Swiss and international brands share the floors at Manor Basel, whose Basel premises also contain a food hall. Local food specialities sit alongside that store's broader merchandise, giving food shopping a place within the department-store format. In Baytown, Target brings groceries together with general merchandise, combining everyday food shopping with other household purchases.
What makes great department stores & market halls?
This plate lists 159 shops in 42 countries. Tokyo has the most with 14, followed by Paris with 11. Among these shops, 15 sell online, going by their own descriptions.
Ask about tax refunds: visitors from abroad may be able to reclaim sales tax, so ask at the service desk before paying.
Ask about delivery to your hotel: large stores often send purchases on, which saves carrying bags through the day.
Ask which floor holds what: ask for the store directory before you start, since departments can move between seasons.
Explore department stores & market halls
Use the city plates when they appear below, or open any store for its official door and related ORBIS city and craft links.
Department Stores & Market Halls · 159 shops, the best first
The Beehive on the Dam since 1870 — the Netherlands’ grand department store, its liveried doormen facing the Royal Palace.
Best for Dutch luxury under one roof
De Bijenkorf — 'the beehive' — began as Simon Philip Goudsmit's haberdashery in 1870 and grew into the Netherlands' premier department store; its flagship on Dam Square, facing the Royal Palace, gives Amsterdam luxury retail its center of gravity. The store survived a dramatic twentieth century, including wartime persecution of its Jewish founders' community, and rebuilt into the polished institution of today: international designer floors, a strong beauty hall, Dutch designers alongside global houses, and the rooftop restaurant with views across the Dam. The annual Christmas windows and the September Turbo Rounds sales are national retail rituals. As Dutch department stores consolidated and vanished, De Bijenkorf remained — the country's argument that it, too, has a Harrods. Visit the flagship for the Dam Square setting; the store is Amsterdam's most reliable single address for luxury under one roof.
Book the rooftop restaurant for the Dam Square view, and time December visits for the windows — the store treats the season as a civic performance.
Dutch variety-store chain (Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam) founded November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam by Leo Meyer and Arthur Isaac as a fixed-price shop on Kalverstraat; now roughly 750 branches across nine countries.
Best for Dutch department store since 1926.
HEMA — short for Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam, 'Dutch Fixed-Price Company Amsterdam' — was founded on November 4, 1926, by Leo Meyer and Arthur Isaac, who opened their first shop on Amsterdam's Kalverstraat. Their concept was to sell mixed everyday goods at a small number of fixed prices — originally 10, 25 and 50 cents, later extended to 75 cents and a guilder — bringing a department-store shopping model to ordinary customers rather than the wealthy clientele the era's grand department stores served. The chain expanded steadily before growing rapidly from 1958 onward, when HEMA became the first Dutch company to use franchising to open new locations. It has since become one of the most recognized retail names in the Netherlands, selling own-brand clothing, homeware, stationery, cosmetics and food items, including its stroopwafels. As of 2023, the chain operated close to 750 stores across nine countries, including a mix of company-owned and franchise locations outside the Netherlands, and the company marked its centenary in 2026.
KaDeWe brings fashion and home departments together with food shopping at Wittenbergplatz in Berlin's City West. Adolf Jandorf opened the department store in 1907, establishing the business on Tauentzienstraße before its later rebuilding. Today's store continues the department-store format, so a visit can span clothing purchases and food rather than one specialty.
Best for Department-store fashion and food shopping in Berlin
KaDeWe opened at Wittenbergplatz in 1907, following Adolf Jandorf's plan for a department store in western Berlin. Its full name, Kaufhaus des Westens, reflects that location within the developing city of the period. Early departments included fashions from Paris and imported food, placing different kinds of merchandise within one building.
The store's later history includes severe wartime damage and reconstruction, so the premises have changed since that opening. Its history also records services and architectural features that belonged specifically to those earlier years. They provide context for the business rather than a list of facilities promised to a visitor today.
The present store continues to combine fashion with interiors and food, maintaining the broad department-store approach. A shopper can plan around clothing or goods for the home before considering a separate food purchase. Its position on Tauentzienstraße makes the store a defined stop in Berlin's City West shopping area. The varied assortment should be approached by department rather than as a collection of products made in one country.
Helsinki's granite grand dame since 1862 — eight floors on Aleksanterinkatu, the Christmas windows every Finn grew up on, and the Herkku food hall below.
Best for The grand department store of the North since 1862
Indonesia's first modern department store, opened August 1966 on Jalan M.H. Thamrin, Jakarta; the state-owned retailer was built to support small local craft and textile businesses.
Best for Indonesian batik, craft and local design
Sarinah opened in August 1966 on Jalan M.H. Thamrin in central Jakarta, and is documented as Indonesia's first modern department store — a state-owned enterprise (BUMN) rather than a private retail chain. From its founding, the store's mandate went beyond conventional retail: it was established to support small and medium local enterprises (UMKM), particularly artisans and cottage industries working in textiles and handicrafts, giving it a distinct role in Indonesian retail history as a state-backed showcase for domestic craft.
Today the enterprise has expanded well beyond a single department store, running divisions in property management, hospitality partnerships and international trade facilitation, and its flagship building functions as a cultural and performing-arts venue in addition to a shopping destination, hosting Indonesian artisans and product showcases. It maintains additional locations across major Indonesian cities.
Its precise distinction is an August 1966 opening and its status as Indonesia's first modern department store.
The Knightsbridge palace — 330 departments, Egyptian escalators, trading since 1849. On 16 November 1898 Harrods debuted England's first 'moving staircase' (escalator) in the Brompton Road store.
Best for World's most famous luxury store
Charles Henry Harrod's grocery, founded in 1849, grew into the Knightsbridge palace whose terracotta façade, lit by thousands of bulbs at night, is London retail's most famous silhouette. Harrods' scale remains its argument — over a million square feet, the legendary Food Halls with their Edwardian tiles at the center, luxury floors covering every category, and services that once honored the motto Omnia Omnibus Ubique: all things for all people, everywhere. The store installed one of the world's earliest escalators in 1898, reportedly offering brandy to nervous riders at the top. Under Qatari ownership the store has been progressively polished into a luxury destination anchored by its beauty halls and designer floors. The Food Halls remain the essential visit: architecture, provisioning, and theatre in one room, and the house-label hampers and teas make the canonical London gift.
Enter through the Food Halls door on Hans Crescent to meet the store at its best first; the house-label teas and hampers remain the purchases that age well.
Liberty's London department store brings printed fabrics and clothing together with beauty products and home furnishings. The business began in 1875, when Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened his first shop on Regent Street. Its later Great Marlborough Street building uses reclaimed ship timbers within the department store's Tudor revival design.
Best for Printed fabrics and department-store browsing in London
Liberty began on Regent Street in 1875, when Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened a shop selling goods from abroad. Japanese objects and fabrics helped establish the business's interest in design beyond the British market. Its development became closely associated with the decorative arts through textiles and the emerging Art Nouveau movement.
The later Great Marlborough Street building opened in 1924, designed by Edwin T. Hall and Edwin S. Hall. Reclaimed timbers from ships supplied material for its Tudor revival construction, including wood used within the store. That building belongs to a later chapter than the founding shop on Regent Street.
Today the London store sells clothing and beauty products alongside home furnishings and its own printed fabrics. A fabric purchase and a department-store visit therefore offer different ways into the same business. For someone making clothes or furnishing a room, the textile range provides a more specific starting point than general gift browsing. Clothing and home departments broaden the visit for shoppers who are choosing finished pieces instead of fabric.
