What is your favourite shop in Europe and why? I have been musing on this but don't have my final answer yet. I like HEMA (Dutch discount chain, really a cult), and WMF in Germany (beautiful stainless steel homewares and cutlery at ridiculously good prices). I also like the outlet village at Mettlach, a town full of shops with homewares, but it is so arduous to get there that it doesn't attract tourists (except for residents from nearby Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France). I also like the Teehandelskontor chain in Germany because I love beautiful-smelling tea. I might have some others, just have to muse on it.

What is your favourite? Are you a shop-till-you-drop traveller or do you shun the stores?

Lavandula

The hardware department in BHV in Paris. Another favorite is a small hardware store not far from Boboli Gardens in Florence. I like grocery stores, too, but hardware is my favorite.

I'm actually familiar with Mettlach, as I have in-laws who live about ten miles away -- the husband recently retired from Villeroy and Boch where he was a designer.

That said I'd rather drop than shop, though I'm fond of London's Jermyn Street.

I absolutely love supermarkets. I don't feel you need language skills to navigate them, and they feel like you are really getting to grips with the culture. And hardware is a challenge - so much vocabulary I am missing. When we moved to Germany (a long time ago now; now we live in Australia), I learned so many new words because we went to the hardware so often. I haven't been to many hardwares while abroad since that time as they are mostly out of the cities (Baumärkte). But I agree, interesting places to forage. But do you find anything particularly different to home there?

Ah, another Mettlach fan! I will get back there someday!

Lavandula

Waterstones in Bradford

It's beautiful! Did you know that Maastricht (NL) also has a bookshop in a decommissioned church?

Lavandula

no, but you hum it and I'll play along ;-)

Hema isn't really a discount shop, and like many Dutch chains is always on the edge of collapse now thanks to capital investment funds, which are mostly more into asset stripping than managing capital and assets it seems.
Action is a discount shop.

I like our bookshop/library/museum and I used to like a kitchenware shop in town until it changed hands, became organised and more than a tad twee.
But I don't really have a favourite shop, I hate shopping for anything.
Actually maybe my favourite shop is my online supermarket for my home delivery each week.

I love to shop while away on holidays. I never buy dustable objects, I buy something practical that becomes a trip memory. Like a pair of winter gloves or a small coin purse.

Our luggage went to Gatwick once, while we were in Sicily. I had to buy something warm and found a lovely pale blue knitted cardigan. I wore it and wore it and always thought of our flight, luggage debacle, and how snug my cardigan felt.

Years ago I loved the huge bookstores like Borders, Barnes and Noble and Waterstones. Heaven. Particularly if there were some comfy chairs and a cafe.

The Bon Marché department store in Paris. We love everything about it and pay a visit on every trip to Paris (note: best men's sock department in Europe ).
Also in Paris: L'Ibis Rouge on blvd Raspail for vintage costume jewelry. Visited the first time decades ago while a student at the Sorbonne. Still haven't kicked the habit.
...and L'Écume des Pages, a terrific bookstore a few doors down from Les Deux Magots. On our last visit in December we found a beautifully illustrated book explaining the symbolism in classic paintings.
In Suhr, Switzerland: the huge Pfister furniture store, we've bought most of our furniture there.
In Florence: the Ginori 1735 flagship store -- it's like a gallery of fine tableware.
In Dresden: Tradition & Form, a great place for high quality Christmas decorations made in the Erzgebirge. They offer modern and traditional decorations, new and antique. A short walk from the Frauenkirche.

And my husband says to add Wega, a stationery store in Lugano, Switzerland, that sell cards, beautiful pens, and lots of quirky decor items for the home. Every time we go there, my husband finds something he "needs".

I hate shopping. Period.
In Spain, though, I love the covered food markets like Mercado de Atarazanas in Málaga, Mercado Central and Mercado Colon in Valencia, La Boquería and Sant Antoní in Barcelona, Lonja del Barranco in Sevilla,etc,
Not only for their food courts but also for their mostly beautiful architecture.
We live in Belgium and also often drive to northern France to the Auchan Hypermarket. They have a much wider selection of luxury food items than we have in Belgium. That's where I like to stroll.

Also love BHV. Clothes, shoes, housewares, toys, bedding, hardware! You can get anything you need…One of my favorite stops when we used to go to Paris every year.

This little antique shop in my town. Unfortunately it is in the process of liquidation and on the point of closing, so I invite you to buy something, even if it is online, to help it.

The Santa Maria Novella shop in Florence, Italy...and, every one of their boutiques in France, New York.....anywhere.......their scents are a dream....

That gelato shop in Rome. The one by the piazza....

I love Le Bon Marche too. I love going to supermarkets and fresh food markets whereever I am just to see what the locals eat. In London I love Selfridges

I also love Liberty’s because the inside of the store is so beautiful.

Shopping is part of the fun of any trip for me. I enjoy visiting supermarkets and small gourmet grocery shops to see the different products.
I love Peter Jones in Sloane Square London, and Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street. Fortnum and Mason is always fun, their packaging is really the draw for me I think and their specialty teas. Liberty is beautiful to wander around in but I never seem to buy much there, except a really great summer hat once.

In Florence I love Madova for gloves, there is a great vintage jewellery store on via Maggio called Bona Tondinelli Bijoux, Angela Caputi for really fun costume jewellery. The MaxMara store there is really good with very good sales staff, Rinascente is also a favourite and their rooftop restaurant is a great spot for lunch or a drink. Jennifer Tattanelli across from the Pitti Palace has been a fave of mine for a long time, she is so nice and her staff are all super helpful.

Valvona and Crolla, an Italian delicatessen in Edinburgh.

Liberty in London.