Melbourne is the best city in Australia for independent retail. The CBD laneways concentrate specialty boutiques, record shops, and bookstores that would not survive on the main retail streets. Hardware Lane, Degraves Street, and Centre Place all have shops worth ducking into. The Block Arcade and Royal Arcade house Melbourne's finest Victorian-era shopping interiors and a handful of long-established businesses including the Hopetoun Tea Rooms and Haigh's Chocolates.
For a different experience, the Queen Victoria Market is the place for fresh produce, deli goods, and a mix of clothing and craft stalls that is less tourist-oriented than comparable markets elsewhere. In the inner suburbs, Brunswick Street in Fitzroy has the best concentration of vintage clothing and record shops; Bridge Road in Richmond has factory outlets for clothing and homewares; and Chapel Street in South Yarra covers the middle ground between boutique and mainstream.