Harry Gordon Selfridge’s 1909 theatre of retail — the Oxford Street innovator that invented shopping as entertainment. Opening day drew 90,000 visitors; first-week visits topped one million. Westminster Gazette (1909): aim to make shopping 'a pleasure, a pastime, a recreation'.
Best for Iconic department store
Harry Gordon Selfridge, an American retail showman, opened his Oxford Street store in 1909 with a philosophy that changed shopping itself: goods out on display to be touched, staff trained to assist rather than pressure, the store as public theatre — he is credited with the phrase 'the customer is always right' and put Blériot's cross-Channel monoplane on display days after the flight. The columned building runs a full block and remains London's second-largest store. Modern Selfridges earned its own reputation as the most inventive of the world's department stores: the Yellow branding, ambitious themed campaigns filling the famous windows, the Corner Shop's rotating collaborations, and strong beauty, denim, and designer floors. The food hall and rooftop restaurants round it out. Visit for the windows and the energy — no London store works harder to make retail feel like an event.
Check what occupies the Corner Shop before visiting — the rotating concept space is where the store's invention concentrates, and it changes entirely by season.
Rustan's is the Philippines' leading luxury department store, founded in 1952 by Bienvenido Tantoco Sr. and Gliceria Rustia-Tantoco. It introduced the country's first gift certificate, wedding registry, and loyalty program.
Best for Prestige international fashion, beauty and home brands under one roof
Rustan's traces back to 1952 and a living room in San Marcelino, where husband and wife Bienvenido Tantoco Sr. and Gliceria Rustia-Tantoco began importing international goods for Filipino shoppers who had few local options for them. The store they built went on to introduce a run of retail firsts to the Philippines: the country's first gift certificate, its first wedding registry, and its first loyalty program, Frequent Shoppers Plus. Rustan Commercial Corporation, the flagship company behind the department store, was incorporated in 1957 and now operates five major stores plus a number of boutiques, carrying everything from Bvlgari and Hermès fragrances to Roberto Coin jewelry and Pottery Barn homeware. The Tantocos' business has since grown into the wider Rustan Group of Companies, which also brought Starbucks to the Philippines in 1997 — the first store, at Makati's 6750 Ayala Building, made the country the third market outside North America to get one — and runs SSI Group, now the country's largest specialty retailer with over 600 stores nationwide. Nearly 75 years on, the group still frames its mission the way the Tantocos first put it: 'serving only the finest.'
Kansai department-store heritage since 1717 — kimono-merchant roots, modern luxury floors. 1726 Osaka store Matsuya opened on Shinsaibashisuji at the present Shinsaibashi location and began cash sales at fixed prices.
Best for Kansai department-store heritage since 1717, kimono-merchant roots, and modern luxury floors
The Boulevard Haussmann monument — the 1912 stained-glass dome, seven luxury floors and Paris retail’s beating heart. The Haussmann flagship was inaugurated in October 1912 as Bader's 'luxury bazaar'; the dome rises 43 metres over the grand hall.
Best for Iconic Paris department store
Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn opened a small Paris novelty shop in 1894; by 1912 it had become the Boulevard Haussmann department store crowned with the neo-Byzantine glass dome that remains one of Paris's great interiors — a forty-three-meter cupola of steel and stained glass above the perfume floor. Galeries Lafayette grew into France's flagship department store: floors of fashion from mass to luxury, a celebrated food hall in Le Gourmet, the men's and home stores adjoining, and the free rooftop terrace with one of the best open views over the Opéra quarter. The Christmas windows and the giant tree beneath the dome are Parisian civic rituals. It is a tourist magnet and knows it, but the dome justifies the crowds. Ride to the top floors for the view, and time a visit for the weekly fashion show if the season offers one.
The rooftop is free and often overlooked in the rush to the dome; go up first, then descend floor by floor with the crowds thinning below you.
The Left Bank’s cathedral of taste — the world’s first department store, 1852, now LVMH’s most curated address. Émile Zola's novel Au Bonheur des Dames was inspired by the store's story.
Best for Refined Paris department store
Founded in 1852 and transformed by Aristide Boucicaut, Le Bon Marché is generally credited as the world's first true department store — fixed prices, returns, browsing without obligation: the innovations that created modern retail, memorialized in Zola's novel Au Bonheur des Dames, which took the store as its model. Gustave Eiffel's firm contributed to the airy iron structure. Now the LVMH group's most refined store, it serves the Left Bank with a curation notably calmer than the Boulevard Haussmann giants: measured designer floors, a serious book and stationery department, and across the street La Grande Épicerie, one of Paris's great food halls. The escalator crossing under the skylights is the architectural moment. Visit for the atmosphere the tourist stores have lost — Parisians still actually shop here — and leave through La Grande Épicerie with provisions.
Cross to La Grande Épicerie even on a short visit; the food hall is the store's most Parisian half, and its house-label goods make superior edible souvenirs.
The world's first department store (opened 1852) — and still the most beautiful. Gustave Eiffel designed the iron structure. Designer fashion, beauty, jewelry, and home in an atmosphere of calm, Left Bank elegance. The Christmas decorations alone are worth a trip to Paris.
Best for Rive Gauche department-store fashion and design since 1852
Boulevard Haussmann’s domed grande dame since 1865 — seven floors beneath the art-nouveau cupola. 1923 cupola was dismantled in 1939 to protect it from bombing, stored at Clichy, and restored in 1973 by the grandson of its original designer using family-workshop drawings.
Best for Historic Paris department store
Jules Jaluzot founded Printemps on Boulevard Haussmann in 1865, and the store pioneered with commercial daring — among the first to use electric lighting, to hold seasonal sales as events, and to treat its building as advertisement: the corner rotundas with their mosaic friezes and the Art Nouveau cupola of 1923, a listed jewel of stained glass, crown the store still. The dome now shelters a brasserie beneath its colored light, and the rooftop terrace of Printemps de l'Homme offers one of the quarter's best free panoramas across Paris rooftops to the Eiffel Tower. The store trades across fashion, beauty — its beauty floor is among Europe's largest — and home, positioned slightly younger than its Haussmann neighbor. Lunch under the cupola and the rooftop view are the essential Printemps experiences; the shopping floors are the connective tissue between them.
Book a table under the cupola for lunch rather than just photographing it; eating beneath the stained glass is the building's intended use of its own masterpiece.
Shinjuku department-store flagship known for fashion buying, beauty, home goods and its basement food hall, combining designer retail with Japanese department-store service.
Best for Tokyo premier department store
Isetan began as a Tokyo kimono shop in 1886 and grew into Japan's most fashion-forward department store; its Shinjuku flagship, an Art Deco landmark from 1933, is a major reference point for Japanese fashion retail. The men's building alone — eight floors treating menswear with a depth no Western store matches, from bespoke tailoring floors to avant-garde Japanese labels — justifies the pilgrimage. The main building's fashion floors are curated with gallery seriousness, and the basement depachika food hall is among Tokyo's finest: a subterranean city of confectionery, bento, and gift-boxed fruit at prices that recalibrate one's sense of a melon. Ride to the rooftop garden between floors. The seasonal gift culture — chugen and seibo — reaches its most refined expression here; the wrapping alone is a lesson in Japanese retail.
