Find it yourself
The employees of Dutch supermarket C-1000 have compiled a list of the items that are the most difficult to find in their supermarkets and placed it on their hyve, according to personnel magazine, Club1000. Interestingly enough, in most stores, the same products are difficult to find.
Top 5:
1. Cocktail toothpicks
2. Toasts
3. Salt
4. Corn Starch
5. Eggs
A note to foreigners:
1. There are no signs in Dutch stores to give you a general idea of where products can be found.
2. If you ask the staff, they point, but won’t bring you to the product (In North America, they are taught to bring you to the product – it increases the chance of a sale).
3. Every store of the same chain has a different layout, as buildings differ greatly.
4. And stores stock up during opening hours (!), especially on Saturday when it’s busy, and cannot be bothered to help you then.
In a C1000 in Delft, I found sardines with the Indonesian products. Why? Because the sardines were from outside the EU. The ‘normal’ sardines were from Britain with the tuna and salmon, but the ones I found were from Canada. Very logical.
(Link: zibb.nl)
Hm, a couple of years ago I could have given you a number of negative examples for your first ‘note to foreigners’. Since I don’t frequent dutch supermarkets anymore, I can’t comment on the current situation :-)
The signs were there, but either so high up that you’d have to stretch your neck to read them, or so small that you needed to almost stand in front of the aisle to be able to read the sign, which kind of defies its purpose…
As for point 4: you’d rather have an half empty store, when you visit your local supermarket late afternoon? Believe me, they _do_ stock up after and/or before opening hours, too!
Point 4 is SO true…but I would like to say a few words about the “logic” of the geographical origins. I am Brazilian and therefore considered a non-Western foreign unlike people from Japan who are considered Westerns, get it?
A half empty store is a result of not stocking up properly in the first place :)
At least Brazilians have excellent food :)
Yes, Orangemaster,
we have good food among other Western and non-Western things.
To be fair: Your comments do not apply to all supermarkets.
There ARE supermarkets where personel will take you to the product, where they do have signs etc.
But I have to admit they are exceptions.
(and I, a Dutchy myself, am pleasently surprised when it happens)
Albert Heijn usually brings people to the product. Of course, my comments do not apply to all stores, it’s a generalisation.