Starting a U.S. food import business - Germany

Hi everybody,

I'm new to toytowngermany. I'm working for the DOD as an AAFES associate on JHQ in the state of NRW. Anyway our base is kinda open and we have alot of ppl who are not allowed to shop here!!! But it seems to me that there is a large demand on american products over here. So a couple of my friends and I are thinking of importing american food (grocery) from the US. I already got a huge company and they are willing to ship overseas. Anyway to get to the point. I wanna ask you guys if your interested in buying american stuff. We wanna get 1 palette of softdrinks,candy,household products,tv dinners,bbq sauce's etc.
We plan to buy the stuff in october and ship it over here to sell. It's gonna be a test shipping to see how much customs and other taxes we have to pay. If you need some products let me know I'll put it on the palette and let you know the exact prices in october!!! We have over 22000+ products to offer.
Our website will be made in the next couple month and hopefully we have the business running in the beginning of 2010.

Thanks for your help

Kevin

As is well known, I'm not in Germany, but if I were, I'd be looking for Mexican food items such as mole, Mexican drinking chocolate, and spices, to make my "American" food. Especially the mole and the chocolate, as life without mole would be a hardship.

make sure to get all the thanksgiving ingredients that are so hard to find here for those of us without base access

Yup, this comes up again and again. Click on the little red arrow to look at the other topic, and Thanksgiving ingredients are all listed here:

British and American foods

and here:

Where to buy Thanksgiving dinner ingredients, Tips on buying and cooking turkey, stuffing, etc.
and

Where to go for Thanksgiving dinner

Lots of the info is specific to Munich, but the gist of it is valid for all of Germany: Kaufhof, Karstadt, and your nearest Indian / Asian food shop. Cilantro is in all the Turkish produce shops. Munich even has several shops for Mexican ingredients including mole paste, other cities big enough will have the same. Oh and Kustermann now has an extensive line in bbq sauces... really quite impressive.

Online grocery stores with Anglo specialties are listed here:

British_and_American_foods#Online_Shopping

More on the market is always good though. Good luck!

I wish Kevin the best of luck, but he's hardly the first person to have had this idea.

The problem is the cost of importing, once imported the costs for the items become so high, that people only occasionally purchase things.

There are already a variety of companies that do this, yet I refuse to pay 9 euro for a box of cheerios or Lucky charms. Or 6 Euro for beef Jerky. Things that in the states costs less than 2 dollars.

Don´t forget the exchange rate favors US exports in a big way now.

There are 2 UK/US shops within 1 Km of where I am sitting at the moment.

There are countless websites that will ship you anything you need, some of which will charge you nothing for shipping.

As mentioned above the big grocery shop chains have lots of the same stuff (brand names may change).

So all in all I can't see a single pallet of stuff being that big an impact unless he can find something that really really can't be bought over here and he has it cheaper than the net.

Hey guys thanks for your input. But I was looking all over the german web for good cheap companies. Some online stores have a got selection but the price is over the top 1.40Euro for a can of MTN Dew. I looked into the numbers for what I pay in the states and It goes straight from the manufacturers to the grocery supply company and then to me. I pay alot less then you'd pay in a store and even with tax,customs and shipping it should be way cheaper than the stores here. I'll give it a shot.

by the way if somebody wants US-TV over the Internet in Top Speeds (even in HD) then give me a holla. A friend of mine in NYC has a selection off Slingboxes hooked up to the Direc TV dish. Prices range from 100-145$ with premium channels HBO,Starz,Showtime etc.

But what your failing to remember is that you must pay to get it shipped over here, pay import taxes on it, Pay Mwst on it and any other fees associated with its movement.
This is why the prices are as high as they are. Even for the UK food stores the prices to actually get the items into the stores can cost a bit.. The other thing you need to factor
in, is that many US Expats here have connections to people in the Military/DoD that can get any items at cost locally..

Well yeah in the south region maybe. But I guess there're expacts in the other corners like the north where you won't find any base. I mean our's is scheduled to be closed in 2010-2014 and that was the only big base in the state of NRW where you could get stuff from the PX. Next base is Schinnen! So sure some ppl won't buy it from me and to be honest I don't need it as I'm working for the DOD. But there are also a bunch of locals who really love US food and it might be worth a try.

The base doesn't always have to be close. As long as its in a 3-4hr driving time its fine by me..

Hi!

Don't know if you are still working on this. I live in Berlin and I am particularly interested. I need baking supplies and some canned goods and other odds and ends. Let me know your status and would be interested to find out more details.

There is a similar store that my husband and I recently found in the small town of Gardenstadt, right next to Bamberg.

The woman who runs it, her father was a Civilian working on the Army Base in Bamberg. She ended up marrying in German man and cannot get the American food she wants, so she has her own store.

The prices of the products in the store are higher than the prices of those products in the USA, but we find them to be reasonable because we know she has to make up for the import taxes. My husband and I figure if we only shop there once a month, whereas normal grocery shopping is dang near every weekend, then the prices would be OK.

Products in the store range from candy, soft drinks, sauces, spices, chips, cereals, and some light dinners such as MacNCheese.