Libreville shops in cash and in French: stalls of wax pagne and smoked odika, artisan sheds carving Punu masks from okoumé, and air-conditioned aisles at Mbolo. Bring small FCFA notes — cards stop working once you leave the Boulevard Triomphal.
Oloumi's market backs onto the timber port and trades roughly 07:00–18:00, quietest before 10:00. Fabric sellers stack Dutch and Chinese wax in six-yard pagne cuts; the food rows sell odika paste, piment and smoked catfish.
Nkembo trades dawn to dusk on the slope above the northern gare routière, heavy on second-hand clothing bales, plastic housewares and enamelware. Saturday morning brings the biggest turnout and the loudest bargaining.
A row of open sheds behind Quartier Louis where carvers work okoumé and ebony into Fang byeri figures, Punu white masks, drums and salad servers. Most stalls keep 09:00–17:30 hours and every single price is negotiable.
Akébé's street market spills along the tarmac from late afternoon, when traders bring feuilles de manioc, atanga plums, bush pepper and bundles of baton de manioc. A food-and-household market rather than a souvenir one.
Mbolo on the Boulevard Triomphal is Libreville's original mall — supermarket, pharmacy, bookshop, phone counters and a bakery under one roof, open around 08:30–20:00 Monday to Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Sogalivre in the centre-ville is Gabon's main bookshop: Gabonese novelists and poets, Central African history, IGN maps of the national parks, French paperbacks and stationery. The local-authors shelf sits by the till.
The national museum on the Boulevard Triomphal keeps a small shop beside its Fang and Kota collections, selling catalogues, postcards and vetted carvings — the fastest way to learn which mask belongs to which people before you buy at market.
The Institut Français runs a médiathèque, a bookstall and a courtyard stage a short walk down the Boulevard Triomphal. Its shelves carry Gabonese poetry and CDs from Libreville labels that never reach the Mbolo racks.
Nzeng-Ayong serves the eastern suburbs and is where Librevillois shop rather than visitors: bulk baton de manioc, tailors at treadle machines, and cheap wax offcuts. A tailor will run up a shirt for you in a day.
The quayside market at Port-Môle sells the estuary's catch straight off the pirogues — capitaine, bar, sole and smoked machoiron stacked in wicker baskets. Trade peaks when the boats land in late morning, and haggling is expected.
Lalala's roadside sprawl south of the centre is household goods above all: cooking pots, sandals, sound systems, second-hand phones and food stalls wedged in the middle. Prices sit below the central markets because rents do.
The Baie des Rois development on the reclaimed seafront holds Libreville's newest retail arcade and promenade cafés — fixed prices, working card terminals and open water views west across the Gabon Estuary as the light drops.