Stockholm (Sweden) > Reviews > Shopping in Stockholm

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money
Sightseeing
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around

Advantages:	lots on offer
Disadvantages:	on the expensive side

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I have yet to meet a person who goes to Stockholm to go shopping, but that does not mean that it is a boring place to shop. Quite on the contrary. Even though Stockholm is Sweden’s capital, shopping is not a particularly rushed experience and it is easy to ignore all the Stockholmers rushing around the way people tend to do in bigger cities. If in the town centre, the main shopping streets are Hamngatan and Drottninggatan. This area is where you can find the department stores, NK and Ahlens for example, shopping centres, for example Gallerian, and second hand clothing shops, for example UFF(excellent value).

For antique shops, second hand shops and boutiques, my suggestion would be to go to Gamla Stan, the Old Town. It’s an island, easily accessible from Drottninggatan, and is full of small shops and also art galleries. If looking for second hand goods, this is the place to go as they are a lot cheaper than in the UK and can even be sold at quite a profit- a good way to pay for the holiday in the first place. Gamla Stan is also good for just browsing as shop assistants will not get annoyed if you don’t intend to buy anything.

Swedish-made goods to look out for would be glass in particular. Orrefors and Kosta Boda are of very high quality. Other things would be porcelain and local handicraft. If you like Swedish shops, check out IKEA (in the Stockholm area) and H&M (Hennes och Mauritz). The shop Indiska usually sells weird and wonderful things at acceptable prices. If you like Swedish music (Wannadies, Cardigans, ABBA, Roxette, Neneh Cherry etc) you could easily find records not available or rare abroad. There are a few large record shops, like Skivakademien on Sergels Torg, but most are smaller and they sell a larger variety of older records.

Hotorget has a food market where you can find fruit, vegetables and also Swedish meat and fish. There are plenty of cafes all over Stockholm, as cafes are pretty much a part of Swedish culture- and shopping experience! Try ‘bullar’ (a type of cinnamon buns), blueberry pies or cakes.

All in all, I would say that Stockholm is a good place to shop, Gamla Stan in particular, if you have money to spend. If you don’t then it’s not so easy to be able to afford it, but the range of goods available is good and the quality is high. Because Stockholm town centre is so small, you can easily walk everywhere and therefore get to notice shops you would have missed had you gone by the Metro. The variety of shops is good and it is easy to find unusual goods. The concept of ‘High Street shops’ is not so apparent in Stockholm and shops pretty much sell what they want to sell. Prices are comparable to London prices but the exchange rate is very good at the moment and it is easy to find sales (rea, extrapris).