Where do the Venetians shop?

I suggest the Dorsoduro area, around Campo Santa Margarita and further south. The University is in that neighborhood so it might be a good bet. Or just ask a local.

The area just West of the Rialto Market has clothing stores for the regular folk.

And remember that everything in Venice costs more because of the hassle to get it there. Often it's train to boat to handtruck to store.

"Where do the Venetians shop?" I wonder how many actual "locals" there are in Venice, "locals" used in the same sense as in normal cities? This is a question rather than a statement. How many locals are fortunate enough to be able to afford real estate or rents in Venice? I realize there are some, away from the "tourist" areas. I'm exaggerating to get to a follow-up question related to the OP, which is: Do you think it's true that "locals" who can afford to live in Venice probably shop at stores most of us can't afford?

The answer is 60,000, give or take. Seriously, that's the number of people who actually live in Venice. They tend to be concentrated in certain neighborhoods away from the main tourist action, so it's easy to think that nobody actually lives there.

Michael: Thank you for posting the info about the number of locals in Venice. At least there are some, not a lot, but some. I think I read somewhere that Venice has been losing population, due to the cost of living, etc.

I have several friends who are locals, many of them will occassionally go to the mainland to do their big shopping. They also know the places where the best prices are of course. Locals also get certain discounts that tourists don't get such as cheap vaporetto passes and such. As you would imagine, most of them have been hurt as much as anybody (if not more) by the economic depression the past couple years. It may not seem like it but there are less tourists spending less money.

As Italian I'm fiercely opposed to this "lower price for locals" policy, and I hope it become, in the future, rendered nationally illegal. (FYI: Italians living out of Venice have to pay expensive vaporetto fares too, and the gondola business is 30 years late in being liberalized or at least put into a tender accessible to any Italian business/person instead of being regulated as if it were a religious order). This being said, most people living in Venezia just shop in Mestre for any bigger item. You will not find department stores in the islands because it's now worth the hassle, the logistic costs and everything else. Depopulation of Venezia is a local issue, not because "tourists are ruining it" as some pundits might say, but because it is not practical to live a 21st Century live in a city relying on channels to get transportation. It makes any basic service like trash collecting or internet-cable wiring or ambulance rescue a nightmare. If it were not for tourism, Venezia would be likely fastened, or it would become an impoverished area filled with poor people.

There is at least one department store on the island ("Coin"). Everything is being taken over by the Chinese anyway...