Shopping in Owensboro

Book and Music Exchange, a secondhand media store, offers gently used audio, video, and visual stimuli to customers in need of an entertainment infusion. Film buffs can bolster their movie collections with single-movie DVD titles (five for $25) and Blu-rays ($14.99) or cultivate literacy among shelf-dwelling chia pets with a few best-selling novels (four for $8). Nintendo Wii games inspire players to bust some moves ($7.99+), and PlayStation 3 titles dazzle optical orbs with top industry graphics ($4.99+). Meanwhile, music fans can immerse themselves in the sounds of yesterday's bands with preheard CDs, saving them the hassle of attending tribute-band concerts or repeatedly opening song-blasting birthday cards ($5.99).

At Golf Etc., a certified True Temper Performance Fitting Center, expert staffers take care of golfers on and off the course with custom club fittings, equipment repair, and high-performance gear and apparel. Using technology as part of their custom Better Golf…Faster! (BGF) system, pros analyze swings with charted and plotted data that assesses each player’s unique swing motion and diagnoses an optimal club length, weight, and type of shaft. They combine this with the FlightScope program, which uses 3-D Doppler radar to analyze ball-flight information, the same system used by weatherman to track clouds when they fly south for the winter. They integrate data correlating to ball speed, shot shape, and angle of attack into the BGF system to create a multifaceted club prescription.

To keep golfers looking as good as their swings, Golf Etc. stocks a full line of athletic gear and apparel from top golf brands such as Ping, Titleist, and Callaway. The shop also houses a Sports-O-Zone equipment sanitizer that uses ozone to rid gear of odor, bacteria, and viruses.

Within the sultry red walls of its shop and smoking lounge, Billow pairs its eclectic stock of premium cigars with smoking accessories and gifts. A walk-in humidor houses aromatic indulgences from Arturo Fuente and Diamond Crown to ensure optimal freshness, and cases, cutters, and glasses furnish stogie-aficionado gift giving. In an advanced, filtered smoking lounge, visitors post up on leather couches beneath 60-inch flat screens, and a selection of iPads and complimentary WiFi allow guests to challenge former mailmen to rounds of online solitaire.

Since 1976, the helpful staff at Bi-Rite Home Store has been dressing bare rooms with furniture, appliances, and electronics. The showroom’s displays invite customers to test the firmness of mattresses from Sterling, Serta, and Corsicana or conduct brief interviews with love seats or office furnishings. In addition to classic and modern furniture, the staff shows off electronic accouterments, including Samsung TVs and GE equipment.

Mayflower Gardens’ designers pluck flowers from the shop’s own greenhouses to assemble the freshest, most vibrant bouquets possible. Their flower arrangements span the spectrum, from a dozen roses primly poking out of a vase to golden calla lilies arched like half-moons within a glass cube.

The plant emporium's fragrant bounty extends beyond arrangements to outdoor annuals and perennials. Gardeners can stroll through the greenhouse, where a canopy of hanging baskets hovers above tropical trees, azaleas, and rosebushes. The store also stocks herbs and veggies, thereby making it unnecessary to steal them from still-life painters.:m]]