Commercial Drive
A funky shopping area is Commercial Drive, (http://www.thedrive.ca/), which was once was the city's Italian neighbourhood but which is now amazingly multicultural. Buskers, dogs, babies, pierced people, office workers, grocery shoppers share the Drive. The shops are relatively inexpensive and eclectic -- lots of coffee shops, tie-dye, toys, trinkets, and organic groceries. It's a great neighbourhood to live in because you can go out on foot and do all your shopping -- produce, cheese, sausage, stationery, pet food, hardware -- within just a few blocks.
East Van has a wide variety of multicultural shopping districts.
South Main
sometimes called "soma," the parts of main street south of 2nd avenue or so is rapidly becoming the new bohemian neighbourhood of designer boutiques, asian religious item stores, and coffee shops. many local designers have boutiques on main between broadway the equivalent of 9th ave south to about 29th ave where you can buy cutting-edge and handmade clothing for reasonable prices. between king edward ave the equivalent of 25th and 29th is a cluster of antique stores, some of which are expensive and not very good, but you can find treasures there if you search.
Punjabi Market
Sometimes called little india, is the area along main street around east 49th avenue literally, 48th to 51st. there are a number of indian food stores, restaurants, and stores selling indian style clothes and materials.
Farmers' Market at Trout Lake
There are a few farmers markets that occur in vancouver (http://www.eatlocal.org/), but this is the first, and probably the best. it is only open on saturday mornings and only in the summer and the last market day of the year is around canadian thanksgiving early oct.