Spar in Dutch means spruce. As in a spruce tree. As in the logo of the supermarket chain. It was started in the Netherlands as De Spar: Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig. Nothing German about it. The fact that ‘spar’ means ‘save’ in German is a happy coincidence.
@@joebloggs2473 it is a franchise yes, it is originally Dutch though you can look it up... They have a selection of stores all through Europe. So even though they might be expensive, they're doing something right ;)
The only coincidence between saving and 'spar' is in the etymology of the word, because Spar is hella expensive. Especially if it's a Spar store within a tourist location, you'll get an extra bonus upcharge of about 20%
@@patrickd9551 There is no similar etymology between Spar (the supermarket) and spar the German word for saving. The supermarket is an acronym that doesn’t mention saving. It translates as something like ‘by cooperation in unison all (shall) profit regularly.
This was really surprising when I visited Luxembourg this summer. Most products were primarily labeled in Dutch, even though almost nobody there speaks the language.
@@qwertyuiopzxcfgh Of some brands the products have two sides, a primary Dutch one and a primary French one. The stockers just don't pay attention to that.
And northern France which used to be part of the Low Countries. Lille is still called Rijssel in Vlaamse. Dunkirk is Duinenkerken. Ostend is Oostenden. The old names for produce is still used.
Fun fact: Spar has nothing to do with German. It is a Dutch acronym. Before the second world war, that was a bit en vogue to name companies as acronyms. SPAR stands for "Samen Profiteren Allen Regelmatig" (Together All Profit Regularly). The HQ is still in the Netherlands. Another internationally well known acronym is HEMA "Hollandse Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam" (Dutch Unified Prices Company Amsterdam). HEMA was the first retailer asking the same price for articles throughout the Netherlands.
The original name was DE SPAR, which completes the acronym: Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig (By Working Together All Profit Regularly).
As Dutchie I was curious about non-Dutchies perspective on the products. But vla is just a dessert, not something to quench your thirst, I don’t think they advertise it like a thirst quencher. But hey, great video, not 100% accurate, but can’t really expect that either, it’s also pretty much interpretation. Oh, and about the sprinkles, dark chocolate ones are better than the milk chocolate ones! (And the vlokken version even better! Oh, and try Dutch peanutbutter with hagelslag or vlokken (dark chocolate ones of course))
The first time I visited Utrecht, I bought the most incredible cookies at Boon's Market. They were in the bakery section (not on the shelves with the packaged cookies).. I took a picture of the label so I could find them next time I visited from the U.S., .....But alas... next time I went, everyone said they hadn't seen them in a while,, but they all remembered the cookie when I showed them a picture 😆 ,,, They called them "Lava cookies". They were like a slightly Biscoff tasting shortbread filled with a caramel filling (nt overly sweet( with a touch of zeezout (sea salt 😆) .. They were rich, so you could only eat one... but YUM! Jumbo was a pretty cool store too. Love the choice of yogurts, cheese, etc. compared to what we have in the U.S. I also couldn't believe how many stores sold huge paprika peppers! You NEVER see them in the states like that! I need to come back..
I think what she means with "it looks like it would quench your thirst" is because in a lot of countries (certainly where I'm from), you only find drinkable things in milk cartons. Yoghurt, vla, and anything else, is found in other types of packages like tetrapack boxes, plastic containers, or glass jars. The first time I visited the netherlands I absolutely bought a carton of vla thinking it was vanilla flavored milk lol
The description of Spar is hilarious. You'll find in fact that no two Spars are alike... it's a franchise that allows a LOT of freedom to the franchisees, so they very much adapt to the tastes and needs of the neighborhood they are in.
This exactly. I really hate the Spar. It's more expensive than Albert Heijn and it lacks a a lot of products in their assortment. In my opinion Albert Heijn is the best because of the quality of readily made meals and the possibility to use your smartphone as a self-checkout handscanner. Jumbo is a great second, no real reason except having Frank Lammers in their ads.
There are only 2 peppernoten factories in the Netherlands: Bolletje and Van Delft. Lidl pepernoten are made in the same factory as boleltje, only difference is lidl ones have more sugar. I worked for one of these companies.
Another common one in the North and great for your hard-to-pronounce-list: Poiesz And Lidl in my opinion does something more special than being just a discount supermarket. Their products are high quality, but they keep costs down by sticking to basic and pure ingredients and not much variation in packaging size. Hence the lower price.
The plastic wrapping of vegetables is indeed something one can discuss about very well. The negative side is - obviously - the extra plastic that has to be produced, and ends as waste. The positive side is that it keeps the vegetables fresher much longer, so less waste of food. For a humble consumer, it's not possible to assess if the one outweights the other.
I'm so fascinated at how cheap even the most expensive grocery store chain is in the Netherlands, significantly beating the prices of the cheapest grocery stores in Seattle, WA.
Are US prices more expensive across the board? I live in England (in Cambridge, so it's not cheap - thank god for Aldi!) and the rumour seems to be that fresh produce in particular is very expensive in the US, which is why comparatively cheaper ready meals and fast food are so popular. Is the discrepancy between fresh and produce real, or are prices just higher across the board? Sorry, just curious!
@@misialubiejewska2041 I don't know, honestly. I've only ever lived in the greater Seattle area. It's probably not as expensive across the board, but I can't say for sure.
One of the reasons for this is that we had a grocery store price war from around 2003-2007. It started when Albert Heijn lowered prices for over 1000 products causing other supermarkets to respond which all resulted in competing for low prices (price war on the dutch wikipedia page has a little section about this event). Comparing prices to the US might be a bit hard since there is a huge difference in infrastructure and logistics but if you cross the border into Belgium you can already notice the higher prices.
