Meir – Local tips (shopping)

In the Hoogstraat (close to the Zwarte Panter, check the Zwarte Panter article) there is a little shop called ‘Achter de Maan’ (Behind the Moon).

It is not so easy to tell what they are selling, but it is always fun. They have a lot of design things, and a lot of toys. One of the characteristics is that almost all objects are funny. They make me smile. There are original umbrella’s (in the shape of little persons), bags, funny kitchen stuff and Japanese toys. The sell similar things to Akotee (check the Akotee article) on the Melkmarkt, but yet they have their own style. In Dutch we call the things they sell ‘hebbedingetjes’: little things you want to have, but that are mostly not needed.

What I don’t like is that they sell a lot of plastic and that it is a little bit too expensive. But is is really a great shop to find the perfect present. For somebody else or for yourself.

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Achter de Maan | Shopping
Hoogstraat 45 | Meir | +3232907292
Mon & Wed – Sat 10:00 – 18:00, Sun 12:00 – 18:00

This extremely colorful sweet shop next to the cathedral is one of the funniest in its kind.

Special clocks, crazy postcards, music boxes, books, lamps or bags for your bike: they have it all.

Go in and you don’t know where to look first. It feels like Christmas all year long, even now in the summer!

In Belgium we need an umbrella like Hawaiian people need flowers around their neck.  You can find very colorful and cute umbrella’s right here.  To brighten up your rainy days…

They have the special and very successful brand ‘Kitch Kitchen’. They have all kinds of bags for bikes, in a red-yellow-purple-green… You name it, they have it!

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Akotee | Shopping
Melkmarkt 30 | Meir | +3232132313
Mon – Sat 10:00 – 18:00

American Apparel is an american brand (not very hard to figure that one out ). They sell clean clothes (in the meaning of: made in the US and not China!) in a clean environment. Doesn’t sound very exciting you think? Guess again… when you enter the shop, you just have to stand still and let it all come to you… tops, t’s, sweaters, leggings…. in every color you can think of! They even sell dancing clothes…

I often go there to buy simple sweaters and t-shirts, but i also go there when i have a Theme-party… In a few weeks, i have a party: 80’s-ski outfit! So i went to American apparel to buy myself a fluo dancing top to wear under my ski-pants…and fluo leg warmers and a fluo thing to put on my head! lovely! let the party begin!

Just visit the shop to buy some good basics or have a great time laughing with all the silly stuff you also find there!

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American Apparel | Shopping | T-shirt € 15.00
Kammenstraat 4 | Meir
Mon – Sat 10:00 – 19:00

The French brand APC is not very well known in Belgium, but very popular in France.

The shop in Antwerp is a very small shop, but it has all you need. Men’s and women’s clothes, shoes, bags,… all very basic but oooh so nice, and very easy to combine with other stuff. My boyfriend often buys sweaters there, and they always have wonderful boots! Three years ago (2007) I bought some boots here, and I still use them almost every day!

They often have some sales in the back of the shop (always handy!). And at the cash register, you find candy called ‘een koffiebolleke’ from Roodthooft… it’s a very famous ‘bolleke’ made in Antwerp (and I’m addicted to them).

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APC | Shopping
Lombardenvest 12 | Meir | +3232265054
Mon – Sat 10:00 – 18:00

The man behind the Antwerp six, Geert Bruloot, started his business at the Lombardevest with the shop Louis, but sold it after some years of succes and began a boutique in very nice shoes for men & women, Coccodrillo…

It’s located in the Schuttershofstraat, one of Belgium’s most expensive streets. They will a new shop across the street soon, Coccodrillo only for men. Looking forward to that moment!

You’ll find brands like Dries Van Noten, Lanvin, Maison Martin Margiela, Miu Miu, Prada, YSL, Balenciaga, Raf Simons and many more…

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Coccodrillo | Shopping
Schuttershofstraat 9 | Meir | +3232332093
Mon – Sat 10:00 – 18:00

Theme parties are very trendy to organise lately. So whenever I have a party, I go to Episode… It’s a second hand shop and you can find anything there.

These are the themes I shopped for at Episode:

- Lumberjack Party
- After Ski Party
- Keeping Up Appearances (Hyacinth and Onslow!)
- Totally Wrong 80’s Party
- Fluo ‘this is the sound of C’ party (New Beat!)
- 90’s Party

And believe me, my outfit always was very successful!

Just go check it out, have a laugh or find something really nice (when you search good, you can also find things you can wear without going to a theme party )

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Episode | Shopping
Steenhouwersvest 34 | Meir
Mon – Sat 11:00 – 18:00

Even when you’re not a metal or Gothic or a punk-fan, there’s a shop in the Kammenstraat in Antwerp that is great fun and worth a visit. ‘Fans’ is a clothing shop for Gothics and vampires, and other subcultures and species… You can almost permanently find youngsters with extreme black clothing in this strange shop that has opened the seventies.

The owners of the Fans faced a lot of difficulties and lawsuits over the years because the neighbors considered them dangerous and provocative. But the people that come here may look dangerous, they are often insecure and mostly very nice. When I spoke to the owner last week, he told me: ‘We only get bloodthirsty after closing time…’ I thought this was very funny. In September they wrote `Black to School…’ on the windows.

