World Travel Guide

City Guide  - Johannesburg  - Shopping
Shopping

Johannesburg is a shopper's paradise, with a huge choice of options from upmarket fashion boutiques to street markets and vendors, curiosity shops, muti merchants (traditional medicine vendors, especially on downtown Diagonal Street) and big shopping malls. To avoid the 'Mall morbs', visitors should try Johannesburg's exciting array of flea markets, ranging from Market World's 'bigger is better' to Organic Village Market's 'authenticity is all'. Market World, 49 Ernest Oppenheimer Avenue, Bruma, is a sprawling, bewildering mass of hundreds of stalls - even the sidewalks approaching are covered with wares. It is open every day except Monday, 0800-1800, but does charge R1.50 for admission (goes to charity). The Rooftop Market, on top of The Mall, 1 Cradock Avenue, Rosebank, is only open on Sundays, but is an absolute must for all visitors, not just shoppers, especially because there are always live performances by local bands. It is more expensive and 'classy' (less junk on sale) than Market World, but still offers hundreds of stalls. Both places are among the best for African curios. Michael Mount Organic Village Market, 231 Bryanston Drive, Bryanston, Sandton, is truly a 'craftsman's craft-market', where everything on sale is strictly handmade or organically produced. It is famous for tasty home bakes and a delicious range of homemade cheeses. A popular tea garden offers pies, pastries and pots of indigenous rooi-bos (bush) tea. It is open Thursday and Saturday mornings, as well as for a Moonlight Market (1700-2100) on the last Tuesday of every month.
New, huge shopping malls are still springing up in and around Johannesburg, with Eastgate Mall, Sandton City, The Mall of Rosebank and Fourways Mall probably being the most user-friendly for the newcomer. Sandton City is definitely the place where the rich and famous shop. It offers designer fashion, jewellery, electronic goods, but also some excellent (but expensive) curio shops.
The Used Book 'route' has over the past few years moved from Yeoville's Rockey Street to Melville's Main Road and Seventh Streets; while the favoured area for antiques remains Norwood, particularly Grant Avenue. Art Africa, 62 Tyrone Avenue, Parkview, which sells a range of African arts and crafts objects, often produced from recycled materials in self-help projects. Elephant Hide, 162 Corlett Drive, Bramley, is a good place to shop for bush footwear and African designs, or take a break in the garden with tea and a Zulu witch doctor's fortune-telling. A wonderful place for handicrafts made by local SOWETO women, is Cobble Centre, on the corner of 12th and Fourth Streets, Parkhurst.
Mall shopping hours are generally 0900-1700 (0900-1400 Sundays), but the bigger department stores and supermarkets may remain open to 1800.
Value added tax (VAT) of 14% is levied on all goods sold (although this is largely ignored in the flea markets) and visitors can reclaim this on their departure, provided they have kept all receipts and filled in the appropriate point of purchase forms, where necessary.



Copyright © 2001 Columbus Publishing
    
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