Kazakhstan Shopping

It's called MEGA.: MEGA

by paulvir

I had heard of MEGA from my friend before going there that it was a really nice mall. And he was right. It was Super nice and clean. In fact I think the mall would do well even in Los Angeles, CA, USA. It was spotless, bright, and not as crowded. There are all kinds of shops here including the usual and plus a toy store. There's a ice skating rink at the ground level. There are all kinds of shops in the building. Just like in US, there is a food court at the top floor of the building. A lot if you really want to go shopping here. I just went for a meal at the food court.

Museum shops: Buying carpets

by TheWanderingCamel

The concessions in the National Museum and Art Museum are as good a place as any to start looking at rugs in Almaty. Their prices are fair (a bit of bargaining is in order), they have a good range in stock of both Kazakh and other Central Asian rugs and they handle the paperwork necessary for the exportation of your rug efficiently. Kazakh carpets can seem rather crude in comparison to examples from Turkmenistan. It all comes down to personal choice however, so look at as many carpets as you feel you need to before deciding on the one you want, and even then, it's not a bad idea to go away and give it some more thought. Although rugs and carpets are much cheaper here than they would be at home, don't expect to get one for next to nothing. The better the quality, the dearer the rug.

Shopping Precincts: Downtown Almaty

by TheWanderingCamel

Almaty's main shopping street is an attractive pedestrian mall, lined with trees and drink and snack stands. Fountains play at intervals and the paving is clean and spacious.TsUM is a large department store on several levels, with a good selection of gifts and crafts on the top floor.Further afield, on the other side of Republic Square, Ramstor is a modern shopping mall, with a good supermarket , lots of shops, a movie theatre, indoor skating rink and several restaurants. This is where Alamaty's mall rats love to hang out.

Zelyony Bazaar - the 'green" market: Cheap caviar

by TheWanderingCamel

Seeing caviar, so outrageously expensive in the west, for sale in Almaty just on a market stall is a quite a surprise. Some of it is commercially packaged in glass jars and tins of varying sizes, Sevruga, Beluga, all very reasonably priced It makes a wonderful gift -if your home country allows its importation. Not everywhere does, some countries observe a very strict interpretation of the CITES treaty. If you intend to eat your caviar immediately, you can buy it "fresh", by weight and packed into a plastic takeaway box. Now all you need is some good bread, sour cream and chopped hard-boiled egg - a feast for a king at about the cost of a burger back home. $3-4 dollars will buy you a good-sized snack portion of the stuff - about $200 worth in Europe.

Tsum Department store: Traditional textiles

by TheWanderingCamel

Some of the handicraft/gift shops on the third floor of the Tsum department store stock interesting old embroideries, yurt hangings and straps, etc Traditional hand-embroidered yurt hangings, long woven yurt straps, gossamer fine knitted shawls. I paid US$40 for a beautiful bedhanging (the bottom edge is always unfinished on these works), signed and dated 1960, faded and worn a bit now - it took weeks to get the musty smell out of it - but lovely. Our Kazakh friend assured me it was a very good one , and a very good price.Posted by leyle

Different all around the town: Go book shopping!

by aliante1981

It was so in times of Soviet Union, it remains so now. In those shops (there are several of them all around the town) you can still find some rare editions of books, rare and not. That will be of much help to those who speak Russian, and of less help to those who speak English (only few of them, I am afraid). Still, some good albums on the local architecture are also an option. Well, much less than you would in Moscow, let alone any major Western city!

Silk way

by rythm_divine

Youbeleni: Youbeleni shopping centre

by DomLewenz

Simply the best selection of western goods in 1,000 miles (except baked beans, bacon, and sausages) Very expensive for Kazakhtsan, so slightly cheaper than the west.

Ramstore in Almaty

by rythm_divine

It's the best shopping mole in Almaty with ice-ring on the 1st floor & cinema on the 3rd floor. Also it has very nice turkish cafe, in case if you like turkish kebabs.