Cool Philadelphia Small Businesses

If weirdos make up the populace of a cool city, then perhaps small businesses are where weirdos go while they are being weird. Big box stores might have their purposes, but struggling independent enterprises are much more dear to my heart. Frankly, malls make me nervous and Wall-Mart depresses the hell out of me (it’s more the post-retired age employees than anything else).

Today the NYT Moment blog interviewed Dmitri Siegel, Managing Director of the Urban Outfitters (a Philly-based company) website and contributing writer for awesome blog Design Observer. He took readers on an “Insider” tour of Old City. I liked his description of it not as his neighborhood but where to go “to do things that people do when they leave the house, like walk around and spend money.”

But Siegel is only half right when he says, “Philly’s not that big; there’s basically only one good thing in each category.” It’s true that the Ritz is the only place to see independent movies, but there are three of them and they show different movies. Philadelphia may be smaller than New York, but with over 1.5 million people, it is the 6th largest city in the US and it is growing.

Coincidentally I have been developing my own Google Map of Cool Philadelphia Small Businesses. Feel free to add to it, it’s open for collaboration! I excluded museums and restaurants to make things simple. Besides being a fan of SBs in general, I also wanted a resource to prove to friends that this is a great city. If you’re the nervous type, SpotCrime’s Philadelphia crime map may be more of your thing.