Wal-mart has certainly made inroads into the District, there’s another supermarket every time you turn around, and Columbia Height’s DC USA is a shopping behemoth. Often those are the most convenient or cost-effective options, and that’s that. Other times, though, they simply pale in comparison to niche shops with well-versed employees and expert stockists. When we really need someone who can steer us to the perfect blue cheese or the comic book that will most delight a favorite niece, these are the places we turn.

Photo via Facebook.

HANA JAPANESE MARKET: If you want Japanese groceries without leaving the District, Hana is a veritable treasure trove of specialty ingredients. This shoebox of a store is tiny, but mighty. Nab all the tools and items necessary for a DIY sushi dinner, or delve into obscure selections of soy sauce, rice wine vinegars, and green tea flavored everything. There’s even a small case of fresh produce where you’ll find mushrooms, greens, and other vegetable hallmarks of Japanese cuisine. — Alicia Mazzara

Hana is located at 2004 17th St NW.

LABYRINTH GAMES & PUZZLES: If you’re anything like me (and you probably are—nerd), you recently decided to start playing D&D and realized that Rite Aid doesn’t stock Half-Elf cleric figurines or dice with anything other than 6 boring sides. Thank God for Labyrinth Games and Puzzles, which might be the only place in D.C. that you can easily grab the gear you need, learn more about your naively-picked new “casual” hobby, and even join in for a round or two at one of their many regular events. Good luck on getting back out of the store without bankrupting yourself on new puzzles, gifts, and board games, though. — Riley Croghan

Labyrinth Games & Puzzles is located at 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE.

HILL’S KITCHEN: Hill’s Kitchen is kind of like a friendlier, homier version of Williams-Sonoma. The quaint Capitol Hill shop has everything for a well-stocked D.C. kitchen, from fancy knives and gleaming Dutch ovens to cookie cutters and cutting boards in the shape of the District. Serious home cooks and grill masters will find all sorts of high quality tools here, but there are also plenty of fun, twee things for the less serious connoisseur, like brightly colored measuring cups or a pot shaped like a giant tomato. — Alicia Mazzara

Hill’s Kitchen is located at 713 D St SE.

JOINT CUSTODY: This town is lousy with good record stores, and though I could name a different one you should go to for every day of the week, enough of them are clustered together that you can hit several if you have enough time and tote bags. Joint Custody is one of the newer entries in the local vinyl sweepstakes, where you can find not only records (psst – they’re a good source for area private press albums) but vintage tees, like the Alf goes to Washington shirt that was unfortunately too small for me. For your all-day record store crawl, start with Som Records on 14th, head for Joint Custody and then make your way up 18th Street to Red Onion, Crooked Beat, Smash and the recently opened Songbyrd Cafe, which has a growing selection of vinyl to browse while you’re waiting for a sandwich. — Pat Padua

Joint Custody is located at 1530 U Street NW

Via Facebook.

BOOKS FOR AMERICA: It might look like any old used bookstore, but Books for America is first and foremost a local nonprofit organization that donates books and other educational media to schools, prisons, libraries, shelters, assisted living facilities, and other institutions. The books you find in the store have all been donated and most can be purchased for $1-$5. (Yes, you read that right.) Many appear to be new or only gently used and the selection, while not huge, is well curated, with particularly rich offerings in fiction, history, international relations, and food. All proceeds from book sales fund the operations of the nonprofit, so you can feel great about the book-buying addiction that your first visit to this store is likely to cause. —Jenny Holm

Books for America is located at 1417 22nd Street NW

SULLIVAN’S TOYS & ART SUPPLIES: Whether you’re shopping for a Super Soaker or rubber cement, this Tenleytown shop is your spot. It’s chock full of old childhood classics-books, Lego sets and action figures-as well as craft and hobby essentials like poster board, painting accessories and everything in between. Children, teenagers, and even adults should be able to find something here to make their day a little more fun. So step away from your screen and go find a real-life toy! —Travis Mitchell

Sullivan’s Toys & Art Supplies is located at 4200 Wisconsin Avenue NW

CORK MARKET: If you want to empty your wallet on fine wines, stinky cheeses, and other cheese board accoutrements, Cork Market has got you covered. As an extension of Cork Wine Bar, the store trades in a tightly curated selection of wine, often informed by what’s being served at the restaurant. There’s also a small cheese case, a bit of local charcuterie, and some prepared foods that would be perfect to build a classy picnic. — Alicia Mazzara

Cork Market is located at 1800 14th St NW.

SCRAP DC: Why hightail it out to the suburbs to get fancy, new (read: ridiculously expensive) craft supplies from Michael’s when you can rummage through the bins at SCRAP DC? The Brookland store is essentially a giant treasure chest filled with fabrics, yarn, beads, wrapping paper, stamps, and far more random gems. Better yet, all that stuff has been saved from the trash heap. Walk away with piano keys and leather scraps and vintage sewing patterns with barely a dent in your wallet. — Rachel Sadon

SCRAP DC is located at 3101 12th Street NE.

Via Facebook.

GLUT FOOD CO-OP: Whole Foods started out as a small store that probably looked a lot like Glut, the non-profit vegetarian food coop in Mt. Ranier, Md. But Glut, a worker’s collective, remains inexpensive—intentionally so. You don’t need to be a member or pay a yearly fee to come and stock up on bulk grains, loose teas and spices, oils, dried fruits, flours, and nuts. The biggest savings, though, can be found in their cheese section. Glut buys a pretty wide variety of cheeses in bulk and then slices them up to manageable sizes, while still passing the savings on to customers. Their pre-packaged items and organic veggies are less of a deal, but still comparable to the supermarket. And the supermarket definitely doesn’t have a machine to grind peanut or almond butter before your eyes. — Rachel Sadon

Glut Food Co-op is located at 4005 34th Street in Mt Rainier, MD

BIG PLANET COMICS: It doesn’t matter what age you are, comics fucking rule. I’ve been buying comics from Big Planet Comics, one of the region’s best stores—with locations in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C.—since I was a youngin. As my tastes evolved from the superhero stylings of Marvel and DC, to more mature graphic novels and alt-comics like the work of Neil Gaiman, Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware and more, Big Planet has always been there to feed my ever-evolving comics obsession. — Matt Cohen, from a previous list

Big Planet Comics as locations at 1520 U Street NW, 4849 Cordell Avenue in Bethesda, Md., 426 Maple Avenue E. in Vienna, Va., and 7315 Baltimore Avenue in College Park, Md. Fantom Comics is also a great local comic book store located at 2010 P Street NW.