Suburban shopping malls shanghaied Denver's consumers years ago. Today downtown Denver has no major department stores. Larimer Square, LoDo and the 16th Street mall have some boutiques and small shops, but downtown is not the place for serious shopping. The area's 'destination' shopping centres are among its most-visited tourist attractions: Cherry Creek, the Mecca for Denver's upscale shoppers, is the closest shopping district to downtown. The neighbourhood combines the Cherry Creek Shopping Centre; a multi-storey enclosed shopping mall, with Cherry Creek North, several blocks of small shops, galleries and restaurants. The mall's several department stores include Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Lord&Taylor. In Cherry Creek North, don't miss the Tattered Cover, one of the best independent bookstores in the country. Book lovers can spend an afternoon browsing through five floors of books, or enjoying a coffee or tea in the café.

Park Meadows is a large suburban shopping mall in the south that bills itself as a 'shopping resort'. The centre is designed to resemble a ski lodge and features Nordstrom, Dillard's, Foley's and Joslin's department stores.