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Kurfürstendamm, Tauentzienstraße and Friedrichstraße are the main three shopping streets in Berlin. You’ll find inexpensive shops around Tauentzienstraße and Alexanderplatz. Friedrichstraße with the “Friedrichstadtpassagen” shopping centre and the Galeries Lafayette department store as well as the west side of Ku’damm are decidedly upmarket – which is reflected in the prices. A good mix of shops can be found in the arcades at Potsdamer Platz, Schlossstraße in the south of Berlin and the Gesundbrunnencenter in the north.

Normally, all shops are open between 10am and 8pm on Mondays to Fridays; on Saturdays many open at 9am, but close at 4pm. In the four weeks before Christmas, shops are allowed to stay open until 6pm. During special events (for example during the IFA International Broadcasting Exhibition or the Berlinale Film Festival) special opening hours may be in force.

Most shops in the city centre accept credit cards such as Visa, Euro/Mastercard and American Express, less commonly Diner’s Club. Almost all shops take EC-cards.

If you feel that you are not being treated fairly or if a product you have bought proves to be faulty (and an exchange is refused), you can contact the consumer protection association.

End-of-season sales take place at the end of January and the end of July. But you’ll be able to find bargains throughout the year in the department stores and shops, often laid out on special stands right next to the main entrance.

The best fashion and designer stores, selling coveted labels such as Gucci, Versace, Jil Sander, DKNY or Prada, can be found on the west side of Ku’damm and in Friedrichstraße. Kaufhaus des Westens sells a good large range of ladies’ and gentlemen’s fashions (see Shops & Markets) .

Apart from large multi-media and CD-store chains such as WOM (Karstadt, Wertheim), Saturn, MediaMarkt, Promarkt and Kaufhof, you will find a vast selection of CDs at Kulturkaufhaus Dussmann (see Shops) , at Kiepert as well as in the Kaufhaus des Westens or KaDeWe (see Shops & Markets) .

If you’re looking for gifts and souvenirs to take home, try the Europa-Center (see Kurfürstendamm) and the KaDeWe (see Shops & Markets) . There are also souvenir shops in Unter den Linden (near Pariser Platz), on Potsdamer Platz as well as at Checkpoint Charlie.

Most antiques shops are clustered south of Nollendorfplatz (see Kreuzberg & Schöneberg) and in the smaller streets off Kurfürstendamm. However, the flea and art fair on the Straße des 17 Juni (see Shops & Markets) and the antiques shops in the S-Bahn arches between Friedrichstraße and Museumsinsel are often much better value and offer a wider range of goods and antiques.

In Potsdam as in other small towns, there are many excellent places to shop for arts and crafts items or clothes. A good place for bargain hunters is the “B96” shopping centre, situated on the national road with the same number. Here many fashionable items are sold at heavily discounted prices.