Madrid Shopping
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Madrid's culture & nightlife
Cheap & free Madrid
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In this section:
Where to shop in Madrid
Madrid's best marketsMadrid's best buys
Where to shop in Madrid
Spain has always been noted for its craft work, from colourful embroidered Manila shawls and hand-sewn leather and suede goods, to its internationally exported footwear and furniture. All these items can be found in Madrid.
The major department stores are located in the centre of Madrid between the Puerta del Sol and the Plaza Callao, and along the Gran Vía. The more select shops and international boutiques line Calle Serrano and its adjoining streets in the Salamanca area, while many of Spain's avant-garde designers have shops in Calle Almirante, just off the Paseo de Recoletos.
Calle del Prado is a good hunting ground for antiques, as are La Latina and Puerta de Toledo. At the Rastro (see page 140) you can find anything and everything, from valuable antiques to live canaries. Watch out for pickpockets here.
Madrid's (and Spain's) major department-store chain is El Corte Inglés (branches at Serrano, Preciados, 3; Princesa, 41; Goya, 76, on the corner of Alcalá; and Calle Raimundo Fernández Villaverde, 1). These stores are open 10am-9pm without interruption and also one Sunday a month from noon-9pm, too.
Department stores often offer a discount to foreign shoppers, in the form of a card entitling the holder to a 10 percent discount on almost all purchases.
In recent years several shopping centres have been built. Chief among them are:
Madrid 2, La Vaguada, Avenida Monforte de Lemos, s/n, Barrio del Pilar (northern Madrid). This is a multi-level shopping centre plus bars, restaurants and cinemas.
ABC Serrano, Serrano 61. A five-storey quality mall which has stylish shops, café and restaurant.
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Madrid's best markets
Mercado de San Miguel
Just off the Plaza Mayor, this food market is housed in a lovely 19th-century glass and iron building. Buy your own picnic from the stalls inside, which sell a good range of meat, fish and produce (tel: 91 548 1214).
El Rastro
Madrid's famous Sunday flea-market attracts large crowds to Lavapiés' narrow streets. Many of its antiques, book, clothes, junk, and furniture shops are open the rest of the week too. If you're a serious shopper, you need to arrive by 9.30 on Sunday morning; by mid-day the streets are packed to overflowing. But you can equally well go during the week, when many of the big antique shops off Ribera de Curtidores are still open.
Mercado de Fuencarral
This two-storey hypermarket of small stalls in Chueca offers one-stop shopping for young independent Spanish fashion, jewellery, shoes and accessories. There is a cyber café in the basement. Chueca is an area of offbeat shops, restaurants and bars and the hub of Madrid's gay scene.
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Madrid's best buys
Candles
Giant white church candles, children's painted novelties and beeswax table candles are made and sold at the cerería that serves the Basílica San Isidro in Calle de Toledo. The shop, at no.43, is an old-fashioned candlemakers that provides the church with a mass of different white candles; you can see them being made in the mornings.
Fans
Traditional or new-wave designer fans to beat the heat can be bought at specialists Casa Diego in the Puerta del Sol (no.12; metro: Sol). You can also buy umbrellas and parasols, etc, here.
Food and drink
Capture the taste of Spain with sliced or cured ham, sausages wines, olive oil, turrón, nuts and cheeses. Specialist shops include: González, Calle León 12, Antón Martín (tel: 91-429 5618); Club del Gourmet (in branches of El Corte Inglés), Cuenllas, Ferraz, 3 (tel: 91-547 3133); La Oleoteca, Juan Ramon Jimenez, 37 (metro: Plaza de Castilla); Pil-Pil, Alberto Alcocer, 33 (metro: Colombia).
Shoes
Whether you are looking for designer shoes, hand-made leather classics, rope-soled alpargatas or flamenco dance shoes, they are all good quality. Check out the factory outlets on Calle Augusto Figueroa and traditional specialists elsewhere (Camper is the quality Spanish shoe brand par excellence: at Gran Via, 54 (metro: Callao).