You can see the big A for Apotheke in this photo of the Rathaus (reflected in the big Apotheke window).

Buurtaal wrote about this phenomenon a few weeks ago (in German – here’s an English article about the subject).

If you buy something, most of these chemists (pharmacists) give you a small present. A pack of paper handkerchiefs is good. The worst is if you get something really expensive, like tablets for 600 euros, and they feel obliged to give you something ‘valuable’ that may be not to your taste. There’s one down the street here that gives tokens (Taler) which you can use to buy half a roll at a local bakery and so on. I just hand the tokens back – my life is complicated enough already.

This week, the Hirsch Apotheke gave me a small soap in the form of the A for Apotheke. I am very pleased with this because it is so bizarre.