Shopping in Southfield

Within their well-stocked shop in Historic Franklin Village, Bead Works' staff has been repairing, designing custom jewelry, and setting new jewelry trends for more than a quarter of a century. They draw upon their expansive design knowledge to lead numerous jewelry-making and beading classes for beaders, some of whom travel in from as far way as New York City, Miami, and the Oort cloud. In classes, teachers walk students through the steps of crafting specific items, or train fingers to master the deft movements of special techniques such as weaving or pearl knotting.

The professional beaders also make treks to on-location parties where they help budding craftsmen turn Bead Works' broad array of beads and trinkets into elegant necklaces, earrings, and mouth guards. The staff also gussies up their patron's outfits with a unique collection of vintage jewelry and intricate, beaded purses.

Ed Jenuwine began selling cigars in 1947, and his brothers John, Jim, and Lee joined him shortly thereafter. In the years between 1947 and 1988, they moved their shop to three different locations, all within two blocks of the house they grew up in. Today, the cigar empire they built operates out of locations in Troy and Sterling Heights, both of which feature humidors larger than 2,000 square feet and are stocked with thousands of different brands of cigars. Both boast comfortable smoking lounges with large televisions and WiFi access to give puffers a peaceful place in which to blow smoke rings, relax, or summon the ghost of Groucho Marx. The Sterling Heights location also sees bartenders pouring 78 types of scotch and other libations and hosts live music on Thursday and Friday nights.

For the past 45 years, Duru’s Custom Shirts and Suits has fitted patrons with custom suits and professional attire spun from the finest fabrics, building a client list of notable gents such as actor and director Michael Keaton and Illinois governor Pat Quinn. From coordinating cufflinks to hemming slacks, the shop's team of experienced tailors and knowledgeable sales associates work closely with clients to fashion ensembles that reflect their persona and strike a memorable impression on peers, superiors, and roving groups of supermodels wandering around the neighborhood.

At Mattress Closeout Center, the staff uses negotiation skills to continuously replenish a diverse inventory of brand-name mattresses—many of them culled from factory overstocks, liquidations, last-year models, and overruns. While grazing through one of the brand-name liquidation center's two locations, guests can sip a cup of Tassimo-brewed coffee and research consumer reviews, retail prices, and each mattress's zodiac sign on the store's iPad. A follow-up text message sent from a staff member to each customer asks how well they slept on their new mattress and solidifies the store's well-established rapport, which is also backed by myriad testimonials from satisfied sleepers and bounce-happy trampoline enthusiasts.

The cycle savants behind Town N Country Bikes take pride in their vast collective knowledge of all things velocipede. In addition to carrying a full array of bikes and products from lines such as Specialized, Fuji, Diamondback, Haro, and Redline, they offer upkeep and repair services to keep two-wheeled companions in excellent condition, as well as rent bikes. The staffers help riders of all stripes find their ideal bikes and accessories based on individual experience level and the number of buses they're able to jump over at once.

Town N Country Bikes also caters to wintertime sports. Technicians keep skis and snowboards in gear with waxing services, to let alpine adventurers plummet down slopes at maximum velocity, and edge sharpening, to help them carve deep into the snow, control their speed, and swerve around displaced Bavarian yodelers.

Zip.ca's three movie-distribution methods, by mail, kiosk, and streaming, bring flickering movies into viewers' homes without the hassles of traditional movie rental, the cost of purchasing films to watch, or the inaccuracy of friends reenacting blockbusters with cardboard props. Mail subscribers digitally thumb through Zip.ca's website, selecting titles from more than 82,000 movie and television choices that arrive in mailboxes within a few days. Watched films may be mailed back to Zip.ca, which sends the next flick on the subscriber's list once a movie is returned.

A trip to a nearby movie station lets Zip.ca kiosk users choose from up to 1,000 new, recently released, and classic titles, as well as Blu-ray copies of popular films, all available for rental with an easy selection process and the swipe of a credit card. Those who refuse to leave their house until the earth is in HD may enroll in Zip.ca's streaming plan, whose ever-growing selection of titles may be streamed to one's computer, television, or gaming system.