Reserve real time for the men's building and the basement separately — each is a full visit — and consider the fruit parlour's absurd, wonderful gift melons at least once.
Trading since 1869 and on Ginza since 1925, Matsuya is the design-minded one of the great Tokyo stores — its Design Collection floor a pilgrimage, its depachika a museum of edible craft.
Best for The Ginza department store of design
Matsuya Ginza is a department store on Ginza 3-chome in Tokyo, opened on May 1, 1925, two years after the Great Kanto Earthquake. The company traces itself to 1869. That year Tokubei Furuya, born in Yamanashi Prefecture, founded the Tsuruya Kimono Store at Ishikawaguchi in Yokohama after his wife Masu found a ready market for scraps of cloth. In 1889 the firm acquired the Matsuya Kimono Store at Imagawabashi in Kanda and opened in Tokyo the following year. In 1907 it raised a three-storey Western building there. The Ginza store's Central Hall, now called the Space of Ginza, opened to the ceiling with circular stained glass and a floor of black and white marble. A Ryuko Fudoson shrine from Koyasan Ryukoin Temple in Wakayama still stands on the roof. The occupying forces requisitioned the building in 1945. The store reopened in 1953 after the requisition was lifted. A 1964 expansion took the store across a whole block, and a 2001 renewal changed its colour from blue to white. The seventh-floor Design Collection was renewed in 2011. In 2019 the company adopted the phrase Design no Matsuya and marked 150 years. Matsuya Ginza reached its centenary on the site in 2025, marked by an exhibition on 100 years of footprints.
Takashimaya's Nihombashi department store brings a broad shopping selection to central Tokyo. The company began as a Kyoto clothing shop in 1831, well before its Tokyo department-store history. Choose the Nihombashi branch when planning your visit, since Takashimaya operates separate stores across Japan.
Best for Department-store shopping in Tokyo's Nihombashi
Takashimaya began in Kyoto in 1831, when the first Iida Shinshichi opened a dealer in second-hand cotton clothing. The trade changed early. The shop gave up used goods for kimono cloth and dry goods, and that decision set the direction of everything that followed.
The nineteenth century treated it roughly and inventively by turns. The premises burned to the ground in the fighting at the Hamaguri Gate. An American trading company called on the shop not long afterwards, which opened an export trade in embroidery and in brocade weaving.
The house ran a nationwide competition for fukusa designs, offering prizes for drawings sent in from across the country. It also fitted the first show window any kimono merchant had used.
The move east came with a Tokyo store in Kyobashi, and the house exhibited at the Japan-British Exhibition in London and took an award there. It later put up the first reinforced-concrete building used for commerce in Japan. The department store still carries that record with it.
Founded in 1854, this family-owned Christchurch department store on Cashel Street carries designer fashion, beauty, and homewares across its central premises and a Timaru branch. It rebuilt after the 1947 fire and the 2011 earthquakes to remain one of New Zealand's few surviving independent department stores.
Australia’s grande dame since 1838 — a department store. A state banquet for Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh was held in 1954 in the Great Restaurant on the seventh floor of the Elizabeth Street store (official + MHNSW).
From Siorapaluk near the top of the world to the villages of the south, Pilersuisoq is settlement Greenland's general store — groceries, hardware, camping supplies. Run by KNI, heir to the Royal Greenland Trade founded in 1774, it is less a chain than the country's supply line wearing a shopfront.
Best for Groceries, hardware, and expedition resupply in Greenland's remote settlements
Founded in 1932 by C.K. Tang, a Chinese immigrant who began selling linen and lace from tin trunks; its Orchard Road flagship, opened in 1958, drew its pagoda-style roof and colors from Chinese imperial architecture.
Best for Singapore's oldest department store 1932.
Tangs traces back to Tang Choon Keng, a Teochew immigrant who arrived in British Singapore in 1923 after growing up in Shantou, China, the son of a Presbyterian pastor. He started by peddling hand-made Swatow lace, embroidery and linen door to door with a rented rickshaw and a pair of tin trunks, work that earned him the nicknames 'Tin Trunk Man' and 'Curio King.' In 1932, with S$3,000 in capital, he opened a department store on the first floor of a building on River Valley Road, selling craft goods imported from China. In 1958 Tang bought land at the corner of Orchard Road and Scotts Road, building the store that made his name synonymous with the street: a Chinese imperial-style building modeled on the Forbidden City, with green roof tiles for prosperity, yellow facades associated with royalty, red columns for happiness, and octagonal motifs drawn from feng shui. That purchase is credited with helping establish Orchard Road as Singapore's main shopping district. For decades the store stayed closed on Sundays in keeping with the Tang family's Christian faith, a policy that held until after C.K. Tang's death in 2000, when his son Tang Wee Sung took over and began Sunday trading. The flagship underwent a S$45 million renovation starting in 2012, and the company later added a VivoCity location before withdrawing from a Malaysian venture in 2020.
Basel's largest department store at the heart of the city. Swiss and international brands, extensive food hall with local specialties. The rooftop terrace offers views of the Rhine.
Best for Swiss and international brands, extensive food hall with local specialties
Historic Berlin department store on Hermannplatz, opened in 1929 as Europe's largest department store with its own U-Bahn entrance and Art Deco twin towers; badly damaged in WWII, rebuilt, and now trades as a Galeria store following the 2019 Karstadt-Kaufhof merger.
Best for Fashion, home goods, and a rooftop terrace at Hermannplatz
The Hermannplatz department store, on the border of Kreuzberg and Neukolln, opened in 1929 to significant fanfare, designed in an Expressionist style by architect Philipp Schaeffer for the Karstadt group. At the time it was the largest department store in Europe, featuring escalators, lifts, a roof terrace, and its own direct entrance from the Hermannplatz U-Bahn station. The building was badly damaged during the Second World War, and only the southwest wing of the original structure survives. The store has continued trading on the same site, and today operates as a Galeria store following the 2019 merger of Karstadt and Kaufhof into Galeria.
Manor Bern is a department store on Marktgasse, with an online collection service alongside its physical shop. Its arrival in 2019 brought the chain to premises in the city centre after a long search for a suitable site. The current branch lists delivery and returns services, with online orders available for collection at the store.
Best for Department-store shopping and online-order collection on Marktgasse
Budapest's great covered market: paprika and salami, produce, fish, preserves, Hungarian pantry goods and upstairs craft stalls beneath the 1897 iron roof.
Best for Hungarian pantry goods and craft stalls in Budapest's landmark covered market.
Located at Vaci street 67 near the Central Market Hall, the shop sells Rubik's Cubes and speedcubes from brands including GAN, MoYu, QiYi, YuXin and DianSheng. It also houses an exhibition space on the history of the Rubik's Cube and is open daily from 10am to 8pm.
Illum is a department store in central Copenhagen, offering a setting for fashion and personal shopping. Its personal-shopping service uses a dedicated suite, where customers can discuss clothing choices with a stylist. The store's Østergade building forms part of its history, distinct from any claim about where products are manufactured.
