Tell a German about what you want in a supermarket

"The consumer behavior of American, British and German consumers" is the topic of the survey, and my friend's friend is writing a master's thesis on it. It takes only 10 minutes. Given the number of topics on TT about German supermarkets and how crap they are as well as the ubiquitous "where to find" topics, I figure this survey might be a good place for lots of people to tell the Germans what they really want in supermarkets. It's for the marketing department at the University of Tübingen.


The email address is on the survey website.

Some of the questions included:


Also asks about preprepared foods, how often do you buy fresh food, are store opening hours important to you, etc etc etc.

Now I don't know if it matters for the purposes of the survey if you're living in Germany or not, because those of us here of course are forced to adopt German purchasing habits such as bread at the bakery, not just at the supermarket (if we want anything decent).

Maybe the author of the survey will get a login and post some stuff here for us, we'll see. I suppose she'll just close the survey page when she's done with the paper.

Thanks for your help!

Oops. Got so caught up in linking the relevant TT topics that I forgot

The Link to the Survey

Guess Canadians don't count <---sniff, sob, whine--->

Looks like it. I'd like to do the survey, but don't really care to be categorized as "other".

Expats don't really fit into the schema anyway. Answer that you're a British citizen and it asks you how much you spend in pounds. It also doesn't take account of stuff you would buy if the shops sold it (difficult, I know).

I suppose that what I am saying is that, in common with most surveys, it makes a certain amount of assumptions about the people answering and any people who don't fit will distort the results.

Well that's no use, I put in that I'm British and it asks how often I go shopping in a supermarket e.g. Tescos, Safeway,... Ha Ha, I wish!

Heh heh... once a year, and then I buy 8 jars of Branston pickle, 5 jars of Horlicks, 6 boxes of PG Tips and 3 jars of marmite. And as many packets of Walkers Crisps as will fit in the car...

The survey isn't looking at causes of obesity in Brits is it?

Tecos onion relish, Hellmans Mayonnaise, Curry mix in a jar, Cadburys Hot Chocolate, PG tips. Just my personal list!

looks like I caught the webserver at a bad time. 3 times I tried to get through it and then I just hit timeouts and each time I had to go back to the beginning of the survey.

Why are the Irish excluded from the survey?

Garibaldi amach, sure everyone knows you don't have supermarkets. You have corner shops selling a selection of soda bread, wellingtons, fertiliser and pitchforks next to a bar selling Guinness with a session in the corner and a couple of wee colleens dancing the Walls of Limerick. It's far from supermarkets you were born and reared.

It's a Barony thing.

Why should they be included? Canadians, Australians, South Africans are also not listed.

Nobody has EVER carried my groceries to the car in the US, nor those of anyone I know. I think that happened once in a movie. I think I won't do this survey simply because if I read silly assumptions like this, my bloodpressure will rise.

And anyway groceries delivered to one's home (eg Peapod or FreshDirect) would never in a million years work here, because the postal delivery here sucks. I'd have to wait 2 weeks before I could go to the post office to pick up my fresh seafood, only to learn that my upstairs neighbor had it the whole time and nobody bothered to leave me a note.

Maybe it belongs in the dim and distant past. I used to do that all the time - pack the groceries in paper bags, offer to take the bags to the car. No tip, but then again, didn't need it. Back in the mid-70s before they broke the unions, supermarkets in Canada paid top wages to 16-year-olds.

I used to shop at a large supermarket in Toronto that packed and delivered the groceries to your car. It was quite a nice service. At the cash register, a second person would load all your stuff into one or more cartons for which you paid a small deposit. You got a ticket with a number on it. Went to your car and drove around to the back where there was a long conveyor belt coming out of the building. Pulled up beside it, gave the person your ticket, popped open your truck and they loaded the carton with your stuff directly in your trunk. Next trip you brought back the carton and got your deposit back and did it all over again.

I had similar service in California, but we're talking at least 10 or more years ago. Don't know if any supermarkets still do that sort of thing today.

It still exists at least in parts of the midwest. The Fareway grocery store chain, headquartered in Iowa, still does this at all of their stores. In fact, they have no cart return area outside of the store. In other words, everyone with a cart gets an employee (usually a young lad) who pushes the cart to the customer's car, unloads the groceries into the trunk, and returns the cart to the store.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fareway

Actually, even on the East coast I know of some Safeway supermarkets that offer assistance in taking stuff to the car. It's not like Fareway (where *everyone* gets cart assistance), but it is at least offered.

I love this part:


HAHAHA, What decade does she think we live in? I haven't seen that in over 30 years and I haven't seen baggers in about 15. I actually do miss that and am glad some stores are bringing baggers back! It is nice to hear "paper or plastic?"

Go to Minnesota, we have all of that...at nearly all grocery chains...you need to get out more Eurovol. Also, at the decent grocery stores in IL they are starting to do it too...at least in Rockford and Chicago.

I was a bagger when I was 16-18...the store hasn't changed, hell, my 1st college roommate is now the head manager, LOL

In Tennessee and the DC/Maryland area, baggers bit the dust in the late 80's. I think the last time I saw a bagger take the groceries to the car would have to have been a Piggly Wiggly or maybe a White Stores/Whiteway (the one where you got Green Stamps) sometime in the '70s. The last time I was at home (two years ago), some stores were bringing back baggers. I am still waiting for gas stations to bring back the fillers/wipers/oil and air checkers (full service), but I won't hold my breath. An Amoco started doing that in Maryland for a few cents per gallon more and there was always a line of cars, but it didn't spread to other stations.

There's at least one state in the US where they don't have self-service gas stations. Illegal. Probably because someone might do it wrong. Might be Oregon.

Hope you're all filling out the survey too, no matter how odd some of the questions are!

Eurovol - there's still lots of full service gas stations in Ontario. Heck, the first few years that I drove, I NEVER pumped my own gas or checked my oil or tire pressure or filled the windshield fluid or washed my windshield since my nearest gas station was a full-service and they always offered to do all that every time I filled up. They even changed burnt out bulbs for me, for just the cost of the bulb which didn't strike me as being all that more expensive. First time I had to do it myself was on a trip down to the USA. Two very nice truckers helped me out when I had trouble figuring out the weird pumps.

Just a few years ago, my German Father-in-law was astounded when we pulled into a full service station north of Toronto. He just couldn't wait in the car - had to jump out and watch the young lad go through the routine. Even insisted on giving the boy a big tip and had a photo taken

This is still common in Canada. Or at least in my part of Canada, as of Christmas.

Also, I've never personally seen a bagboy/girl, but I have worked as a supermarket cashier, and at home part of the job is bagging people's groceries for them, unless you're working on of the express lines. Also we had to stand, were not allowed to have a drink at our stations, and had to wear name tags with our real first names. German cashiers have it damn good.