Frankfurt am Main Shopping Tips by Nemorino Top 5 Page for this destination

A Taste of Britain: When you just have to have a large jar of Marmite

Somehow in the course of my travels I have developed a taste for a quirky British product known as Marmite. This is a yeast extract, a black, salty substance which is a by-product of beer brewing. The British spread it on toast, but as a non-British person I take the liberty of spreading it on German bread or Swedish knäckebröd, often with cheese.

I know a German supermarket that sells tiny little jars of Marmite – ridiculously tiny – but the only place I know of in Frankfurt where you can get a large or medium jar of Marmite is a shop called “A Taste of Britain” on Oeder Weg, a block north of Eschenheimer Turm.

In addition to Marmite, they sell a wide range of British food products such as Twinings Tea, Tetley Tea, PG Tips Tea, Typhoo Tea, Yorkshire Tea, Nairn’s Oat Cakes, Carr’s Table Water, Jacob’s Cream Crackers, Cadbury Chocolate, Walkers Crisps, Colman’s Mustard, Clotted Cream & Scones, Crumpets, Vintage Cheddar, Robinson’s Squash, Self-Raising Flour, Soft Brown Sugar and Branston Pickle, among many others.

To non-British people, this might not sound like a very promising business plan, but the shop has been thriving since 2004, so there is evidently a market for this sort of thing.

A Taste of Britain is open (as of April 2013) from Tuesday- Friday 11:00 - 18:00, Saturday 10:00 - 18:00. When I spoke to the owner, he asked me to mention that they also deliver (within Frankfurt, in the evenings after the shop closes) and they have an online ordering service.

The word Marmite, by the way, comes from the French, where it means a big covered cooking pot. But I have never noticed any French people eating Marmite, have you?

The Australians have something similar (or identical?) but they call it Vegemite and claim it is superior to Marmite. Fortunately for them, there is also an Australian shop in Frankfurt, where genuine Vegemite is sold.

Address: A Taste of Britain, Oeder Weg 14

Phone: (069) 95 92 94 74

Theme: Food and Drink

Website: http://www.a-taste-of-britain.de/

British Book Shop: Books in English

This is a small centrally-located bookshop with a good selection of books in English.

Also they are very nice about letting English-speaking people put notices up in their window -- for a small fee, if it's something commercial, or for free if they consider it to be in the public interest. So their window is a good place to start looking if you want to trade English for German lessons, or if you want an English-speaking baby sitter or an English conversation club.

At certain times of year you can even see a notice there about Germany's only English-language opera appreciation course, "Frankfurt OperaTalk."

What to buy: For example you could buy a copy of the novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, to read on the train on your way to Dresden.

What to pay: Since the books are imported, they cost somewhat more than you would pay in the UK or the United States.

Address: Börsenstraße 17

Directions: You can find the British Book Shop just around the corner from the Stock Exchange, not far from the Hilton Hotel.

Phone: +49 69 280492

Theme: Books

Website: http://www.british-bookshop.de/

Musikalien Petroll: Sheet music and music books

This is one of the best places in Frankfurt to get sheet music and music books. They also have “coaching CDs” which just contain the accompaniment to opera arias, so aspiring singers can practice singing the arias themselves.

Address: Oeder Weg 43, Frankfurt am Main

Phone: 069-558859

Theme: Music

Website: http://www.noten4you.de

Open till eight! No, till ten!

Open till eight! -- "So what else is new?" you might ask.

Let me explain that until quite recently the opening hours of stores in Germany were strictly regulated. They all had to close promptly at 18:30 (6:30 p.m. to you) on weekdays and at 13:00 on Saturdays.

For people like me -- working full time, and not an early riser -- that meant it was not easy to find a time to go shopping. All of us in this situation tended to go shopping around 11:00 on Saturday mornings, which meant that the stores were all packed at that time. You couldn't even get a shopping cart, and there were long lines at all the check-out lanes. Very stressful, aside from the fact that I sometimes had other things I wanted to do on Saturday mornings.

So now it is a great relief that a normal store like this one is open until 20:00 Monday through Saturday.

