Detskiy Mir
 "children's world." has lots of toys but other stores selling books, dvds, and peruvian souvenirs. again, even if you do not buy anything, its worth going to explore this building. metro: lubyanka. now this building is under renovation and will open at the end of 2013. nevertheless, "detskiy mir" extended its network to almost soviet-era scales, having outlets of different size but vast choice of childrens' goods anyway in many malls in moscow and other major cities of russia.
IKEA
 there are three large ikea stores in moscow, all just outside the ring road, and located in large shopping malls mega, also operated by ikea. they all offer free bright yellow buses from the nearest metro stations. metro: rechnoi vokzal north, lyublino or kuzminki south-east, tyopliy stan south
GUM
 adjacent to red square. once filled with soviet-era goods of mediocre quality, it is now a mall with international labels and hyper-expensive boutiques. even if you don't buy anything, it's highly recommended you go inside and look at the architecture. metro: ploschad revolutsii
Evropeiskiy
 a new shopping mall opened in 2006 next to kievsky station, right next to the metro. many international brand-name shops e.g. marks and spencer, next, levi's, calvin klein, and swatch can be found here. there is also a multi screen cinema, food gallery, supermarket, opticians, and probably everything else if you care to look for it.
Generally, you can find different sized fully featured malls near almost every metro station, especially in residential areas.
GOROD
"the city". huge mall in the beginning of ryazansky prospekt ryazan avenue opened in late 2006. situated in the former territories of karacharovsky mechanical plant, offers standard range of "everything-consumer-needs", including auchan hypermarket, fastfoods, boutiques, outlets, cinemas, ice-skating etc. operated by auchan group. metro: ryazansky prospekt or marksistskaya, then trolleybus â63 add â16 from marksistskaya and marshutkas. consider significant traffic jams caused by the mall itself and intersection with the third ring.
Credit cards usage is becoming more and more widespread, but many cheaper stores and restaurants won't accept them, so cash is a necessity. Be sure to break your 5000 or 1000 RUB notes where you can, as the smaller merchants, street vendors and even many metro clerks will likely refuse them. While you are able to get some smaller vendors to accept U.S. dollars and Euros, it is always best to change currency, which is not a problem as currency exchange spots are everywhere, displaying the daily rates in large yellow letters. Read the terms carefully; even if the offer seems attractive, there may be a fixed-sum commission on top of it, or the advertised rate might apply only to large transactions USD1000 and up, while a less favorable one is in effect for smaller ones. Don't forget to check the change returned to you the most common scam is to let a banknote "stick" inadvertently to the back of the little turnstile which the clerk is using to pass the money back and forth and do not simply say yes to what you do not understand. A good approach to exchanging currency is to use bank "Ðанк" in Russian offices. There are lots of them in the center of city broadly defined as the inside of the Garden Ring. Better yet, use your own bank card from home at an ATM to draw money directly from your checking account, as the machines are almost all compatible with major Western money systems Cirrus/MasterCard and PLUS/Visa - not only you'll get a decent fixed bank rate, but also often a screen menu in friendly albeit somewhat broken English.
Buying souvenirs can be quite a chore if you do not stay in the centre of Moscow. You can get cheaper souvenirs from Izmaylovskiy Market in Izmalylovo Park. Walking out in the middle of a bargaining session will most likely NOT get you the price you want.