I left the Netherlands 9 months ago. I was living there for a while. You definitely made me remember all those super markets :) thanks Erika, good memories 4 me ...
Oh my word I love your sense of humour! What could have been a boring video (like, it's groceries) was made fun and entertaining and had me smiling throughout! Dankie! (as we say in baby dutch)
The main reason product information tends to be in Dutch and French is because that way the manufacturer can offer the same packaging in the Dutch and Belgian (and French) markets. In Belgium by law both languages need to be there. You also (certainly in the east) find a lot of packaging that has German information on it so the product can be sold in Germany (and Austria).
I used to study at Leiden University and live in Hazerswoude Rijndijk. There is a Hoogvliet supermarket. What I find interesting are the singling animals (like pigs) in the supermarket.
The major difference between American supermarkets and the Dutch - or European in general - is that at the checkout you are supposed your bag your just bought items. No checkoutpersonell is going to do that for you. On my trips throughout the US I noticed that lines at checkout were immensely long, only to find out that checkoutpersonell doesn't only present the check to the customer, but only bags the just sold items. Checkout time is extremely long due to that prolonged process. Forget about running a quick errand - usually you end up after someone who has a fully loaded cart - or several of them. Even expresslanes allow for multiple items.
Yeah American supermarkets used to be faster as they'd have a cashier and a bagboy in every line. By the 1990s, new stores were adding carousels for the cashier to use to save money. The older stores usually kept 1 or 2 bag boys that had to move around 4 or more lines. But they had other jobs like gathering shopping carts and stocking stuff. I'd always take over for them at my grocery store and bag everything. There are a few stores here where you bag your own stuff though. Aldi is the big one. The other one I went to was Save-A-Lot which was similar to Aldi with minimal stocking.
This is the content I needed and didn't know. As a fan of grocery shopping and supermarkets, I always wondered which were the available options in a specific country - which is very handy when moving abroad, so it was a delight to watch this video. I particularly loved the price x quality graphic, so satisfying as a finance/saving enthusiast.
When travelling, I love going to supermarkets to check out all the products being sold because it's so different from here. This video gave me great insights. Thanks!
The fruits and veggies are located near the entrance to make you feel good about yourself and spend more. Super markets are actually allowed to sell all sorts of alcohol as long as the alcohol percentage inside is less than 15%. Also Lidl isn't that cheap compared to something like the Appie. Small sample size, I know... but last time I went to the Lidl it was for salmon and shrimp. AH's salmon was €24,- while at Lidl it was €24,90. Shrimp was also a bit more expensive at Lidl but don't remember by how much.
5:45 the reason it is in French is that most of these products are also sold in Belgium supermarkets where they use both Dutch and French. 7:16 it is confirmed by maestro and vpay that starting march 2023 all news cards wil be Mastercard debit and Visa debit cards so no need to worry about this anymore.
Same in Maastricht. It is like the Carrefour city or AH to go stores. Freaking useless garbage. You walk in there thinking it is a normal supermarket. Then you walk out because they don't have what you want and made you feel poor.
The reason some products have Dutch and French labels is because of Belgium, products are often shared between the 2 countries because of the common language, and since a part of Belgium speaks French, some products that are made for the Belgian and the Dutch maarket will have French and Dutch on them.
Last summer i had the chance to visit the Netherlands a few times after a long time. And it was amazin to go Grocery Shopping there. So many things are way cheaper than in Germany. A small Jar of Peanut Butter costs like 3€ while one that is 3x as much is like 2€ over there. Or those Meat Krokets. 4 are 3,50€ while 8 over there are less than 2,50. Always worth the Trip
nice video, in my littel city we have plus, albert hein and a spar, i've gone to all of them but i tend to go to the spar because the products are fresher
re. frrench, i was confused aswell when i was a kid why it was in french but it is because of belgium, which is a bilingual dutch french country so most brands just threw up their hands and copy their labels in french (or in dutch depending on your perspective) so everyone in belgium can understand it and the brands don't have to design more labels. it also works because french and dutch adjectives take opposite places before and after words so they say the noun once and the adjective twice
hello! just wanted to say i got here (enschede) yesterday and your videos about the netherlands, enschede, and these supermarkets really helped me! i've been on my own so far but thanks to the bits of context from these i dont feel so lost, and i had to go out and get groceries and necessities yesterday, so i went to a lidl, a het goed, and an action! :) i'll be studying at university of twente, but i passed by saxion too :D
Now that you mention it, when I was a kid, we also had a COOP in Antwerp/Belgium, but it somehow disappeared by the end of the sixties or early 70's. We pronounced it coöp or co-op and my mum told us it came from being a coöperative organisation. No idea if this was true and no idea it those Coop's had anything to do with the "coop" you mentioned in the clip at 1:32
I live in Harderwijk and I have Vomar in my city. It's not a bad supermarket, before Vomar opened in that spot it used to be Deen and it's safe to say they both are very similar. From my research I think it's a mix between Aldi and Dirk. They also have the aisle that Aldi has with wide range of things that are sold untill they are sold out and then they are never seen again.
The green tree is a spar in dutch lady, it is co - op, it is broek with an oe as in shoe.... Lidl has good quality beers chocolates and bread.. meats how ever are crazy expensive.
Albert Heijn is a major player in the US, owning Stop And Shop, Giant Food, Giant Food Stores/Martin's, Hannaford and Food Lion. Despite the similar names Giant Food and Giant Food Stores are two very different chains whose territories overlap (Hence the Martin's name).
Spar has nothing to do with Germany, nor is it referring to any German word. It actually is a type of conifer, which also explains its logo. Lidl however is of German origin, like Aldi.
