Briarwood's main entrance.

As nice as they are, sometimes the boutiques downtown don’t have what it takes to check off every item on your holiday shopping list. If this happens to you, there’s really only one thing you can do. That’s right folks – it’s time to head to the mall. Luckily for Ann Arbor residents, the nearest shopping megaplex, Briarwood Mall, is not too far from the smaller, pricier stores downtown, and it’s easily accessible by bus, bike, or car.

Briarwood serves up your average mall fare: Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, PacSun, Hot Topic and Gap, to name a few. But they also have a decent selection of stores for people with slightly finer tastes, like Coach and Godiva Chocolatier. Additionally, Briarwood is home to an Apple store, which is not only a haven for college students freaking out about their end-of-semester laptop meltdown, but also a place where you can’t really go wrong on the gift front – unless you’re shopping for a PC fanboy, of course.

When you no doubt become famished after exhausting all of your energy on shopping, Briarwood has a good number of choices, having not one but two pretzel vendors. If traditional mall food isn’t your thing, try California Pizza Kitchen or Bennigan’s in the mall parking lot on your way out.