Shopping in Margate, FL happens on three roads. Atlantic Boulevard carries the off price chains and the everyday errand run, State Road 7 carries thrift, international groceries and value clothing, and Sample Road carries the antique malls. Margate has no enclosed mall and no outlet center of its own, so the bigger trips sit 10 to 25 minutes out in Coral Springs, Coconut Creek and Sunrise. This guide works through it corridor by corridor, with parking, hours, and the days several of the best stores are shut.
How Margate's Shopping Corridors Are Laid Out
Margate covers nine square miles of tree lined streets and about 30 miles of canals, and it sits 7.5 miles inland from the Atlantic (City of Margate). Retail here is strip plaza retail. Atlantic Boulevard runs east to west through the middle of the city, State Road 7 runs north to south along the eastern edge, Sample Road forms the northern boundary, and Margate Boulevard threads the civic core past City Hall and Oriole Golf Club.
The city's own economic development department lists eleven shopping centers inside the limits, including Lakewood Shopping Center, Palm Lakes Plaza, Peppertree Plaza, Town Shoppes of Margate and Cocogate Plaza (City of Margate Shopping Centers). Not one of them is an enclosed mall, and none is a walkable retail district. Every plaza has its own free surface lot, and you drive between them.
Price tiers skew low. Off price, discount, thrift and dollar stores make up most of what's inside Margate, with two antique malls and one outlet format electronics store providing the browsing. For a department store, a mall food court or a proper outlet haul, plan on a short drive west or south. That ring runs from about 10 minutes to Coral Square in Coral Springs out to roughly 25 minutes to Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise.
Atlantic Boulevard: Off-Price Chains and Everyday Errands
Atlantic Boulevard is the corridor most Margate households shop weekly. The Walmart Supercenter at 5555 W Atlantic Blvd handles groceries, electronics and general merchandise in one stop, and the plazas either side of it cover clothing, shoes and homeware. Traffic moves reasonably well between University Drive and State Road 7 outside of the 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. window.
Lakewood Shopping Center: Marshalls, Shoes and Bath Products
Lakewood Shopping Center at 5385 to 5461 W Atlantic Blvd is the busiest strip center in Margate, anchored by Marshalls with Rack Room Shoes and a recently opened Bath & Body Works alongside. The Marshalls homeware aisles are the strongest part of that branch, which matters if you're furnishing a place rather than buying clothes. Parking is plentiful and free, and this is the easiest one stop errand run in the city.
Palm Lakes Plaza: Independent Shops on an Older Site
Palm Lakes Plaza is a 12.6 acre center built in 1979 on Atlantic Boulevard between State Road 7 and University Drive, and it leans toward independent tenants and service businesses rather than national names. That makes it inconsistent, since the mix changes as leases turn over. Worth a slow drive through if you'd rather find a local shop than a chain, and worth skipping if you have a specific brand in mind.
Best Buy Outlet Margate: Open Box Electronics and Appliances
Best Buy Outlet at 330 NW 62nd Avenue carries open box, clearance and refurbished electronics and appliances at discounts a standard branch doesn't run. The City of Margate announced the store as a new local arrival, and it's the one genuinely outlet format shop inside the city. Stock here is one of one, so what's on the floor today won't be there next week. Go with a category in mind, not a model number.
State Road 7: Thrift, International Groceries and Value Clothing
State Road 7, which locals call 441, is the most internationally flavored strip in Margate and the corridor to shop for value. Caribbean and Latin groceries, discount clothing, a charity thrift store and two neighborhood centers sit along it. Left turns are the real frustration here at rush hour, so plan your stops in one direction and loop back.
Town Shoppes of Margate: Bealls for the Whole Family
Town Shoppes of Margate at 2450 N State Road 7 is anchored by Bealls, which carries clothing for women, men, juniors and kids, plus shoes, handbags and a home department. The store runs 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. most days, opens at 9 a.m. on Saturday and closes at 8 p.m. on Sunday (Bealls Town Shoppes of Margate). Head for the clearance racks at the back, which is where the actual bargains sit.
Shoppes at Margate: Dollar Tree and Carnival Grocery
Shoppes at Margate is a 52,758 square foot neighborhood center at 300 to 366 S State Road 7 with eleven stores, including Dollar Tree and Carnival Grocery Store, and 231 parking spaces. It's an errands center rather than a browsing one, and Carnival Grocery is why most people stop. The location sits minutes from Florida's Turnpike, which makes it an easy last stop before you get on the road.
WID Blooming Sales: The City's Charity Thrift Store
WID Blooming Sales, the Women In Distress thrift store at 1372 N State Road 7, is the best thrift stop in Margate and the one with the clearest reason to shop it. The store carries clothing, furniture, electronics, jewelry, books, toys and housewares, and 100 percent of proceeds fund the agency's domestic violence services (Women In Distress of Broward County). Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., so a Sunday trip is wasted.
