

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, co-owner Angie Ansanelli called Treasure Island Flea "an upscale urban marketplace,” adding, “We curate all the vendors." She and her husband Charles devoted two years to scouring the region for unique merchants, including dealers of vintage goods and antiques, local wineries, and gourmet food trucks. It was the natural culmination of a 25-year marriage and business partnership spent manning a string of entertainment and retail shops on Pier 39.

Those early businesses gave way to a line of patriotic sportswear just in time for the 1994 Olympics, an endeavor that ultimately inspired Treasure Island Flea: the pair wanted to market their new duds at an open-air market, but, unable to find one or lift the roof off one of their existing shops, they created their own. Today, Treasure Island Flea harbors finds such as furniture crafted from recycled ship wood, hand-stitched bags, and pinball machines. Breaks in shopping and eating are filled with live music, scavenger hunts, and do-it-yourself workshops.