10 or more years ago, we had MANY more supermarkets , but most of them have been bought up by the few remaining chains. RIP EDAH, Konmar, Super, C1000, de Boer, Sanders, Emté
There are certain things that I'll never buy in a supermarket: bread, meat, fish, vegetables, cheese and precooked meals. The first five I buy from my local baker, butcher, fishmonger, cheese shop and greengrocer. And the last one? I love to cook, so that's that. I also often bake my own bread, especially on weekends. No sweets for me.
Best money saving tip: a lot of cities have markets some day of the week, where they sell fresh produce for so much cheaper that the supermarkets and with a better quality. I live in tilburg and we have one every Saturday next to the city centre. Let me tell you these people there don’t know inflation.
Toch puntje van kritiek op deze video. Je laat hier vooral zien hoe de wereld van supermarkten in de randstad eruit zien. Ik geloof best dat er een groot Engelstaligen die deze video kijkt ook daar zal komen maar er zijn heel veel studenten ook in het oosten/noorden van het land. Dit geeft toch een foutive weergave vind ik. Qua aanbod van producten EN supermarkten. Feit dat je Marqt meeneemt in deze video vind ik volkomen onlogisch. Er zijn heel veel meer ketens met meer winkels. Dit is zowat puur Amsterdam. Noem in de titel dan Amsterdam i.p.v. the Netherlands. Verder leuke video, leuk in elkaar gezet. Toevoeging: ik had dit geschreven in het midden van de video. Ik wist niet wat er nog kwam. Het brood is altijd op omdat supermarkten uitrekenen hoeveel brood er verkocht gaat worden gemiddeld op een dag. Dit om verspilling te voorkomen. Dit kost natuurlijk geld voor de winkel. Niet omdat wij het zo erg inslaan dat de supermarkten de vraag niet aankunnen. En bij alcohol. Winkels mogen allerlei soorten alcohol verkopen als het maar maximaal 15% is. Er zijn bijvoorbeeld ook producten zoals mixdrankjes of advocaat.
gast, ze woont in Enschede, Oosterlijker kun je het niet krijgen. 90% van haar materiaal komt ook uit Enschede, ze doet juist een klein beetje Randstad erbij om vollediger te zijn. Bron. Ik woon zelf in Enschede en herken zo'n beetje elke winkel die ze filmt
Buying very cheap fruits and fish and better quality cheese is 100% worth overcoming your social anxiety. Just make a system for ordering as market, "I would like" "yes please" "thank you", that is all you need. Hoogvliet is like AH but cheaper, but only in middle and West. The reason they use French on most labels is to als sell in the other Dutch speaking country; Belgium.
De Spar is a coöperation of small shopkeepers to purchase together so by larger quantities they could pay lower prices for their goods. The CO-OP however was a consumers coöperation: consumers worked together to run shops and buying at larger scale could keep the consumer prices low. Both are Dutch but the same constructions were found in other countries even under the same name.
I like your videos a lot! I can see that you put a lot of effort in them
5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1
Polish contacts asked me, how long they could eat, twice a day a cooked meal, and not eating the same dish twice. Note: there are 184 nationalities in Holland. It took me a few days calculating, result: 22 years, plus a few weeks...... Sometimes you realy must look to find a Dutch shop...
correction: most supermarkets don't accept creditcards. There is a simple reason: it's way too expensive. Our banking system is based upon fair fixed transaction costs. Because it doesn't matter if you transfer 1 or 100 euro, it's all the same in the digital world. There is no reason for a percentage upcharge, except greed. Which coincidentally, creditcard companies are greedy in many regards. Transaction fees, interest and datacollection (to sell for even more profit) /end rant
The reason why a lot of packaging has Dutch and French is because of the "Benelux" - the region encompassing the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which many brands treat as a single market or at least manufacturing region. So the same product in the same packaging might get sold in all of those countries :)
As an occasional Amsterdam tourist, I’d say Albert Hijn is frustrating because of the debit/cash policy and I generally bought most of my food at Markt. I also brought home a bunch of their reusable bags and used them to wrap presents. Jumbo had an entire wall of hagelslaag, which earned them lots of bonus points. I don’t tend to bring home Tony’s bars anymore because they are actually pretty easy to find in the US nowadays. I bring home stroop, hagelslaag and autodrops as my designated Dutch treats.
The part about the alcoholic beverages sold in supermarkets is not correct. Dutch supermarkets are allowe to sell all sorts of alcoholic bevarages, as long as they contain less then 15% alcohol. Hence why Bailey’s sold in the supermarket has 14.9% alcohol and from the liquor store it contains 17% alcohol. Only one product is excluded from this rule, ans that is Port, because it is fortified wine
A smaller upcoming supermarket chain: Boon's markt. They started fairly close to Rotterdam, but have grown to 20 different locations by now. I (hilariously) am a great great granddaughter or something from the original starters, and can regularly bump into far family I haven't met before.
Hunny, just going to the AH! Never realised it wasn’t logical to say it like the band that played ‘take on me’, for non-Dutch speakers! Cuz that’s how we say it: A-ha!
You missed the supermarkets Jan Linders and Nettorama... To also good supermarkets. Especially Nettorama is great and cheap with high quality for your money.
I really love Lidl. Absolutely love it. bought a mattress topper there, a chopping machine, and even a pressure rice cooker for super cheap! God, I love that place. It's like Disneyland for poor young adults.