Broward Meat & Fish: The 35,000 Square Foot Market
Broward Meat & Fish at 3201 N State Road 7 took over the largest food retail box on the corridor and runs it as a full market: meat, pork, poultry and fish counters, a deli, bakery, produce and a wide international grocery aisle (Broward Meat and Fish). The store opens at 8 a.m. seven days and runs to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 6 p.m. on Sunday. Come early on a Saturday if you want the butcher counter without a wait.
Sample Road: Antiques and the Weekly Shop
Sample Road along the northern edge is where Margate combines the grocery run with the best browsing in the city. One plaza does both, which is unusual and is the reason locals treat this corner as a single trip rather than two.
Peppertree Plaza: Groceries, Office Supplies and a Gym
Peppertree Plaza at 5600 W Sample Rd is a 249,571 square foot community center anchored by Winn-Dixie, Office Depot, Planet Fitness and Dollar Tree. The Winn-Dixie opens at 7 a.m. and runs to 11 p.m., which makes it the practical late option in north Margate. The plaza is also now home to Hillsboro Antique Mall, so the weekly shop and an antique browse share a parking lot.
Hillsboro Antique Mall: More Than 150 Vendors Under One Roof
Hillsboro Antique Mall at 5460 W Sample Rd is South Florida's largest antique mall, women led and family owned, with more than 150 vendor booths covering furniture, collectibles and mid century pieces (Hillsboro Antique Mall). It's open every day but only from noon to 6 p.m., so a morning visit isn't possible. Buying a sideboard before there's room for it is the normal outcome here, and a 10×10 storage unit in Margate holds roughly a one bedroom's worth of furniture while you rearrange. Note that the mall moved about two miles west from Festival Marketplace, so older directions are wrong.
Margate Boulevard and the Smaller Stops
Margate Boulevard is the civic spine rather than a retail one, but two of the more specific shops in the city sit off the main plazas and are worth the detour if you're after collectibles or a suit.
Way Back When Antique & Collectible: Vintage and Memorabilia
Way Back When Antique & Collectible at 6217 Margate Blvd is the second dealer booth antique store in Margate, and Tripadvisor lists it among the city's attractions rather than merely its shops. Vintage items, memorabilia, glassware and toys are the strength, and browsing rather than buying is the normal visit. It's closed Sunday and Monday and shuts at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Small finds add up fast, and a 5×5 locker is the size collectors use for boxed collections rather than furniture.
K&G Fashion Superstore: Suits and Formalwear on a Budget
K&G Fashion Superstore in Margate is a warehouse format store carrying menswear, womenswear and kids clothing, with suiting priced well under department store level. Formalwear is a category Margate otherwise lacks entirely, so this is the local answer for a wedding, a funeral or a first job interview. The format is exactly what the name says: racks, concrete, and no styling help. Bring time and patience rather than expecting a fitting room queue to move quickly.
Beyond the City Limits: Malls, Outlets and the Flea Market
Margate's own retail stops at everyday needs, so the department store trip, the outlet haul and the flea market wander all happen outside the city. All four of these sit inside a 25 minute drive, and each answers a different shopping question. If you're pairing one with lunch or dinner, our Margate restaurant guide covers the kitchens worth the stop.
Coral Square: The Mall Margate Actually Shops
Coral Square in Coral Springs, about 10 minutes west on Atlantic Boulevard, is the enclosed mall Margate uses. Open since 1984 with more than 120 tenants, it carries JCPenney, Macy's, Kohl's, Old Navy, American Eagle, Victoria's Secret, Hot Topic and Hollister, plus a busy food court. Occupancy is unusually high for an enclosed mall of its age, so it doesn't have the half empty feel many do. Parking is free surface parking, and the food court is a genuinely reasonable lunch stop.
The Promenade at Coconut Creek: Open Air Shopping and Dining
The Promenade at Coconut Creek, about 10 minutes north, is an open air lifestyle center mixing shops and restaurants, and it's the closest thing to a shopping and dining evening near Margate. Open air is the catch. It's pleasant from November through April and hard work in August, when the afternoon heat and the thunderstorms both arrive. Go in the evening and you get the version of the place people describe.
Sawgrass Mills: The Outlet Trip
Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise, about 25 minutes southwest off the Sawgrass Expressway, is one of the largest outlet and value retail centers in the United States and the reason Broward residents don't need to shop for discounted brands anywhere else. Give it a full day if you actually mean to shop it, because walking the whole thing takes hours. Weekday mornings are calm and December weekends are not. Serious hauls have a way of outgrowing a closet, which is where a 5×10 unit earns its keep for seasonal and overflow storage.
