Shopping in Budapest and/or Vienna

Luckily for us (I'll be in Budapest at the end of the month), the forint has a favorable exchange rate with the dollar right now. The upscale stores on Andrassy ut might be worth taking a look at, as $1 is 226 HUF.
While there is lots of junk on the Vaci utca, there are also some nice shoe stores and H & M type places with cute sweaters and accessories.

Hungary is famous for Herend and Zsolnay porcelain.
http://www.zsolnay.hu/2011/eng/markaboltok_budapesten.html http://herend.com/en/products/shopping-stores/ Beautiful and wonderfully "Hungarian".

In Budapest, the Central Market has a lot of stuff. I do not know if the stores collude but I do know that there are a huge number of stores selling all sorts of things on the second floor. They often "do not barter", but if you pay cash (probably the best idea), there are possibly some deals to be made.

There is an auction house/antique store in Vienna that is interesting. It has everything from jewelry, silver, porcelains, to furniture. The place covers three floors or more and is within walking distance to all of the major sites. The staff there is very friendly and not pushy at all-you are welcome to browse. The TI was worth a visit-we were given a free Riedel glass-very nice! Wish I could remember the street the antique store is on-it was near a shop that has a large Steiff bear at the door.

Budapest Auction Houses ABIGAIL GALLERY AND AUCTION HOUSE: early- and mid-century, as well as contemporary art and graphics. http://www.abigail.hu BÁV: Hungary's oldest operating auction house network. Good paintings and furniture occassionally at reasonable prices, great place to pick up jewellery. http://www.bav.hu BELVEDERE SALON: High-end art and antiques, with a number of non-Hungarian (French, English) objects. Paintings and graphics at good prices. http://www.belvedereszalon.hu DUNAPARTI AUCTION HOUSE (formerly: BELVÁROSI AUCTION HOUSE: Lower-end art and antiques of all kind, usually without much competitive bidding. http://www.dunapartiaukcioshaz.hu/ KIESELBACH GALLERY AND AUCTION HOUSE: Mostly late 19th and early 20th-century, exquisite Hungarian paintings, sometimes graphics. High prices (most paintings above $3,000). www.kieselbach.hu MISSION ART: Late 19th century and early 20th century Hungarian paintings. Great experts on the Nagybánya School, Janos Mattis-Teutsch and many more. www.missionart.hu M?-TEREM GALLERY AND AUCTION HOUSE: Mostly late 19th- and early 20th-century, exquisite Hungarian paintings and graphics. Also extremely fine Zsolnay ceramics (most pieces above $3,000). www.mu-terem.hu NAGYHÁZI GALLERY AND AUCTION HOUSE: Quality art and antiques. Great place to pick up old masters at reasonable prices, and find excellent biedermeier, Art Nouveau, etc. furniture. Major auctioneer of carpets and folk art. www.nagyhazi.hu POLGÁR GALLERY AND AUCTION HOUSE: Auction house with reasonable prices, sometimes great pieces, sometimes great bargains. www.polgar-galeria.hu

Laura,
I am currently in Budapest and there are plenty of places with good deals to be found. I would recommend visiting Kiraly utca, near Szent Istvan and Andrassy ut. There are some beautiful home decor shops with very reasonable prices (mostly in the 8000-13000 forint range).

I don't remember the name of this place but if you stand in front of St Stephen's Basilica, right at the steps leading to the front door and while facing the church if you look to your right there is one of the most excellent "traditional" stuff shops in town. Actually the building holds a number of nice shops. Further down out of the square but on the pedestrian street, with your back to the church on your right is a small shop that sells everthing music. Very nice little trinket store. Actually the area around and in front of the Basilica has become pretty nice for shopping and eating. Then if you get a map and look for Falk Miksa utca which is two blocks off the river and just north of the Parliment Building it is lined with various antique shops; some interesting.