Easton does not have a mall. It does not need one. What it has instead is a downtown where nearly every storefront is independently owned, where the farmers' market has been running since 1752, and where a former department store has been reimagined as a three-story European-style shopping bazaar. The result is a retail experience that feels more like a small city in Vermont or upstate New York than a mid-size Pennsylvania town twenty minutes from a highway lined with big-box stores.
The shopping stretches along several connected corridors (Northampton Street, Third Street, Centre Square, Bank Street, and Fourth Street), all within comfortable walking distance of each other. You can park once and spend an entire afternoon.
The Easton Public Market
The anchor of Easton's retail identity is the Easton Public Market at 325 Northampton Street. Named among USA Today's 10Best public markets, it is an indoor daily market with roughly 14 vendors combining artisanal food, specialty retail, and a modern dining hall atmosphere.
Mister Lee's Noodles holds court behind a 25-seat wrap-around counter with red bar stools and a graffiti mural. Chef Lee Chizmar, a 2015 James Beard nominee who previously ran the acclaimed Bolete, serves farm-fresh ramen with locally sourced seasonal ingredients. This is where the concept started before expanding to Bethlehem's South Side.
Scratch combines ShawneeCraft Brewery and Apple Ridge Farm in a collaboration that grows its own ingredients, brews its own beer, and bakes wood-fired pizza in an 800-degree oven. Luca and Sons, run by MasterChef winner Luca Manfe, operates an Italian butcher shop and sandwich counter selling premium meats, housemade sausages, Tuscan schiacciata paninis, and imported cheeses.
Chocodiem is the work of chocolatier Jean-Paul Hepp, who prepares artisan Belgian truffles and old-world confections daily in an open kitchen. Modern Crumb Bakeshop is run by pastry chef Kathryn Gaffney, whose resume includes Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery and the Culinary Institute of America. ThreeBirds Nest pours rotating ground-to-order coffees from Lancaster's Passenger Coffee and Tea, plus nitro coffee and kombucha on tap.
On the retail side, Centre Square Cheese, opened May 2025 by former professional chef Ron Rittenhouse and his wife Jennifer, sells artisanal cheeses, premium olive oils, charcuterie, and Japanese cooking knives. Highmark Farmstand provides fresh produce, dairy, eggs, honey, and local meats while accepting SNAP and Double SNAP benefits, addressing the food access needs of the community since 2016. Houseplanted, run by Alyssa Higgins, stocks over 50 varieties of houseplants after four years as a traveling plant lady. And Tolino Vineyards operates a tasting room pouring 20-plus wines, sangrias, and cocktails.
Belleville Market: The Three-Story Bazaar
At 20 South Third Street, Belleville Market occupies a reimagined department store inspired by European outdoor markets. Founded by the owners of Domaci, the upscale home furnishings brand that relocated from Bethlehem in 2022, Belleville houses over 40 merchants across three themed floors.
The ground-level Gallery features home decor, scented items, bath and body products, creative goods, and a Taste of Belleville section for artisanal gourmet finds. The Seasons Olive Oil and Vinegar Taproom lets you sample premium oils and vinegars before buying. The Parc floor carries women's apparel, accessories, baby and kids' products, and pet supplies. The Loft on top houses The Atelier men's shop, vintage goods, local handmade items, and Rascal Salvage Vintage.
It is the kind of place where you walk in for a candle and walk out an hour later with a bag of things you didn't know you needed.
The Bookstores
Easton has not one but two excellent independent bookstores, and they could not be more different.
Book and Puppet Co. at 161 Northampton Street is part bookshop, part puppet theater, part community gathering space. Owners Andy Laties and Rebecca Migdal stock children's and adult books, graphic novels, zines, art supplies, puppets, games, and costumery. Laties previously opened The Children's Bookstore in Chicago and managed the Bank Street Book Store in Manhattan. The store hosts weekly events including signings, story hours, and art classes across its three downtown locations.
Quadrant Book Mart and Coffee House at 20 North Third Street is a different animal entirely. Owners Andris Danielsons and Joanne Moranville have spent over 30 years building a collection of more than 50,000 carefully chosen collectible, rare, and out-of-print volumes. The two-story space on Millionaire's Row combines a serious used-book operation with a cafe where the dining room walls are lined with bookshelves. It opens at 8 a.m. and closes at 2 p.m., which tells you everything about the clientele.
Vinyl, Vintage, and Gilded Ice Cream
Easton Record Exchange sits at 58 Centre Square, a small shop in the heart of downtown selling mostly used vinyl and CDs. It is managed by one half of the Lehigh Valley indie rock duo Slingshot Dakota, which gives it a credibility that no chain store could manufacture.
