Quezon City shops in two registers: dawn wet markets and décor arcades where haggling is expected, and Cubao's indie horseshoe and Katipunan concept stores where prices are fixed. Three days cover both, ending with pasalubong worth the luggage space.
Metro Manila's benchmark wet market since 1970 sits behind Farmers Plaza: over a thousand stalls of seafood on ice, Baguio vegetables, dried fish and cut flowers. Trading runs 04:00-19:00 daily, and haggling gets easier after 16:00.
The 1950s market on Judge Jimenez Street is where QC cooks buy calamansi, bagoong and slabs of tuna belly. Its dry section stocks palayok clay pots, banig sleeping mats and woven bilao trays starting around ₱80 apiece.
Two floors of home-décor stalls at Dapitan corner Kanlaon, packed with capiz-shell lanterns, rattan baskets, year-round Christmas parol and silk blooms. Doors open 09:00-18:00 and wholesale pricing kicks in at six pieces.
QC's Chinatown strip runs from Quezon Avenue down to Del Monte, lined with Chinese groceries, tea sellers and auto-parts shops. The groceries carry hopia, dried mushrooms, preserved fruit and clay teaware at neighbourhood prices.
The horseshoe arcade off Aurora Boulevard now holds around 30 indie tenants: secondhand vinyl, vintage denim, local zines, ceramics and tattoo studios. Antique dealers raise shutters near 11:00; the clothing racks follow after lunch.
Opened in 2023 beside the original Gateway, this five-floor block added Filipino labels and a rooftop garden to Araneta City's retail core. Bench, Kultura and Penshoppe sit alongside international chains under one roof.
Katipunan's open-air mall houses Common Room, a consignment shop carrying goods from more than 200 Philippine makers — hand-thrown mugs, abaca bags, risograph prints and small-batch scents. Hours run 11:00-21:00.
Eastwood anchors the Libis township with design-leaning tenants and an open-air Citywalk of concept stores and leather kiosks. Retail here trades until 22:00, later than anywhere else in Quezon City.
Every Sunday from 05:00 to 14:00 on EDSA, roughly 400 stalls sell organic produce, heirloom Cordillera rice, handwoven inabel textiles and wild honey. The artisan food rows sell out well before noon.
Trinoma's Kultura branch is the most efficient single stop for Philippine souvenirs: barong shirts, capiz photo frames, Marikina-made shoes, dried mango and Palawan pearls, all fixed-price with tourist tax-refund paperwork available.
This family-run Filipino gift brand has traded on Roosevelt since 1971, selling recycled-paper cards, painted wood signs and hand-lettered wall art produced in the workshop above the shop. Open roughly 09:00-19:00.
The mall beside the Balintawak interchange keeps a Merkado produce hall plus counters of Bulacan sweets and boxed pasalubong — polvoron, pastillas and yema at a fraction of what the airport terminals charge.