Apparel and fabric
Jayalakshmi Silks
Shenoys junction, mg rd. the oldest and most popular destination for bridal collections and popular throughout kerala. it also houses a very large men's collection with many traditional and modern outfits. it is suitable for a wide range of budgets.
My Kingdom
Shenoys junction, mg rd. an upscale apparel and accessories store. spread over four stories, each of which is designed for different age groups and gender. has an extensive collection of latest clothing. also a spa, beauty saloon and baby center.
Seematti
North end, mg road. one of the posher silk and dress fashion centres and a trend setter in creating unique designs and special materials for its sarees. its owner - beena kannan - is a leading fashion designer and new designs come every six months. most of its sarees are out-of-traditional kind, making its unique. it is comparatively more costly than other brands. the men's area is not so elaborate and has only few collections.
Kalyan Silks
General hospital rd. one of the largest silk saree showrooms and a good place to get many kinds of indian and western clothing, including popular western brands, at very reasonable rates. silk sarees are its trademark and most of them are well priced.
Kasavukada
South end of foreshore rd near church landing. a good place to buy a wide range of ethnic kerala dress like mundu, kasavu mundu neyriyattu and ethnic men's jubas.
Kochi also has many famous designer boutiques, mostly located in Convent Junction between MG Road and Marine Drive. Panampally Nagar also houses many premium exclusive designer boutiques. MG Road the arterial road is lined with many premium brand stores, leading apparel shops and boutiques. The cloth bazaar in Broadway Market is one of the largest apparel market selling unbranded fabrics and apparels at lower rates. For dress and fabrics the best options are:
Village Shop
Behind sony center, ravipuram, mg road, +91 484 3078472, +91 484 2361717 e-mail: [email protected]. village shop is a home furnishing store in kochi. they sell innovative and designer handloomed soft furnishings for all rooms of a home.
Banks, atms and changing money
Pheroze Framroze & Co (P) Ltd
; behind woodland hotel, layam rd. â +91 484 2367943
Wall Street Finance Ltd
; g 42, pioneer tower, marine drive. â +91 485 2372149
American Express Foreign Exchange Services Pvt Ltd
; 39/1728, tharakan house, mg rd. â +91 484 2375839
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd
; palai towers, 1st floor, right wing, m g rd. â +91 484 2369729
Almost all national banks operate in Kochi and most have branches in MG Road, as do a few international banks such as HSBC, Citibank, Standard Chartered and Oman Bank. ATMs are uniformly spread across the city and most major shopping places have an adjacent ATM.
Most of the nationalized banks are authorised to carry out Forex activities. Western Union and Moneygram have many franchises in the city.
Muthoot Exchange Co (P) Ltd
; g.f.13, muthoot chambers, kurian towers, opp. saritha theatre, banerji rd. â +91 484 2395345
UAE Exchange
; opp maharaja's college ground, m g rd. â +91 484 2360037
Shopping malls
Bay Pride Mall
Marine drive. a small sized family mall located in heart of city with a few brand stores, a small food court, a fitness center, a gift shop and a music store.
Oberon Mall
Nr padivattom signal junction-nh bypass road). the first large scale multi-format shopping mall in a western style. a typical mall, having a wide range of branded stores, a large hypermarket, an anchor store of reliance trends multi brand apparel store, a book/stationery store, spa, beauty saloon, a large food court, a four screen multiplex and lots of entertainment options like horror house, mirror maze and a cricket bowling center.
Grande Gold Souk
Vyittila junction. one of the largest malls in south india, this is the only mall having wedding as theme, with more than 150 stores selling various jewellery brands and branded/unbranded apparel. the mall has a large boweling alley, sports bar, gaming zone, a luxurious multiplex and good food court.
Nucleus Mall
Maradu, is the latest entrant to the kochi's mall culture. a spacious sub-urban mall, ideal for shoppers to shop in hassle free area without worries of traffic and large crowds.
Large western style shopping malls are new to Kochi and more than 30 are under construction in various parts of city, all scheduled to open between first quarter of 2010 and the end of 2013. Currently only two are functional. Apart from shopping malls, there are numerous of shopping complexes in Cochin a shopping complex in local terms is a large complex having many shops close to each other, selling mostly only one type of product.
Bookshops
Reliance Time Out
A popular store with books, music, entertainment, gifts and cafe option, it has a small library within it.
DeeCee
A very large multi-lingual bookstore, famous for wide range of English fiction books.
Pai&Co
The first bookstore of the city, its very popular for all kinds of reading materials.
Treasure Island
An upscale bookstore with a music store and gift shop operating inside.
There are numerous of bookstores in Convent Junction as well as in the Fort Kochi area. Pressclub Rd in Convent Junction is a hot-spot for book lovers.
Kurien's Tower
Has many good book stores within it. Some of the popular are Book-Port +91 484 2397129, +91 97 4640 1310 (http://www.bookport.in/)), Hamlet, â +91 484 2395389) and very large multi-lingual store of DC Books.
Cosmetics
Goodwill Collections
Tkm park, convent junction. â +91 484 2380142. one of the largest cosmetic store with collections of jewellery and bags.
For cosmetics and womens accessories, Convent Junction is the haven for fair sex. Many international cosmetics and personal care brands can be bought at prices lower than in western countries.