Such a city perspective on grocery stores. Maybe next time you'll be able to explore the country more and see what we have in the rest of the country. By then, you may have learned the language or how to use a translation app so you can read labels. It's how I managed in Denmark, without knowing any Danish. As for how cheap stores are: it depends on what you buy, and what you expect of the store in general. If you expect neatly filled shelves, you'll have to pay a little more for the extra time that's put into it. If you want to buy specific brands, you might pay more for the brand name. If you want good quality, you may have to pay more (fresh produce at Lidl is good quality, though, so cheap isn't always bad) If you want store employees to be paid and treated decently, you should go to small local businesses instead. If you want a really good deal, cheaper than most grocery stores, and buying locally, markets are the place to go, but if you're in a small town, it's more likely to only be once a week, and usually not even a full day. Those businesses at the market often go from town to town to sell their products, and some towns don't even have a market at all, because no one wants to spend more than they'll earn. And if a town only attracts a small number of businesses that want to set up a market stall, one day a week is enough to let all of them set up at once. Yes, you'll have to interact with people, but it's actually good practice if you need to work on your social skills. And small town markets are so small that you don't have to worry about big crowds of people. A tip: if the baker 't Stoepje is at one of the local markets, you can download the TooGoodToGo app and see if you can get a surprise bag of bread (brood) or biscuits (koek) for cheap at the end of the day. Doesn't work for morning markets (markets that end around noon) as they'll pack up and leave for the next market, but it's great for all day markets or afternoon markets. Now let's talk about how you decided which store is the cheapest: you picked one product to compare. That's the worst way to find out which is cheapest. Try going for a cart of daily/weekly groceries. You'll see that each store has different products priced cheaper. You also didn't talk about product quality, which does make a difference, and is a reason I buy some products at one store, and others at another store. If you have several stores to go to, it's perfectly fine to go from store to store to get the best deals, and to get the products you prefer, all in one shopping trip (which doesn't have to take long if you're as efficient as the average Dutch person) Maybe next time I'll see a video of someone including Jan Linders too. It's where I find products the average AH or Jumbo doesn't sell, because they're more of a southern thing. Like koude schotel, hemelse modder, and nonnevotten. And they sell more local products, with the name of the farms displayed on the packaging. That way, you'll know you're supporting local farms, even when shopping at a chain store.
Last year the "Deen" brand supermarkets were assimilated by Albert Heijn and in a lesser extent by Vomar and Dekamarkt (depending on existing branches of those other brands). So indeed, it only exists in legends and sagas...
Spar in Dutch means spruce. As in a spruce tree. As in the logo of the supermarket chain. It was started in the Netherlands as De Spar: Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig. Nothing German about it. The fact that ‘spar’ means ‘save’ in German is a happy coincidence.
@-Levi -games- You're probably talking about 'spaar' haha
Spar is pure franchise. In Salzburg in the house Mozart was born has a Spar in it.
@@joebloggs2473 it is a franchise yes, it is originally Dutch though you can look it up... They have a selection of stores all through Europe. So even though they might be expensive, they're doing something right ;)
The only coincidence between saving and 'spar' is in the etymology of the word, because Spar is hella expensive.
Especially if it's a Spar store within a tourist location, you'll get an extra bonus upcharge of about 20%
@@patrickd9551 There is no similar etymology between Spar (the supermarket) and spar the German word for saving. The supermarket is an acronym that doesn’t mention saving. It translates as something like ‘by cooperation in unison all (shall) profit regularly.
French is second because it is spoken in Belgium (Wallonia in the south), most products are developped for the Benelux as a whole
Yet most products in Belgium just have their own country specific labels, making this quite a redundant relic of the past.
This was really surprising when I visited Luxembourg this summer. Most products were primarily labeled in Dutch, even though almost nobody there speaks the language.
@@qwertyuiopzxcfgh Of some brands the products have two sides, a primary Dutch one and a primary French one. The stockers just don't pay attention to that.
@@MrAronymous stockers don't get paid to read labels, just to throw product (onto the shelves).
And northern France which used to be part of the Low Countries. Lille is still called Rijssel in Vlaamse. Dunkirk is Duinenkerken. Ostend is Oostenden. The old names for produce is still used.
Fun fact: Spar has nothing to do with German. It is a Dutch acronym. Before the second world war, that was a bit en vogue to name companies as acronyms. SPAR stands for "Samen Profiteren Allen Regelmatig" (Together All Profit Regularly). The HQ is still in the Netherlands. Another internationally well known acronym is HEMA "Hollandse Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam" (Dutch Unified Prices Company Amsterdam). HEMA was the first retailer asking the same price for articles throughout the Netherlands.
Besides, spar is also a perfectly normal Dutch name. It's a kind of tree. Nothing to do with German at all.
And HEMA had their prices rounded up to 5 cents. So nothing for 4,99 but 5.00 or 4,75.
@@dutchman7623 Only if you pay cash. If you pay by card, it's not rounded up.
@@mariadebake5483 they had begrijpend lezen verleden tijd.
The original name was DE SPAR, which completes the acronym: Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig (By Working Together All Profit Regularly).
As Dutchie I was curious about non-Dutchies perspective on the products. But vla is just a dessert, not something to quench your thirst, I don’t think they advertise it like a thirst quencher. But hey, great video, not 100% accurate, but can’t really expect that either, it’s also pretty much interpretation. Oh, and about the sprinkles, dark chocolate ones are better than the milk chocolate ones! (And the vlokken version even better! Oh, and try Dutch peanutbutter with hagelslag or vlokken (dark chocolate ones of course))
Pindakaas with hagelslag and banana is the way to go!
Vla is basically custard pudding for the English.
jokes on you i drink vla lol
The first time I visited Utrecht, I bought the most incredible cookies at Boon's Market. They were in the bakery section (not on the shelves with the packaged cookies).. I took a picture of the label so I could find them next time I visited from the U.S., .....But alas... next time I went, everyone said they hadn't seen them in a while,, but they all remembered the cookie when I showed them a picture 😆 ,,, They called them "Lava cookies". They were like a slightly Biscoff tasting shortbread filled with a caramel filling (nt overly sweet( with a touch of zeezout (sea salt 😆) .. They were rich, so you could only eat one... but YUM! Jumbo was a pretty cool store too. Love the choice of yogurts, cheese, etc. compared to what we have in the U.S. I also couldn't believe how many stores sold huge paprika peppers! You NEVER see them in the states like that! I need to come back..