Best for Department-store fashion and personal shopping
ILLUM is a Copenhagen department store that places fashion beside beauty and design alongside food within one building. Its directory covers womenswear and menswear. Sport and children's goods share space with jewellery and watches as well as home-oriented design. The store also houses Bucherer for watches and jewellery, giving that category a specialist presence within the larger department-store format. Service is part of the proposition. ILLUM's personal-shopping programme operates from a private suite on the second floor, where stylists work with customers on a defined wardrobe brief. Above the retail floors, ILLUM Rooftop adds restaurants and a city view, turning the building into a place where shopping and dining share the same address. The combination explains the store's range: it is not simply a row of fashion concessions, because beauty and design share the building with food and specialist services. The useful distinction is between the breadth of a department store and the focused expertise inside it. ILLUM provides both, with broad floor-by-floor choice and dedicated styling plus specialist watch and jewellery services.
Denmark's grand department store since 1868, in the Belle Époque palace on Kongens Nytorv where Hans Christian Andersen once boarded. Five floors of Nordic fashion and design — Royal Copenhagen to Georg Jensen — above the Mad & Vin food hall in the basement.
Best for One roof over the whole of Danish design.
Copenhagen's produce market since the 19th century, the site became a car park in 1958 before architect Hans Peter Hagens revived it as two glass-roofed halls in 2011. More than 100,000 locals shop its 100-plus stalls each week.
Best for Two glass food-market halls opened in 2011
The site Torvehallerne occupies has been a food market for longer than the current glass-hall buildings suggest. By the late 19th century it had formalized into Grønttorv, Copenhagen's central wholesale produce market, supplying the city's kitchens well into the 20th century — until the market declined after the Second World War and the site was paved over as a car park in 1958, sitting empty of any culinary use for four decades.
Architect Hans Peter Hagens first proposed reviving it as a market in 1997, drawing partial inspiration from Moorish market architecture, and after years of planning and negotiation with the city, the current Torvehallerne opened at Israels Plads, next to Nørreport Station, in September 2011. Hagens designed two adjoining glass-roofed halls — glass chosen specifically to pull daylight in through the dark Danish winter — with raw concrete walls referencing the old market sheds and warm oak counters softening the industrial materials.
More than 100,000 Copenhagen residents now pass through its stalls each week, buying from more than 100 vendors selling smørrebrød, fresh seafood, artisan cheese, Nordic chocolate, coffee and wine. It's Copenhagen's first purpose-built central food hall — not a renovated market, but one designed from scratch to replace the wholesale trade it stands on.
The first Bloomingdale's outside the United States, opened February 1, 2010 inside The Dubai Mall. Operated under license by Al Tayer Insignia (Al Tayer Group) rather than by Macy's, Inc. directly, spanning a three-level, 146,000 sq ft apparel and accessories store plus a separate one-level home store.
Best for Designer fashion beauty and homeware
Bloomingdale's Dubai opened on February 1, 2010, as the first Bloomingdale's location outside the United States, the result of a licensing partnership between Macy's, Inc. and Dubai-based Al Tayer Group. The store is run day-to-day by Al Tayer Insignia, the same Al Tayer division that also holds the UAE license for Harvey Nichols; Al Tayer Insignia later opened a second Bloomingdale's in Kuwait's 360 Mall in 2017. The Dubai location anchors The Dubai Mall with two separate buildings: a three-level apparel and accessories store covering roughly 146,000 square feet, and a one-level, 54,000-square-foot Bloomingdale's Home store. Like its US counterparts, the Dubai store carries designer ready-to-wear, accessories, beauty and home goods from a mix of international luxury and contemporary brands, adapted to the regional market. Because it operates under a franchise/license structure rather than as a directly Macy's-owned unit, product assortment, pricing and operations are set locally by Al Tayer rather than being identical to a US Bloomingdale's. It remains one of the anchor department stores of The Dubai Mall alongside Galeries Lafayette.
Arnotts is a department store on Henry Street in central Dublin, with a history reaching back to a shop opened there in 1843. Its departments bring clothing and household shopping together under one roof, rather than specialising in a single maker. The store has changed ownership and expanded over time while remaining associated with the same Dublin shopping street.
Best for Department-store shopping on Dublin's Henry Street
Arnotts occupies 12 Henry Street in central Dublin, where its history began as a drapery and haberdashery in 1843. The business started as Cannock, White & Co.; John Arnott invested in 1855, giving the store the name it retains. Fire destroyed the original premises in 1894, and the company's own chronology records later additions that included in-house garment production during the 1930s. Beauty and fragrance departments followed, while separate gifts and children's departments broadened the store. The present store combines department-store retail with services and concessions. Arnotts lists fashion and beauty as main fields, with homeware forming another part of the offer. Restaurants share the building with Grafton Barber and Nossa Beauty, while Zeba Hairdressing is also among the current services. Eason operates on the lower ground floor with books and stationery. Its concession also covers gifts and cards. An opticians and a pre-owned accessories partnership with Designer Exchange broaden the store beyond conventional department counters. Arnotts is now operated by Brown Thomas Arnotts Limited, although the Henry Street address and the 1843 lineage remain explicit on its current official pages.
Harvey Nichols Edinburgh is a department store for designer fashion, beauty and a food hall at St Andrew Square. Rooftop dining adds hospitality, while concessions and departments remain the core retail draw.
Italian department-store chain founded in 1916 near Venice by Vittorio Coin, who began as a licensed street vendor of fabrics; its Florence store, after closing on Via dei Calzaiuoli in 2021, reopened near Piazza della Signoria in December 2022.
Best for Italian mid-market one-stop.
Coin was founded in 1916 by Vittorio Coin, who obtained a license to sell fabrics and haberdashery as a street vendor in Pianiga, in the province of Venice. He opened a proper shop selling fabric, yarn and linen in nearby Mirano in 1926, followed two years later by a wholesale warehouse in Dolo — the beginnings of what grew into one of Italy's best-known mid-range department store chains. Coin's Florence branch has had a more recent, turbulent history. It operated for decades on Via dei Calzaiuoli, at number 56, on the site of the historic Duilio 48 department store, which it had taken over in 1990. That location closed for good in 2021 after the store's operators failed to negotiate a rent reduction during the pandemic. Coin returned to Florence in December 2022 with a newly built store near Piazza della Signoria, between Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi in the Loggia del Grano, following a five-month renovation reported to have cost around six million euros.
The Geneva flagship of Switzerland's largest department store. Extensive Swiss brand selection, gourmet food hall, and an excellent watch and jewelry department.
Best for Swiss watches, jewellery, food and department-store breadth
Feskekorka is Gothenburg's church-shaped fish hall on the canal at Fisktorget, housing seafood counters including Ebbes Fangst and Flatens Fiskhandel. Alongside fresh cod, salmon, shrimp and caviar it holds several restaurants and an oyster bar.
A historic department store selling fashion, beauty products, accessories, homeware, and gourmet food across five floors. The building opened in 1912 as the Hermann Tietz department store and was renamed Alsterhaus in the 1930s.
Best for Fashion, beauty, and gourmet food across five floors of the 1912 Hermann
South African chain founded 1929 by Morris and Eli Ross in Johannesburg, named after London's Swan & Edgar department store; expanded into Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) in the late 1940s.
Best for Mid-range fashion, beauty, and shoes for the family
Edgars was founded on 6 September 1929 by brothers Morris and Eli Ross, who opened the first store on Joubert Street in Johannesburg. The name was borrowed from Swan & Edgar, the London department store the brothers used as a model. Sydney Press joined the company in Cape Town in the mid-1930s as a temporary employee and eventually took ownership, driving an expansion that added a second Johannesburg store on Eloff Street in 1937 and branches across South Africa. The chain crossed into what was then Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the late 1940s, with sources placing the first store there between 1946 and 1949 under Press's ownership; it was formally registered as a company in 1948. By 1960 the group operated close to 140 stores regionwide, a figure that more than doubled within five years, and it later absorbed other Southern African retail chains including Sales House and Jet Stores. This Harare branch, in the Eastgate shopping centre, continues the mid-market department-store format the Ross brothers established in Johannesburg nearly a century earlier.
