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.
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
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.
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)
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
hello I H AH!
since your blog is in english, i’ll reply in english.
well, what can I say… I hate them too, but as often there is no choice, I do shop there.
over the years I’ve had a fair share of arguments with “supermarket managers” about:
-dirty shelves, floors etc.
-products not being available
-uneadible products – just too grose to eat (minced meat is a good example)
but the worst of all is this:
when I go and do my groceries after work, around 17.00, THERE IS NO MORE BREAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WFT?!?!?!
a supermarket is supposed to have bread – ALWAYS –
they’re open for another 3 hours, and have run out of bread!!!
I really cannot stand that. So last time I went to see the supermarket manager, gave him my basket full of stuff and told him that AGAIN there is no bread, I will now go and get my groceries some place else. Asshole.
Anway. I must say that there is a BIG difference in AH stores in “the west” and in small towns.
I live in “the middle-east” of the Netherlands and stores there are A LOT cleaner, staff are MUCH friendlier.
But I work in Amsterdam and shop there regularly and so I know exactly what you mean.
Keep up the good work with your blog!
Rgds
w3ssen
PS – have I mentioned their meats, especialy the MINCED MEAT is absolutely DISGUSTING! I always buy my meat some place else!!!
