The railway station held another attraction during the Cold War. The ground level and the underground platforms on the "western" side of the station had so called "Intershops", created specifically for travellers from West Berlin who did not want to pass through the East German border controls. Initially just mobile trollies offering alcohol and tobacco, they were soon shops integrated into the station offering food, alcohol, tobacco, books, toys, jewellery, cosmetics, gift items, and more. One could disembark from the U-Bahn, make a purchase, and then get back on the next train and go back to West Berlin, all without going through East German border controls. Purchases could be made with any fully convertible currency, such as U.S. dollars, French francs, pounds sterling, Swiss francs, and especially the West German Deutschmark. The merchandise was offered duty-free, which made especially the alcohol and tobacco products particularly attractive to passengers from West Berlin. This was also known to the West Berlin customs agency, which sometimes checked travellers coming from the Friedrichstrasse at their first station in West Berlin.