Answer: A. están.
Las tiendas están cerca del mercado.
The shops are close to the market.
Explanation: In Spanish, the verb "estar" is used to indicate the location of something. Since the subject in this sentence is "tiendas", that is a third-persona in the plural, the verb must be conjugated in this form. Las tiendas están.
[tex]\textit{\textbf{Spymore}}[/tex]