Alphonsa Cosmetics Collections
Convent junction. â +91 484 2366676. a good collection of all international and national cosmetics brands.
Le Mars
Civil lanes, palarivattom. â+91 484 2339142, +91 484 2339152, +91 484 2339162. a very popular multi-brand women's store.
Footwear and luggage
Footwear Bazaar
Small dedicated bazaar in at the northwestern side of broadway market.
Reliance Footprints
Oberon mall. a national footwear chain, most famous for its inhouse brands.
There are many shops selling footwear and luggage in all price ranges. For budget options, try the shops near both railway stations. Be aware that many of these shops offer cheap varieties which may not last a long.
Sylcon Footwear
Oberon mall. a leading kerala footwear chain, that offers many national and international brands as well as luggage.
Jewellery
H. Venkatesha Naik Jewellery
Rajaji road, near kavitha junction, â+91 484 4041890.â offers modern designs and lightweight collections. it also has an extensive diamond gallery and trendy collection of watches.
Malabar Gold
Jewel junction, opposite grand hotel, mg road. â+91 484 2352916. an extensive gold, platinum and diamond collection. it has one of the largest watch gallery selling latest international premium brands like rado, tissot and others.
Kirtilalsâ
Opposite maharaja's college ground, mg rd. â+91 484 2372911. a grand exclusive diamond gallery, featuring more than 2,000 diamond collections and platinum jewel designs.
Bhima Silver Palace
Jewel junction, mg rd. large collection of silver ornaments, souvenirs and cutlery.
Kochi is famous for its gold, silver, diamond and platinum jewelry. Most of the jewellers are concentrated at Jewel Junction Woodland Junction, on MG Road near Hotel Woodlands. Normal gold purity in India is 22 carat. 24 carat gold ornaments thankam are not so popular, but are available. Lightweight collections in 18 carat gold have become popular among youngsters and teenagers.
Alapatt Gold
Jewel junction, mg road, â+91 484 2381862.- one of the oldest jewellers with an extensive gold collection, ranging from traditional to modern.
Supermarkets
Varkeys
Is the most popular supermarket chain in kochi. it is a locally-owned chain with many branches elsewhere. has a good in-house bakery.
Reliance
Has many branches in kochi, in 2 formats, fresh offers a wide range of fresh vegetables and fruits with limited other grocery items, super large supermarket, offering groceries and vegetables/fruits. reliance is a pure vegetarian supermarket chain but outside the supermarket, they operate a small store called delite that offers non-vegetarian items, including fresh meat.
Supplyco
Govt run Supplyco, operates an extensive chain of small stores branded Maveli and regular supermarkets branded as Supplyco throughout the city. They also have a medical pharmacy attached to the supermarkets, offering English medicines at a 30% discount.
Food shopping is mainly done at supermarkets and bakeries. Bakeries normally sell bread and branded food products, while most supermarkets sell household provisions and packaged food items.
KR Bakes
Anns bakery, bake my days, breadworld and best bakery are the most popular local bakery chains, with many locations.
Spencers daily, Mitra, Food Bazaar, Big Bazaar Express, Nine-Ten
And triveni are other popular supermarkets
Day-shopping is more popular than night shopping. All shopping outlets close by 8PM. During festive seasons, late night shopping 11PM-3:30AM are organized to reduce day-time shopping congestion.
The Onam Festival mid of Aug-Sept is one of the best shopping seasons, when you get heavy discounts ranging between 10-50% for almost all items as well as regular consumer fairs. X'mas is the next best season. The Kerala Government has started the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival 15 Dec-30 Jan, to promote Kerala as a shopping destination. Kochi is the main focal center of this festival and you get heavy discounts at participating stores and regular lucky draws.
electronics
You can buy electronic gadgets at comparatively low rates, than most of other regions in India. For the latest technology, Kochi hosts many large consumer electronics fairs and every new technology gadget gets into store very fast. The Electronics Street opposite Medical Trust Hospital in Pallimukku and Kadavanthara are the prefect place to buy most of electronics gadegets. Penta Menaka and GCDA Mall are famous for mobile phones. Atlantis Junction and Ravipuram are well known for various computer/laptop hardware shopping.
antiques/art works
Jew town in Fort Cochin has numerous antique and craft stores. Most of the antique shops sell colonial era and heritage pieces, as well as Jewish items from the traditional Jewish homes of the area. You can also find many kinds of Indian sculptures, decor, interior artifacts and souvenirs. Bargains are available but be warned that many 'antiques' were probably made in the owners backyard. Shop with care and bargain hard. Never trust touts, who get hefty commissions from unscrupulous antique dealers.
markets
The narrow strip sandwiched between Marine Drive and MG Road houses the celebrated Broadway Market which is one of the Kochi's oldest shopping corners where you can buy anything from from safety pins to motor scooters. A spice market operates inside, offering the best of Kerala's spices, saffron and various oils. There is also a cloth market, a jewellery market, a fancy items market, a vegetable/fruit market and an electronic/watch market. Also try at Mattencherry Old Spice market, which is one of the oldest spice markets in the country. There are nearly half dozen small markets, mostly run by Gujarathi and Konakanis where you can slice of Indian market flavours.