Johor Bahru Shopping

There is a huge Carrefour located along Tebrau Highway just before JUSCO.

The main anchor tentant is of cos Carrefour. But there are other shops like Bata and many shop selling from shoes, clothings, car accssories, fish aquarium and other stuff.

This Carrefour is huge and sells almost everything under the sun. You could spend a few hours just window shopping over here. Popular with Singaporean who drive here to stock up their household items and marketing.

Free parking is the added bonus.

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JUSCO (Tebrau City) is a very big shopping mall in Johor Bahru.

You can spend the whole day there shopping and eating till you drop.

JUSCO is the main tentant of this shopping mall. There are lots of restaurants located at level 2 and some in basement as well. Many famous brands and boutiques are found at level ground floor and level one.

If you ran out of cash, there is a money changer at ground floor and level 2.

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City Square is a multi-level shopping mall in the best Malaysian tradition. Basically there are seven or eight gallery-type levels and a central coutyard below. There is a huge selection of stores and restaurants, as well as all the usual suspects in terms of brand stores and restaurant chains. There's also a cineplex on top. If you are looking for baby clothes or accessories, there is an excellent baby store in there as well.

The hot spot for brand products, DVDs, CDs and the like is the little stretch of shops on Jalan Wong Ah Fook between the Compact Hotel and City Square. Everything is at about the same price or slightly cheaper than in Bangkok or Phuket. I picked up some good designer baby clothes for my son.

The shopfront spruikers are fairly pushy and if you visit as a single man (as I did), the first thing they'll ask you about is XXX DVDs. They backtracked a bit when I asked about toys and handbags. Anyway, good bargains to be had here.

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EyesMate Optometrist is located at level 3 City Square near Kenny Rogers.

This Optical shop is recommended by a friend for their cheap contact lenses and glasses.

Monthly disposable lenses could go as low as RM50 for 3 pairs.

I brought 3 paris of O2 contact lenses for RM90 at their promotion price. Contact lense solution was at RM36 for a twin set.

A eye test will be done and you could purchase the contact lenses according to your degrees.

Glass are cheap too but you wont be able to get it within the same day.

What to buy: contact lenses

What to pay: RM50 for 3 pairs of Acuve

City Sqaure:
The most central of JB malls, City Sqaure is newer than most of the central ones and busy. The food court ont he top floor is excellent, the shops are something and nothing, it's mostly branded stuff here ("Outlet" shops) but it has a few things of interest, including a cinema, which shows all the newest films cheaper than any of the Singapore cinemas, all in air con comfort next to a food court.

KOMTAR:
"Utiliatarian" plaza for the rakyat, lots of independent shops of all types, paticularly good for clothes and a few camera shops too. Minimalistic food court. Lots of Malay bookshops here.

Merlin Tower:
Grim and forboding, mainly houses travel agencies selling intercity bus tickets. Muggers and purse snatcehrs sometimes prey here.

Menara Landmark:
On the edge of the centre, this modern mall is massive but largely deserted. The basement foodcourt however is popular at lunchtime with office workers from the tower.

Holiday Plaza:
Busy suburban mall is the centre of JB's software and movie sellers. Utiliatrian style.

Waterfront:
Massive waterside development, meant to be far mroe ambitious. Houses a lot of brnad name stores, a good place to try for branded clothes and the like. It also has a nice waterfront eating place.

JB Duty Free:
Located at Stulang Laut, this complex houses a hotel, department store, duty free shops and JB's main ferry port. The shops here are duty free and consequently it seels mainly alcohol (very expensive in M'sia otherwise), perfumes, tobacco etc.

There are several other big shopping centres in JB, however most of them suburban, and some have closed down or are very quiet.

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Residents of Johor Bahru have every reason to do more shopping. A brand new mega shopping mall, Tebrau City, opened in Johor Bahru in January 2006. With 3 floors of mid to high end retail shops and restaurants, Tebrau City is now the main draw of Johoreans during weekends. The anchor departmental store, Jusco, sells everything that you would normally expect in a departmental store - supermarket, men's and ladie's clothes, furniture, household items, sports equipment etc.
On the third level are many restaurants serving various types of food - Malaysian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and fast food.

What to buy: At Tebrau City Shopping Center, you can get anything that you need for your household under one roof.

What to pay: Prices are reasonable for a departmental store.

Holiday Plaza is THE place for CD and DVD. There are many small shops inside specialising in DVD movies, games or software. You need to take bus or taxi from city centre as too far to walk. Buses go from Jln Tun Abdul Razak and cost RM1.00 and have Holiday Plaza on the front as the destination. The bus stops opposite the mall, and use same sto pto reutrn, as it's a circular route. The wait can be long, so when it's hot be prepared to grab a taxi instead (hardly ever a wait, plenty of taxis in JB!)

Taxi should cost you around RM5, there is a taxi stand on Jln Wong Ah Fook immediate north from City Square, just before KOMTAR.

What to buy: When in JB the place everyone heads to is Holiday Plaza. This is THE place for DVD's, PS2 and PC games and the latest software at precies we can actually afford. There are innumerable shops on the lower two levels. Prices are usualy Rm6 per disc (so if youre game coems on two discs it's RM12 etc.). Usually if you buy so many discs (usually 10) you get some more free.

Also most shops can deliver for you to Singapore if you have too many to carry or are concerned about taking them through customs, though no one has ever stopped me.

If you are buying to use in europe or america, make sure your DVD player is able to run the discs. Same for PS2 games, PS2s needed to be moded to run these kinds of disc. Actually JB is a good place to pick up a good modded PS2 also...

What to pay: One disc is RM6 in most shops.