For many people, Dallas means shopping. The city's motto, after all, is ‘if it can't be found in Dallas, it can't be found anywhere'. This is where Neiman Marcus, 1618 Main Street, began its fashion business in 1907, as an ‘exclusive woman's ready-to-wear store'. Today, all manner of big names have gravitated around it, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Rodier Paris, Tiffany & Co and Lord & Taylor. The huge department store chain JC Penney also originated in Dallas.

Not content with numerous huge malls and shopping centres containing all kinds of individual and chain shops, the Dallas Market Center, just to the northwest of Downtown, either side of the Stemmons Freeway (I-35), is one of the biggest wholesale trade complexes in the world.

Other malls to indulge in some retail therapy are Galleria, modelled on Milan's Vittorio Emanuelle and even housing an ice rink, at the north side crossroads of the Dallas North Tollway and the beltway I-635; NorthPark, an elegant sprawl with stores including Barneys New York, Carolina Herrera, Michael Kors and Oscar de la Renta; and Highland Park Village, with its Spanish-inspired design.

Others to look out for near the downtown area are Crescent, Inwood Village and Snyder Plaza. At DFW airport, there is the enormous Grapevine Mills outlet mall. 

Open daily, these huge malls are, of course, packed full of restaurants, fast-food outlets, entertainments and coffee shops.

On a more human-scale approach to shopping, there are antiques and crafts shops scattered throughout Downtown, as well as in the uptown neighbourhood along McKinney Avenue, which is also good for general browsing. There is a large Farmer's Market, just west of Downtown, at South Harwood Street and Marilla Street.

Given Texas' Wild West image, anything to do with cowboys, rodeos and cattle ranching is a typical local gift. Otherwise, the latter day image of the town is big business, especially oil. The two come together in the abiding icon of Southfork Ranch and its infamous resident, JR.

Sales tax is 8.25%.