I think what she means with "it looks like it would quench your thirst" is because in a lot of countries (certainly where I'm from), you only find drinkable things in milk cartons. Yoghurt, vla, and anything else, is found in other types of packages like tetrapack boxes, plastic containers, or glass jars. The first time I visited the netherlands I absolutely bought a carton of vla thinking it was vanilla flavored milk lol
The description of Spar is hilarious. You'll find in fact that no two Spars are alike... it's a franchise that allows a LOT of freedom to the franchisees, so they very much adapt to the tastes and needs of the neighborhood they are in.
Village spars are the best
spar never fails to make me feel like ive been scammed by a supermarket, sadly its the only supermarket on my way back from work ;-;
This exactly. I really hate the Spar. It's more expensive than Albert Heijn and it lacks a a lot of products in their assortment. In my opinion Albert Heijn is the best because of the quality of readily made meals and the possibility to use your smartphone as a self-checkout handscanner. Jumbo is a great second, no real reason except having Frank Lammers in their ads.
Omdat het een ander type supermarkt is, het zijn veel vaker meer convenience stores net als Jumbo City of AH to go.
Fun fact, there are only about 3 peanutbutter factories in the netherlands that produce almost all brands found in supermarkets.
There are only 2 peppernoten factories in the Netherlands: Bolletje and Van Delft. Lidl pepernoten are made in the same factory as boleltje, only difference is lidl ones have more sugar. I worked for one of these companies.
Het viel me sws al op dat Lidl pindakaas bijna hetzelfde smaakt als Calvé voor de halve prijs. Best goed als je op een budget zit :)
@@Aardappelpurree Behalve dat calve niet word gemaakt waar lidl word gemaakt (teminste de gewoone pindakazen)
Another common one in the North and great for your hard-to-pronounce-list: Poiesz
And Lidl in my opinion does something more special than being just a discount supermarket. Their products are high quality, but they keep costs down by sticking to basic and pure ingredients and not much variation in packaging size. Hence the lower price.
I didn't think that a video about grocery stores could be so wholesome and entertaining, I loved it!
You are a true OG if you remember Super de Boer and Emté
Also Dirk has a walk in fridge
Super de Boer only stopped 9 years ago, so everyone over 15 is a true OG?
C1000 softly crying in the corner
@@Mattdewit holy smokes
And ‘Deen’😥
Don't forget about the Konmar!
The plastic wrapping of vegetables is indeed something one can discuss about very well. The negative side is - obviously - the extra plastic that has to be produced, and ends as waste. The positive side is that it keeps the vegetables fresher much longer, so less waste of food. For a humble consumer, it's not possible to assess if the one outweights the other.
Yes but it tastes bad and causes constipation. I haven't pooped in months!
I'm so fascinated at how cheap even the most expensive grocery store chain is in the Netherlands, significantly beating the prices of the cheapest grocery stores in Seattle, WA.
Are US prices more expensive across the board? I live in England (in Cambridge, so it's not cheap - thank god for Aldi!) and the rumour seems to be that fresh produce in particular is very expensive in the US, which is why comparatively cheaper ready meals and fast food are so popular. Is the discrepancy between fresh and produce real, or are prices just higher across the board? Sorry, just curious!
@@misialubiejewska2041 I don't know, honestly. I've only ever lived in the greater Seattle area. It's probably not as expensive across the board, but I can't say for sure.
One of the reasons for this is that we had a grocery store price war from around 2003-2007. It started when Albert Heijn lowered prices for over 1000 products causing other supermarkets to respond which all resulted in competing for low prices (price war on the dutch wikipedia page has a little section about this event). Comparing prices to the US might be a bit hard since there is a huge difference in infrastructure and logistics but if you cross the border into Belgium you can already notice the higher prices.
don’t you also have taxes added on it though?
@@elenaspano5067 Thats included in the pricetag you see in the shop like in any other place in the world with the exception of the US
Don't know why I'm watching this video as a Dutch person myself but I loved the random cameo of my university
I left the Netherlands 9 months ago. I was living there for a while. You definitely made me remember all those super markets :) thanks Erika, good memories 4 me ...
Oh my word I love your sense of humour! What could have been a boring video (like, it's groceries) was made fun and entertaining and had me smiling throughout! Dankie! (as we say in baby dutch)
The main reason product information tends to be in Dutch and French is because that way the manufacturer can offer the same packaging in the Dutch and Belgian (and French) markets.
In Belgium by law both languages need to be there.
You also (certainly in the east) find a lot of packaging that has German information on it so the product can be sold in Germany (and Austria).
I love how much effort you put in your videos! Keep going!! ♥️
Note: Dirk supermarkets are only located in the west of the Netherlands. In Southeast we have Jan Linders.
I used to study at Leiden University and live in Hazerswoude Rijndijk. There is a Hoogvliet supermarket. What I find interesting are the singling animals (like pigs) in the supermarket.
Loved watching this! As someone that’s lived here my whole life your view on our supermarkets was very enjoyable
The major difference between American supermarkets and the Dutch - or European in general - is that at the checkout you are supposed your bag your just bought items. No checkoutpersonell is going to do that for you.
On my trips throughout the US I noticed that lines at checkout were immensely long, only to find out that checkoutpersonell doesn't only present the check to the customer, but only bags the just sold items. Checkout time is extremely long due to that prolonged process.
