Austin's High-End Shopping: Fashion, Food, Books, and Music

From the Plaza Level of the "Landmark" Whole Foods Store in downtown Austin, one can get a glimpse of what kind of city the Texas capital has become.

The corporate offices of Whole Foods, Inc. rise in an oddly traditional but also oddly shaped glass structure above and behind the 80,000-square-foot store. Whole Foods sits on the southeast corner of the intersection of Sixth and Lamar.
For reference, Sixth Street runs east to west and Lamar runs south to north. The intersection is located in Austin's 'Warehouse District' which is just west of downtown.

Now a well-known, international grocery, the home-grown Austin supermarket specializes in natural and organic foods. Of course, there's the allure of the many deli counters, the samples, beer tasting booths, the bread and wine selection (not to mention the produce, and specialty meats). No exotic product has been missed by the detail specialists at Whole Foods.
The store and plaza both supply a strong wireless signal so shoppers can play (or work) at will on their laptops. On the plaza level there is a fun-scape for kids, as well as gigantic air conditioning machines, tables, and the store has a permit that allows patrons to purchase and drink beer as they take in the view. There is also a coffee shop downstairs.

Shoppers will find an abundance of products that are generally hard to locate and are either not available or offered in a limited selection at other stores. All these attributes make Austin's Whole Foods a unique shopping experience.

The Landmark store provides free, three-hour parking near downtown and ease of access into and out of the shopping level. Despite the traffic rushing one-way down Sixth Street and two-way Lamar, Whole Foods provides a pedestrian-friendly café atmosphere-and the store is more than just a store.

The intersection also offers other unusual venues plying different wares.

Caddy-cornered across from Whole Foods is Austin's long-established, premier record store, Waterloo Records. The store has a top-10 list that bands want to be on worse than some of the charts. And the store features live performances on a regular basis, as does Waterloo Ice House, which sits next door and serves burgers, french fries, and beer.
Waterloo has been a fixture of the Austin scene for decades. The record store now specializes in cd's and dvd's of course, but the selection is still the envy of most other corporate and independent music retailers. At Waterloo, one gets the sense that some people at least still pay for their music. And, after an hour or so spent listening to your favorite band, you can cool off with a serving of Austin's famous Amy's Ice Cream, which sits just around the corner from the record store. Waterloo Video is just past Amy's down 6th street

In the old Whole Foods building, on the northeast corner of the intersection, the new Book People occupies four stories. Book People is locally owned and bills itself as the "largest bookstore in Texas." The store grew out of a 1970's University of Texas haunt for writers and readers called Grok Books. Featured authors recently in-house at Book People include Tori Amos and Kinky Friedman, and the bookstore hosted former President Bill Clinton when he last visited Austin.

The innumerable bibliophiles of Austin will tell you that Book People is a necessary experience, for the sake of sheer size and choice. Book People does its best to break the chain of cookie-cutter booksellers that currently characterize literary distribution in the U.S.

And if eating, reading, or listening to music doesn't appeal to you, there is always fashion and fitness. On the southwest corner is a mod-looking building that houses the Mecca Gym and Spa on the second floor. The spa features its own plaza area which is higher than that of Whole Foods across the street and offers a better view of the evolving Warehouse District. On the first floor, shoppers can linger at the windows of Chico's fashions or go in and try out the furniture at Zanzibar or try on the clothing at By George.

None of the shops located at the intersection of Sixth and Lamar are discount stores, but given the wide variety of products available, a small budget can bear fruit if shoppers make smart choices. In terms of a shopping experience, few spots offer such combined variety and places to linger. All in all, the intersection of Sixth and Lamar offers a new type of shopping experience.