Graz shops at two speeds: the baroque Altstadt lanes with their courtyard boutiques and 450-year-old bakery, and Lend across the Mur, where old butcher shops are now screen-print studios. Pumpkin seed oil is the souvenir everyone carries home.
Graz's largest farmers' market fills the square behind the Opera Monday to Saturday, roughly 06:00 to 13:00. Some 150 Styrian growers sell dark-green kürbiskernöl, Vulkanland apples, goat cheese, horseradish and schnapps straight from the farm.
Trading on Stempfergasse since 1932, this deli-bar stacks its counter with open-faced Brötchen — beef tartare, egg and caper, smoked trout — while the shop side sells Styrian wines, oils and packed gift hampers. Closed Sunday.
Austria's most photographed bakery front: a carved and gilded 1888 facade on Hofgasse, on a business documented since 1569 and holding the imperial warrant. Buy Kaisersemmel, Lebkuchen hearts and the double-eagle-stamped loaves.
The medieval lane climbing from Hauptplatz towards the Schlossberg is Graz's densest run of one-off shops — hat makers, herb sellers, silversmiths and vintage dealers wedged into narrow houses with vaulted passages cutting through to hidden courtyards.
Founded 1873 and still family-run, this eight-floor Sackstraße flagship was rebuilt by BEHF Architects in 2010 around a glass-roofed atrium. Austrian labels, a large Trachten floor and the Freiblick rooftop café facing the Schlossberg.
Across the Mur, the Lend quarter turned former workshops into screen-print studios, ceramic ateliers, record shops and vintage furniture dealers. Mariahilferstraße and the lanes off Lendplatz are the spine; most open around midday and stay open late.
The pedestrian Herrengasse runs arrow-straight from Hauptplatz to the Iron Gate square, mixing international chains with Austrian names and the old Buchhandlung Moser bookshop for maps, Styrian cookbooks and German-language design titles.
The city's main covered mall sits at Lazarettgürtel 55, ten minutes by tram line 5 from the centre: around 60 stores over two levels, a supermarket, and parking under the building. Weekday closing is 19:00, Saturday 18:00.
At Paulustorgasse 4 beside the old city gate, the regional crafts institute sells juried Styrian work: hand-woven linen, loden cloth by the metre, carved wood, and dirndls cut to traditional Styrian patterns rather than festival costume.
Smaller and quieter than Kaiser-Josef-Platz, this morning market on the baroque Karmeliterplatz draws growers from the eastern Styrian hills with cured meats, sheep cheese, elderflower syrup and jars of pumpkin seed pesto.
The upper end of Sackstraße, below the Schlossberg cliff, holds Graz's antique dealers in the ground floors of baroque palais: Biedermeier furniture, Habsburg-era prints, militaria and silver, with courtyards and arcades running back off the street.
The old approach road from the station and the square behind it form Graz's most international shopping strip — Turkish and Balkan grocers, spice sellers, halal butchers and cheap textile shops, trading well past the Altstadt's 18:00 shutter time.