Johannesburg is a shopper’s
heaven, with a huge variety of options from upmarket fashion
boutiques and big malls to street markets and vendors, muti merchants
(traditional medicine vendors, especially underneath the fly over
highway on the south end of Faraday Street and on downtown Diagonal
Street) and curiosity shops.
To avoid the Mall morbs, visitors should try Johannesburg’s
exciting array of flea markets, varying from Market
World’s bigger is better to Organic Village Market’s
authenticity is all. Market World, 49 Ernest Oppenheimer Avenue,
Bruma, is a extensive, bewildering mass of 100's of stalls, even
the sidewalks approaching the area are covered with wares. It is
open every day except Monday, 8.00 am to 6.00 pm, and carries a
charge R 1.50 for admission (this goes to charity).
Open every day 8.00 am to 5.00 pm, the African Craft Market,
next to The Mall, 1 Cradock Avenue, Rosebank, is an definite must
for all visitors, not just shoppers, particularly as there are often
live performances by local bands. It is more costly
and there is less junk on sale than at Market World but it still
offers 100's of stalls. Both places are among the best for African
bits and pieces.
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 well
known for tasty home bakes and a appetizing range of homemade cheeses.
A popular tea garden offers pastries, pies, and pots of indigenous
rooibos (bush) tea. It is open Thursday and Saturday mornings, as
well as for a Moonlight Market (5.00 pm to 9.00 pm) on the last
Tuesday of every month.
New, huge shopping malls are still appearing 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 the location where the rich and famous
shop. It offers designer fashion, jewellery, electronic goods and
also some brilliant (but expensive) curio shops.
Over the past few years, the used book route has moved from Yeoville’s
Rockey Street to Melville’s Main Road and Seventh Streets,
while the most popular area for antiques remains Norwood, particularly
Grant Avenue. Art Africa, 62 Tyrone Avenue, Parkview, sells a variety
of African arts and crafts objects, often made from recycled
materials in self help projects.
The Giraffe Centre, Second Avenue, Melville, has a large selection
of craft shops, Elephant Hide, 162 Corlett Drive, Bramley, is a
great place to either shop for bush footwear and African designs
or take a break in the garden with a Zulu witch doctor’s fortune
telling and tea. A fantastic place for handicrafts made by local
Soweto women, is Cobble Centre, on the corner of 12 th and Fourth
Streets, Parkhurst.
Mall shopping hours are usually 9.00 am to 5.00
pm (9.00 am to 2.00 pm on Sundays), although the bigger department
stores and supermarkets may remain open to 6.00 pm. Value added
tax (VAT) of 14 % is added on all goods sold (although this is largely
ignored in the flea markets) and visitors can retrieve this upon
departure, as long as they have kept all receipts and filled in
the appropriate point of purchase forms, where necessary. |