Historic market hall on Hakaniemi Square in Helsinki, its merchant stalls, cafes and shops reopened on 27 April 2023 after a full renovation. First-party door live in Finnish and English with a trader directory and hall map.
Vanha Kauppahalli, the Old Market Hall by Helsinki's Market Square, which describes itself as Helsinki's oldest market hall, where vendors serve food in a historic setting. First-party door live with vendor directory and story pages.
Best for Food vendors in Helsinki’s oldest market hall
Bowrington Road Market is a public food market in Wan Chai, with separate stalls for shopping and cooked meals. The government listing identifies fish and fresh meat sellers alongside fruit stalls and shops offering dry goods. Its cooked-food section gives visitors an alternative to buying ingredients for preparing a meal elsewhere.
Best for Fresh-food stalls and cooked meals in Wan Chai
Bowrington Road Market sits on the Wan Chai/Causeway Bay border at 21 Bowrington Road, on ground that takes its English nickname from the Bowrington Canal that once ran here -- a channel narrow and winding enough that 19th-century Hong Kong called it Ngo Keng Kan, "goose neck stream," crossed by a "goose neck bridge" that carried the early Hong Kong Tramways line. The canal was built in the mid-to-late 1850s, covered over during the Praya East land reclamation of 1922-29 that created the modern Wan Chai shoreline, and its name survives only in what locals still call this stretch of market. Today the site is run by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department as a public wet market: ground-floor stalls sell fresh produce, spices and medicinal herbs, meat butchered to order and live fish, alongside fermented vegetables, dried seafood, household goods, clothing and tailoring; a cooked food centre upstairs serves Cantonese meals through the day, open roughly 6am to 8pm. The market's covered, all-weather footprint under Wan Chai's elevated roadway sets it apart from some of the district's older open-air markets. It briefly reached an international audience when a scene from Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was shot on location here, though the market's daily business is unrelated to that cameo.
Hong Kong's shopping and dining heart — a dense district with Times Square, the Sogo department store and the tram terminus alongside many restaurants.
Best for The Times Square, the Sogo, the tram, and the dining density.
Wan Chai Market has traded from The Zenith, across the road from its original 1937 Streamline Moderne building, since relocating there in September 2008. Stalls sell fresh seafood, meat and produce, with a cooked food centre upstairs.
Best for Stalls sell fresh seafood, meat and produce
Wan Chai Market operates today inside The Zenith, a residential complex across Wan Chai Road from the market's original home -- a Streamline Moderne building constructed in 1937 on a site that had served as a bullock-cart depot since 1917. That original building, often mislabeled Bauhaus for its rounded corners and horizontal banding, held Japanese occupying forces' body storage in its basement during the Second World War before being renovated in 1961 to keep pace with newer district markets. By the 2000s it needed replacing again: the government announced in 2007 that it would preserve only the facade and front section of the historic structure while rebuilding the market itself, and the working wet market relocated into The Zenith in September 2008, where it operates now as a covered market with fresh seafood, butchered meat and produce stalls on the lower floors and a cooked food centre above for sit-down meals. The 1937 facade survives next door as a Grade III historic building, kept as a streetscape landmark even though it no longer houses any market activity itself. For a Wan Chai visit, the two sit close enough to see both in one stop: the preserved prewar shell as an architectural note, and the working market it was replaced by as the place to actually shop or eat.
Hong Kong's fruit trading hub — a historic Edwardian market building where fruit wholesalers trade from midnight to dawn. The most atmospheric market in Hong Kong after dark.
Best for The Edwardian building, the midnight trading, and the after-dark atmosphere.
Boyner is a Turkish multi-brand department-store chain carrying local and international fashion, beauty and home goods. A specific Istanbul branch should replace this multiple-location record.
Best for Hundreds of local and international fashion labels at Turkey's largest department-store chain
The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul's Beyazıt district dates back to 1461. It now holds more than 4,000 shops spread across 61 streets under one historic roof.
Best for Over 4,000 shops across 61 streets, dating back to 1461
The most elegant section of the Grand Bazaar — recently renovated and now home to upmarket shops and restaurants. The historic courtyard setting is beautiful.
Best for Grand Bazaar shopping in the historic Sandal Bedesten
Japanese department store at Lot 10 in Kuala Lumpur's Bukit Bintang district - Isetan's first Malaysian outlet, trading there since Lot 10 opened in 1990. Six floors, about 11,000 sqm, spanning fashion, beauty and a fourth-floor Japanese restaurant hall.
Best for Japanese food hall, fashion and design under one roof
Isetan opened its first Malaysian store at the Lot 10 shopping complex on Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, when the mall opened around 1990. The Lot 10 store - branded 'Isetan The Japan Store' - occupies roughly 11,000 square metres across six floors and is built around a full Japanese lifestyle concept: fashion labels like Onitsuka Tiger and Yohji Yamamoto, beauty counters including Shiseido, and a fourth-floor dining hall of authentic Japanese restaurants such as Sushi Azabu and Tonkatsu Anzu. Isetan later expanded to Suria KLCC (1998), Mid Valley (2007) and 1 Utama (2012), but Lot 10 remains its original and most Japan-immersive Malaysian location.
Bukit Bintang shopping complex anchored by Japanese retail and food concepts, including Isetan-linked offerings and a major food-hall presence in central Kuala Lumpur.
Best for Isetan Japan department store and food court
Founded in 1939 by Paolo Boggi with a single menswear shop in Monza; opened its landmark San Babila store in Milan in 1966. Now owned by the Zaccardi brothers, who also run Milan's Brian & Barry department store, with stores in nearly 40 countries.
Best for Travel jackets and smart staples.
Boggi Milano traces back to 1939, when Paolo Boggi opened a single menswear shop in Monza, outside Milan. It wasn't until 1966, after launching its first proper collection, that Boggi opened the San Babila store in central Milan that became its best-known address, and shortly after it made its first move outside Italy with a shop in Geneva. Ownership changed hands twice in the early 2000s. In 2002 the Milanese group Fin.Part bought a 90 percent stake for roughly 8.65 million euros, leaving Paolo Boggi with the remaining 10 percent. In 2003 the brand was bought outright by three brothers, Carlo, Claudio and Roberto Zaccardi, members of the family that already owned Milan's Brian & Barry department stores. Under the Zaccardis, Boggi expanded well beyond its original single-city footprint, growing into a network of stores across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Russia and South America, with especially rapid growth after 2009. The business remains built around men's tailoring and travel-oriented clothing rather than a broader lifestyle range, a focus tracing directly back to the original Monza shop's sartorial specialty. Today the company operates in roughly 40 countries, run by the Zaccardi family alongside their separate department-store business.
Occupying the 1893 Upper Trading Rows on Red Square, GUM is Moscow's grand department store, its glass-roofed arcades home to more than a hundred fashion, beauty and homeware brands. The Gastronom No. 1 food hall, cafes and a cinema share the building, and its online shop ships across Russia.
