An AH monopoly?

According to the Centraal Bureau voor Levensmiddelen (CBL), the union for all supermarkets in NL, over 90 percent of the market is controlled by the top four supermarket groups.

Ahold for Albert Heijn (AH) has 41 percent of the market, Laurus for Edah, Konmar, Super de Boer has 26 percent, Trade Service Netherlands (TSN) for A&P, C1000 and other independents has 15 percent and Superunie for SPAR and others has less than 10 percent.

Each of these supermarket chains is attached to, owned by, or part of a purchasing/import/distribution organisation.

How well these aspects work together determines whether consumers get the products that they need and want.

Why does stock run out so frequently?

A perennial problem at all Dutch supermarkets, no matter what size, is the out-of-stock issue.

Hans Smith, an independent owner of a Super de Boer in s’Hertogenbosch offers some insight: From the wholesale/delivery point of view, the production of say tuna fish may not have been delivered to the buying organisation on time, or the order to buy was given too late and conflicts with the producers delivery schedule. It's even possible that when the order came in it was put in the wrong place in the storage area.

He adds that if you’ve seen a brand for a number of weeks on the shelves and it suddenly disappears it can be because either the trading price was no longer favourable to the purchasing organisation or the store itself found a cheaper way to private label.

What about quality and, in particular, replacing brand name products with private labels? Smith said not too many Dutch people have a problem with generic brands.

In the store itself, products may also be out-of-stock if orders were incorrectly accounted for or if a sticker code was not correct. And if there is a promotion it's likely that people will buy out the product fast.

Finally, the size of a store indicates the amount of space for stock items.

Lack of selection

 Not true for the Dutch consumer. Compared to twenty years ago when exotic fruits were unknown, today’s store shelves reek of globalisation.

People think the AH concept of prepared take-away food is fresh and modern when in fact it was only introduced in 1997 — a good decade later than in the rest of Europe!

According to a spokesperson for Schuitem, a company of wholesale suppliers to individual supermarket chains, store shelves are squeezed in the Netherlands. There is an average of 15K SKU’s (stock keeping units) in a supermarket here compared to France where there are 40K items

The warehouse space in square meters is tiny so store managers or their buying organizations (if it’s a franchise) have to make tough decisions about what will sell and what won’t.

Albert Heijn stores

If you choose not to go to the competition, fresh markets or are not eligible to shop at a wholesalers horeca (hotel, restaurant and catering) warehouse such as Makro, Hanos, and VEN, then your next best bet is to shop at a #5 Albert Heijn store.

All AH stores are numbered according to size. Size indicates selection of goods. The smaller the store, the less choice there is.

However, to complicate matters, if the store is a company franchise you may find similar items at a #3 AH store than if it is an independent franchise where the owners select a percentage of the stock assortment. Visit www.ah.nl for more information.

Universal concept, organic foods and other trends

Konmar, a supermarket with a truly universal concept of shopping, has about 130 stores in the country.

The best two are in The Hague and Rotterdam Zuid. You can find all specialty items from Italian, Indian, American to Kosher and the largest selection of exotic and everyday fruits and vegetables, unwrapped and fresh without bruises.

For those consumers looking for organic products, you'll find them at your local supermarket (biologisch is the Dutch term) – for adults and babies — but Holland lags behind Germany and the UK in research, production and number of organic foods, according to www.natuurpunt.nl, an organisation that promotes organic, non GMO foods and environmentally friendly products.

If foods with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is a concern, the US Foreign Agricultural Service’s report GAIN, states that amongst consumers GMOs are less of an issue than with food producers, importers or retailers.

Still there is no trend for labeling GMOs on meat products unless the product contains more than 1 percent.

Other Dutch food buying trends include more shopping at gas and railway stations, and pre-packed, take-away and easy to prepare foods.

Bonus cards, airmiles, stamps

You can purchase an Albert Heijn bonuskaart for less than EUR 20 (one time fee) and then get discounts off products or use the card for sale items available only to card holders.

If you apply for an airmiles card the card can be used at any Ahold owned shop such as AH, Etos, Gall & Gall (liquor merchants). It is free and you accumulate mileage which enables you to exchange miles for gifts. See www.airmiles.nl in Dutch.

You can also save stamps (zegels), patch them in a booklet and then get a discount on products or a discount off the price of purchase.

Home shopping

According to the Foreign Agriculture Service/USDA 90 percent of all consumers in NL live within a 10 minute walk to a supermarket so you may not want to shop online.

However, if you visit www.albert.nl you can shop from AH, Etos, Gall & Gall, De Tuinen and Deli XL Shop in one go but delivery is not same day.

October 2002

Note that after numerous attempts, Ahold could not be reached for comment.

Subject: Dutch supermarkets