Shopping in Waterford

English Gardens began as a single, family-owned nursery in 1954, and has since blossomed into a full-service landscaping and garden center with multiple locations, all owned and operated by second-generation family members. Each location facilitates both indoor and outdoor gardening projects with a large selection of gardening tools, seed packets, and transplant-ready plants extracted from their original soil by renowned surgeons. Garden accents such as bird feeders, patio furnishings, and lounge chairs dress up outside spaces with comfort and design, and the florist department brings the outdoor flourish inside by arranging fresh-cut floral bouquets and gift baskets for all manner of occasions. Workshops and in-store presentations also allow the green-thumbed experts to impart advice on common gardening and decorating topics such as building a kitchen herb garden or housetraining a dogwood tree.

Originally conceived as a website dedicated to sharing information on rock climbing and mountain biking, Trail's Edge Cyclery opened its first storefront in 2003; a second followed in 2010. The shop's experienced mechanics and sales associates are all cyclists themselves, channeling their love of peddle-based transportation into comprehensive bike-repair, -rental, and -hypnotizing services. Biking gear and climbing gear from Surly, Cannondale, and other leading brands are sold online and at both analog locations in Plymouth and Milford.

Doctors Todd Saniszewski and Nora Clancy leverage a combined 38+ years of professional experience at Advanced Eye Care of Michigan, which is both a high-end store and an optometrist's office. They see their patients in onsite private offices, offering them guidance and information on any conditions or issues they may be facing. For clients in need of glasses or another prescription, Advanced Eye Care boasts a vast selection of brand-name frames in the front of the shop, and the staff equips them with custom-made lenses. The doctors' eye examinations can discover eye illnesses as well as test for the need for glasses or a third eye. Doctors Todd and Nora also have extensive training in the co-management of LASIK and cataract surgery. They take great pride in their staff, which works to make every visit to their office a simple one, instead of a convoluted symposium on insurance minutiae.

The equipment experts at MTEC (Midwest Tool & Equipment Center) have rented, sold, and fixed everything from lawn edgers to rough terrain forklifts for more than three decades. They turn DIY projects from drawings in ketchup on the backs of placemats into vivid reality by supplying homeowners with rental equipment ranging from rug cleaners to drywall sanders for hours, days, weeks, or weekends. The company’s technicians also sell industrious contraptions to committed handymen and fix equipment that has begun to rebel.

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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