The Swap Shop: 88 Acres and 1,000 Vendors
The Swap Shop at 3291 W Sunrise Blvd in Lauderhill, about 20 minutes south, is an 88 acre flea market with more than 1,000 vendors, a car collection on display and fresh produce sellers, open 365 days a year (The Swap Shop). Weekends run 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and are far busier and far better stocked than weekdays. Designer brands and counterfeits are both banned on site, so don't go looking for them. It pairs well with a longer Broward outing, and our guide to day trips from Margate covers what else is within an hour.
Parking, Hours and the Days Margate's Best Shops Are Closed
Parking in Margate is free and it's a surface lot, everywhere. There are no meters, no garages and no validation to worry about inside the city limits, which is a real advantage over shopping Las Olas or Mizner Park. The trade is that nothing is walkable between plazas. Margate is a driving city for shopping, and Broward County Transit Route 62 is the one bus route that connects neighborhoods to the State Road 7 stores.
Hours are where trips go wrong here. Hillsboro Antique Mall only opens noon to 6 p.m., Way Back When is closed Sunday and Monday and closes at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, and WID Blooming Sales is closed Sunday and Monday. Stack those three against each other and Wednesday through Saturday afternoon is the only window when all of Margate's browsing shops are open at once. The chain stores on Atlantic Boulevard and State Road 7 keep normal seven day hours.
Weather shapes the calendar more than the season does. Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 and peaks on September 10, with most activity between mid August and mid October (NOAA National Hurricane Center). Margate averages 61 inches of rain a year, and the summer pattern is a clear morning followed by a hard afternoon storm. Shop the indoor plazas after lunch in summer and save the open air centers for the dry months.
Humidity is the other thing shoppers here learn the hard way. Solid wood furniture, vinyl records, leather, photographs and paper collectibles all suffer in an unconditioned Florida garage, which is why climate controlled storage in Margate is the default rather than an upgrade for anything bought at an antique mall.
Frequently Asked Questions
What shops are there in Margate, FL?
Margate has eleven shopping centers, all of them strip or community centers rather than malls. The main names are Lakewood Shopping Center and Palm Lakes Plaza on Atlantic Boulevard, Town Shoppes of Margate and Shoppes at Margate on State Road 7, and Peppertree Plaza on Sample Road. Store types skew to off price clothing, discount and dollar stores, groceries, and two antique malls.
What is the most popular shopping store in Margate?
The Walmart Supercenter at 5555 W Atlantic Blvd is the single busiest store in Margate, since it covers groceries, electronics and general merchandise in one trip. Among specialty stores, Marshalls at Lakewood Shopping Center and Bealls at Town Shoppes of Margate draw the most regular traffic, and Hillsboro Antique Mall pulls shoppers from well outside the city.
Where is the closest outlet shopping to Margate, FL?
Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise, about 25 minutes southwest, is the nearest true outlet center and one of the largest in the country. Inside Margate, the Best Buy Outlet at 330 NW 62nd Avenue is the only outlet format store, and it's limited to open box and clearance electronics and appliances. For discounted clothing without the drive, Marshalls and Bealls are the practical substitutes.
Is there boutique shopping in Margate, FL?
Margate is honest about this one: it isn't a boutique town. There's no walkable boutique district, and the closest equivalents are the independent tenants at Palm Lakes Plaza and the vendor booths at Hillsboro Antique Mall and Way Back When Antique & Collectible. For actual boutiques, shoppers drive to The Promenade at Coconut Creek, Mizner Park in Boca Raton or Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale.
Which mall is closest to Margate, FL?
Coral Square in Coral Springs is the closest enclosed mall, roughly 10 minutes west on Atlantic Boulevard. It's been open since 1984, carries more than 120 tenants including JCPenney, Macy's and Kohl's, and has free parking and a food court. The Promenade at Coconut Creek, about 10 minutes north, is the closest open air center if you'd rather shop and eat outdoors.
Where can you find cheap shopping in Margate, FL?
State Road 7 is the value corridor. WID Blooming Sales is the charity thrift store at 1372 N State Road 7, Dollar Tree anchors both Shoppes at Margate and Peppertree Plaza, and Bealls clearance racks at Town Shoppes handle family clothing. Twenty minutes south, The Swap Shop in Lauderhill runs more than 1,000 vendors and is cheapest of all on a weekend.
Storing What You Buy in Margate
A city with two antique malls and an outlet run to Sunrise produces more furniture than closet space. Value Store It's Margate facility rents month to month with no long term contract and is open seven days a week, which suits a purchase you made on a Saturday afternoon. Beyond the sizes already mentioned, the lineup runs from a 10×5 space and 5×15 units for a few rooms of furniture up through a 10×15 unit, 10×20 storage for a full house, and a 10×30 space when a small business is holding stock. If you're not sure which one fits, the storage unit size calculator sorts it in a minute.
Shopping is only one reason people here need space. Newcomers still unpacking will find more local detail in our guide to moving to Margate, and there's plenty to fill a weekend beyond the plazas in our roundup of things to do in Margate. Whatever brought the boxes, Value Store It has a Margate unit sized for them.
