Praia shops in two speeds: Sucupira's 1,000-stall labyrinth of West African wax print and contraband electronics, and the Plateau's quiet ateliers selling panu di terra weaving, ceramic work and grogue. Cash in escudos rules everything.
Cape Verde's biggest market sprawls below the Plateau with roughly a thousand stalls. Wax-print fabric from Senegal and Nigeria runs 1,500–3,000 CVE for a six-yard piece; sandals, phone cases and secondhand jeans fill the rest. Open daily from dawn, quietest before 10:00.
The 1920s covered market on Rua Serpa Pinto is the tidy counterpoint to Sucupira: two floors of tuna, wahoo, papaya, mangoes and grogue. Upstairs stalls sell bagged Fogo coffee at around 800–1,200 CVE per 250 g and bottled pepper sauce for 250 CVE.
The cluster of craft stalls and small shops along Serpa Pinto sell panu di terra — narrow strip-woven cotton bands historically used as currency. A full six-strip cloth runs 4,000–12,000 CVE depending on whether it is handloom or machine-assisted.
Vendors ring the Plateau's main square each afternoon with earrings, bangles and pendants cut from coconut shell, cow horn and volcanic basalt. Earrings sit around 300–600 CVE, necklaces 800–1,500 CVE, and most makers will carve initials while you wait.
The Plateau's main avenue holds Praia's small independent fashion shops, where Cape Verdean designers cut dresses and shirts from imported wax print. Ready-to-wear pieces run 3,500–9,000 CVE; several shops will tailor to measurement in two to three days.
The cafés edging the square double as retail: bagged Fogo arabica, Cape Verdean chocolate and grogue miniatures sit beside the counter. An espresso is about 100 CVE, a slice of pudim de queijo around 250 CVE.
Praia's air-conditioned mall option gathers Portuguese chains, phone shops, a supermarket and a food court under one roof. Useful for fixed-price electronics, SIM top-ups and Cape Verdean-brand goods sold without haggling; typical T-shirt 1,800–2,500 CVE.
Small bottle shops behind the Plateau stock grogue from Santo Antão and Santiago plus ponche, the honey-and-lime sweetened version. A one-litre plastic bottle of village grogue costs 500–900 CVE; labelled bottles for gifting run 1,500–3,000 CVE.
Praia's remaining music shops sell morna and coladeira CDs, cavaquinho four-string guitars and ferrinho scrapers. A cavaquinho starts around 8,000–15,000 CVE, CDs of Cesária Évora, Tito Paris and Bau sit at 1,000–1,500 CVE.
Women trading from head-baskets and folding tables sell roasted peanuts, dried tuna, gufong cornmeal cakes and papaya jam in reused jars. Almost nothing costs more than 200 CVE, and the jam travels well in checked luggage.
Craftspeople sell hand-thrown red clay bowls, Fogo lava-stone mortars and palm-leaf baskets woven on Santiago. Small bowls run 800–2,000 CVE, a lava mortar around 2,500 CVE, and larger baskets 3,000–5,000 CVE.
The far end of Sucupira, past the clothing rows, is where sellers weigh out Fogo coffee beans, malagueta chillies, tamarind and dried fish from open sacks. Coffee is cheapest here — roughly 2,500–3,500 CVE per kilo, sold loose and bagged in front of you.