Introduction Do not 'buy a bonsai'. That is a poor way to begin this remarkable hobby and usually doomed to failure. Bonsai is not about 'owning' bonsai plants, but rather the satisfaction of taking care of them and specifically developing them. One finds out the essentials of bonsai best by creating them, even your first one. Without these basics, it is unreasonable to expect that somebody could keep one alive, let alone maintaining it as art. There is likewise the cost aspect. Any 'real' bonsai will take at least five years of advancement to be persuading. To get such a bonsai would cost several hundred dollars. Of course you can find 'shopping center bonsai' everywhere, even supermarket.
These are junk, they are not bonsai. A 2 year old juniper cutting plunked unceremoniously into a bonsai pot is not bonsai. It is the care and training that makes bonsai; these plants have none.
