Mannheim Shopping

Rhein Neckar Zentrum is a mall and shopping center just outside of Mannheim. It's easily accessibe by Tram (Stop name: Tivoli, Line: 5), and has a shop to suit every need. Grocery stores, department stores and a pet shop are sprinkled throughout the usual fashion and gift shops. There's also a great selection of restaruants and a movie theatre, though nearly all films are only available in German.

What to pay: Some shops are pricier than others, but there are plenty of bargains for those who are willing to search them out.

While the grid-like structured centre is perfect for shopping, I found one shop that made it extra-special to me. I finally got some new shoes by GEOX which are generally very expensive. In Mannheim, however, the GEOX store had 40% off of most items, so I managed to get my shoes for a price that I'd never expected.

What to buy: whatever you wish

What to pay: about the same as in every other German city

One of my neighbours is from Syria and she had given me a very good recipe, but I needed one more ingredient, Sesame paste. In the area left to the farmers' market, the G blocks, there are many grocery stores selling food from all over the world.
There is a large Turkish bakery with lots of sweets and bread. Very colourful cakes are on display in the window, looking like wedding cakes.

I was looking for the Arab store which I knew to be close. On my way there I passed a Spanish and a Portuguese store, an Indian one, two more Turkish shops and a general Asian one.

The Arab store had exactly what I needed,but it took a while until the assistant understood
what I was talking about. Her German was not very good, I don't speak any Arabic at all, but
in the end we managed. Of course, I couldn't leave without some of the very sweet Arabic
cakes.

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Haha, those who have read some of my pages will know that I place tips on bookstores for some cities. I simply cannot do other than enter and browse around.

Mannheim has a good one, too – Buch Kober. There are even 2 of them in town. The usual selection of what I like: extremely well organized and filled travel section, nice things-you-don’t-need-but-cannot-live-without, like agendas, calendars, candles, etc.
And they serve coffee, so you can sit there, browse through books before you decide to buy them.
A place to easily spend some hours.

The 2 stores have a similar stock. Well, the travel section in the one in Kurpfalzstrasse is a bit bigger. The one in Planken has more selection in these specially produced books (on all kinds of subjects – achitecture, cooking, plants, etc).

What to buy: No, I will not write down what I bought. VT would kill me, as I would need to write pages and pages and pages….

The usual prices for books; the special issues have quite reasonable prices.

Coordinates on GoogleEarth:
Kurpfalzstraße: 49°29’12,54’’ N; 08°27’54,95’’ E
Planken: 49°29’07,31’’ N; 08°28’21,65’’ E

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For all of us that need to break the supermarket shopping habits from time to time, Südlandhaus in Mannheim has all kinds of culinary treats for gourmets.
I like their writings in the website, where they say that we can fill our car with the most expensive motoroil, but fill in cheap olive oil into our stomachs….. How true !
But whatever you buy here, it is all fresh or from sources, which Südlandhaus’ people constantly control for being of good quality. Whoever looks for plastic food – you won’t find it here.

They have all different kinds of wine from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and other well known countries. Good brands !
You can also get here all kind of Schnaps (several European countries), olive oil, balsamico vinegar, coffee, honey - you name it. Also fresh seasonal products such as truffles, asparagus, new wine (Federweisser).

Yes, it has its price. But remember, it is fresh and no plastic !

Unfortunately, the website below is only in German. It is also no online shopping; it would be against Suedlandhaus’ philosopy (and I like that).
But you could check the site, and maybe you find what you were looking for

What to buy: .
Coordinates on GoogleEarth:
49°29’14,38’’ N; 08°28’09,32’’ E

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Without Tess having recommended it just some days ago, I would never have realized that there is a shop where chocolate lovers are in heaven – and would most probably need to be forcibly taken out of there.

Called Chocolaterie Stoffel, this family run business offers almost everything you can imagine, made in chocolate. They produce it in their manufacture in a small town called Bobenheim, but most of the sales is done in the Mannheim city one.
The truffles are hand rolled, they have 200 hollow forms to make all kinds of chocolate things big and small childs cannot live without.

Well, what can I tell you – you need to check it out for your own.

Thanks Tess for allowing me to place this here as well :-)
But – we should all remember, Tess gets all the credit for having found it !
(haha, we should negotiate commission for her in the shop).

What to buy: I bought:

“Broken chocolate”: 100 g for 2,70 €;
Marzipan-orange roll: 1,99 €,
Little chocolate mobile phone: 1,60 € (hahaha, who knows me, knows for whom I got that!)
Wine grape: 3,95 €

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Coordinates on GoogleEarth:
49°29’05,04’’ N; 08°28’19,61’’ E

What to buy: If you look for a typical gift from Mannheimer, try "Mannheimer Dreck", perhaps it is in Endlish dirt of Mannheim. Usually I don't like to eat dirt, but the Mannheimer dirt is ok. It is a kind of spicy cake. This one I bought in Café Waegele.
Mannheimer Dreck dates back to the early 19th century. There was a law which said that you have to pay 2 "taler" if people put their excrements on the street. A baker wanted to make a joke and made a kind of gingerbread with these ingredients: nut, almonds, marzipan, cloves, ... He put that into the window of his shop and calles it dirt of Mannheim! You can imagine, how happy his customers were....
The Mannheimer Dreck you get today is still made with the original recipe and you also get a certificat.

What to pay: Depending on the size of the box you take.

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I lived in Mannheim for a while (and still miss these days). Those days I didn’t need to do my grocery shopping in the supermarkets, as the farmers’ market has all I needed and FRESH ! Just recently I needed some real food fix again, so I drove all the way (60 km) from Darmstadt just to get this wonderful atmosphere again and do some shopping.

Mannheimers are so lucky ! They can go shopping here 3 times a week even ! (in other towns, it is mostly twice). The market is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from early morning until around 2 p.m.

I can highly (= highly) recommend to visit this market for anyone who travels here for business or is close by during sightseeing !

What to buy: You can get all and everything here from fresh flowers to any kind of fresh fruits and vegetables. Also bread, cheese, sausages – whatever you can imagine.
During autumn, of course fresh mushrooms are available.

Prices are very much fair, mostly even cheaper than in supermarkets.
And remember, you will get fresh food and no “plastic food” here.

What to pay: I bought some spices, marjoram for example, 25 g for 0,80 €, bags with 50 g of lavender for
0,50 €. Look at my last picture – all in all, I paid 4,50 € for the spices.