Bigbird, here on the part of north coast you mention, in and around Sosua, there are no malls of the kind that I guess you have in mind.
The closest is an overpriced Plaza in Playa Dorada, although some clothing shops have good prices there and sell good quality gods.
In Puerto Plata there are shops. All around the city.
For cheaper clothing the most popular tienda is Jimenez. There are 3 of those downtown.
A little higher class is D?Francis and Tienda Neno.
For womens clothes there are small shops spread out all around..
We find what we find in other words here...
We also have 1 department store in the city, Casa Nelson.
And a flee market as well.
Puerto Plata is not touristic though, and prices are everything from cheap to quite fair and up to extremely overpriced.
