good deal - cool shops

Hi, my wife and I are travelling to Spain in a week and we (she) is very interested in buying shoes, clothes, etc in Spain. Can anyone tell us what are some of the good deals (leather shoes?) and what cool stores there are in Madrid and the rest of Spain. We will also be travelling to Granada, Marbella, and Seville.
Thanks.

I'm a CORTE INGLES fan. You know the prices are fair; they have great clothing, handbags, and souvenir departments; they are in all major SPA cities, w/ several branches in Madrid; they offer good tax refund plan, etc.

I always suggest sol, you can find so many shoes in sol!!!!!

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Spain Page!! Check it out! http://www.geocities.com/missmadrid98/homepage.html?957296168010

Hi reg! You're in luck! In general, this group REALLY loves to talk about Spanish shoes! Hehehehe! Use the SEARCH feature above, type in "SHOES" as your keyword, and you'll get 3 REALLY good threads about shoe-shopping in Madrid. Happy Shoe Hunting!

Saludos, MadridMan

Stores for women's shoes and purses in Madrid - best bets I found were around Sol (about three blocks almost any direction). It won't take your wife long to figure out which stores offer the best quality at the best prices. Just warn her to go into a bunch of stores first - that way she'll get a feel for the differences. Stay off the Gran Via for this - prices, I think, are too high - and Cortes Inglais - my apologies here, MM, - is not that great a bargain for womens' stuff at least when compared to some of the speciality stores.

Sevilla has some great shops as well - but the best bargains I've found were in Madrid.

Check out luggage as well as mens' shoes.

Am going to guess that prices in Marbella reflect the fact it's a visitor/tourist resort - and I just never did much shopping in Granada

[This message has been edited by Puna (edited 09-12-2000).]

Hi guys,
I read again and again that "El Corte Ingles" has good prices, when in fact is one of the most expensive stores in Madrid. I never bought anything there because you can find the same things in small stores and they are cheaper. You not only pay for the product, you pay for buying in "El Corte Ingles" too. Moreover that store (specially the one in Sol) is very oriented to foreigners customers and the prices are higher. I bought the same clothes in my neighborhood for the half of the price. The food store is incredebly expensive. I understand that if you are a turist you only want to go to the big parts of Madrid and buy in the big stores but if you are thinking abouth buying a lot of stuff at a very good price go to the small stores in the neighborhoods that are not that popular, you will find that you will get more, with the same quality and at the same price. Moreover "El Corte Ingles" is a big store that is "eating" small stores in its way up. I feel so sorry for the family business that are losing his customers.

Nuria, I agree that we should all patronize smaller shops. As for the clothes, though, El Corte in rebajas (sales) is pretty spectacular and i DONT see these same clothes in the smaller shops. I bought a suit at the Corte in Tenerife for 11 mil pesetas in January... amazing!

If you go south from the Plaza Mayor toward the Puerta de Toledo, there's a small boot/shoe shop on your right-hand side. Great deals, and, a big plus for me, they have large sizes. I wear european size 45, apparently a rarity in Spain. these guys have got the goods. I bought a pair of boots there last year for 9000 pts. Bargain!!! It's not that hard to find, and worth the effort.

Matt from Toronto

As you'll see on the rest of this board, Zara is well-liked for clothes. For more upmarket stuff (but very good value) try Massimo Dutti and Adolfo Dominguez.

Thanks all, for your information. We leave in two day to Madrid so I will be sure to report back on what we find.