You just arrived in Graz and do not know yet where to get your groceries or go shopping? Then you can find some general information here.

The first and most important thing to know is the Austrian opening hours. Most stores are open Monday - Friday from 8.00 am - 7.00 pm and Saturday from 8.00 am - 6.00 pm. Some of them open at little earlier and/or close an hour later. However after 8.00 pm it will get hard to find an open store. What many exchange students are not used to is that shops are closed on Sundays. If you should forget about that, there are a few exceptions with prolonged opening hours:

  • Spar at the main train station, Europaplatz 2, 8020 Graz (Mo - Su: 6.00 am - 10.00 pm)
  • Spar at the airport, Flughafenstraße 51, 8073 Feldkirchen (Mo - Su: 5.30 am - 9.00 pm)
  • Spar, Hans-Sachs-Gasse 14, 8010 Graz (Mo - Sa: 6.00 am - 9.00 pm)
  • Spar, Lendplatz 31-33, 8020 Graz (Mo-Fr: 9.00 am - 9.00 pm, Sa 7.00 am - 6.00 pm)

Grocery stores

If you are wondering which grocery stores there are in Graz, here is a list of the main chains:

Billa: Billa is part of the big REWE group, with normal prices for Austria. For those who shop there more frequently, you can get a “Vorteilscard” for free, which is some kind of member card and you get discounts with it. They also have their own brands, clever and Billa, which are usually cheaper and the quality is okay. 

Merkur: Merkur is part of the REWE group as well, but usually has a bigger range of products than Billa. Similar to Billa you can also get a “Friends of Merkur” card there, to get special discounts. You can also get the cheaper brand “clever” there. 

Spar: In general the products at Spar are similar to Billa and Merkur. However this chain also has “Interspar” and “Eurospar” stores, mostly in shopping malls, where they sell more International and/or European products. If you are trying to buy a product from your homecountry that you usually cannot get in Austria, you might get lucky at Eurospar or Interspar. 

Discounters: Hofer (also known as the German Aldi), Lidl and Penny Markt are the main discounter chains. Many Austrians use it for bulk buying. All three sell similar products. 

 

Drug stores

In Austria there are mainly two trade chains: DM and BIPA. You can find a lot of stores evenly spread over Graz. 

 

City Centre

The main shopping street in Graz is the Herrengasse, which connects Jakominiplatz and Hauptplatz with each other. In this area you can buy almost everything what you need for everyday life; there are also a lot of international stores like H&M, New Yorker, etc.. Next to the Hauptplatz you can also find the big department store “Kastner & Öhler”, which is not only known for the big variety of fashion you can get there, but also for its ostentatious architecture and the café on the rooftop. In the basement you can also find a small mall, including Eurospar. Kastner & Öhler also has an Online Shop.

If you like to get your groceries fresh from a farmers market, there are quite a few places where you can go in Graz. The main markets are on Kaiser-Josef-Platz and Lendplatz. They are both open from Monday to Saturday, 6.00 am - 1.00 pm. On Wednesday and Saturday morning there are also markets on the Hasnerplatz and Geidorfplatz.

 

Malls

In and around Graz there are a few shopping malls, which can all be reached more or less easily by public transport.

City Park: City Park is one of the most central malls and can be reached by the buslines 31, 32, 33, 35 and 39 from Jakominiplatz. From the main train station you get there with busline 50 and from Zentralfriedhof with busline 67. Yet the citybusline 35 is the most direct one, stopping right in front of the entrance.

Murpark: The next quite conveniently located mall is the Murpark. It is placed next to a Park&Ride garage and constitutes the final stop of tram number 4 in the direction Liebenau. Other than that you can also get there by the following buslines: 64, 64E, 72, 74, 75, N4 (Nightline).

Center West: The Center West is right next to the highway A9 and faster to reach by car than by public transport. Nevertheless you can get there taking tramline 5 until Puntigam, then change to Bus number 65, direction Wetzelsdorf, and get out at the stop “Center West”. This Center is mostly known for the IKEA store and the Intersport Eybl.

Shopping Nord: Shopping Nord is, just as the Center West, right next to the highway A9, but on the other side of the city, or let’s say the other side of the Plabutschtunnel. Hence it is also faster to get there by car. But bus line 52 or Watzke Bus 110 and 120 get you there from the main train station. In the same area is also a fashion outlet from Kastner & Öhler, where you can get branded articles cheaper.   

Shopping City Seiersberg: As the name “Shopping City Seiersberg” already promises, this is the biggest mall around Graz with more than 200 Shops. Again next to highway A9, it is convenient to get there by car. To get to the Shopping City with public transport you need bus line 78. Since this line does not start in the city center, you can either use tram number 5 and change in Puntigam to bus number 78, or you take bus line 32 until Seiersberg and change to 78 there. It may sound a little complicated, but it is worth a trip since you can really find everything there.