India is a country of contrasts. Narrow roads and by lanes filled with teeming crowds, jostling for space with the most modern cars. Pavement shops side by side with gleaming malls! One can pick up amazing bargains at these small roadside shops. But. if you are going to shop at the pavement shops you will have to sharpen your bargaining skills! Prices are generally 100% higher than the actual price. At Chennai, shopping at T.Nagar pavement shops is not be missed. Also if you have the time, pay a visit to the shops offering export surplus at Egmore. You can pick up very good cotton material at Rs 30 per meter. Raw silk material is also available at very cheap rates. These material are suitable for kurtas and curtains. One can get even designer labels like Gap, at very cheap prices, at the export surplus shops at Besant Nagar.

Do not fail to visit Fashion Folks, Fast Fashions (near Maharaja Stores in Besant Nagar). There are also other shops near Elliots Beach.

India´s shopping choices include silk saris, handicrafts, metalwork, jewellery, leather goods, and carpets. As it is well on the road to liberalization, one can pick up the latest in designer wear.

If you want to buy ethnic Indian wear like kurtas, kurtis and have no time to buy material and stitch them, do visit FabIndia. This store has branches at Spencer Plaza, Anna Salai, T.Nagar, Besant Nagar, and Anna Nagar. The store has some pretty kurtas for both men and women. Cotton curtains, and other home accessories are also sold at this store. Organic food stuff like dhals, pickeles, oil are also at this store. Natural body care are also available for sale.

The other similar store is Kalpa Druma in Cathedral Road. Here, plenty of handloom sarees are available. Handicraft items, table and bed linen, rugs are also on display here.

Shilpi at Abhiramapuram has just about everything in its store. Ethnic material for salwars, beautiful sarees, kurtas all made from silk, cotton, and other natural fibers. Another place for lovely materials is T.Mangalram in Parry´s Corner and T.Choithram on Anna Salai.

In Tamil Nadu, which is an important weaving center, you can pick up lightweight durries. Karur in Tamil Nadu is an important center manufacturing cotton bed sheets and home furnishings. It exports $60 Million worth of furnishings every year mainly to the West. Tirupur in Tamil Nadu is famous for its hosiery. It exports goods totaling to $100 million. South Indian cottons are some of the finest in India.

Every part of India is famous for its own brand of silk saris. Tamil Nadu is famous for it Kancheepuram silk saris, which are available in any reputed silk shop in the State. Brides can visit the shops of Nalli, Kumaran, RMKV at T. Nagar for good silk saris at reasonable prices at Chennai. RMKV which opened its new store at Chennai only a couple of years back has already firmly established itself at Chennai. It has roped in the popular Tamil actress Jyothika as its brand ambassador. First it introduced the Cinderella Pavadai and caught the fancy of young girls. Then they got into the Guinness Book for producing the longest silk sari in the world .It soon introduced the 50,000 colour sari and claimed the credit for the maximum number of colours in a sari. This year, the reversible saree or the four in one sari has caught the fancy of all. The only deterrent is the cost of the sari which is about Rs 68000.However,RMKV has recently introduced cheaper saris starting form Rs 10000 onwards. The other big store Chennai Silks also has an online purchasing facility.

Good quality leather goods are aplenty at Chennai.Witco has many branches in the city and is a reputed dealer of travel accessories, and leather goods. Jang in Besant Nagar stocks a lot of leather handbags in wonderful gay colours.

If you are interested in temple jewellery there are plenty of shops especially ay Mylapore and T. Nagar offering interesting pieces. There are the traditional shops selling solid gold pieces in intricate designs also.

There is a wonderful small shop in Besant Nagar, called F-it selling everything from silver jewellery to modern, costume jewellery.The costume jewellery are very competitively priced. Skirts, tops, kurtas are also stocked.

If you are not comfortable shopping at pavements, you can always go to the shops run by the various State Governments in the South. Kaveri, Kairali and Poompuhar are situated on Anna Salai. Prices are fixed and there is no bargaining.

Like the other Indian cities, the mall culture is slowly growing in Chennai. Shopper´s Stop, Westside Stores. and Lifestyle are some of the major stores in some of these malls.