EDEKA Skalitzer Straße — Supermarket in Kreuzberg, Berlin

This is one branch of EDEKA on Skalitzer Straße in Kreuzberg, a short walk from Prinzenstraße station, and it is the kind of shop you use because it is on your way rather than because you planned around it. The hours are the draw: 7 am to 10 pm six days a week.

What you can count on finding is specific rather than broad. The chocolate bar is the one item worth naming, because it is the sort of thing this branch actually has when a bigger shop has sold out. Croissants and rolls sit in open drawers for you to pick up yourself, and the bakery aisle is where the bread and pastry side of a breakfast comes from.

Inside, the shop runs on screens and self-service. Self-checkout lanes take your basket, and a bottle return machine sits on site for empties. Fruit and vegetables need weighing separately before you scan them, so look for the scale in the produce section rather than at the till.

The price side is the reason to keep it in rotation: a basket lands somewhere between €10 and €30, and the shelves are cheaper than other supermarkets in the area. That is the trade for a shop where the self-checkouts and bottle return machines do not always work. If you need a full weekly shop with everything on the list, this branch will frustrate you; if you need a chocolate bar, a pastry or a few basics on the way home before 10 pm, it does the job.