Salvage Goods at 24 South Third Street is a treasure trove of antiques, vintage clothing, jewelry, watches, furniture, typewriters, radios, and framed art. The shop changed hands in late 2022 when Carl Paolina, an Easton police officer, and his mother took over from the original owner who started the business in 2010.
Their expansion, Salvage Goods II Gilded at 108 South Third, opened in December 2024 and might be the most charming retail concept in the Lehigh Valley. It combines the same vintage and antique inventory with an old-fashioned ice cream counter serving banana splits, chocolate malted milkshakes, soda floats, and sundaes in vintage teacups and glassware. They pour locally made A-Treat birch beer, sarsaparilla, and cream soda. Shopping for a 1940s lamp while eating a sundae out of a china teacup is an experience that only exists here.
The Boutiques
Bellisima by Ashley Maria at 65 North Fourth Street carries curated women's clothing, shoes, and accessories from smaller independent designers. Owner Ashley Melchionna, a Moravian University graduate, started as an online venture in 2021, opened her first brick-and-mortar in College Hill in 2022, and relocated to the larger Fourth Street space in September 2023. The shop's bestselling 610 baseball hat, a nod to the local area code, has become a quiet symbol of Easton pride.
Yellow Balloon Consignment at 135 North Third Street is a women-owned shop selling consignment and vintage clothing for men, women, and teens alongside locally made goat milk soaps, therapeutic corn bags, and handmade jewelry. Mercantile Home at 140 Northampton Street is the workshop and showroom of Ken Jones Jr. and Ron Morris, who design and produce everything on premises: hand-poured soy candles, ceramic creatures, limited-edition art pillows, embroidered aprons, and hand-collaged stationery, all made with new, organic, and recycled materials.
Easton Candle Company at 117 North Third has been hand-pouring non-toxic, cruelty-free candles in historic downtown since 2016, using all-natural U.S.-grown soy wax and cotton wicks.
The Galleries
Connexions Gallery at 213 Northampton Street has been bringing contemporary art to the Lehigh Valley since 1990: over 35 years of exhibitions, musical performances, poetry readings, and workshops. Stirner Modern at 230 Ferry Street occupies a former industrial warehouse and sewing machine factory that artist Karl Stirner converted into the Easton Arts Building in 1983. His son Jonas continues the family legacy with a gallery featuring painting, photography, and sculpture.
Brick and Mortar Gallery at the Simon Silk Mill, the SILK building, is home to nearly 30 resident artists with working studio spaces. The Arts Community of Easton organizes the annual ACE Easton Arts Tour, a free self-guided walk through artist studios, galleries, and creative shops across downtown.
The Sweet Spots
Bank Street Creamery at 15 South Bank Street has been serving handcrafted premium ice cream and vegan gelato since 1998, with over 120 flavors in rotation. Pie and Tart at 349 Northampton Street, Easton's only shop dedicated to everything in a crust, recently relocated to a larger space after seven years at its original location, expanding just in time for the 2024 Thanksgiving rush.
The Saturday Ritual
Every Saturday, the Easton Farmers' Market sets up at Scott Park on Larry Holmes Drive. Established in 1752, it is the oldest continuous open-air farmers' market in the nation. Over 60 vendors sell locally grown produce, artisan breads and cheeses, baked goods, and prepared foods. This is a producer-only market: everything sold must be locally grown or produced. The riverfront setting includes live music, a playground, and direct access to the D and L Trail.
The Saturday pattern for many Easton regulars goes something like this: farmers' market first, then a walk up Northampton Street with a stop at the Public Market for coffee and a pastry, then browsing the shops along Third Street, then lunch. By the time you leave, the car has more bags in it than you planned and the afternoon is gone. Nobody seems to mind.
Why It Works
The thing about Easton's retail scene is that none of it was designed by a developer or handed a brand identity by a consulting firm. It grew because individual people (a chocolatier from Belgium, a MasterChef winner from Italy, a police officer who inherited an antique shop, a Moravian grad who started selling clothes online) chose to open their doors in a small city that gave them affordable rent and a walkable downtown.
The Easton Loves Local initiative, organized by the Easton Main Street Initiative, reinforces this identity with periodic promotions where participating shops create limited-edition, exclusive merchandise. But the real draw is simpler than any marketing campaign. These are stores run by people who live here, selling things they actually care about, in buildings with enough character to make the experience feel like something more than a transaction.
That is increasingly rare. Easton has it in abundance.
