The Grand Bazaar (or Covered Bazaar, Kapalıçarşı in Turkish) in Istanbul is one of the largest covered markets in the world with more than 58 streets and 4000 shops, and has 250,000-400,000 visitors daily.
Technically, the correct translation of the Turkish name Kapalıçarşı is "Covered Bazaar" and not "Grand Bazaar", simply because the Turks do not call it "Grand Bazaar". In Turkish kapalı means "covered" and çarşı means "market" or "bazaar" (as in the Persian 'bazar', where the word originates from and in English we spell it as "bazaar".)
Apart from this info which a traveler can probably find on most travel and tourism websites, the real important thing to know is that bargaining is a MUST if you want to shop here. No matter how reasonable the price seems, the shop-keepers have actually come down to 1/3rd of what they initially asked me for.
After a few shops, one gets the general idea of the price ranges for certain products. My advice is to keep a price in mind, and quote a price lower than that. Some will turn you away, others will negotiate and they will NEVER accept your first offer. This is when you turn to go away from the shop, and then they will suddenly lower their prices. This is when you make your final offer, show them the cash and walk away with what you had in mind!
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