Shopping in Tehran
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A
Tehran Bazar
The maze of bustling alleys and the bazaris that fill them make Tehran Bazar a fascinating, if somewhat daunting, place to explore. Traders have been hawking their wares on this site for nearly a thousand years, but most of what you see today is less than 200 years old; it’s no architectural jewel. The bazaris are a conservative bunch and there will be far more chadors than bleached hair.
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Hossein Hosseiny
If you can catch Hossein Hosseiny between buying missions, we found this young man from a family of carpet bazaris to be straight up and offering fair prices on his mainly nomadic carpets. His small store is in the interesting little Serai Parsa bazaar, off Kababihah Alley, with merchants who usually supply to larger shops, so prices can be good - ask for directions.
The bazaar is an excellent place to shop for carpets, in particular, and buying here usually means you won't have to carry it around. Qalyans are also a good buy in the bazaar, where you'll get the genuine working article rather than the more elaborately decorated and expensive souvenir shop variety.
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B
Gita Shenasi
The undisputed king of Iranian map-making is Gita Shenasi in Tehran, which publishes an impressive array of maps covering all the major towns and cities and some of the mountain ranges. A growing number of its maps are in English, while many others list the names of major streets, suburbs and squares in English, although everything else, including the text and indexes, is in Farsi. Maps are harder to find outside Tehran.
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C
Book City Niyavaran Store
For English-language books, the Book City chain is your best option. Most top-end hotels also sell books (mainly pictorials) about Iran, as do the National Museum of Iran and Sa'd Abad Museum Complex. Some people like this store even more than the Book City Hafez store, though the fun police have closed the attached café.
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Jameh Bazar
A car park near the corner of Jomhuri-ye Eslami Ave and Ferdosi St is the location for the Jameh Bazar, where hawkers from across Central Asia lay out their rugs and sell whatever they can on Friday mornings. Be sure to go up to the higher floors, in the carpark itself, where some bargains can be found.
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D
Book City Hafez Store
The biggest store of the best chain of bookshops. A decent range of fiction and nonfiction in English (mostly on the 3rd floor), and plenty of pictorials on Iran (1st floor).
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E
Jahanelm Institute
Magazines ranging from the Economist to Vogue. It’s on the floor below ground level in a large arcade with red-painted trim.
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Hiland Supermarket
This place is full of hard-to-find Western goods, such as coffee, baby products, pads and tampons, condoms, magazines and plenty of baby products.
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Dusto-e
The mother of all souvenir stores is Dusto-e, where the range is huge, prices high and quality probably better than average.
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F
Di Rouz Em Rouz Ancien Livres
A good collection of old books in English, French, German and Italian. Some rare works on Iran.
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