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Louis Copeland
Dublin's answer to the famed tailors of London's Saville Row, this shop makes fabulous suits to measure, but also stocks plenty of ready-to-wear suits by a host of international designers.
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Magills
With its characterful old façade and tiny dark interior, Magills' old-world charm reminds you how Clarendon St must have once looked. At this family-run place, you get the distinct feeling that every Irish and French cheese, olive oil, packet of Italian pasta and salami was hand-picked.
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Marks & Spencer
Good-quality clothing and virtually everything else that the body and house might need - at affordable prices - make this British chain store one of Dublin's most popular. There's a supermarket in the basement and a popular café on the ground floor.
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Meeting House Square Market
From sushi to salsa, this is the city's best open-air food market, a compact stroll through gourmet lane where you can pick, prod and poke your way through the organic foods of the world. There are tastes of everywhere, from cured Spanish chorizos and paellas to Irish farmhouses cheeses, via handmade chocolates and freshly made crepes, homemade jams and freshly squeezed juices.
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Moore Street Market
An open-air, steadfastly 'Old Dublin' market, with fruit, fish and flowers. Traditional vendors hawk cheap cigarettes, tobacco and chocolate among the new wave of Chinese and Nigerians selling phone cards and hair extensions. Don't try to buy just one banana though - if it says 10 for Euro1, that's what it is.
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Murder Ink
All manner of murder mystery and crime novels are in this small specialist bookstore, which has categorisation down to a fine art - choose from historical mystery, romantic crime, sci-fi mystery, true crime and more.
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National Gallery Gift Shop
Sells books covering the whole history of Irish and European art.
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O'Sullivan Antiques
Fine furniture and furnishings from the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian eras are the specialty of this respected antiques shop, where a rummage might also reveal some distinctive bits of ceramic and crystal, not to mention medals and uniforms from a bygone era that will win you first prize at the costume ball.
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Oxfam Home
They say charity begins at home so get rummaging among the veneer cast-offs in this furniture branch of the charity chain where you might stumble across the odd 1960s Subbuteo table or Art Deco dresser. Esoteric vinyl from the '80s is another speciality of the house.
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Penney's
Ireland's cheapest department store is a north-side favourite, a place to find all kinds of everything without paying a fortune for it - it's the best place in town for men's socks and jocks. The stuff here isn't guaranteed to last, but at prices like these, why quibble over quality? There's also another branch at 26 O'Connell St.
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Powerscourt Townhouse Shopping Centre
This absolutely gorgeous and stylish centre is in a carefully refurbished Georgian townhouse, originally built between 1741 and 1744. These days it's best known for its cafés and restaurants but it still does a top-end, selective trade in high fashion, art, exquisite handicrafts and other chichi sundries.
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Road Records
This small record shop, just south of the George's St Arcade, has all the latest indie sounds, both local and international. It's also a good place to get tickets for local gigs.
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Roches Stores
A massive redesign of both the store and its contents have catapulted this formerly frumpy department store to near the top of the cool queue. Its hip status is in no small way due to the presence of Zara, the spectacularly successful Spanish label.
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Schuh
Two floors of footwear, from trainers to formal shoes, and pretty much everything in-between. The labels represented here are of the high-street variety, so don't expect Manolo or Gucci.
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Sheridans Cheesemongers
If heaven were a cheese shop, this would be it. Wooden shelves are laden with rounds of farmhouse cheeses, sourced from around the country by Kevin and Seamus Sheridan, who have almost single-handedly revived cheese-making in Ireland. You can taste any one of the 60 cheeses on display and pick up some wild Irish salmon, Italian pastas and olives while you're at it.
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Smithfield Fish Market
One of Dublin's most traditional markets, this is the place to come for the freshest fish in town. Hang about long enough and you'll undoubtedly run into some of the city's best chefs picking up the makings of the evening's menu.
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Smock
This tiny designer shop sells quirky (and very exclusive) international women's-wear from investment labels Easton Pearson, Veronique Branquinho and AF Vandevorft, as well as a small range of interesting jewellery. Rumour has it that it might be moving to Drury St, closer to the action.
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St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre
A 1980s version of a 19th-century shopping arcade, the dramatic, balconied interior and central courtyard are a bit too grand for the nondescript chain stores within. There's a Boots, Benetton and large Dunnes Store with supermarket though, as well as last-season designer warehouse TK Maxx.
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Stokes Books
A small bookshop specialising in Irish history books, both old and new. Other titles, covering a range of subjects, include a number of beautiful, old, leather-bound editions.
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Tower Craft Design Centre
Housed in a 19th-century warehouse that was Dublin's first iron-structured building, this design centre has studios for local craftspeople. They make jewellery in both contemporary and Celtic-inspired designs, and work with Irish pewter, ceramics, silk and other fabrics. They also knock out pottery, rugs, wall hangings, cards, leather bags and various other handcrafted items. It's opposite the Waterways Visitors Centre, off Lower Grand Canal St.
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Trinity Library Shop
The big sellers are the titles on the Book of Kells , but you can also get all kinds of other mementos and curios.
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Tulle
International designers with attitude - Sass and Bide, Wheels & Doll Baby, plus Fornarina and Sonia Rykiel - are stocked in this small outlet for fashion-savvy young gals, tucked away in the arcade. Don't be fooled by the plain frontage; this place is seriously cool.
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Urban Outfitters
With a blaring techno soundtrack, the only Irish branch of this American chain sells ridiculously cool clothes to discerning young buyers. Besides clothing, the shop stocks all kinds of interesting gadgets, accessories and furniture. On the 2nd floor you'll find a hypertrendy record shop (hence the techno).
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Vivien Walsh
One of Ireland's best-known jewellery designers, Vivien Walsh uses Swarovski crystal, glass, feathers, pearls and beads to create delicate, fantastical pieces that hark back to the 1920s and beyond. The elaborate necklaces, in vivid turquoise, pink, purple and green, are quite an investment, but simple bracelets can be had for under around €40 . French and Italian leather bags and shoes complement the displays.
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Walton's
These traditional Irish music specialists sell everything from CDs and instruments (banjos, bodhrans, guitars) to sheet music for the fiddle and song books featuring tunes by the Wolfe Tones, the Fureys and the Dubliners. You can also take a crash course in the bodhran or tin whistle at their music school.