Best for Department store, fashion, beauty, homeware
TSUM is Moscow's premium department store, five floors and some 800 luxury and designer labels spanning fashion, footwear, jewellery, watches and cosmetics. Its online shop mirrors the in-store selection, with delivery to pickup points across Russia.
Best for Department store, luxury fashion, jewelry, cosmetics
A Breach Candy institution for over seventy years, Premsons is a South Mumbai department store carrying more than 50,000 products across home and kitchen, fashion, beauty, stationery and games. Open daily and shipping from its online store, it ranges from everyday essentials to its own Premsons and Eternia lines.
Best for Department store, homeware, gifts, fashion
Founded in 1842 and selling direct to customers since 1850, Lodenfrey is Munich's six-floor flagship fashion store, mixing international luxury labels with its famous loden and Bavarian traditional costume. A made-to-measure menswear atelier and a large children's department round out the house, which also ships from its online store.
Best for Fashion, department store, loden, traditional costume
An independent Munich department store known for fashion, beauty and a major classical-music department. The Marienplatz house is a long-running Munich original. Established 1861.
Best for Fashion, beauty, and a major classical-music department at Marienplatz, since 1861
A municipal market hall with independent fishmongers, butchers, pickle sellers, produce stalls, and shops carrying Okinawan ingredients and souvenirs. The market reopened in a rebuilt three-story building in March 2023. Established 1950.
Best for Independent fishmongers, butchers, pickle sellers, produce stalls
Housed inside the Abeno Harukas skyscraper in Osaka, this Kintetsu department store spans multiple floors of fashion, food, and lifestyle brands alongside rotating exhibitions and pop-up events. Shoppers can browse in person or order through the affiliated Kintetsu online store, with dedicated counters ranging from a Rolex boutique to seasonal food fairs.
Osaka department store chain that opened in 1929 above Umeda Station as the world's first railway-terminal department store, under Hankyu Railway founder Ichizo Kobayashi. The Umeda flagship reopened in 2012 after a seven-year rebuild.
Best for Osaka department store
Hankyu's department store business traces to 1925, when Hankyu Market opened in Umeda as a retail division of what was then Hanshin Electric Railway, under company founder Ichizo Kobayashi. In April 1929 this grew into the full Hankyu Department Store, described as the world's first department store built directly into a railway terminal. With two basement floors and eight above ground, it was by far the largest department store in the country when it opened. The company became independent of the railway operator in 1947. The Umeda flagship underwent a seven-year rebuilding project and reopened in 2012 with 15 floors; the company now operates as part of the H2O Retailing group.
Giant department store with 15 floors — cosmetics basement, designer fashion, homeware, and an incredible food hall (depachika) with premium bento and sweets.
Best for Cosmetics basement, designer fashion, homeware
Osaka department store at 1-13-13 Umeda, Kita-ku, tracing to a 1933 railway-station shop; known today for its basement Hanshin Food Hall and its Hanshin Tigers baseball merchandise corner.
Best for Osaka premium department store
Hanshin Department Store's Umeda Main Store began in 1933 as Hanshin Mart, an outgrowth of the Hanshin Electric Railway's practice of selling electric goods such as light bulbs from its station offices to serve commuters. In 1939, with the opening of the railway's underground extension, the shop moved into the basement of Shin-Umeda Station as Higashi-Hanshin Mart. In April 1947 the operation split off from Hankyu Railways to become its own department-store company, later merging into what is now Hankyu Hanshin Department Stores Co. The Umeda flagship underwent a major renovation completed in 2018, with a full grand reopening in 2022. Today the store sits at 1-13-13 Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka, and is best known for two things: the basement-level Hanshin Food Market (B1F), and a dedicated shop for Hanshin Tigers merchandise, reflecting the store's long association with the professional baseball team that shares its name and corporate lineage.
Founded in 1781, Kansou is an Osaka purveyor of shio-konbu (salted kelp) and tsukudani, prized as gifts and Osaka souvenirs and made by traditional methods. Its Yodoyabashi flagship pairs a shop with a small cafe, and products are sold online and at department stores nationwide.
Best for Shio-konbu, tsukudani, kelp, Osaka souvenirs, gifts
Fashion-forward department store above Osaka Station — Japanese brands, accessories, cosmetics, and a fantastic restaurant floor. The 10th-floor food hall is exceptional.
Best for Japanese brands, cosmetics, and a 10th-floor food hall above Osaka Station
Upscale department store in Namba — international luxury, Japanese designer fashion, and an extraordinary depachika with wagashi, bento, and premium produce.
Best for International luxury, Japanese designer fashion, and a depachika of wagashi, bento
Creative lifestyle store — DIY supplies, kitchen gadgets, stationery, beauty tools, and bizarre Japanese inventions you never knew you needed. 8 floors of discovery.
Best for DIY supplies, kitchen gadgets, stationery, beauty tools
Trading in Paramaribo since 1936, Kirpalani's is Suriname's sprawling department store, its Domineestraat and Pengelstraat floors stocked with everything from furniture and appliances to fabric, toys and cosmetics. Shoppers can browse in person across four city locations or order online for free delivery.
Best for Department store, furniture, electronics, household
BHV is a Paris department store on rue de Rivoli, opposite the Hotel de Ville in the Marais. Its shopping departments bring fashion and goods for the home into the same building, with a DIY department in the basement. The business began in 1856, giving household repairs a place alongside clothing within its long-running retail mix.
Best for Department-store shopping with a DIY basement in Paris
Streetwear and sneaker department store opened in 2000 near Printemps Haussmann in Paris's 9th arrondissement, at 56 Rue de Caumartin. Owned by Groupe Printemps, it stocks 200-plus brands across multiple floors aimed at a teens-to-twenties customer base, with further Paris locations at Beaubourg, Champs-Elysees and Nation.
Best for Four floors of sneakers and streetwear drops behind Printemps
Citadium opened in 2000 as a youth-focused streetwear concept store at 56 Rue de Caumartin in Paris's 9th arrondissement, close to the flagship Printemps Haussmann department store; it operates as part of Groupe Printemps. The store targets a roughly 15-to-25-year-old customer base and stocks sneakers, streetwear and accessories from more than 200 brands. The Caumartin location has since been joined by additional Paris stores at Beaubourg, Champs-Elysees and Nation, plus outposts in Bordeaux, Marseille and Toulon.
BHV's rooftop — Marais panorama, view of Paris's rooftops, and the cocktail bar above the department store. Le Perchoir Marais has permanently closed; the former BHV rooftop space now operates under a different name.
Best for BHV rooftop, Marais panorama, rooftop cocktails.
Paris's flower market on the Île de la Cité, operating since 1808. Covered pavilions overflow with orchids, roses, tropical plants, and gardening supplies.
Best for Covered pavilions overflow with orchids, roses, tropical plants, and gardening supplies
Indoor market in the heart of Saint-Germain — fresh produce, fishmongers, butchers, and a coffee shop. The renovation in 2017 brought modern design to this historic market.
Best for Fresh produce, fishmongers, butchers, and a coffee sho
Covered market near Place de la République — French produce, quality food stands, communal counters, and an increasingly popular setting for a casual meal.
Best for French produce, quality food stands, and communa
Mercato di Testaccio, the covered rione market of Rome's Testaccio quarter - "100 banchi, 100 storie" - mixing produce stalls, food counters and shopping under one roof. First-party door live with market pages and stall directory.
