More on Holland supermarket shopping

Since my recent post on shopping at the Tref in Holland and since people are interested, today I give you more details about escaping to where the grass in greener.

Why do I like to shop at the supermarkets in Holland?
1. It's a more 'American' shopping experience, which I'm in the mood for about once every 8 weeks. Meaning specifically--the supermarkets there are bigger, similar to what you would find at home. Wide aisles, tall ceilings, and 15-20 cash registers. Further, because it's usually crowded with the Dutch as opposed to Germans, no one is bumping into you, pushing you aside, or breathing down your neck in line.

2. The variety and pricing of ethnic foods. If you like Mexican food, you're stuck with the basement of the Kaufhof Galeria for overpriced taco shells and fajita wraps, like they were airlifted in from Mexico instead of produced somewhere here on the continent. The soft faco wraps I would pay 3.99 for at Rewe in Germany, I can get for 2.39 at Tref. Additionally, there are a lot more Indian and Asian options available.

3. Options! Choices! Here is Germany it's very simple. There is one variety of soft taco wraps, and one of two brands of aluminum foil or plastic wrap, a handful of dish soap options, etc. Which is all fine and good when you're sending your boyfriend to the store for your dish soap, because when you say 'the lemon one' there IS only one lemon one so it makes his life easy. However, I like choice. I like to have to choose what type of toilet paper graces my bottom. Do I want the recycled non-bleach one, or the soft enough for a baby's bottom blue one, or the white one with pink clouds? Further, there are multiple sizes of various products, so I can choose whether I want the pink clouds in a four pack, or a 9 pack or 24.

4. Language - If you don't speak German, you can sometimes luck out and find a better product assortment that will include certain brands that have instructions in English, which is ever so helpful if you're using something that requires proper usage, like say, oven cleaner, and you don't want to look up all the words in your dictionary, you just want to use it already. There's also a pretty good chance that depending on where you are in Holland, you will find supermarket staff that speak English if you had a question.

5. Vegetarian options - Yeah, I already mentioned this before, but the assortment is better than in Germany. Specific brands you can usually find are Valess, if you're in a Jumbo supermarket (more on them below) they have their own branded veg products, as well as sometimes some Quorn products which are more expensive and a lesser assortment than in Belguim.

6. Packaged options - Yes, the natural in-season products that you buy direct from the farmer in Germany and then wash, cut, and assemble in a meal are the best. But remember those nice little convenient packages already chopped up and ready to go into the skillet from the US? Yep, they have them in Holland. Pick up your meat/tofu plus a veg packet plus a sauce and you're good to go. And you can find little bags of washed baby carrots. How lovely.

7. Vegetable options - Here in Germany it's tough to find a butternut squash where I live. For some reason they're plentiful in Holland supermarkets. Same thing on a scotch bonnet pepper.

8. American imports - For some reason, in the large Holland supermarkets you will find a selection of American products, at ridiculously expensive prices, similar to the British shop in Cologne. Sure you don't want to spend 4.99 euros on a Betty Crocker cakemix. However, if I do want to do so, I'd rather be overwhelmed with shelves of American products than have to visually sift through the British products to find the American ones (Sorry D!). Expensive products I've seen available in Holland: pam spray, rootbeer, jim beam hot wing sauce, kraft bbq sauce, and a small offering of Betty Crocker mixes and frosting, among others.

9. "American" products - Similar to how the Germans offer 'American' things, like a version of 'big American frozen pizza' that is some disgusting mix that you would never buy in America, the Dutch offer 'American' things also, which are produced in Holland, so priced similar to other local goods, not imports. However, the Dutch version of 'American' things are not so, uh, German influenced. In particular I recommend Dutch American bbq sauce and ketchup as they are less salty and less sugary in taste than their German cousins.

10. "American similar" products. I like German naturalness, with the organic and the bio and all that. I also like anti-bacterial soap and toilet cleaner that will kill the germs to kingdom come, and I think I can have a world with both sides. I live with German herbal teas to cure general ills 95% of the time, but when my work colleagues start hacking with their flus and colds, my world feels a little nicer with chemicals at work to protect me. Holland carries all the nice American chemical laden products that you may be missing, or something similar to them.

The negatives? You knew there must be some:
1. There are more preservatives in Holland products than in German products. There are ingredients that start with E and then a three digit number.

2. With the exception of ethnic foods, I usually find the pricing to be slightly higher in Holland than in Germany if you are going to buy the exact same product. I'm talking a difference of 2.39 to 2.49, but still.

3. In Holland they round up your bill one or two cents. I've yet to figure it out exactly, but if it comes to say 19.99, and you give them 20 euros, you will not get change. The store computers automatically always do it so the cashier is giving you back what he/she is supposed to, but still it's a little odd.

4. The Dutch tomatoes. They suck there just like they do in Germany.

Interested in crossing the border? At the top of this post I point back to my earlier post with instructions to get to Tref. My other favorite in Holland is Jumbo supermarkets, which is similar to Tref. Sometimes they have smaller versions of a Jumbo if you look for a nearby one, so I recommend my personal Jumbo favorite--Jumbo in Roermond. You do need to pay for parking in the structure or nearby on the street, but it's minimal. They will also validate your parking structure ticket with your Jumbo receipt so it takes off a euro or something, just be sure to give your parking structure ticket to the checkout person.

The nice thing about a day trip to Jumbo Roermond is that it is situated within Roermond, so you can go and see the nice little cobblestone town, including the old town square which has a market on Saturdays. If you time it right there is a clock tower with figures which spins around and plays a little tune, so nifty to see. In addition, there is a walkway under the highway which many use to travel between the town center and the Roermond Outlet Center. It's not an outlet center the way we think of outlets in the US with discounted prices, it's more of a big outdoor shopping center, but if you make the trip to Roermond you might as well go over to see it.