Shopping
Riga has come a long way since the days of food queues and the Soviet-era craving for all things Western, at any price. The city is not that far behind most Western European cities and there is a wide range of shopping opportunities on offer, from large malls through to local markets. The main shopping heart of town is in and around the Old Town, with many of the larger stores out in the suburbs, along major roads. Audeju is the main shopping street, with a number of designer shops and home to Centrs, Audeju 15, the city’s oldest shopping mall.
Other big name shops include Hugo Boss, Terbatas 53, and Benetton, Brivibas 47. A number of Latvian products are of interest to overseas visitors. Antiques are the main one but they require a license from the Inspection Board for History and Culture and the Protection of Monuments, Pils 22 (tel: 721 4100), before any valuables can be exported. On the plus side, there are no customs duties for other EU countries at the Latvian end. The best place to look for antiques is at specialist shops like Antiqua, Kr Valdemara 20; Tango, Dzirnavu 66, and Volmar, Brivibas 39. Among the best souvenir shops are Ezerciems, Kalku 7-9, Mara, Kaleju 9-11 and Souvenir, Aspazijas 30. The main market in town is the Central Market, Negu 7 (see Key Attractions), open Tuesday-Saturday 0800-1800, Monday and Sunday 0800-1600.
Standard shopping hours of 0900-1700 is fairly standard, with reduced opening hours on weekends. Shops are no longer closed for lunch, as they were in the soviet times, and most of the supermarkets are open until 2200. Sales tax is currently 18% but 12-15% of this can be claimed back with Tax Free shopping for visitors (tel: 720 7606; website: www.taxfree.lv).
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