I used to be afraid to go inside, but since a while I go there sometimes and wander around in the very little shop. It is a lot of fun. They sell the strangest things. I got me a ‘Giant Microbe’ – they’re like teddy bear microbes. I got “the flu”. They also sell coffin-shaped wallets, and of course a lot of clothes. Some are really wearable for ‘outsiders’.

This shop is an icon in Antwerp; almost everybody knows ‘the Fans’ and it is a part of this city. They say it’s a gate to the Underworld, but it is also an interesting place with interesting objects…

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Fans | Shopping
Kammenstraat 80 | Meir | +3232323172
Mon – Sat 11:00 – 18:00

When you are in Antwerp on a Friday morning, it is something you really have to see: the strange and famous ‘Vrijdagse Markt’. Go there!

It’s great and it’s so typically Antwerp. It’s a little adventure on a Friday morning. It’s a second hand market but what it makes different is the way of selling: it ’s an auction, they talk really ‘aantwaarps’ and sometimes you think they will be fighting soon because people get all incited.

They mostly sell furniture and bicycles but it is incredible what else you can buy there: a box with toothbrushes made in 1963, a complete correspondence between a mother and a son over twenty years, a broken toaster, dirty teddy bears, etc. Sometimes it is real rubbish and sometimes it is a treasure. A lot of the things come from old people that died, shops that went bankrupt.

It starts at nine in the morning and it finishes at one o’clock in the afternoon. The garbage car comes between one and two and cleans the whole square. And that’s necessary. All the things that nobody wanted are left behind.

I don’t know how long it already exists, but I guess it was always there. I’m mostly working on a Friday morning and i don’t go there often, but when I have the chance i don’t want to miss it, this special market, so lively, so energetic.

And maybe nice to know: the museum of Plantijn en Moretus is on the same square…

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Friday Market | Art & culture, Shopping, Festivals & events | Free
Vrijdagmarkt | Meir
Fri 09:00 – 13:00

The largest worldwide collection of comics in Europe: Mekanik Strip has been the leader for 25 years already!

You can find any comic book, and many gadget, postcards, t-shirts and dolls in here. If you don’t find it here, probably you won’t find it anywhere…

On the first floor you can visit an interesting artgallery, entrance free!

The two owners of the shop, Lin & Jan, will help you like no one else. Her profound knowledge of the comic-universe will guide you to that one thing you badly want to find.

We have several comic-walls in the city, all because of her! Go and visit the shop, you’ll be surprised by all the toys!

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Mekanik Strip | Art & culture, Shopping | Comics workshop € 15.00
Sint Jacobsmarkt 73 | Meir | +3232342347
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 18:30, Sat 10:00 – 18:00

The best place in town  to get Antwerp’s finest cookies!

The delicious and world famous ‘Antwerpse Handjes’ (Antwerp Hands) are for sale right here.

The history about the name ‘Antwerpen’ goes back several centuries and means ‘Hand-werpen’ (hand trowing). That is why we have these great cookies here.

Buy them for friends, because they are a symbol for true friendship, or treat yourself something!

TIP: Nice stuff to give away as a present from your trip…

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Philip’s Biscuit | Shopping, Snacks
Korte Gasthuisstraat 11 | Meir | +3232312660
Mon – Sat 11:00 -18:00

Next to APC (check the APC article) you find Step by Step, and when you enter Step by Step after visiting APC, it feels like you are in Paris in stead of Antwerp. A set of Barbie dolls welcomes you before you walk in the Walhalla of French Brands. You can find Vanessa Bruno, Isabel Marant, Anna Sui, … The shop (first housed at another spot) almost had to close, but an employee and a very good customer saved the shop and reopened it in Lombardenvest. Thank god for that!

I don’t try to go there that often, because it is quite expensive (and you always see something you really really want), but when sales start: I’m there! I have a small size and they always have a lot of trousers in small sizes left. And prices really go down a lot! I once bought a new pair of Notify trousers, for only € 70!

Every sales period I go there, and i must say, my collection is getting bigger and bigger. I smile every time I see all those beautiful (cheap!) clothes in my closet.

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Step by Step | Shopping
Lombardenvest 16 | Meir | +3232131854
Mon – Sat 10:30 – 18:00

Next to Step by Step (check the Step by Step article), you find TAS, a new shop filled with lovely bags and some shoes. And the best thing: it’s not expensive at all! A lot of my friends go there too, and always with success!

The lady of the house makes you feel at home when you enter. I often just hop in after work to chat a little with her.

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TAS | Shopping
Lombardenvest 20 | Meir | +3232318682
Mon – Sat 10:30 – 18:00

If you want to wander among the real citizens of Antwerp, get up early on a Sunday morning and visit the market place. Hear the salesman, shout and show off their goods. Especially some fruit sellers are really funny to watch.

Recently the Antwerp city built a roof over this huge square. The elements of nature won’t interfere with you shopping needs no more!

On Saturdays the market place is about delicious food, vegetables, fruits, exotic items for your meals.
On Sunday you can find general house items, clothes & food.

Worth a visit, worth getting up early!

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Theaterplein | Shopping | Free
Theaterplein | Meir
Sat 07:00 – 16:00, Sun 07:00 – 13:00