Area businesses offer excellent goods

Tower Records

If you want to put all the smaller, cooler independent record stores out of business, Tower, located on South University, is a great place to start.

Best Used Records:

NATHAN RUFFER/Daily Borders Books and Music is always a popular place for shoppers.

Wazoo

This store on State Street carries a wide selection of other people's CDs for a good price.

Best Men's Clothing:

Bivouac

It's the place to find the wardrobe of the conformist. Every college man can buy his Polos, hiking boots and khakis here, on State Street.

Best Women's Clothing:

Urban Outfitters

Stocked with tank tops and skirts with Indian designs for the Gwen Stefani wannabes. The former ground floor of the State Theater, this State Street apparel store's cotton cardigans and colored nail polish go great with the cute little T-shirts. Everyone can go in and come out taller with new, two-inch platforms.

Best Thrift/Used Clothing:

Rag-O-Rama

An abnormally large and well-organized thrift store on East Liberty with many good finds. Unfortunately, it's going out of business, so it couldn't have been that good.

Best Shoe Store:

Footprints

Any place on East. Liberty that carries Converse and Birkenstocks as well as bright blue platform boots has to be cool.

Best Bike Sales/Repair:

Campus Bike and Toy

Not only can you get your bike repaired, you can play with all the cool toys shown in the window, on East William.

Best Taxi Service:

Yellow Cab

Perfect for those late nights when you just shouldn't try to, or can't, walk. Also, this company takes credit cards.

ADRIANA YUGOVICH/Daily Showcase Cinemas screens many of the first-run films that students flock to view.

Best Books:

Borders Books and Music

Coffee, music and the largest selection of books downtown fill two stories on the corner of Maynard and East Liberty.

Best Textbooks:

Ulrich's

Almost as roomy as a residence hall on campus, this store on the corner of State and N. University is always staffed with people who actually know where your textbooks for the next semester can be found.

Best Tanning Salons:

Supertans/Tanfastic/ State St. Beach (tie)

For a healthy dose of radiation and a fake-looking tan, these places are great.

Best Haircut:

Noggins

Located on S. University Avenue, it's the perfect place for an affordable, quality haircut.

Best First-run Theater:

Showcase

It's where you go to see all the new major movies, if you don't mind taking the bus or driving to the intersection of US-23 and I-94, off Carpenter Road.

LOUIS BROWN/Daily Of all the businesses that offer help to aspiring graduate students, Kaplan was voted best in Ann Arbor.

Best Test Prep:

Kaplan

Kaplan, found on E. Liberty, enables everyone to score high on their GREs, MCATs and LSATs, or at least, it makes them think they can.

Best Video Store:

Hollywood Video

Located off-campus, the store's shelves and shelves of videos offer a great selection of movies for a cheap date.

Best Party Store:

Campus Corner

Where college students can find everything from bleach to chips. Plus, it's open late at night at the corner of Packard and State.

EMILY NATHAN/Daily Campus Bike and Toy offers stuffed animals aplenty, besides other toys and bike equipment.

Best Photocopying:

Kinko's Copies

Located at the corner of Maynard and E. Liberty, Kinko's is open all day, and the staff can help you if you don't know how to use the machines.

Best Sporting Goods:

Bivouac

Located on State Street at N. University, Bivouac offers the greatest in sporting goods. In case you have managed to get through the year thus far without owning something from The North Face, this is the place to go.

Best Groceries:

Meijer

On Saline Rd, just south of I-94, Meijers offers just about everything. A store that has an amazing amount of food, as well as a tasty bakery and tacky clothing.

Best Florist:

Normandie Flowers

It's pretty basic - they sell flowers. You can't go wrong with flowers from this S. University florist.

Best Travel Agency:

Council Travel

Located on S. University, this agency is perfect for planning your spring break trip, or other vacations. The agency also sells Eurailpassees and other essential items students need for studying abroad.

ADRIANA YUGOVICH/Daily Heather Schweitzer, Dave LaFave and Andy Arts of Middle Earth also get to play with really cool toys.

Best Gift Shop:

Middle Earth

The eclectic collection on S. University has lots of South Park paraphernalia, cool jewelry and incense to cover up smells.

Best Magazines:

Borders

Borders has an extremely large selection of magazines from porn publications to Redbook. And the staff doesn't mind if you sit there and browse.

Best Michigan Items:

Steve and Barry's

Just in case you don't already own something that says "Michigan." This store's buy- one-get-two-free policy is a college student's dream. You can buy all your T-shirts and use the others for gifts, located on State Street at E. Liberty.

Best Posters:

Stairway to Heaven

In addition to various glass wares, this State Street store provides everyone with those essential posters of dead rock stars from the '60s, as well as those classy black-light posters.

- Compiled by Daily Arts Writer Caitlin Hall.

04-16-98