Graceland Shopping Center: A Practical Guide to One of Columbus's Most Useful North Side Retail Corridors
Positioned along North High Street near the Columbus/Worthington border, Graceland Shopping Center is an open-air strip-style retail center anchored by big-box and specialty tenants that collectively make it one of the more efficient one-stop destinations on the north side of Columbus.
What's Actually Here
The center's anchor-level tenants include Whole Foods Market, which draws a significant share of the traffic on its own, and Best Buy. Those two stores alone cover a wide range of shopping trips — weekly grocery runs with an emphasis on organic and specialty products, and consumer electronics purchases where you want to see hardware in person before buying. Beyond the anchors, Graceland includes Ulta Beauty, DSW, Total Wine & More, Tuesday Morning (where stock varies by season), and a rotating mix of service-oriented tenants including optical, fitness, and dining options.
Total Wine is worth mentioning separately because it's one of the better-stocked alcohol retailers in Columbus, carrying thousands of wine, beer, and spirits SKUs. If you've priced something at a smaller liquor store elsewhere in the city, Total Wine's volume buying tends to undercut it.
How It Compares to Other Columbus Shopping Areas
The most direct comparison is Polaris Fashion Place and its surrounding power center about 10 miles north on I-71. Polaris offers more variety in apparel and has an enclosed mall with department store anchors, but a routine trip there involves significantly more walking, parking navigation across multiple lots, and time. Graceland works better when the goal is targeted: pick up groceries at Whole Foods, grab something from Ulta, and leave in under an hour.
Easton Town Center, Columbus's dominant lifestyle shopping destination on the northeast side, has broader restaurant and entertainment options and more national fashion brands. But Easton is a destination trip. Graceland handles practical errands faster.
For north Columbus residents — particularly those in Clintonville, Worthington, and the Short North who drive north for big-box needs — Graceland's location on High Street makes it accessible without getting on a highway.
What Kind of Trip It Suits
Graceland fits well when at least two of its anchor tenants are on your list. A trip that combines Whole Foods and Total Wine for a dinner party, or Best Buy and DSW for back-to-school shopping, makes the center genuinely efficient. It's also a reasonable stop if you're already on the North High Street corridor and need to pick up something specific.
It's a poor fit if you're looking for independent retailers, local Columbus brands, or anything boutique. The tenant mix is almost entirely national chains. Shoppers who prioritize locally owned businesses would be better served by the Short North's retail stretch along High Street south of campus, or the Clintonville neighborhood shops along High further south, which lean heavily independent.
The center also doesn't have a strong dining anchor in the way that Easton or the Polaris area do. Food options are limited and primarily fast-casual.
First Visit Logistics
Parking is free and surface-level throughout. The lot is large enough that finding a space close to your target tenant usually isn't difficult except during peak weekend afternoon hours or in the weeks before major holidays. Because it's an open-air center rather than an enclosed mall, you're moving between storefronts outside, which matters in a Columbus January.
The layout is linear rather than grid-based, so if you're parking centrally near Whole Foods, Best Buy is at the far end of the center and requires either walking the length of the strip or moving your car.
Hours
Anchor store hours as of early 2025: Whole Foods typically runs 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily; Best Buy generally opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 8 or 9 p.m. depending on the day; Total Wine hours are typically 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, though Ohio Sunday hours for alcohol retail are worth confirming since state law governs them. Individual tenant hours vary and are worth checking directly, particularly for smaller service businesses in the center that may keep shorter weekday windows.
Graceland Shopping Center is at 1350-1500 North High Street on the north end of Columbus, just south of the Worthington city line. The center's practical strength is the combination of its location on a major arterial road and the concentration of big-box tenants that serve recurring household needs — not a destination for browsing, but a reliable stop for getting specific things done.
