Batumi shopping runs on contrasts: chaotic Soviet-era bazaars selling churchkhela and Adjaran cheese sit ten minutes from marble malls and Old Town ateliers. Three days covers markets, minankari enamel studios, wine cellars and craft co-ops.
Batumi's main covered market on Maiakovski Street, open roughly 07:00–19:00 daily. Rows of spice sellers weigh out svaneti salt and blue fenugreek, while dairy stalls sell Adjaran sulguni and salty nadughi by the kilo. Cash only, haggling expected.
A working quayside market where Black Sea catch — kefali, barabulka, anchovy-like khamsa — is sold on ice from 08:00. Buy a fish downstairs, hand it to a grill kitchen upstairs, and they fry it with lemon and cornbread for a small fee.
The stretch of Parnavaz Mepe near the Old Town holds small workshops selling hand-knitted wool socks and felted slippers from the Adjaran highlands, plus carved walnut-wood spoons and traditional chichilaki new-year decorations.
Street-side vendors string up churchkhela — walnuts or hazelnuts dipped in grape-must tatara — alongside tklapi fruit leather and dried persimmon. Adjaran versions use local hazelnuts, the region's main export crop.
Cloisonné enamel (minankari) is Georgia's signature craft, revived from medieval icon-making. Small Old Town studios around Zubalashvili and Kutaisi streets sell hand-fired pendants and earrings, each piece taking hours of wire-setting and kiln work.
A mid-size mall on Gorgiladze with international high-street labels, Georgian brands, a supermarket in the basement and a food court on top. Open 10:00–22:00, air-conditioned, useful when the subtropical humidity makes street shopping punishing.
The Gorgiladze–Melashvili blocks host independent boutiques stocking Tbilisi-based labels — linen and wool pieces cut for the humid coast, plus leather bags from small Georgian workshops. Most open around 11:00 and close by 20:00.
Specialist shops around Europe Square stock qvevri-fermented amber wines from Kakheti and rarer Adjaran and Guria bottles, alongside chacha in gift bottles. Staff pour tastings and vacuum-seal bottles for flights.
Adjara was the USSR's tea plantation belt, and the bazaar's upper rows still sell loose green and black leaf from Chakvi and Charnali, plus chestnut and mountain honey in reused jars. Ask for a smell before committing.
Shops along Memed Abashidze sell glazed Georgian pottery: kantsi drinking horns, miniature clay qvevri, and wine jugs painted with grapevine motifs. Some pieces come from Shrosha, the roadside pottery village on the Tbilisi highway.
The lanes around Piazza hold small galleries and print sellers with linocuts of Batumi's balconies, Soviet-poster reproductions and watercolours of the Adjaran coast. Prices are open to negotiation on unframed work.
The city's largest mall on the New Boulevard side, with a hypermarket, electronics floor and cosmetics chains. Georgia's low VAT means perfume and electronics often undercut EU prices; non-residents can claim VAT refunds on qualifying purchases.