Coop Järntorget — Supermarket in Gamla Stan, Stockholm

Coop Järntorget is a branch of the Coop chain, and a small one: a compact supermarket in Gamla Stan where the aisles are narrow and the shelves hold a bit of everything rather than a full weekly range. You walk in off Järntorget and find the essentials for eating laid out in a few short runs.

The chilled beer is Carlsberg, sold cold and easy to add to a picnic; if you want anything stronger, this branch only stocks beer at 3.5 percent, and spirits mean the state store. Small packs of sliced salami go with bread and cheese for a light meal, and traditional croissants and brioches are a quick breakfast with coffee. Nachos and cookies are the sort of thing you carry back to a hotel room, along with forgotten toiletries.

The shop is well stocked in the morning and thins out toward evening, so the later you come the less you will find on the shelves. Queues build through the day, narrow aisles make them worse, and prices here run higher than at other Coop stores.

There is a return service for plastic and metal containers, which takes a little off the bill. For a lunch stop in the Old Town, the moderate prices for what you actually buy make it work: a couple of cold beers, salami and a cheese pastry came to about €7, and pastries cost just over €1 with a cappuccino at €1.80 from the Italian machine.

Come in the morning for the fullest shelves, or accept a thinner range for the convenience of a 10 pm close on a street in the middle of the historic centre.