Shopping LOCAL in Surprise: where the independents are

Surprise doesn't have one old downtown main street lined with shops. Its independent stores are spread out: along Elm Street at the new City Center, in the strip centers of Bell Road, out on Grand Avenue and in the neighborhoods off Litchfield and Waddell. That makes shopping local here a bit of a treasure hunt, and the City has spent 2026 trying to make it easier. Here is where to look.

Elm Street and the civic core

The closest thing Surprise has to a downtown is the square mile around City Hall, where Elm Street at Surprise City Center is filling in with shops, restaurants and apartments. Every Sunday from October through April, the street hosts The Sunday Market on Elm, with local growers, artisans and makers, food and live music. Its organizer lists themed Friendsgiving, Christmas and New Year's editions on November 22, December 20 and January 3.

Elm Street also became home this fall to Spark Surprise, the City's new business development center, which opened on October 1 to help entrepreneurs and small businesses start and grow with advising, co-working space, workshops and mentoring. It is not a shop, but it is the reason a few of the next ones may open here. The City even set up a mini version of the Sunday market on Elm Street for the center's opening day, a sign of how much the market has become part of the new downtown.

A short walk away on Civic Center Plaza, the West Valley Arts Council's Arts HQ Gallery rotates exhibits nearly every month and keeps a gift shop. Admission is free. On the first Friday of the month during the cool season, the plaza outside turns into First Friday Surprise, an evening pop-up with makers, food vendors and live performances that has doubled in size in its second season, according to the local paper.

Bell Road

Bell Road is the city's commercial spine, and much of it is national names. Look closer and there are independents among them. Savage Bicycles, in the Village at Surprise center, is a locally owned bike shop that has served the West Valley for more than 20 years, with mountain, gravel and electric bikes, certified mechanics and a mobile service that will tune a bike at your house. It runs group shop rides from the store, and this year it asked customers to vote for it in the City's Retail Survey, the annual poll in which residents tell the City which businesses they want.

Bullard Avenue and Cactus Road

Surprise Comics, at the southwest corner of Bullard Avenue and Cactus Road, is the city's comic shop. Beyond the weekly new releases, it commissions its own store-exclusive covers from artists.

Grand Avenue

Litchfield Road and Waddell Road

The Boyer Bakery on Litchfield Road is a bakery first, with a daily rotating case of nostalgic pastries made in house, but it also keeps racks of seasonal merchandise meant to inspire hospitality at home, which makes it a regular stop for small gifts in November and December. It also runs a drive-thru on Cotton Lane.

Spencer's Place on Waddell Road is a coffee shop and bistro that trains and employs adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, supported by a nonprofit, Employed and Overjoyed. It now has a second location inside the Team4Kids building on Cotton Lane. Buying a coffee there supports that work directly, which may be the clearest answer in Surprise to why shopping local matters.

A holiday shopping plan

The City's holiday message this year is simple: shop close to home and support the businesses that help the city thrive. Start on a Sunday morning at the market on Elm (its Christmas edition on December 20 is the last before a holiday break, and it returns January 3), stop at Arts HQ for a gift by a West Valley artist, and save the evening of December 4 or 5 for the Surprise Party at the Surprise Recreation Campus, with its tree lighting, food trucks and photos with Santa. Check each shop's own site for hours before you go, since several close on Sundays or Mondays.