I’ve reached my goal, but what now??

I came across an article on a site that refers to this blog. On the site it came across that  AH HQ has seen this blog and read about their consumers’ true frustrations. BUT not so surprising they won’t do anything about it. AH will not have anything to do with “weird” people on the Internet who drags their brand into territories that they don’t agree with… SO who is right?

Here’s the take out from the article and AH comments:

Onbegonnen werk

Albert Heijn zelf zegt bij monde van woordvoerder Els van Dijk op de hoogte te zijn van het bestaan van de blog. ‘Op internet geven mensen hun mening over merken. Dat kan positief of negatief uitvallen. Wij hebben natuurlijk het liefst dat mensen ons merk omarmen, maar er zijn natuurlijk ook mensen die minder zijn gesteld op Albert Heijn of die dingen zien die niet kloppen. We gaan niets tegen deze weblog ondernemen, dat is onbegonnen werk’, aldus de woordvoerder.

Here’s a video about AH that I found on Youtube…

AH in The Hague (post from a reader)

It’s the same story here in The Hague.

AH is far too dominant. You have to travel to another part of the city in order to find an alternative. Now if AH had a wide selection of products and good customer service, that wouldn’t be such a problem. But as it is, it’s simply terrible. The personnel is rude and incompetent, the floors on the produce section are dirty and present a serious risk of slipping, primarily they sell their own brand, which is of poor quality, but is packaged to look almost exactly alike the A-brand products… which are usually sold out. Unilever even sued them for trademark violations, but inexplicably lost the case on 9 of the 11 counts, although the judge did rule that AH acted on the very edge of what is permissible. And that perfectly sums up AH. Their way of doing business borders on illegality and immorality.

Personally I avoid them whenever I can. I do make the effort to travel for miles to reach an alternative. But for a lot of people that’s simply not an option. A few years ago it was actually better, when we had the Konmar as an alternative. Of course when they closed up shop, it was AH that took over their stores. A move that should never have been approved by the competition authority, but alas in their ‘investigation’ they considered the likes of Lidl and Aldi as viable alternatives to AH. I would assume they also consider an apple to be a viable alternative to an orange. AH apples and oranges of course. 😉

Some AH photos from a reader

Some shots I took in my local Appie a while back. Sent the whole batch to Ahold HQ. Their anwser: please contact your local shop manager.

AH Rotterdam Zuidplein

Today I went to a new AH store…

Bread anyone??

Here’s where the roastbeef should have been…

I wanted to buy some tuna for my pasta, but nope not today.

This is for real!! This is what i saw in the butter counter. 

And the usual unpacking process, forcing customers to navigate around the store. 

AH in Spijkenisse (post from a reader)

Hey,

After reading on your site I had the urge to also write something small to you.

I live in Spijkenisse, Zuid-Holland, we have a AH at the shopping centre called “’t Plateau” it’s not too big but it’s convenient. A couple of year ago, like 5 if I remember correctly the management changed from a franchise to a Ahold (AH’s holding) owned store. Since then the quality of the store started to deteriorate…

At the moment me and my friends call this AH, Albert Heijn Russia, because I really feel like I landed in communistic Soviet Union when I walk in to that store. When there’s something in the shelves it’s only on or 2 items and overtime less and less different products are available at the store.

The fresh bread is gone somewhere early in the afternoon and for something fresh on your sandwich you have to get it sliced fresh at the counter because for example the roast beef is brown instead of red. Also basic stuff from major brands simply isn’t there, the cola is almost always gone, the good brands pizza are never stocked and products of major brands they carried in the past are disappearing without a trace. Last summer they didn’t have Ice thee in stock for over a month and even after complaining they didn’t order extra or anything. The veggies or any fresh stuff looks dead before it arrives there so I will never buy that again…

What did I do about it, I talked to the staff, I talked to the management and to AH customer service, they all promised me that it will be better but I don’t think that will happen and I always feel like a dick when complaining.

Nowadays, when I want to do big/weekend shopping I drive to a Jumbo like 20 minutes away instead of the AH only a minute away.

Best of luck

AH in Utrecht (post from a reader)

It was about 10 years ago when shopping at AH was a good thing.

AH had good quality products and everything was fresh and clean. Albert Heijn was synonymus to excellent quality. Nowadays, i often see products over date, mostly at the fresh meat department.

For example, i warned a shopgirl at AH Utrecht that the filet americain was 2 days over date: And the same rotting filet americain still stood there in the meat counter when i came in the next day. It had turned from red to dark-brown but they obviously hadn’t notice that. How hard can it be to check the goods you sell..

Vegetables are also often old. All the tomatoes were bruised last weekend @ ah vijzelgracht and the bags with presliced veggies often contain weird fluids.

The sliced cheese packs also often contain moist. I’m not going to eat that! It makes me believe that the shop or the distribution centre doesnt keep the fresh goods well chilled.

I recently went back with a pack of cheese which i bought earlier that week. It was wet inside, it looked awful but the expiration date was more than a month ahead. It took me an awful lot of energy and moaning to get the money back: because the 16 year old poor dutch speaking social project at the service counter figured i might have kept the cheese outside the fridge. Sure, stupid lady…. as if i would do that.

It’s a pity that there are pretty much only Albert Heyn stores in the city centers. When the wather’s not too bad, i rather bike for 15 minutes to get my groceries somewhere else.

Albert Heijn’s dominance in Amsterdam

Your site is a great initiative.

AH’s dominance in Amsterdam is a HUGE annoyance. Two years ago I filed a complaint on this matter at the Dutch fair competition authority (NMA), which was turned away for the fact that AH obtained its position in Amsterdam due to ‘good entrepreneurship’. Of course that’s a nonsense argument, but it gives a good insight in how the government deals with it. Change in the Amsterdam supermarkets business will have to come from the bottom-up, and therefore you have my full support!

Kind regards,
Hederik

(edit: please see the comments for the whole reply from NMA, in Dutch)

Not only in Amsterdam…

it is indeed true that the meat from AH tastes like it has been killed too long ago and kept in a warm moist enviroment just to make it taste even worse….

i don’t live in Amsterdam but we have the same problems with AH.

i can’t choose to go to another store because there isn’t any other store near my home. i work all day so i can’t go shopping before 18:00 and i can NEVER get any bread…. and when they do have bread it’s disgusting leftovers that no sensible person ever would buy…. if i want to return empty bottles they don’t have a machine but i have to press a bell and wait for hours until someone comes and counts my bottles…. how crappy is that!!!!

when you look at the scale were you need to weigh the vegetables… wow… now that is disgusting!!! that thing is over a 100 years old and has never been cleaned… so when you pick out some veggies and weigh them. why not whipe your ass with them too. they can’t get any more rancid…

for me it makes no difference that i put the vegetables in a bag. that thing is so filthy the vegetables are uneatable to me when they even come near that scale.

i hate AH