Best for Produce stalls, food counters and neighborhood shopping
A kilometer-long covered shopping arcade with roughly 200 independent and chain retail, food, and service businesses. The arcade developed during Sapporo’s nineteenth-century frontier period.
Best for Kilometer-long covered shopping arcade with roughly 200 independent and chain retail, food
Two connected luxury malls in Gangnam — the East and West halls. The West hall's 'Luxury Hall' is Seoul's destination for international designer brands. A who's who of luxury retail.
Best for International designer brands in Gangnam’s Luxury Hall
One of the world's largest department stores (by floor area). Luxury brands, Korean designer floors, gourmet food hall, and an ice rink. A Seoul retail institution.
Best for The world's largest department store (by floor area)
Åhléns City brings fashion and beauty together with home goods at its Klarabergsgatan department store in Stockholm. This building opened in 1964, following a much earlier company history that began with mail-order retail in 1899. Its range includes both own brands and international labels, rather than a collection limited to Swedish-made goods.
Best for Fashion, beauty and home goods in central Stockholm
Åhléns began as a mail-order business in Insjön in 1899, founded by Johan Petter Åhlén and Erik Holm. The company's early catalogue offered goods for clothing and the home, preceding its later development into department-store retail. Åhléns City in Stockholm belongs to a different stage of that history, opening on Klarabergsgatan in 1964.
The City building occupies a block near Sergels torg, giving the business a substantial central Stockholm presence. Its history records a time capsule placed during construction, containing products intended to represent everyday life of that period. That detail concerns the building's creation and does not turn the present store into a preserved historic interior.
Today the range covers fashion and beauty alongside products for the home, with own brands and international names. This makes the shop a practical option when several categories need to be considered within one visit. Choose a department according to the purchase rather than expecting a specialist maker's workshop. The Swedish history belongs to the retailer, while individual products may have different manufacturing origins.
Built 1890–92 by architects John B. Spencer and Charles E. Fairfax, the only Victorian-era shopping arcade in Sydney to survive in its original form; restored after a 1976 fire, heritage-listed in 2011.
Best for Victorian heritage shopping arcade.
The Strand Arcade was built between 1890 and 1892 in Sydney's CBD, designed by architect John B. Spencer with Charles E. Fairfax as his assistant, and constructed by the firm Bignell and Clark. Running 104 metres between Pitt and George Streets, it was Sydney's longest arcade when it opened in 1892, described at the time as 'the finest public thoroughfare in the Australian colonies.' The three-storey building retains its original Victorian features: projecting timber-framed shopfronts, cedar staircases, cast-iron balusters and a glazed roof designed to filter glare. It is the only Victorian-era shopping arcade in Sydney to survive in its original form, having outlasted two World Wars, the Depression, and two major fires — the most serious on 25 May 1976, which partly destroyed the interior before a restoration reinstated its chandeliers, hydraulic lifts, tiled floors and cast-iron and cedar detailing by 1977. The arcade was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 13 December 2011.
Multiple locations, são paulo / brazil / online & in Store / Online
Marisa is a long-running Brazilian department-store chain selling women's, men's and children's clothing, plus-size fashion, accessories and beauty products online with categories spanning denim, lingerie and swimwear. The retailer operates its e-commerce platform alongside a nationwide network of physical stores.
Best for Womenswear, department store fashion, plus size
Multiple locations, são paulo / brazil / online & in Store / Online
Lojas Renner is one of Brazil's largest fashion retailers, running a full e-commerce platform for women's, men's and children's clothing alongside partner brands like Adidas, New Balance and L'Oréal. Customers can shop online with in-store pickup at its nationwide network of stores, or order via WhatsApp.
Best for Family fashion plus Adidas, New Balance and L’Oréal
Multiple locations, são paulo / brazil / online & in Store / Online
Riachuelo is a major Brazilian fashion retailer selling women's, men's and children's clothing, beauty products and home goods through a full-featured online store with free-shipping and installment options. The Lojas Riachuelo S/A network spans stores nationwide, with its corporate registration based in Guarulhos, São Paulo.
Best for Women's, men's, and children's clothing plus beauty and home goods
Zara Tashkent focuses on Zara flagship in Tashkent City Mall with women's, men's and children's collections. At Tashkent City Mall, Tashkent, the range centers on zara's flagship Tashkent City Mall collections for women, men, and kids.
Best for Zara's flagship Tashkent City Mall collections for women, men, and kids
Youth fashion department store with affordable Japanese brands targeting teens and young adults. It has a 'Gal Fit' section. Constantly rotating pop-up shops and trend events.
Best for Youth fashion department store with affordable Japanese brands targeting teens
Compact community department store with an excellent food hall and lifestyle floors. The basement features artisanal Japanese sweets and prepared foods.
Best for Compact community department store with an excellent food hall and lifestyle flo
Community-focused department store with a strong selection of Japanese fashion, lifestyle goods, and gourmet food. The rooftop garden offers a peaceful escape from the shopping crowds.
Best for Strong selection of Japanese fashion, lifestyle goods, and gourmet food
Tokyo lifestyle chain that opened in 1987 as an annex of the Seibu Shibuya department store, spun off into an independent company (The Loft Co., Ltd.) in 1996. Its yellow wordmark logo was designed by graphic designer Ikko Tanaka.
Best for Japanese lifestyle retail
Loft opened in 1987 as an annex — the 'Loft Building' — attached to the Seibu department store in Shibuya, Tokyo, stocked with stationery, kitchenware, furniture and design-forward household goods aimed at younger shoppers. The name references the converted lofts of 1960s SoHo in Manhattan, evoking a similarly eclectic retail atmosphere built around quirky, design-conscious everyday objects rather than conventional department-store merchandise. Loft's yellow signage and wordmark, designed by the noted Japanese graphic designer Ikko Tanaka, have remained visually unchanged since the 1987 opening. Within roughly a decade the concept outgrew its department-store origins: The Loft Co., Ltd. was formally established as an independent company on 8 August 1996. From its Shibuya flagship, Loft expanded into a nationwide chain now numbering more than a hundred locations across Japan, plus a small number of overseas branches, retaining its identity as a stationery- and gift-focused specialty retailer rather than a general department store.
Ultra-modern luxury department store targeting working women with sophisticated taste. Curated edit of international and Japanese fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands.
Best for Ultra-modern luxury department store targeting working women with sophisticated
Tokyo's youth-culture department store founded 1973 in Shibuya, blending fashion, art, music, and subcultures; rebuilt and reopened 2019 with 600,000 monthly overseas visitors.
Best for Tokyo youth department store
Parco opened in 1973 and played a foundational role in establishing Shibuya's image as Japan's epicenter of youth culture and fashion. As a shopping complex with an 11-story format, the facility positioned itself as a cultural institution rather than purely commercial retail, emphasizing youth culture, art, music, and fashion through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The original Parco shaped Shibuya's identity as a destination for young people and remained ahead of cultural trends. After decades at the forefront of fashion retail, the store was rebuilt and reopened in 2019 with expanded features including outdoor terraces and a reimagined tenant mix. The 6th floor houses shops associated with otaku culture including a Nintendo store, Pokémon Center, Jump Shop, and Capcom Store, reflecting the shift in youth culture consumption. Today Parco attracts approximately one million visitors monthly, with around 600,000 coming from overseas, making it one of Tokyo's most internationally visited shopping destinations. The facility continues to position itself as a cultural venue where retail serves as a secondary function to artistic and social expression.