This particular store is the closest one to my house, right in front of the S-Bahn station. It is only a medium-size supermarket, which means for example that they stock creamy peanut butter but not crunchy. Fortunately there are several larger stores within easy cycling distance that have both kinds, so I don't have to do without.

Update: The store in the picture is now open till 10 p.m. six days a week. Who ever would have thought this could happen in Germany, of all places? (It's no longer a HL store, by the way. Name changed to Minimal and now to Rewe.)

And they now stock crunchy peanut butter as well as creamy. Still no Marmite, however.

Theme: Food and Drink

Zweirad Ganzert: Excellent bicycle sales and service

Frankfurt has several excellent bicycle shops, but Ganzert's is the one I go to most often.

For one thing, it's close to my office. If something is wrong with my bike I can just leave it off on the way to work and pick it up the same day on the way home.

I even used to do this with flat tires, but now I don't have flat tires any more since they put MARATHON tires on both wheels. These are really a great invention and well worth the extra cost.

Recently they had to send the back wheel of my new bike back to the factory to get it fixed under the guarantee, and they lent me another bike for about three weeks. The whole thing didn't cost me a cent, and my bike has been working fine ever since.

The only time they didn't have a substitute bike for me was on 911, but that's a whole nother story.

At the workshop entrance at the back of the store they have a sign reading (rough translation): "We do not repair bicycles bought in supermarkets, building materials stores or coffee roasting shops."

And that's a good policy, because these cheepo bikes are really low quality and no self-respecting mechanic would be willing to take responsibility for them being in good repair.

Last year I was in another German city, Zwickau, and saw a bicycle shop with a nice slogan in English: "Life is too short to ride a sh!tty bike!"

What to buy: A bicycle, if you haven't got one already. And a good lock, of course, and a helmet.

What to pay: You can get a decent bicycle for EUR 500 or upwards -- with no upper limit that I know of!

I tend to stay towards the lower end because I cycle the city daily year-round, and an expensive bike would get stolen sooner or later.

Address: Mainzer Landstr. 234, Frankfurt am Main

Directions: At the Galluswarte next to the train station of that name. Take the S3, S4, S5 or S6 trains, or the 11 or 21 tram.

Phone: (0 69) 73 43 86

Theme: Other

Euro Information centre & bookshop: Books about money in several languages

Well, not only about money, but that's of course the emphasis because money is what the European Central Bank is all about, and this is their bookshop on the ground floor of the Eurotower.

They also have a small but interesting selection of other books in several languages.

What to buy: Aside from books, you can also buy a European Central Bank T-shirt or sweatshirt if by any chance you don't have one already.

Another item that might be useful if you are looking for a gift for a Rich Relative Who Has Everything is a brick made of Deutsche-Mark-banknotes that were once worth DM 100,000.00 before they were shredded and pressed together very firmly in the shape of a brick. This costs EUR 9.00 and looks somewhat like a large piece of Weetabix. It might also be an appropriate gift for a disgruntled German who doesn't like the Euro and wishes Germany hadn't given up its national currency.

Address: Kaiserstraße 29

Phone: +49 (0)69 / 24 40 47 98

Theme: Books

Website: http://www.euro-bookshop.de/

Nordwestzentrum shopping center

The unusual thing about this shopping center is that is not located out in the pampas someplace, but right in Frankfurt, so it is easily accessible even to the non-motorized majority of the population. From my house it is an easy ten-minute bicycle ride, twelve if I take the scenic route along the banks of the Nidda.

And for all you die-hard minority members there is even a huge parking garage in the basement, so you don't have to shake your addiction just yet.

They've got all the usual shops (over 120 according to their website), including two bookshops by the way.

The place is often very crowded so they have built an additional section which was finished at the end of 2004.

...

Address: Nordweststadt, Frankfurt am Main

Directions: If your bicycle has a flat tire or something, you could always take the subway U1, which stops right underneath the shopping center.
The bus lines 26, 29, 60, 67, 71 and 872 also stop right inside the shopping center.

Phone: (069) 58 09 02-0

Theme: Other

Website: http://www.nwz-frankfurt.de/index.php