Einkaufen
“Einkaufen” is a German verb meaning “to buy” or “to purchase.” When used as a noun, “Einkauf”, it translates to “purchase” as in “Wow that’s a big purchase!” Einkaufen is most commonly used in reference to purchasing groceries. It is not often that you hear a native speaker use the word einkaufen outside of this context. When talking about going shopping for clothes or things other than groceries, often the word “kaufen” is used. If you’re really hip and cool (or trying to be) and talking about buying clothes you can germanize the word “shopping” into “shoppen.” For example, “lass uns shoppen gehen'' means “let's go shopping.” If I dove into the subtleties of the German language and the many different ways in which you can express similar actions or ideas, I’d end up with a poorly written boring book on the subject. That’s why today I’ll focus specifically on the verb “einkaufen” and how one goes “einkaufen” aka buys groceries here in Hamburg.
In order to buy groceries, one needs to know where to go to get them. Herein lies the first challenge for a foreigner from the US. Unlike the States, there are relatively few grocery stores here that have everything you’ll need or want, and going grocery shopping can often mean making multiple stops to get all the items on your list. There are fancy more expensive grocery stores, and cheaper ones that have a limited selection of items, but the price savings of these cheaper stores often make the extra trips worth it. These cheaper grocery stores, called “Discounter” in German are where many (if not most) people in Germany go to get essentials such as vegetables, fruit, bread, milk, lunch meat, cheese, and so on. Some of the biggest “Discounter” grocery store chains in Germany are Penny, Lidl, Aldi, and Netto. Aldi has two different main varieties, Aldi Nord, which is present in northern Germany, and Aldi Süd, which is present in southern Germany. If you’ve ever seen an Aldi in the US, you’ve seen the Aldi Süd logo. Fun fact: Trader Joe’s in the US is also a subsidiary of Aldi.
As mentioned, these types of grocery stores are less intricate and offer a pretty limited selection of items, including offering almost no personal care items, though this does seem to be slowly changing. For personal care items, you will need to go to a “Drogeriemarkt” (drug store in English). These types of stores loosely resemble a typical Walgreens in the US. They have a large selection of personal care products, bathroom and kitchen necessities, and, typically, a section for paper goods and greeting cards. In Hamburg, Budnikowsky is one of the most popular drug store chains, ostensibly because it can only be found in and around Hamburg. DM and Rossmann are two other large Drogeriemarkt chains that can be found in Hamburg as well as all over Germany.
So now you’ve got your essentials and your personal care items, but what about that last fancy spice you need to complete your shopping list and blow your guests away at dinner? Here the fancy or upscale grocery stores come into play. The major upscale grocery store chains in Hamburg and Germany are Edeka and Rewe. It is here you will often have to go to find items you couldn’t locate in a “Discounter.” For example, Edeka and Rewe often have a much bigger and better selection of snack foods and beverages to choose from. It is also in one of these stores where you will often find a dedicated cheese counter as well as a meat counter, where you can purchase a large array of fresh meat and higher-end cheese.
No list of German grocery stores would be complete without mentioning that there are walmart-esque type stores here as well, they are just not as common and are generally located in inconvenient or less-accessible areas of the city. One of the biggest grocery stores in this space is called Kaufland (literally translates to “buy-land”). Here you can find anything and everything under the sun, from bikes to bananas. I rarely visit a Kaufland myself, because again, the one that is closest to me is half an hour by train. For comparison, there are two Penny’s, an Aldi, a Lidl, and a Budnikowsky all within 15 minutes walking distance from my apartment.
No matter where you end up getting your shopping done, one thing you’ll probably want to know is that there are no baggers here. You know those helpful folks that bag your groceries for you while you wait cheerfully daydreaming about how delicious those powdered donuts you’re buying will taste on the drive home? Yeah, none of that here. In Germany, it is you and you alone that are responsible for bagging your groceries. You must also bring your own bags, or purchase one or more at the checkout stand. There is also an implicit expectation that you will bag your groceries quickly, and you may get an eye roll or two if you are still bagging your groceries after you have paid for them. If you take too long you may even get an exasperated sigh from the checker or one of the customers in line behind you. Don’t despair though, it’s not worth it. My first few months here I got my fair share of eye rolls and sighs, but life’s too short to let shopping get you down. Although I will admit to feeling a slight sense of satisfaction the first few times I had all my groceries bagged before the checker had asked me how I wanted to pay.
I hope now you have a little bit better idea of how and where to grocery shop in Germany in case you ever find yourself here. All in all, it is not too drastically different from the US, but the differences are marked enough that they merit mentioning. I sure needed some time to figure out how to find everything I needed here.