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Food & cultureBy Clever Tourists · Published
Germany has the best supermarket bread in Europe and the most rules around the checkout. Aldi and Lidl are the discount chains, Rewe and Edeka are the full-range ones, and dm is the drugstore where you buy shampoo rather than in a supermarket. Two things will catch you out: the bottle deposit, and the fact that almost nothing is open on Sunday.
Most drink bottles and cans carry a deposit, usually 25 cents, added at the till and refunded when you return the empty.
You get it back by putting bottles into a Pfandautomat — a reverse vending machine near the entrance — which prints a receipt you use at the till or cash in.
This is why you will see people carrying bags of empty bottles to the shop, and why a plastic bottle left on a wall is often collected rather than binned.
Look for the Pfand logo on the label. Not every bottle has one, and non-deposit bottles go in the normal recycling.
German bakeries sell dozens of bread types and the supermarket bakery counter is genuinely good, not a sad afterthought. Rye, sourdough and seed-heavy loaves keep for days.
Brötchen are the small rolls bought by the bag for breakfast, and they are best on the day.
Brezel is the pretzel, and in Bavaria it comes with butter or with a Obatzda cheese dip.
Senf is mustard, and the German version is sharper and more varied than the yellow kind elsewhere. Löwensenf and the Düsseldorf style are the ones to look for.
Spargelzeit is white asparagus season, roughly April to June, and it is treated as a national event. Whole supermarket sections and restaurant menus reorganise around it.
Federweißer is partially fermented new wine, sold in autumn, and it is mildly fizzy and still fermenting in the bottle.
Christmas brings Lebkuchen from Nuremberg, Stollen from Dresden, and Glühwein at markets everywhere.
Marzipan from Lübeck is the other thing worth buying, and it is far better than the export version.
Shops close on Sundays, including supermarkets. This is not a tourist-area quirk — it applies nationally, with exceptions for petrol stations, train stations and some bakeries.
Cash is still normal, more than in most of Western Europe. Some small shops and bakeries do not take cards at all.
You bag your own groceries, and the checkout is fast — have your bag ready.
Pfand and recycling separation are taken seriously, and the bottle machines are by the entrance in every supermarket.
Sunday closing is a national rule, not a local choice. Petrol stations, train stations and some bakeries are the exceptions.
Most bottles and cans carry a 25-cent deposit added at the till. Return empties to a reverse vending machine in the shop, which prints a receipt you redeem at the till.
Lebkuchen, marzipan from Lübeck, good mustard and Stollen. Bread does not travel, but the mustard and the sweets do.
White asparagus season, roughly April to June, when supermarkets and restaurant menus reorganise around it.
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