Forget about running a quick errand - usually you end up after someone who has a fully loaded cart - or several of them. Even expresslanes allow for multiple items.
Yeah American supermarkets used to be faster as they'd have a cashier and a bagboy in every line. By the 1990s, new stores were adding carousels for the cashier to use to save money. The older stores usually kept 1 or 2 bag boys that had to move around 4 or more lines. But they had other jobs like gathering shopping carts and stocking stuff. I'd always take over for them at my grocery store and bag everything.
There are a few stores here where you bag your own stuff though. Aldi is the big one. The other one I went to was Save-A-Lot which was similar to Aldi with minimal stocking.
All you have to do is use self checkout!
@@marilynfernandez3279 I visited the USA when the self checkout wasn't invented yet.
This is the content I needed and didn't know. As a fan of grocery shopping and supermarkets, I always wondered which were the available options in a specific country - which is very handy when moving abroad, so it was a delight to watch this video. I particularly loved the price x quality graphic, so satisfying as a finance/saving enthusiast.
When travelling, I love going to supermarkets to check out all the products being sold because it's so different from here. This video gave me great insights. Thanks!
The fruits and veggies are located near the entrance to make you feel good about yourself and spend more. Super markets are actually allowed to sell all sorts of alcohol as long as the alcohol percentage inside is less than 15%. Also Lidl isn't that cheap compared to something like the Appie. Small sample size, I know... but last time I went to the Lidl it was for salmon and shrimp. AH's salmon was €24,- while at Lidl it was €24,90. Shrimp was also a bit more expensive at Lidl but don't remember by how much.
The alcohol-thing is right, except when it comes to Port. This is usually around 18% but can be sold at a supermarket. This is the limit though.
5:45 the reason it is in French is that most of these products are also sold in Belgium supermarkets where they use both Dutch and French.
7:16 it is confirmed by maestro and vpay that starting march 2023 all news cards wil be Mastercard debit and Visa debit cards so no need to worry about this anymore.
If you live in Friesland you will encounter the Poiesz as supermarket.
Coop in the University of Twente must be in the top of most expensive and less selection, but still it was nice to see Enschede represented
Same in Maastricht. It is like the Carrefour city or AH to go stores. Freaking useless garbage. You walk in there thinking it is a normal supermarket. Then you walk out because they don't have what you want and made you feel poor.
I love the editing and the amount of research done on this video!!!!!!! You're such an underrated channel
The reason some products have Dutch and French labels is because of Belgium, products are often shared between the 2 countries because of the common language, and since a part of Belgium speaks French, some products that are made for the Belgian and the Dutch maarket will have French and Dutch on them.
Also; they are sold in france and sometimes even switzerland. I found a lot of products with dutch writing on them jn france.
My brother Paul and I are part Dutch on our mom's side of the family. Hello from Tyler Texas U.S.A.
Even though I have never been to the Netherlands and I don’t have any plans to go there, I enjoyed watching the video
Last summer i had the chance to visit the Netherlands a few times after a long time. And it was amazin to go Grocery Shopping there. So many things are way cheaper than in Germany. A small Jar of Peanut Butter costs like 3€ while one that is 3x as much is like 2€ over there. Or those Meat Krokets. 4 are 3,50€ while 8 over there are less than 2,50. Always worth the Trip
Your editing is so cute!!! Makes the viewing experience 10000x more enjoyable ❤
Products with information in French and Dutch are sold also in Belgium and Luxembourg
nice video, in my littel city we have plus, albert hein and a spar, i've gone to all of them but i tend to go to the spar because the products are fresher
re. frrench, i was confused aswell when i was a kid why it was in french but it is because of belgium, which is a bilingual dutch french country so most brands just threw up their hands and copy their labels in french (or in dutch depending on your perspective) so everyone in belgium can understand it and the brands don't have to design more labels. it also works because french and dutch adjectives take opposite places before and after words so they say the noun once and the adjective twice
hello! just wanted to say i got here (enschede) yesterday and your videos about the netherlands, enschede, and these supermarkets really helped me! i've been on my own so far but thanks to the bits of context from these i dont feel so lost, and i had to go out and get groceries and necessities yesterday, so i went to a lidl, a het goed, and an action! :) i'll be studying at university of twente, but i passed by saxion too :D
Now that you mention it, when I was a kid, we also had a COOP in Antwerp/Belgium, but it somehow disappeared by the end of the sixties or early 70's.
We pronounced it coöp or co-op and my mum told us it came from being a coöperative organisation. No idea if this was true and no idea it those Coop's had anything to do with the "coop" you mentioned in the clip at 1:32
Love these videos as I’m soon gonna be studying in the Netherlands please keep making them!!❤️🔥
Hi your probs already studying here but on the how to survive the netherlands channel you will find more useful video's about this country
I live in Harderwijk and I have Vomar in my city. It's not a bad supermarket, before Vomar opened in that spot it used to be Deen and it's safe to say they both are very similar. From my research I think it's a mix between Aldi and Dirk. They also have the aisle that Aldi has with wide range of things that are sold untill they are sold out and then they are never seen again.
The green tree is a spar in dutch lady, it is co - op, it is broek with an oe as in shoe.... Lidl has good quality beers chocolates and bread.. meats how ever are crazy expensive.
Amazing video. I wish I could see it before moving to the Netherlands.
Love how you put a heart around the bread and then just stabbed it keep up the good work
Albert Heijn is a major player in the US, owning Stop And Shop, Giant Food, Giant Food Stores/Martin's, Hannaford and Food Lion. Despite the similar names Giant Food and Giant Food Stores are two very different chains whose territories overlap (Hence the Martin's name).
nice review! and I love how your style of storytelling and effects haha
Spar has nothing to do with Germany, nor is it referring to any German word. It actually is a type of conifer, which also explains its logo. Lidl however is of German origin, like Aldi.
