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Grocery Stores (and more) in Vienna - Local Recommendations

One of my favorite things to do in a new city is to explore the supermarkets and gourmet grocery stores. There are a few in Vienna that are worth a visit - I thought I would give an overview.

Gourmet Grocery Stores:

Meinl am Graben - This is the OG gourmet grocery store in Vienna. Located at the intersection of the Graben and Kohlmarkt in the First District, Meinl has two floors of gorgeous food, including ready to eat items and a dairy case of your dreams. But I think that the chocolate section is the real highlight, particularly during Easter and Christmas. For a great view of the Graben, go upstairs and look out the windows next to the bakery.

Billa Corso at Hoher Markt - While there are several Billa Corso (the high end version of the ubiquitious Billa chain) around the city, the primo location is here at Hoher Markt next to the notable Ankeruhr. Several levels in this shop include great options on the go as well as Billa standards. (Note - the Billa Corso at Neuer Markt, also in the city center and also very nice, is open on Sundays).

Interspar am Schottentor - This is the new kid on the block, the gourmet version of the Spar chain located in an old bank. The setting is stunning. While this location offers typical Spar products, you will also find good food to go as well as unique items.

Regular Grocery Stores

Since I'm on the topic, I can also give some normal grocery store insight. In Vienna, you will find a Billa or a Spar on nearly every corner of the city. Although these can be of varying sizes, the will offer the same products essentially. As mentioned above, larger Billas are called Billa Corso and Spar has Eurospar (a bit bigger) and Interspar (quite big, carrying household items as well). Any of these are worth a browse.

You can also find Hofer (known as Aldi in the US) and Lidl shops throughout the city. Hofer is known for having the best produce selections of all grocery stores.

And finally, you will see the very cheap PennyMarkt around town as well as large Turkish grocery chains like Etsan.

You might also spot a Mueller around town. Mueller has just about everything, including toys, high end make up, perfums and also food. Kind of fun to poke around.

Drug Stores

This is a misleading title as drug stores, unlike Walgreens or CVS, in Austria do not sell drugs - not even over the counter meds. For any type of meds, you need to go to an Apotheke. The common "drug" stores in Austria are DM and BIPA. These shops sell a larger range of body care products, make up, cleaning supplies and some snacks. Locals really love DM and particularly their Balea range of products, which are cheap and good quality (make good gifts).

I hope this is useful!

Edit to add a nugget - In Austria, the price of bottled and canned drinks includes a Pfand (deposit) which you can see on the side of the drink in a Euro amount. You are expected to return these bottles/cans to Pfand machines in the grocery store - they all have the machines now. You stick your can/bottle in the machine and you get a paper receipt, which is a credit. You can take this ticket to the cashier and apply the credit to your purchase. In other words, don't just throw away your drink bottles/cans. You might observe people these days actually digging in public garbage cans to fish out drink containers as a way to pay their grocery bills. Just so you know.

Edit to add another nugget - In Vienna, grocery stores (and any stores, really) close by 8:00 pm, many even earlier at 7:00 pm. On Saturdays, all shops are closed by 6:00 pm. On Sundays, all shops are closed, with a few exceptions - for example, Billa Praterstern, Spar Pronto at Hauptbahnhof and at Wien Mitte, Billa and BIPA at Franz Joseph Bahnhof, Billa Corso at Neuer Markt. There are a few Turkish shops and gas stations open as well. Note that only food is available. If you need diapers or healthcare items, go to the BIPA at Franz Joseph Bahnhof

Posted by
15 posts

Useful? It's like you bugged our house! We just had a whole conversation about eating a couple meals at grocery stores while in Vienna. Thank you!!

Posted by
5416 posts

Interspar am Schottentor truly is an amazing space, check out the Google reviews. People love that place as did I. The restaurant that is part of it is pretty good as well.

Posted by
10 posts

Thank you for this Emily. I will be in Vienna in a couple of weeks. There may be a night (or two) that I decide to relax and eat in the room, so this information is timely (and reminds me to pack a "spork"). I'll be staying across from Stadtpark on Parkring. I see there is a Billy Corsa and SPAR Gourmet nearby(ish); not the locations you mentioned, but maybe they will do in terms of ready-to-eat selection?

If I want to buy wine do grocery stores sell wine or would I need to go to a wine shop?

Posted by
29647 posts

What Emily has told us in the past but didn't mention here (unless I overlooked it) is that Viennese supermarkets don't keep the extended hours some of us are used to. Stores are likely to close no later than 8 PM, and I think Sunday hours are shorter if they exist at all. Visiting Vienna during the summer when the days were long, I had a hard time wrapping up my sightseeing early enough to catch a supermarket before it closed.

Posted by
3429 posts

Emily. I love your posts. They are so helpful. I’ve bookmarked most of them.
Hopefully I’ll return to Vienna before I’m too achy and too old to travel.
Thanks for all your advice!

Posted by
18014 posts

At the Hauptbahnhof, there is a very large Interspar and a good size Billa Plus on the lower level. Then one floor above is a smaller version of each.

One block away is a Hofer.

The only one open on Sunday is the Interspar Pronto (the smaller version on street level.) It is so crowded that day they literally put up barriers to keep the customer traffic flowing in one direction.

I look forward to my return later this month.

Posted by
2618 posts

You are expected to return these bottles/cans to Pfand machines in the grocery store -

You get the refund only if the cans/bottles are in their original shape, otherwise the machine can't read the bar code printed on them. So don't squeeze or crush the cans/bottles.

You may return the cans/bottles in any grocery store, not necessarily the one where you have bought them.

Posted by
1559 posts

I like the Spar Markets in Austria. Even though they are driving smaller business and local places out of business. Some places they are even open Sunday morning. We grew accustomed to their roasted peanuts in the shell from Egypt and of course Kelly's snacks. Manner Wafers too. Big box comes to Austria.

Posted by
5970 posts

I am unaware of any big box stores in Austria. Spars are typically tiny. Every grocery store sells Kelly’s chips (it’s Austrian, i think) and Manner (definitely Austrian). The only Spar open on a Sunday in Vienna is the tiny one in Hauptbahnhof.

Posted by
1559 posts

Maybe Big Box was not the right phrasing. And I must say I was taking all or Austria into account. Have you seen any of these new stores outside of Wien? SPAR, MPREIS, and even BILLA are being built across Austria taking business away from local groceries. Remember ADEG? How many are left? It's nice to have these new stores and many cater to tourism along with the local population at the expense of the disappearing smaller family stores.

Posted by
2618 posts

Smaller groceries and supermarkets cannot survive given the (price) pressure by the four big chains.
REWE (BILLA, BIPA, ADEG, PENNY), SPAR, HOFER (ALDI) and LIDL have a combined food market share of about 95%.
UNIMARKET just gave up and will sell all 60+ shops. REWE tried to acquire MPREIS last year, but did not succeed.