Why do supermarkets in Munich suck?

I am quite happy here in Munich, but after having lived in US, Spain and France where they have fantastic supermarkets and excellent variety. Why is it so hard to have a one stop shop good supermarket. The variety in some supermarkets just suck. You feel like you have to go to 10 different places to finally get what you want.

Or does anyone have a secret supermarket I have yet to discover? I love Kaufhof but a bit out of the way. Still try to make the effor to get there fish at least biweekly.

Kaufhof is hardly a supermarket. More a department store with a food section...

I am sure that this topic has already been covered.

I meant more places like Tengleman or so...

LOL !!! the supermarkets here carry what I assume are ''essential '' items only, but REWE and Tenglemans are two of the best so far that I have discovred...but yet they still dont carry EVERYTHING !!!

luna111, whereabouts in Munich do you live? Post that and someone might have a local tip for you.
While you probably won't get an exact Carrefour-copy, not least as shopping habits in Germany have tended not to be of a one-stop style, you might well find something that will do.

There is a much bigger EDEKA(not sure if i spell it right) near Implerstr. But not sure if it can offer all that you need.

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The search function is your friend. I suggest starting with the word "supermarket"

The quality of supermarkets in Munich

Are you kidding? Don't lead this poor soul astray. Nobody ever talks about stuff like that on this forum!

And why aren't they open on Sundays?

why aren't you open on Sundays?

I work on Sundays fairly often, thanks.

real is a good option, but you might need a car to get there.

Simple answer is:

1. Local shopping habits.
2. Size of stores available.

"Real" in the Euroindustry Park near Freimann is pretty good, more like a proper supermarket..

It is good, no doubt, and it is far better than the smaller tengelman and such like but it sucks in comparison to a similarly sized supermarket in Britain.

FFS please don't start this all over again...

Mods: Please merge with already existing

Rewe at Arabellapark is comparable with the smaller supermarkets back home. Selection and quality is decent but it's pricier than your local Tengelmann.

v-markt and kaufland aren't too bad

What I want to know is who shines all the fruit and veggies in the US supermarkets. That must take forever.

Guess what fewls...the thupermarkets in Berlin are so so so so so so so much better than in Munich, still not up to back home standards, but a definite step in the right direction. Viva la Berlin.

Why are the staff oh so friendly and super helpful?

Really? What makes them better?

@JW,
size, range, freshness...basically all the things my local Munchkin supermarkets had none of. Now, I've only been here for a couple of weeks, but every supermarket I've visited has out supermarketed all of my locals. Perhaps I live in a good supermarket area.

Interesting. Any ready-made meals/prepared foods?

What do they suck?

One notes that the range of ready or semi prepared foods is increasing in Munich supermarkets and that was the big "renne" at the last food trade fares.

If I was a nasty evil capitalist...

HIT has everything you would need. It's wonder that anybody eats here in Munich, what with there being no food available anywhere.

@MonksTown
What would you do if you were an evil capitalist?

Lemme get that JW: He'd go into business making money by providing services to people allowing them to get food they want to have. Both ends of which are diametrically opposed to the communist ideal, as anyone who's ever been in a communistic regime would be very sad to tell you.

Leave off the personal jibes hey Genie, it drags the site down and doesn't just depress the objects of them.

What I'd do in theory is buy out especially selected small stores in strategic locations and do a "metro" concept that concentrated on prepared and semi prepared foods and connvenience items. Ideal location might be somewhere like in Stachus, that place opposite Woolies that is vacant.

Likewise local stores in Schwantalerhöhe or GBV for example that could double as all night kiosks.

But the prices would be higher and it would be a particular niche market...
The will doesn't seem there from established retailers nor any venture interest.
There are changes happening in the market we can observe, but a few TTers who love to whine aren't that important in the big picture.

Dear god. It's not like any of us have anything better to do than comment on the quality of German grocery stores. Even if it has already been done. Who knows what aisle a similar post could take us down...

Munich supermarkets suck because, really... you must take the good with the bad. In Bavaria you are gifted with the opportunity to over-indulge in the plenitude of Augistiner and other sweet luxuriously brewed... beers. And what about splendid Weißwursts, Fleish Salat, ooooder Leberkäse? See, the point I'm getting at here is... sure, there may not be the fresh variety of fruits or veggies, Asian food and Mexican condiments may be interlaced on the same shelf, but... really, would you want pass up some of the local delicacies to make room for your typical run-of-the-mill international items? by golly!