06:20 the Dutch have Dutchified foods from other country's to make it their own :P
Pretty sure it's different from the rest of Europe
10 or more years ago, we had MANY more supermarkets , but most of them have been bought up by the few remaining chains. RIP EDAH, Konmar, Super, C1000, de Boer, Sanders, Emté
Van Eerd and Ahold bought most, I'm afraid that the small regional chains are the next victims. If this happens AH and Jumbo will dominate the market
w8 emte bestaat niet meer?
@@GieleSipel is opgekocht door Jan Linders een paar jaar geleden
There are certain things that I'll never buy in a supermarket: bread, meat, fish, vegetables, cheese and precooked meals. The first five I buy from my local baker, butcher, fishmonger, cheese shop and greengrocer. And the last one? I love to cook, so that's that. I also often bake my own bread, especially on weekends. No sweets for me.
What a great video, you made supermarket shopping look so interesting!
if you put french on a dutch item, you get belgium as a bonus country
Best money saving tip: a lot of cities have markets some day of the week, where they sell fresh produce for so much cheaper that the supermarkets and with a better quality. I live in tilburg and we have one every Saturday next to the city centre. Let me tell you these people there don’t know inflation.
Toch puntje van kritiek op deze video. Je laat hier vooral zien hoe de wereld van supermarkten in de randstad eruit zien. Ik geloof best dat er een groot Engelstaligen die deze video kijkt ook daar zal komen maar er zijn heel veel studenten ook in het oosten/noorden van het land. Dit geeft toch een foutive weergave vind ik. Qua aanbod van producten EN supermarkten. Feit dat je Marqt meeneemt in deze video vind ik volkomen onlogisch. Er zijn heel veel meer ketens met meer winkels. Dit is zowat puur Amsterdam. Noem in de titel dan Amsterdam i.p.v. the Netherlands. Verder leuke video, leuk in elkaar gezet.
Toevoeging: ik had dit geschreven in het midden van de video. Ik wist niet wat er nog kwam. Het brood is altijd op omdat supermarkten uitrekenen hoeveel brood er verkocht gaat worden gemiddeld op een dag. Dit om verspilling te voorkomen. Dit kost natuurlijk geld voor de winkel. Niet omdat wij het zo erg inslaan dat de supermarkten de vraag niet aankunnen. En bij alcohol. Winkels mogen allerlei soorten alcohol verkopen als het maar maximaal 15% is. Er zijn bijvoorbeeld ook producten zoals mixdrankjes of advocaat.
gast, ze woont in Enschede, Oosterlijker kun je het niet krijgen. 90% van haar materiaal komt ook uit Enschede, ze doet juist een klein beetje Randstad erbij om vollediger te zijn.
Bron. Ik woon zelf in Enschede en herken zo'n beetje elke winkel die ze filmt
Buying very cheap fruits and fish and better quality cheese is 100% worth overcoming your social anxiety. Just make a system for ordering as market, "I would like" "yes please" "thank you", that is all you need. Hoogvliet is like AH but cheaper, but only in middle and West.
The reason they use French on most labels is to als sell in the other Dutch speaking country; Belgium.
De Aldi veeel duurder geworden!!! Duurdet dan de AH!!jumbo!!!of poeiz!!!!!
Thank you. I will be attending a study abroad in Amsterdam in a couple months so I appreciate vids like this :)
You forgot Poiesz, one of the most common supermarkets in the north of NL :(
De Spar is a coöperation of small shopkeepers to purchase together so by larger quantities they could pay lower prices for their goods. The CO-OP however was a consumers coöperation: consumers worked together to run shops and buying at larger scale could keep the consumer prices low. Both are Dutch but the same constructions were found in other countries even under the same name.
I like your videos a lot! I can see that you put a lot of effort in them
Polish contacts asked me, how long they could eat, twice a day a cooked meal, and not eating the same dish twice.
Note: there are 184 nationalities in Holland.
It took me a few days calculating, result: 22 years, plus a few weeks......
Sometimes you realy must look to find a Dutch shop...
Almelo at the start of the video, good city.
I think I enjoy these videos a little too much.
This video is so nice to know about food and other things in Neatherland👍👍👍
Your editing style is fantastic!!
correction: most supermarkets don't accept creditcards. There is a simple reason: it's way too expensive.
Our banking system is based upon fair fixed transaction costs. Because it doesn't matter if you transfer 1 or 100 euro, it's all the same in the digital world.
There is no reason for a percentage upcharge, except greed. Which coincidentally, creditcard companies are greedy in many regards. Transaction fees, interest and datacollection (to sell for even more profit)
/end rant
Interesting to see as a dutch person as well, great video
8:30 for the english speakers we say penut cheese. its actualy punut butter.
I thought C1000 was the establisher of but 4 croissants for 1 euro. I remember them costing 55 cents back then, making it an amazing deal.
this was awesomeee, thank u!!
Funny clever and informative video!
Vomar Voordeelmarkt... Hoogvliet... Nettorama... Boni... Mcd... Ga zo nog maar even door. De helft qua ketens is vergeten.
I really like your sarcasm and humor, but also your helpful information. This is the third video I've watched now because of it.
this was amazing, im going to watch every other video on your channel
Thank uu 💛
Next item grocery homestores like picnic home delivery and ghost shops to bring food within 10 minutes at your frontdoor ☺
The reason why a lot of packaging has Dutch and French is because of the "Benelux" - the region encompassing the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which many brands treat as a single market or at least manufacturing region. So the same product in the same packaging might get sold in all of those countries :)
Indeed! Especially when there's only so many Dutch speakers so it's not worth for them to produce packaging for only The Netherlands.
