Kuta is swarming with shops and holiday shoppers, with clusters of stores and stalls all selling much the same goods, waiting for customers to barter on the prices. Accessed either from the beach or Kuta Square is the vast, fun market area where you can buy things like CDs, kites, sarongs, shoes and lots of fake brand name clothing. Local handcrafts, jewellery and custom-made leather goods are good buys. Visitors are usually assailed by pushy street hawkers selling goods like fake watches, and are expected to haggle on prices, which are often quoted in US Dollars.Kuta is also well supplied with department stores and shopping centres where prices are fixed, like the new Discovery Mall on Jalan Kartika Plaza. Around Kuta Square you can have a spending spree at dozens of brand name stores where goods (the real thing) are sold at amazingly low prices.Those who are keen to buy local crafts, hand-made jewellery or traditional wood and stone carvings will do well to take excursions into surrounding villages where these arts are practised; some handcrafts are available in Kuta, but better examples can be found a bit further afield.
