50 Years of Best of Philly: Shopping
In honor of the upcoming 50th anniversary of Best of Philly this August, we’re taking a monthly look back. This month: shopping.
For this month’s Best of Philly lookback, we dive into 50 years of shopping in Philadelphia. / Photograph by Jonathan Pushnik
In the spring of 1975, David Kendall owned a small company. The business model was simple: You bring him a t-shirt, a design, and, depending on the complexity, 10 to 30 bucks, and he’d marker it right on the shirt for you. Did it bother the editors of Philadelphia magazine that David was a Lower Merion student at the time? It did not! It bothered us so little, in fact, that we gave out his home phone number in the issue.
David’s t-shirt business is perhaps the most shining example, but more than any other Best of Philly section, our annual shopping picks seem to swing with the times. In 1979, that meant “fantastic finds for inflation fighters”: cheap shoes, artificial flowers, the Entenmann’s thrift bakery in Maple Shade. By 1985, the pendulum had worked its way to the other side of the ledger, as we dedicated a page to Every Yuppie’s Best of Philly. (If you needed a place to buy neck bows, an impressive briefcase, photography posters, or “everything for the yuppie lifestyle,” we had your back.)
And this, to us, proves why Best of Philly has remained so popular year after year: because it changes year to year. Every August, you’re guaranteed to get a fresh reminder of Philadelphia’s greatness.
As for young David? He did all right for himself. After graduating from Wesleyan, he went on to become an executive producer on mega-hit sitcoms Growing Pains and Boy Meets World, the latter of which was set in Philadelphia. We knew you when, David!
BOP50 Shopping Timeline
Notable wins and winners
1975
Best Custom T-shirts: Kendall’s hand-drawn take on our original 1974 cover.
1978
Our award for Best Sexual Supermarket — yes, a real category; the early years were a bit more, let’s say, horny — went to the Pleasure Chest: “A well-stocked, well-disciplined place for devices.” And you can see for yourself; it’s still there, at 2039 Walnut Street.
1986
Photograph by Jim Graham
Best Hip Children’s Store: Kamikaze Kids. (Okay, honestly, we just wanted to reprint this picture.)
1989
Best New Mall: Franklin Mills
“We have seen the future, and it is discounted. The decor is surprisingly happenin’ for a mall — it’s a postmodern celebration of popular culture that Robert Venturi would probably love. (Not that we expect to see Venturi out here picking up tube socks.)”
2001
Remember these iMacs? / Photograph by Hugh Threlfall/Alamy
Best Place to Buy an iMac: “Service-oriented Center City computer store Bundy Typewriter & Computer Co. is a bare-bones 3,000-square-foot space devoted to iMac lovers. Spiffy tangerine and blueberry laptops sit next to space-age monitors, and every Mac bell and whistle is either displayed or can be ordered through the well-informed and pleasant staff.”
2017
Shannon Maldonado at Yowie / Photograph by Jonathan Pushnik
Best Pop-Up Turned Brick-and-Mortar: Our pop-up pick went to Yowie and its “painfully cool curator,” Shannon Maldonado. Today, Maldonado has transmogrified that tiny, fledgling storefront into South Street’s Yowie hotel, a shop and a design firm. Not bad.
Published as “BOP 50: Shopping!” in the May 2024 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
