Brasilia's residential wings have many local shops such as groceries, drugstores, bakers, restaurants, hairdressers and so forth, and that is where townspeople do much of their daily shopping. The now somewhat decadent W3 avenue used to be the equivalent of a city's high street and still concentrates a large portion of the city's street commerce. Shopping malls, however, also play an important part when it comes to shopping in town.
Setor de Diversões
The Setor de Diversões is a fairly nice shopping area at the center of the city, very close to Rodoviaria. The northern side, called Conjunto Nacional, is a bit more upscale, while the southern side has interesting small shops with books, music, and clothing that appeal to the local skateboard-riding youths. Notice that this southern side at night is very dangerous, being the favorite spot for hookers and drug dealers.
On Sundays there is a flea market at the base of the Television Tower. Half of the stands are also open during the week and you can get local crafts and souvenirs hard to find in shopping malls.
Some off-center places can also be of interest for travellers:
imports market
The imports market popularly known as Feira do Paraguai is the place to go for cheap electronics cameras and replacement accessories, batteries etc. and other travel items such as backpacks, flashlights and so forth. From Rodoviaria, take bus 124.2 shorter trip or bus 124.
Records and books
Fnac, at the parkshopping mall has a good assortment of english-language travel guides and brazilian music cds. livraria cultura, at the casa park mall, has bilingual staff and an extensive collection of brazilian cds and foreign-language literature especially in english, french, spanish, italian and german. both malls are close to each other and can be easily reached by subway through the almost self-explanatory named shopping station.