371 Best Places to Shop in Mexico

Casa Michoacana, located near Fábrica La Aurora, offers gorgeous, high-quality handicrafts from the state of Michoacán, one of Mexico's most prolific producers of popular art.

More than just an art gallery, Casa Paulina inspires decorating ideas with items for the home. Candles, lamps, chairs, throws, and enormous clay pots are a few of the treasures you might find.

Casa Penagoes has an eye-popping collection of colorful clothing from indigenous groups.

This indie boutique specializing in streetwear is the place to go for “cool souvenirs made in Mexico,” as owner Juliett puts it. You’ll find hats, shirts, jewelry, and vinyl records, plus apothecary products. The shop doubles as a café, meaning you can power up, shop, and hit Ensenada full steam ahead.

Oaxaca's largest and oldest market is held at the Central de Abastos (literally the "Center of Supplies") on the southern edge of downtown. Saturday is the traditional market day, but the enormous covered market swarms daily with thousands of buyers and sellers from Oaxaca and the surrounding villages. Along with mounds of multicolored chilies and herbs, piles of tropical fruit, electronics, and bootleg CDs, you'll find intricately woven straw baskets, fragile green-and-black pottery, and colorful rebozos (shawls) of cotton and silk. Don't burden yourself with lots of camera equipment or bags; and keep an eye out for pickpockets and purse-slashers. Polite bargaining is expected.

Remarkable for its sheer enormity, the country's largest shopping mall is in the heart of the appropriately upscale (although a bit soulless) modern Santa Fe commercial district. Centro Santa Fe contains more than 500 shops and restaurants, a huge central ice-skating rink, a luxury multiplex cinema, and a kids theme park; it's also in immediate proximity to a giant convention center and several hotels. Anchor stores include some noted Mexican brands, including Casa Palacio, Liverpool, and El Palacio de Hierro, and you'll find a number of luxury boutiques, most of which have branches in Polanco or other more central neighborhoods. For ardent shopping enthusiasts, it's worth the 18-km (11-mile) trip from downtown. Until the Toluca–Mexico City commuter rail opens by the end of 2024, a car is the best way to get here.

Cerro Blanco Joyería creates and crafts its own silver and gold jewelry, with clean lines and a modern look.

With several locations in El Centro, this popular superstore (a Mexican version of Walmart) has a large selection of local and American products.

Selling everything from food and clothing to appliances and medicine, and keeping long hours, this Mexican grocery chain is about as close as you can get to the Walmart experience. You'll find the island's best selection of groceries here.

Open daily from 7 am to 11 pm, this big, full-service grocery store also carries clothing, kitchenware, appliances, furniture, and a terrific selection of wine. For those renting a nearby condo, this is a place to stock up on food and beverages. Brand-name sunscreens, while expensive, are available.  The deli and bakery are excellent places to pick up picnic provisions; coolers and ice are sold here, too.

Sharing a courtyard with several other shops, Chilam Balam has travel, archaeology, and art books about Mexico. There are a few titles in English.

Since 1898 the family-run Chocolate Casero Joaquinita has been concocting delectable homemade cinnamon-spiced hot-chocolate tablets. Knock on the closed and locked door, and the owner will let you in.

Oaxaca is famous for its chocolate—most of all for its hot chocolate. This shop near the market is arguably the best around; it grinds its own chocolate together with the trademark Mexican cinnamon. You can also buy mole here.

Chocolatería Kakao Natura is stocked with fresh chocolates made from scratch on-site (from the grinding of the cacao itself!).

Originally started as a way to support local craftsmen during the pandemic, this permanent craft fair in the parking lot of Hotel California has become the premiere spot to buy handcrafted souvenirs. You can find all of the typical goods, like jewelry, T-shirts, and glass ornaments, but quirky, creative items, too. Take, for example, maker Adrián Bailón Garcia, who sells swords he fastens out of swordfish and marlin bones. There are whispers that the present owner of Hotel California is looking to retake the land, so the physical site may change, but fear not! There's no way the local community will let this gem disappear.