As an occasional Amsterdam tourist, I’d say Albert Hijn is frustrating because of the debit/cash policy and I generally bought most of my food at Markt. I also brought home a bunch of their reusable bags and used them to wrap presents. Jumbo had an entire wall of hagelslaag, which earned them lots of bonus points. I don’t tend to bring home Tony’s bars anymore because they are actually pretty easy to find in the US nowadays. I bring home stroop, hagelslaag and autodrops as my designated Dutch treats.
The part about the alcoholic beverages sold in supermarkets is not correct. Dutch supermarkets are allowe to sell all sorts of alcoholic bevarages, as long as they contain less then 15% alcohol. Hence why Bailey’s sold in the supermarket has 14.9% alcohol and from the liquor store it contains 17% alcohol. Only one product is excluded from this rule, ans that is Port, because it is fortified wine
These videos need more views this is amazing 😁
A smaller upcoming supermarket chain: Boon's markt. They started fairly close to Rotterdam, but have grown to 20 different locations by now.
I (hilariously) am a great great granddaughter or something from the original starters, and can regularly bump into far family I haven't met before.
Very informative, many thx
Really, I get a freaking heart attack from that jumbo voice when I leave the self checkout
"Peanut cheese" LOL
Ah, the innuendo!
great video!!! i moved to amsterdam about 2 months ago and it would've been great if i'd stumbled across your video before i came ;))
I love your videos. Thank you for making them
Those treasure isles in the lidl bring the weirdest stuff, a friend of mine once bought a guitar in the lidl
For honest prices drive to Nordhorn just across the border, go to the Mega shop and get better quality for halve the price.
in the south of the netherlands, you also have a storechain called jan linders, if you are in that region, you should visit one
I loved this video so much too! Great editing. Keep it up erika! :)
really funny to see someone make a video from my area and me seeing it😄
Hunny, just going to the AH!
Never realised it wasn’t logical to say it like the band that played ‘take on me’, for non-Dutch speakers! Cuz that’s how we say it: A-ha!
Why is it not logical? It's just how "A" and "H" are pronounced in Dutch? Hoe zeg je "bh" nou?
this video brought me joy. Thank you!
You missed the supermarkets Jan Linders and Nettorama... To also good supermarkets. Especially Nettorama is great and cheap with high quality for your money.
I really love Lidl. Absolutely love it. bought a mattress topper there, a chopping machine, and even a pressure rice cooker for super cheap! God, I love that place. It's like Disneyland for poor young adults.
Such a city perspective on grocery stores.
Maybe next time you'll be able to explore the country more and see what we have in the rest of the country.
By then, you may have learned the language or how to use a translation app so you can read labels.
It's how I managed in Denmark, without knowing any Danish.
As for how cheap stores are: it depends on what you buy, and what you expect of the store in general.
If you expect neatly filled shelves, you'll have to pay a little more for the extra time that's put into it.
If you want to buy specific brands, you might pay more for the brand name.
If you want good quality, you may have to pay more (fresh produce at Lidl is good quality, though, so cheap isn't always bad)
If you want store employees to be paid and treated decently, you should go to small local businesses instead.
If you want a really good deal, cheaper than most grocery stores, and buying locally, markets are the place to go, but if you're in a small town, it's more likely to only be once a week, and usually not even a full day.
Those businesses at the market often go from town to town to sell their products, and some towns don't even have a market at all, because no one wants to spend more than they'll earn.
And if a town only attracts a small number of businesses that want to set up a market stall, one day a week is enough to let all of them set up at once.
Yes, you'll have to interact with people, but it's actually good practice if you need to work on your social skills.
And small town markets are so small that you don't have to worry about big crowds of people.
A tip: if the baker 't Stoepje is at one of the local markets, you can download the TooGoodToGo app and see if you can get a surprise bag of bread (brood) or biscuits (koek) for cheap at the end of the day.
Doesn't work for morning markets (markets that end around noon) as they'll pack up and leave for the next market, but it's great for all day markets or afternoon markets.
Now let's talk about how you decided which store is the cheapest: you picked one product to compare.
That's the worst way to find out which is cheapest.
Try going for a cart of daily/weekly groceries.
You'll see that each store has different products priced cheaper.
You also didn't talk about product quality, which does make a difference, and is a reason I buy some products at one store, and others at another store.
If you have several stores to go to, it's perfectly fine to go from store to store to get the best deals, and to get the products you prefer, all in one shopping trip (which doesn't have to take long if you're as efficient as the average Dutch person)
Maybe next time I'll see a video of someone including Jan Linders too.
It's where I find products the average AH or Jumbo doesn't sell, because they're more of a southern thing.
Like koude schotel, hemelse modder, and nonnevotten.
And they sell more local products, with the name of the farms displayed on the packaging.
That way, you'll know you're supporting local farms, even when shopping at a chain store.
Nettorama keeps me going, same products as a Jumbo or AH, but way cheaper, sadly its mainly in the south of the country
Nettorama is only in certain regions, lucky if you have one in the neighborhood
Also in the east of the Netherlands...
Dude thank you for this! Now I have a mission when I go and visit!
Hehe, It's the Vomar in my town.
Great video, loved the editing and effort you put in to this!
Last year the "Deen" brand supermarkets were assimilated by Albert Heijn and in a lesser extent by Vomar and Dekamarkt (depending on existing branches of those other brands). So indeed, it only exists in legends and sagas...
Still think "Deen" was the best store
The AH (Albert Hein's abbreviation) is actually pronounced "AHA", not "Ah":)
And I think more people call it 'Appie' than 'AH' as well
@@NickyHendriks That is a good addition, Nicky! Thanks.