Shopping hours in metro Melbourne are typically 7 days a week, 9AM-5:30PM weekdays and 9AM maybe later- 5PM weekends. Most suburban shopping centres such as Chadstone have later closing hours on Thursdays and Fridays - mostly up to 9PM. Supermarkets have extended hours 7 days, the majority opening at 7AM and closing at midnight or 1AM, however there are many 24 hour supermarkets around.
Alcohol in Victoria can be purchased at licensed shops/venues and supermarkets often have an adjoining bottle shop, which close earlier than supermarket hours. Some supermarkets that close at the same time as their licence stock alcohol in the supermarket. You need to be over 18 years old to purchase alcohol. Most bottleshops close by 10PM to midnight even on weekends, but some open until 3AM e.g. on Riversdale road in Booroondara and Russell St Melbourne, and 24-hour bottleshops on both Chapel and Lygon streets, in Stonnington and Melbourne respectively.
city shopping
Melbourne is known as the fashion capital of Australia with numerous malls and boutique lined streets.
In the CBD itself, Little Collins Street is home to some of the world's top designers and fashion houses; Collins Street also boasts other high end shops such as Louis Vuitton. Brunswick Street Fitzroy, and the southern end of Chapel Street in Prahran/Windsor, have clusters of stores selling an eclectic mix of vintage, rave, retro and alternative gear such as Shag, Fat Helen's and Beaut Vintage to shop around.
Melbourne Central is another shopping mall based in the city, adjacent to the underground station of the same name. The Bourke Street Mall with the department stores Myer and David Jones is another city-central shopping hub.
For the bargain shopper, there is a DFO Outlets Centre located at South Wharf, on the southern bank of the Yarra River. It is located next to the Convention Centre.
It is also worth noting, for Backpackers, that Elizabeth Street has plenty of Bargain backpackers stores, for example Mitchell's Adventure 255-257 Elizabeth Street, which can offer outdoor products for bargain prices.
suburban shopping
Bridge Road (http://www.bridgerd.com.a...) in Richmond is a strip where warehouse direct outlets rule and no one pays recommended retail price. Chapel Street in South Yarra is a favourite among the locals, with its spread of exclusive boutiques, cafes and well established chain stores. There are also several huge shopping complexes in the outer suburbs, such as Chadstone and Southland Cheltenham in the South-East. Doncaster Shoppingtown, Eastland Ringwood and Knox City are in the outer East. Northland in the north, Highpoint in the west.
Melbourne is also home to many of Australia's largest shopping centres; including Chadstone in Monash the largest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere which has over 530 stores, Knox City Shopping Centre which has 350 stores, and Fountain Gate Shopping Centre in Casey which includes approximately 330 stores.