Seibu's Ikebukuro flagship traces to a 1940 relaunch by Yasujiro Tsutsumi; the 14-story store is among the world's largest department stores, with a food hall drawing about 70 million visitors a year.
Best for Tokyo fashion department store
The Ikebukuro store's roots go back to 1935, when a small department store called Kikuya opened near Ikebukuro Station. In 1940 Yasujiro Tsutsumi bought it, renamed it Musashino Department Store, and after the war reopened it as Seibu Department Store in a two-story building of about 1,500 square meters. Under Tsutsumi's son Seiji, the store expanded rapidly through the 1950s and 60s into one of Japan's largest department stores.
Today the Ikebukuro flagship, also called Seibu Ikebukuro Honten, is a 14-story building and one of the one of the largest department stores in the world by floor area. Its food hall spans two floors and is described as Tokyo's largest, part of a complex that draws an estimated 70 million visitors a year.
Seibu operates as Sogo & Seibu, a joint department-store group; Ikebukuro remains the group's flagship location in Tokyo's northwest, anchoring the station district alongside its longtime rival Tobu.
Gerngross is a Vienna department store with fashion, beauty, home goods and dining under one roof. Its multi-floor format supports one-stop shopping, while concessions may follow their own service policies.
Best for Fashion and home goods on Mariahilfer Strasse
'The House of Brands' — Zurich's department store on Seidengasse. Curated fashion, beauty, and lifestyle with a strong Swiss selection. The building itself is a piece of Zurich retail history.
Best for Curated fashion, beauty, and lifestyle with a strong Swiss selection
In the centre of Antigonish, Market Square brings local independent vendors together under one roof. Shoppers browse a mix of local goods and services in a single downtown space.
Best for Browsing a mix of local independent vendors and goods
ARTiZAN Centre in Skopje's Old Bazaar at Puskarska 17 was established by the City of Skopje and is operated by the Macedonian Artisan Trade Association (MATA). It runs workshops in craft techniques and makes its premises available for exhibitions, creative classes and private events.
Bolhão is a restored market hall whose independent traders sell produce, fish, meat, flowers and prepared food. It is a multi-vendor destination, so individual stalls should not be conflated into one merchant.
Best for Fresh produce, fish, meat, and flowers in Porto's historic market hall
Boulineau's has been a family-owned market in Cherry Grove since 1948, combining a full grocery and IGA with a hardware department, bakery, and beachwear under one roof. Its Barnacle Beach Shoppe and Boulineau's Express sell souvenirs, swimwear, snacks, and fireworks to the North Myrtle Beach crowd.
El Nahda St. (Abu Ashara area), plus Hadaba, Sheraton Road, Sun City, Mamsha Mall and Corniche branches, Hurghada, Egypt
Cleopatra Bazar has grown from its original El Nahda Street building into six branches across Hurghada, stocking hand-painted papyrus, carved alabaster, silver jewelry, leather goods and Egyptian cotton clothing under one roof. The bazaar runs its own e-commerce catalogue alongside its physical stores rather than operating through a marketplace or agent network.
Best for Papyrus art, alabaster carvings and silver jewelry across multiple Hurghada branches
Crazy Store Lusaka is a South African variety store with homeware, kitchen, toys and party at low prices. At Manda Hill, the range centers on homeware, kitchen goods, toys, and party supplies at low prices.
Best for Homeware, kitchen goods, toys, and party supplies at low prices
Dôce 18 Concept House brings fashion, design, art and gastronomy into a restored San Miguel de Allende property. The useful draw is the mix: independent labels and objects can be browsed in the same complex as food and hospitality rather than in a conventional department store.
Best for A design, fashion, and gourmet concept house
El Corte Inglés is a department-store group spanning fashion, food, beauty, electronics and home goods. Its scale supports one-stop shopping, but a specific branch must be identified before this becomes a valid door.
This Bichlstraße department store spans more than 1,000 square metres of fashion, sportswear, and one of the region's largest shoe selections, alongside ski, bike, and golf rental counters. A dedicated golf shop at nearby Schwarzsee extends the same family business into equipment for the course.
Best for Fashion, sportswear, and shoe selection under one roof
A community destination hub of rattan, bamboo and cogon-roofed stalls gathering El Nido makers such as Nazrea Pearls, Manggad and White Sands Provisions. It runs an online store alongside the physical market, cafes and craft bazaars that spotlight Palawan artisans.
Best for Locally made crafts, pearls and provisions from Palawan artisans
Kamloops Artisans' Bazaar gathers handmade goods from more than 50 local creators inside a Victoria Street storefront that doubles as a gallery and vendor market. Its Mediterraneo kitchen, run by a Puglia-trained chef, serves scratch-made Italian and Mediterranean food alongside the retail floor of gifts and home decor.
A family-run Havre storefront and online shop carrying women's and children's clothing, formalwear, gifts, and home decor. Its prom and formal selection draws shoppers from across the Hi-Line.
Best for Women's and children's apparel and formalwear
This long-established Aurangabad weaver and retailer makes Paithani and Himroo sarees, pashmina shawls and souvenirs. An on-site handloom unit lets visitors watch the weaving process.
Best for Paithani and Himroo sarees, pashmina shawls
A family-owned Nantucket clothing store since 1945, Murray's Toggery Shop is the home of the original Nantucket Reds cotton pants and sportswear. It sells men's, ladies' and kids' apparel, accessories and home goods in-store and through its online shop.
Best for Apparel, clothing, Nantucket Reds, menswear
Australia's largest department-store chain, traced to Sidney Myer's 1900 draper's shop in Bendigo; he bought a Bourke Street drapery business in Melbourne in 1911 and built the eight-story Myer Emporium there in 1914.
Best for Australian department store
Myer's origins trace to 1900, when Sidney Myer and his brother opened a draper's shop in Bendigo, a regional Victorian goldfields town. After that early partnership dissolved, Sidney moved into Melbourne in 1911, buying the existing drapery business of Wright & Neil on Bourke Street. He built the business through retail methods that were unusual for the period - openly displaying merchandise for customers to browse rather than keeping stock behind a counter - and by 1914 had opened the eight-story Myer Emporium, modeled explicitly on San Francisco's department store, the Emporium.
Between 1911 and 1934, Myer acquired or built ten separate buildings along Bourke Street to expand the flagship footprint, consolidating what became the company's signature store. From that Melbourne base the company expanded into every Australian state, making it the only department-store chain with a presence in all of them. The Bourke Street building remains the group's flagship location today, spread across multiple floors with dedicated departments, cafes and an events hall, and is recognized on the Victorian Heritage Database as the former Myer Emporium.
Established in 1939 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this five-and-dime on White Mountain Highway keeps its antique wooden counters and glass dividers. Shelves hold penny candy, house-made fudge, classic toys and hard-to-find everyday goods.
Best for Five-and-dime, toys, penny candy, fudge, housewares
Fiji's home-grown retail institution — fragrance, watches, jewelry and island gifts from Suva to Nadi since 1948. One house here for the chain the islands actually shop.
This long-running Ojai department store on Ojai Avenue stocks women's and men's apparel, kitchenware, gourmet pantry goods, home décor, and local souvenirs. Browse in person or shop the range through its online store.
Best for General-store, apparel, kitchenware, gifts, home-goods
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Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Open city/visitor reference ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Open city/visitor reference ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