Coop Östgötagatan — Supermarket in SoFo, Stockholm

Coop Östgötagatan is a branch of Coop on Östgötagatan in SoFo, and the first thing you notice inside is the size of it: the aisles run long and the shelves are full, so a quick errand can turn into a slow walk past everything.

The salad stand is the thing to head for. You build your own bowl from the counter, and the fish mix brings salmon, tuna and shrimp together in one serving. The bakery side is the other reason to linger: the traditional cakes are the kind of thing you buy a slice of on the way home.

The shop works as a full supermarket rather than a corner stop. Staff service stands out in the small things, such as helping someone work out whether the oranges are worth buying. The layout after the refurnishing takes some getting used to, so give yourself a minute to find your bearings rather than assuming the first aisle is where you left it.

Prices here run high for the area. Weekday afternoons can get loud when nearby school students fill the store, so a morning or an evening visit is the calmer choice.

What it suits is a proper stock-up in SoFo with a salad or a cake thrown in, rather than a specialist errand. The range is wide and the hours are long, and that combination covers most of what a visitor needs from a supermarket.