French designer Vanessa Guckel moved to Mexico City in 2008 as an architect and five years later, she started her label Cihuah ("woman" in Nahuatl) to explore the intersections of architecture and clothing, the built environments closest to our bodies. At her studio and showroom Guckel displays clothing that uses experimental materials and geometric forms ranging from the indigenous Mexican huipil to elongated rectangles of cloth that zip into skirts and capes.

Established in 1968, this highly respected, family-run artisan jewelry shop carries artful, silver-plated earrings, pendants, rings, necklaces, and other pieces, often in shapes and forms of objects associated with Mexico: nopales, hummingbirds, rabbits, and the like. There are additional locations in Centro Histórico as well as in Guadalajara.

The biggest (and best) pottery collection in Los Cabos is at Cobalto, a colorful boutique set near the town square in Cabo San Lucas that specializes in talavera-style pottery and tiles from Puebla and Guanajuato. Owner Raquel Pantoja regularly travels the country looking for new pieces, including incredible ceramics by local artisans that were hand-painted with needles to form intricate patterns. All pottery on-site is lead-free and dishwasher safe.

You don't actually have to ride a Harley to appreciate shopping in this small, beautifully designed shop that specializes in bespoke motorcycle gear and apparel. The sturdy but stylish belts, denim jackets, canvas weekend bags, and offbeat gifts appeal to anyone seeking high-quality, rugged goods and clothing.

Next to the convention center, this open-air market has about 50 stalls selling crafts and souvenirs. Everything here is overpriced, and vendors are pushy, but you can try bargaining. Stalls deeper in the market tend to have better deals than those around the periphery.

On the northeast side of the downtown square, an unnamed artisan market sells a respectable assortment of Mexican wares. Practice your bartering skills—start low, compromise, smile—while shopping for blankets, T-shirts, hammocks, and pottery. Most sellers accept only cash.

Cristina Palacios has made her name creating contemporary silver jewelry for a discerning, design-conscious client. Her store in the heart of the city attracts lots of interest. One of the most impressive features of her process is that every item is handcrafted. Her jewelry designs can be made to order.

South of the city center, Cuish has a small mezcal tasting room, great for pre- and postdinner drinks, where it sells only its own house-bottled brand. Try the Espadin, Arroqueno, and Tobala varieties, and hear the stories of the producers and production. Cuish can also sell you a bottle to take home to share with your friends.

Excellent art pieces made by Indigenous craftspeople are for sale here, including sculptures, paintings, and more. The art pieces are purchased by the store owners in small villages in the mountains and brought here for sale.

You can find just about anything along Calle Hidalgo, but the one thing not to leave without is mole. Derivados Acamalín is famous for its moles, as you can tell by the photos on the walls of celebrities who have dropped by for a taste, but they also produce bottles of local liquors.

This sustainable shop sells a mix of original designs and cool vintage finds.

You can have pieces of jewelry that incorporate this store's selection of loose diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, or tanzanite customized to suit your taste. There is also a broad range of watches. The shop and its affiliates, Tanzanite International and Silver International, have multiple locations along the waterfront, at the cruise piers, and in the shopping malls—in fact, it's hard to avoid them. Repairs and batteries are also available.

Directly across the street from Bellas Artes, Diva has an excellently curated collection of stylish women's clothing, with a small section for the guys. The jewelry as well is tasteful yet fun and unusual. It's the first shop within an old colonial plaza, across the passageway from La Victoriana herbal concoctions shop.

If shopping has sapped your strength, head to the back of the little mall for a delicious bakery treat at La Buena Vida, open until midday only.

A haven for anyone with a sweet tooth since 1874, Dulcería Celaya specializes in candied pineapple, guava, and other exotic fruits; almond paste; candied walnut rolls; and cajeta, a thick caramelized milk similar to Argentine dulce de leche. There's another branch in La Roma, but you have to come to Centro for the atmosphere.