Shopping in Amsterdam

Traditionally, shops and markets are closed all day Sunday and Monday mornings. Normal shopping hours are 09:00 or 10:00 to 18:00 (17:00 on Saturday) although some are now beginning to stay open later in the evenings and about half of the shops on the main shopping streets are even open on Sundays. There is late-night shopping on Thursdays until 21:00, when most shops on the main streets are open.
The main shopping areas are the Leidsestraat between the Leidseplein and Spui, and the Kalverstraat and Nieuwendijk, leading from the Munt Tower via the Dam to near the Central Station. There are large stores near the Munt Tower (V&D and Hema), and at the Dam (Bijenkorf and Magna Plaza). There is a large supermarket behind the Palace at the Dam, open until 22:00, even Sundays.
The Jordaan and the streets around it contain many small interesting individual shops. The PC Hooftstraat and district, near the museums, contains many of the more chic shops.
There is an interesting daily clothes and second-hand market around the City Hall and Opera (trams 9, 14, 51 to Waterlooplein there is a busy cosmopolitan food and clothes market in the Albert Cuypstraat (trams 4, 6, 10 and 16. The flower market on the Singel (between the top of the Leidsestraat and the Munt Tower) is not to be missed (trams 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 11, 14, 16, 24, 25.
Buying food in supermarkets is straightforward, with one exception: buy the milk in blue cartons. The red cartons are buttermilk (karnemelk), which is probably not what you want.