Ithaca (New York) Money and Shopping

Full Ithaca Travel Guide »    Ithaca Interactive Map »    Print This Article »

Shopping in Ithaca is in four major areas: Downtown/Commons, Meadow Street/Route 13, Collegetown, and Lansing/Mall area.

• Downtown/Commons - The most typical Ithaca items can be bought downtown in the commons area. Local crafts are of exceptional quality. Ubiquitous green "Ithaca is Gorges" t-shirts can be bought here as well.

• Meadow Street/Route 13 - Also known as The Strip. The "big-box" stores have been moving in in a major way in recent years along Meadow St. Drugstores, cellphone stores, supermarkets, and major discount retailers are often present in multiple incarnations. There is not much exciting here for the out-of-towner although it is certainly practical. An exception is Northside Liquors (see the Drink section).

• Collegetown, just across Cascadilla Gorge from the Cornell campus, is mostly home to restaurants and businesses catering to the college crowd, and there are several shops specializing in Cornell- and Ithaca-related merchandise.

• Lansing/Mall - Finally, just north of Ithaca in Lansing is the Shops at Ithaca Mall (formerly known as the Pyramid Mall), recently expanded to hold Borders, Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Target, offering a fairly broad and ubiquitous selection of shops. Nearby are the Triphammer and Cayuga malls, which are less elaborate.