I'm not that picky!
I'm not that picky!
http://blogs.codehaus.org/people/geir/archives/001657_overheard_from_a_friend_in_leiden.html
Yesterday Geir posted a little comment I made on Skype right before I went off grocery shopping in the closest supermarket (worth of that name) I could find: in Antwerp (roughly 100 miles from where I live).
Now, that makes me look like a paranoid picky Italian (which by the way, I am, and proud of being so), but let's look at the facts:
The average supermarket here in the Netherlands has approximately 15,000 SKUs (stock keeping units, or in other words, number of products on their shelf) compared to a mere 42,000 in the UK (and oh, boy, the UK sucks in comparison to Italy)
On top of that there are no international chains bringing regional products to my table (see this paper by Coriolis Research around page 32). There are only three in the Netherlands:
So, what are our options? We take our chances with Albert Heijn, but it's not always fun to go to a supermarket with empty shelves, we try Sligro (a wholesale for restaurants with decent choice but really their smallest pack of prawns is like 5 kilos), or we end up going to Belgium at our beloved Carrefour, but that's 100 miles away and it makes a good weekend road trip...
Now, that makes me look like a paranoid picky Italian (which by the way, I am, and proud of being so), but let's look at the facts:
The average supermarket here in the Netherlands has approximately 15,000 SKUs (stock keeping units, or in other words, number of products on their shelf) compared to a mere 42,000 in the UK (and oh, boy, the UK sucks in comparison to Italy)
On top of that there are no international chains bringing regional products to my table (see this paper by Coriolis Research around page 32). There are only three in the Netherlands:
- Aldi: specializing in low-cost low-value goods (yummy - no fresh stuff)
- Tengelmann: they're OK, but they're in Germany, I go to their Plus supermarket when visiting Koln or Dusseldorf (never seen one of their shops around here)
- AHold: or for the locals Albert Heijn which is the only bearable supermarket, but constantly plagued by stocking issues (finding milk there is like gambling, but maybe in Vegas you have better odds).
So, what are our options? We take our chances with Albert Heijn, but it's not always fun to go to a supermarket with empty shelves, we try Sligro (a wholesale for restaurants with decent choice but really their smallest pack of prawns is like 5 kilos), or we end up going to Belgium at our beloved Carrefour, but that's 100 miles away and it makes a good weekend road trip...
Posted by Pier
at 2:43 PM
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