Shopping in Winter Haven

Eager to assist home-improvement and upkeep projects, neatly arranged drills, garden hoses, paintbrushes, and other hardware sundries populate the shelves at family-owned Avalon Hardware. Stacks of mulch team up with rakes and watering cans to keep landscapes lush but tidy, and fluorescent light bulbs promise to emit steady, more sustainable light in homes. Customers can also swing by to grab gallons of PPG Porter paint, which staffers mix to exact specifications after a small sacrifice of crayons to a prism spirit.

A self-proclaimed “T-shirt democracy,” Mother Falcon opens up the floodgates of fashion design, digitally printing t-shirts with customized art, graphics, and text. The staffers invite clients to create their own statements with a process that begins with a blank canvas. Customers can bring their own tops, or browse the shop’s selection of blank T-shirts, many of which hail from brands such as Anvil, Bella, and Next Level. Customers then bring in digital files of their own artwork, photos, haiku, or official SAT score reports. Finished pieces emerge hot from the printer in as little as 24 hours.

In 1714, the symbolic gesture of giving flowers as gifts was just beginning to take root, thanks to Charles II and his introduction of message-bearing blooms to the Swedish court. Today, the floral artists at Avalon Park Florist continue the tradition, weaving colorful blossoms into official FTD arrangements. They compose bouquets to suit specific occasions and sentiments, from crimson roses that bespeak romance to pastel petals that celebrate new babies or recently beating colorblindness.

A new baby can bring with it a bundle of new responsibilities, leaving parents anxious and in need of assistance. Thankfully, buybuy BABY’s expansive retail stores help preserve parental sanity with more than 20,000 products designed to ease the process of raising an infant or toddler. Online product guides and in-store registry specialists help parents sift through the wealth of strollers, highchairs, and other baby essentials from an encyclopedic list of brands.

Though buybuy BABY's stores can be as large as 60,000 square feet, parents feel like the center of attention thanks to private feeding rooms where they can freshen up their infants or test out new pacifiers without judgment. At the register, shoppers can present competitor pricing or coupons, which buybuy BABY honors as a commitment to keeping things affordable. Even after items have been wrapped in their signature pastel paper and shipped out, buybuy BABY looks out for families by faithfully reposting government recalls and accepting returns at all stores and online warehouses, even during naptime.

LaBella Intimates' owner, Santa LaBellman, dubbed the "Bra Whisperer" by Orange Appeal magazine, tempts eyes with her boutique's collection of lacy, silky, and frilly underthings procured from European and domestic designers. Santa, who is concerned that many women wear the wrong bra size or traffic cones under their shirts, offers complimentary fittings to match bosoms with cup sizes ranging from A cup to K cup and band sizes ranging from 30–50. The shop primarily carries brassieres and underwear from European brands Nikol Djumon, Kris Line, and V.O.V.A., but Santa also stocks playful pajamas from Bedhead and Toute la Nuit and smoothing shapewear by Yummie Tummie. After slipping behind the dressing rooms' black-and-white brocade curtains to try on their chosen wares, shoppers stand beneath the glow of a chandelier at the front register to take possession of their new lingerie.

Lisa Tariq helps keep Celebration residents stylish by curating an affordable, eclectic selection of designer apparel and accessories for men, women, and children. Her patrons can sort through racks of dresses, coats, sweaters, and vests, all the brainchildren of designers such as La Diva, Maggy London, and Life is Good. A collection of handbags, shoes, and sparkly accessories completes chic new outfits, and extended sizes allow every body type and overstuffed scarecrow to enjoy the shop's fashionable duds.