Haven't checked TBH, will do a scout next time I'm there

ALDI now sells readymade meals under their Be Light brand.

I also find the selection of goods in Munich supermarkets to be crap, but I try to suck it up and look at the bright side (the Getränkemarkt, that is). What does bug me, though, is that they first force you to take a shopping cart if you want more than you can carry in your hands ("a shopping basket? HOW NOVEL"), and then they fill up the aisles with idiot employees restocking the shelves, and refusing to move to let customers through. Service with a smile.

PLUS has been selling chilled ready made meals for years. Only about three or four different dishes but still.

You want service in Germany?

Always get a smile, a Grüss Dich and a bit of small talk (if there's time and the queue's not long) at my local pikeymarket.
Perhaps that's cos I don't treat the staff like shit?

It's not the same here as it is back home...

Sure at home it's mostly surly spotty Y00t working the supermarkets who barely manage a grunt and a vague wave of the hand if you ask for something and have problems identifying basic fresh produce - as far as UK supermarkets still still basic produce instead of ready fuggin meals that is!

Buggered if i know last time you went home MT but going to the supermarket is a bloody sight better experience than here.

Only opening open wounds i know on the chief German supermarket supporter here.

Accept it, they're crap ehe?

I just like seeing you in a froth Bluedave innit!

Sure there are differences but you got to take the rough with the rough innit.

Dunno what it is with you guys going on about supermarkets in Munich! Ever tried to do shopping in a supermarket in London? Fine if all you are looking for is bangers and hash, or vitamin pills for your dog!

Get real: Aldi and Lidl are the working class's answer to Tengelmann, so there is variety. And Aldi does what Hitler could not achieve: they are successfully invading England and - yes!!! - Australia!!!

And then of course the fact that there are only supermarkets left in this world and all those lovely "Tante Emma Laeden" are gone is a result of globalisation.

Hell, in a place like Munich you can get anything you want, yes anything! And if you can't find it on the Viktualienmarkt, then look up the yellow pages.

And if you miss your K Mart and the likes why don't you plan an extended stay in god's own country?

Here's a question.
The produce in the Virktualien Market...
Actually fresh? Shmeckt gut, oder?

I don´t know about the Vitualenmarkt, but flowers, fruit, vegetables and meat are all fresh daily at Aldi, so whenever I want fresh food at reasonable prices I go there!! - okay, so there isn´t much choice, but definitely for all of the basics it´s the place to go!!

One reason German supermarkets offer such a poor variety of food is because they lack competition from the large European supermarket chains such as Carrefour and Tesco. These non-German supermarket chains are reluctant to invest in Germany because it is considered to be a difficult market, because of restricted opening hours and the German public are unadventurous in the purchases they make, i.e. they tend to buy only the products they know. Maybe Sunday opening is not allowed in Germany because the politicians know that if they relaxed the restrictions on opening hours the foreign supermarket chains would open branches here and supermarkets such as Tengelmann (expensive, but not particularly good) would just get hammered into the ground.

Total and utter bollox. In my old haunt you could get maybe 50-60% of the things you'd want if you went to one supermarket. up to about 90% if you went to all 3 locals. The supermarket chains here simply can't grasp the concept of the supermarket.

There are some things one cannot get in Munich, regardless of where you go.

@JW, sad to report that even tho the range of food and stock levels here are better, the range of ready-mades is more or less the same

Ceogero didn't say you could get everything in one supermarket, simply that you could get everything somewhere. I think that was pretty clear.

I don't intend to start comparing the number of products available in Munich compared to, say, Birmingham, but of the products I enjoy the most (such as tea, bread, cakes), I enjoy a substantially wider selection and superior quality here in Germany. You may only be able to get "50-60% of the things you'd want" in a single store, but maybe what you want isn't the same as what 85 million Germans want.

I'd like to by good meat, something german supermarkets are totally incapable of selling. watery totally bland crap they are quite good at though. uk supermarkets arn't much better, but they are certainly better.

even when I tried buying lamb down around the turkish shops in the westend, that turned out to be watery and bland too.

UK supermarket chains decline to invest in expansion in Germany as it is a mature marketwith low profit margins.

Jaysus, I get a kind of a kinky kick as an dangerous lefty teaching you wanna bees how capitalism works!