The cosmopolitan shopping experience greeting the visitor to Glasgow is one of the city's best surprises. The city is in fact the UK's second largest shopping centres in the UK.
Glasgow's main shopping district centres around the pedestrianised areas of Buchanan Street, Argyle Street and Sauchiehall Street.
Buchanan Street is home to some very stylish shops and designer brands, as are Princes Square and the Argyll Arcade both of which have an entrance on Buchanan Street. The Argyll Arcade is a spectacular covered shopping arcade built in 1827 that houses 32 jewellers. In appearance it resembles the Burlington Arcade in Mayfair, London, though its status as Glasgow's jewellery quarter has more in common with Hatton Garden.
All the big high street names are represented in the shopping malls of the Sauchiehall Street Centre, the Buchanan Galleries. Other shopping locations are the St Enoch Centre, and the Designer Exchange off Royal Exchange Square.
The Merchant City area (which mirrors London's Covent Garden) is the place to go for the smaller shops, bookshops, antiques and second hand clothing. There is high-end shopping here also, especially in the Italian Centre, home to, amongst others, Versace Collections (the UK's first Versace store) and Emporio Armani.
For the motorist seeking out of city shopping, there is easier parking at the Forge Shopping Centre (also known as Parkhead Forge) and Glasgow Fort retail park adjacent to Junction 10 of the M8 and the Silverburn Shopping Centre at Junction 2 of the M77.
Heading west to the city's West End, you will also find the smaller boutiques and specialised shops including De Courcy's Antique Craft Arcade and the Victorian Village, a good browsing ground for costume jewellery and memorabilia.
Glasgow has an impressive number of shopping centres. With the city itself the following shopping centres house hundreds of shops between them:
On the outskirts of Glasgow there are more shopping centres to choose from:
The nearby towns of Clydebank, Hamilton, Motherwell and Paisley also have major shopping centres:
Glasgow also has a number of retail parks providing a range of large retail outlets and easy parking.
In Central Glasgow the main shopping district extends outwards from the three principal pedestrianised streets Buchanan Street, Argyle Street and Sauchiehall Street.
Other major roads in Glasgow with high concentrations of shops include:
The 'Barras' or Barrowland market is a weekend open air street market located between Gallowgate and London Road in the East End. Here you can buy bric a brac, clothing, food as well as traditional Scottish fare - tartans, crafts as well as golfing equipment and whisky. Opening times: 9:00 am - 4.00 pm. The surrounding area has a wide choice of pubs and shops devoted to fans of Celtic Football Club
Our shopping directory contains thousands of shops from all across Glasgow, with numerous visitor reviews: