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This is a cross-post from my blog on Spartan Connect. Check out the original post here.

Two posts ago, I spoke of things to do in Downtown East Lansing, in which I featured several shopping option. Well, those aren’t your only options. There are lots of places in the greater Lansing area for all of your needs.

If you’re into malls, there are two I recommend checking out: The Meridian Mall is located at the end of Bus 1’s route towards Okemos. This mall is open 10-9 Monday through Saturday, and 12-6 on Sunday. Store sales are featured on their website, and they boast several department stores: Macy’s & JC Penny’s are your standard national chain, as well as as smaller midwest chain, Younker’s. Meridian Mall is also across the street from Target, Marshalls, and the makeup store Ulta. Finally, their is an AMC theater behind it for all of your movie desires.

Mall #2 is the Eastwood Towne Center in Lansing. You can get to it via the CATA by taking Route 24 to the Lake Lansing Meijer, then hopping on the 13. This is an outdoor mall, also featuring a movie theater, which is much larger and hosts 3D films. There is a large variety of shops and restaurants, but with a little more commitment to walking.

There are several Good Wills, Salvation Army stores, and Volunteers of America shops in the Lansing area. Those are great places to pick up a sweater for the Ugly Christmas sweater parties or find vintage dresses. Even better, most items will run less than $10 and can often be found it pretty decent condition. Consider picking up items for a homemade halloween costume (last year, my friend went as a beat up U of M fan. He bought a sweatshirt and we cut it up, then put red paint on for blood. Plus zombie makeup leftover from last year).

He can kill me for this later. We’re proud of our creation.

Something often less thought of is food shopping. If you’re living in the dorms like I am, then you don’t have to worry about regularly grocery shopping to feed yourself. However, it is nice to have snacks for those times you just can’t bare to walk all the way to the cafeteria (no shame, it happens to the best of us). There are the standard Meijer stores located on the bus routes, 7-11s, Quality Dairy (a smaller store for those snack needs), and other small drug stores. However, I implore you to check out the Oriental Market on Grand River and Northwind Drive. They have a great selection of food (including prepared foods) from overseas.

The East Lansing Food Co-Op is located on Northwind Drive and has a lot of local and organic produce. It’s a great place to get Zingerman’s bread (which if you haven’t tried, is AMAZING), cereals, and other organic products. It’s also next to a bakery that offers cupcakes and french macaroons (which are way more delicious then any other desserts in the Lansing area).

If you have any favorite local shops, please leave them in the comment section with the location and any website links. Feel free to tweet me at @heyawhite with any follow up questions or conversation!