Shopping
Chile’s new affluence has led many European and North American clothing chains to open stores in Santiago. It is a bustling centre of commerce with the facilities to match and foreign residents do not have to live without state-of-the-art modern appliances or their favourite foods. The main shopping areas are the Paseo Ahumada, in the downtown district, and the stretch of Avenida Providencia between Metro Pedro de Valdivia and Metro Tobalaba. These offer a wide range of shops and department stores, such as the homegrown Ripley and Almacenes Paris chains. Chile was a late discoverer of the American-style mall and several such complexes sprang up around Santiago in the 1990s. The most central of these is the Mall del Centro, Calle Puente 689, in the downtown area. Arguably the best shopping to be had is in the Parque Arauco centre, Avenida Presidente Kennedy 5413, in the eastern Las Condes district. This vast mall allows well-heeled Santiaguinos to indulge their increasingly extravagant tastes in imported luxuries.
The most popular purchases among foreign visitors are Chilean handicrafts, such as traditional textiles and decorative copperware, which are available all over the city. There is a large handicraft market, the Centro Artesanal Santa Lucia, Avenida Bernardo O’Higgins (Alameda), opposite Cerro Santa Lucia. The Feria Artesanal Pio Nono, on Calle Pio Nono, in Bellavista, is another flea market selling traditional art. Some great bargains are also to be had in the handicraft emporiums on Santo Domingo, inexplicably ignored by most foreign visitors. Haggling at these markets is possible but hard work for negligible reductions.
Conventional shopping hours in Chile are 0800-2000, with a break for lunch between 1400 and 1600. Sales tax is set at 19%. Foreign visitors are not charged sales tax in some boutiques if they pay in US dollars. However, there is no established method for reclaiming tax after the purchase.
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