EDITORS' PICKS - SHOPPING

Best place to go after you shoot the moon
Go ahead and count how many cameras you have - your credit-card sized digital, the fancy one you bought during your “photography phase,” the nifty one in your phone. You could upload them to a faceless internet site, where a guy in Pakistan will be ogling your cousin. Or you could upload them at Newtonville Camera’s website. Then you can drop in, pick up your shots and ask the trained staff why that pic of your cousin came out so funky. Video transfer, lab services, while-you-wait passport pics are all here. And if you’re buying a camera, the service is impeccable.

Newtonville Camera, 249 Walnut Street, Newton, 800.934.9992. www.nvcamera.com

Best place to absorb the culture of the Back Atcha
You prefer the wild terrain and shifting merchandise of thrift stores - the more off-the-beaten-path, the better. That's why it's time to set off for Boomerangs in Brighton Center. You'll enter a moderate-size green room of a hue only art students could describe. Something like old-school Brit pop (hello, Petula Clark) will dance in your ears as you pick your way through nicely preselected coolery: racks of jeans and real wool sweaters, warm coats you wouldn't be embarrassed to wear, tons of actually useful kitchenware, i.e., more forks than egg timers. Unfortunately, someone probably already snatched up that giant red-and-black ceramic ashtray with a horse head perched on its side. Trust us: it was priceless.

Boomerangs | 298 Washington Street, Brighton | 617.787.0500 | www.aac.org | check out Boomerangs's sister store at 716 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain | 617.524.5120 | Proceeds benefit the AIDS Action Committee

Best way to get shirty
Depending how the Pats, Celts, and Bruins do this winter, Boston's reign as Titletown, USA, may soon be over. That doesn't mean it's time to closet our vainglorious hometown pride. Sully's Tees, inventor of the ever-classy YANKEE HATER shirt, has all your needs met. Taking cues from the sloganeering and design sense of '80s hardcore punk, Sully's kicks it old school. Major League Baseball may have put the kibosh on their ORTIZ HAS A POSSE and KILLIN' WITH SCHILLIN' shirts, but their BOSTON HOOLIGAN and DRINK BEER AND FIGHT shirts help you root for b-ball and puck in the Hub's inimitable up-yours fashion.

www.sullystees.com

Best refuge for the cigar-smoked-out
Sometimes you just like to saunter into a cozy little shop, ask the proprietor, Jose Agosto, for the latest and best in a Nicaraguan cigar, snip off the end, take a seat, puff away, and chat with the regulars about the NFL game on the plasma TV. You know, be a guy. Is there something wrong with that? The Gloucester Street Cigar Company remains one of the last refuges where men can indulge their stinking habit free of guilt and with plenty of camaraderie. With a lush selection of stogies and a down-to-earth, knowledgeable staff to guide you to your ideal corona, it's an oasis redolent of guyness. Just head down to the sign with the big protruding cigar. It used to smoke, too, but times have changed.

Gloucester Street Cigar Company | 34 Gloucester Street, Boston | 617.424.1000

Best way to find dope threads that match your steez
Boston isn't known for its fashion sense: most of the locals dress like they're running to the corner store for a pack of smokes. But our city's very own affordable streetwear outpost Karmaloop hopes to change that with its swank catalogue. Think Ben Sherman vests, Le Tigre hoodies, Obey beanie visors, Triple Five Soul women's kicks. Until now, Karmaloop had been headquartered here for six years, but only open in cyberspace. Business got so good for the young company that they finally went brick-and-mortar and just opened up shop on Newbury Street.

Karmaloop | 160 Newbury Street, Boston | www.karmaloop.com

Best place to help a bookstore save the world
Or maybe not the world, but definitely the dwindling universe of used bookstores. Conglomerates gobble up the indies and the Internet makes book-browsing clickable. Lorem Ipsum in Inman Square is working to make sure that used bookstores don't go the way of the dodo. Founded by MIT Media Lab grad Matt Mankins, Lorem Ipsum seeks to "ameliorate the used book store, not by changing the experience ... but by linking its product with the global reach and efficient pricing of the internet." But you'll forget all about wires and Web sites when the actual spines of so many books speak to you while you're wandering over the hardwood floors of the shop.

Lorem Ipsum | 157 Hampshire Street, Cambridge | 617.497.7669 | www.loremipsumbooks.com

Best place to pretend you're rummaging through your grandparents' attic
Remember when you were a kid and the thought of a trip to Grandma's held such promise? She always had the coolest stuff - dusty, brightly wrapped hard candies, boxes dripping with costume jewels, and ancient toys from your father's childhood, not to mention Grandpa's cocktail-napkin collection. If you long for those days, or if you were gypped out of them, check out Aunt Sadie's in the South End. You won't find stale caramels or antique sugar packets, but you will find an incredibly random collection of tchotchkes and whatsits that you never knew you needed so badly. From quirky illustrated books to original art to Lulu Guinness umbrellas and exotic bath products, this store has it all, and there isn't a mothball in sight.

Aunt Sadie's, 18 Union Park, Boston | 617.357.7117

Best store to finally find a pair of pants that enhance your ass
Will you please stop buying jeans that don't fit you? Seriously, low-risers and straight legs just aren't for everybody. But don't feel bad just because you can't buy the same pair of Sevens as your BFF. You are your own person and you deserve your own designer denim! Jean Therapy in Kenmore Square's new Hotel Commonwealth offers a selection of hot underground labels (try Ernest Sewn, Da'Mage, and Sacred Blue), and the staff is beyond helpful. They'll work with your body type to find the absolute ideal pair of jeans for you, and they even offer free private shopping by appointment and expert custom tailoring for any necessary nips and tucks.

Jean Therapy | 524 Comm Ave, Boston | 617.266.6555 | www.jean-therapy.com