Toytown Germany

Supermarkets in Germany have a reputation amongst the British for being substandard. And not without good reason. Everytime I have to shop in Penny Markt, Plus, or God forbid, Edeka, I'm appalled. The floors are filthy, the aisles are cluttered with half unpacked cardboard boxes, and zero design goes into the layout or the lighting. Thankfully change seems to be on it's way. Over a year ago miniMal opened a new city center store. Tucked away in an underground corner of the Fünf Höfe this is one of central Munich's shopping secrets. Stocking up on weekly groceries here is actually a pleasure. And now miniMal have completely renovated the store on Tal (thanks to munich friends for the alert on this). For all your grocery shopping needs in central Munich, these two miniMALs should undoubtedly be your stores of choice. ...

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/miniMAL_munich_fuenfhoefe.jpg[/img]
miniMAL in Munich's Fünfhöfe

Of course the choice of goods at these stores still doesn't compare to Britain's Tesco, Waitrose, or Sainsbury. But at least it's a start. Someone once started a campaign to bring Tesco to Munich. But it never went anywhere.

Incidently, before transmogrifing into a miniMAL, the store at Tal 13 was previously called HL-Markt. In actual fact HL-Markt and miniMAL are two brand names which belong to the same company, namely REWE Handelsgruppe.

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/miniMAL_munich_inside.jpg[/img]
Inside the new miniMAL on Tal, Munich

Curiously, as I was positioning myself up to take the above photo, the store manager caught me and said, 'Darf man nicht', shaking his finger as he did so.

I replied, 'Wieso nicht?'
He replied again, 'Darf man nicht'.
I replied again, 'Ja, aber wieso nicht?'
Him, 'Darf man nicht hier fotografieren oder Video aufnehmen'.

So I explained why I wanted a photo and he said that I needed a 'Genehmigung' to take photos and that he'd give me a number to call. He reached to grab a pen from the shelf behind him and whilst his back was turned I quickly took the photo you see above. Did someone say 'farce'?

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/miniMAL_munich_outside.jpg[/img]
Outside the new miniMAL on Tal

miniMal
3x in central Munich
Tal 13 - central
Höhenzollernstrasse - Schwabing
Viscardihof in the Fünf Höfe

Stop press: miniMal now do Fresh Supermarket Curries

Yup, MiniMal is a great place to go shopping, but what about their prices compared to the cheapos? It sucks in Germany that if you want fresh products, you have to go at 8 a.m. when they open, otherwise you get the squashed tomatoes and bananas. Hopefully MiniMal is better in that way & you can get fresh stuff all day.

You probably couldn't take photos cause they think you might use their idea to set up your own store. Heck, free advertising for MiniMal. They should be happy!

I like to shop a Kaufof or Kardst too, they are definitly the biggest grocery stores I have been to here, with the best meat selections. They are really nice and clean, and you can even sip proseco while shopping. :)

I also agree the new HL Tal store is so much nicer than it was before.

Basic, is a really nice store on Westernrieder str. with more organic foods. (The street two behind Tal.)

Before we criticise German supermarkets too much, take a REAL look at home! I was in a queue of 15 at a Tescos last week, the store was shabby and badly layed out. I trailed around a Boots for 30 minutes looking for what i wanted, was there any assistant to ask for help? No, of course not! A queue of 14 customers at the till there too! And I'm more than a little bit tired of british shop staff asking me the names of basic vegetables so they know what price to charge me!

Plus, Penny and the other discounters are dirt cheap. There is a reason for that: No music, no lighting etc.
Groceries in Germany have the lowest price of all European countries as it is the most competitive one.

Well, has anyone tried WalMart and Real (near Frankfurter Ring)? A bit of an effort to get there, but doable with public transportation and they offer cheaper prices and a wider range of products. Kaufhof and Karstadt are great but more pricy. Example, soy milk, at Walmart 1.79, at MiniMal 1.89 and at Kaufhof, 1.99.

Tough competition is no excuse for having manky fruit and veg in the store, though, is it?

One would think that these stores would try to win customers by selling quality produce, rather than trying to sell it 1 cent cheaper than the others.

"Ooh look Fritz, the tomatoes in [store name] are 1 cent cheaper than [other store name]"

"Yes Helga, but they look like they've been there 3 weeks"

All these comments are indeed very valid but I'm afraid the quality of the fresh produce in the likes of MiniMal, HL, Edeka is very bad. Fruit never lasts more than a couple of days (even when refridgerated) and even on the store shelves, in many cases, the fruit is already way too ripe !. Going back home to M&S, Sainsbury, Tesco etc always reminds me of how poor the German supermarkets really are. And if you think that the checkout queues back home are bad then just go and visit a MiniMal on a Saturday morning. You'd think food was going out of fashion the way the people start waiting for the doors to open at 8.00am ...Fact !!!

Coming from N.A., I have to agree that the supermarkets are substandard... it would be a blessing to see a large, quality supermarket along the lines of EKZ (in Olching - west of Munich), but with quality produce. Why is it that I must always run 4-5 places to do basic shopping. One place for baking, one for produce, one for good meat, etc. Of course, there is something to be said for supporting the small businesses and the local flavour of a smaller store, but combined with the anemic opening hours (especially outside of Munich), there would seem to be a huge hole in the market that is not being served.

*biting my tongue* *biting my tongue*

no really, I love the shop opening hours in germany. better for families and stuff. and for the employees. honest.

PS: minimal at 5 hoefe is actually a good shop, I agree. hertie markthallen is also very good, and they accept visa and mastercard and give you free tueten!

PPS: waitrose rules. if you are going to start a campaign, then make it bring waitrose to MUC!!

Recently was in a little grocery in Bolzano. It was very compact and gleaming with clean, neat aisles, fresh fruits and vegs, lots of white and bright colors - very appealing and made me realize how truly appalling the shops are here. What is wrong with this town? There is quality in everything the Germans do except in food - and service for that matter. Save that for another day!

Munich's Supermarket Questionnaire for TT

Issue - Outcome/Response

1) Handling customer complaints
- people don't complain :-))

2) Waiting time at the cash desk
- very long at lunchtimes when only one cashier is working !!!!

3) Willingness to help customers
- why would they ! The staff are only there to work !

4) The fresh food is always fresh
- rarely

5) Adequate opening hours
- just started to open 8am to 8pm on weekdays - 10 years late

6) Adequate packers are available
- huh, what's a packer ?

7) Convienient cash facilities
- forget using a credit card

8) Produce up to date
- always check the use-by date. Some dairy products can be >5 days past the sell date and still on the shelf.

9) Good selection of products
- crisps come in a variety of different flavours incl. paprika, spicy paprika, hot paprika, and plain (with a hint of paprika) :-))

Everything considered, I think that my favourite supermarket experience is the check-out... when the purchased items are thrown lightening quick through the check-out (the employees must be monitored for speed or something), and then the check-out person just stares numbingly as you:
a) try to pack all your items (while breaking most things, including the eggs)
b) scramble for money to pay
c) avoid the stares of the people in line who are all waiting for you

The check-out staff seem to be totally devoid of an ability to assist in packing the groceries, and assume that you should be able to pack the groceries as quickly as they pass the items through... I guess this falls under the whole "service-oriention" (or lack-thereof) issue.

It's even better when they then start chucking the next customer's stuff through before you've finished packing. Or chucking your stuff through into the previous customer's. In both cases making you have to scrabble around sorting it out.

I used to be a fan of WALmart until this happened...

On my last item the register failed to scan in a pre-packed bag of apples and the checkout girl could not read the numbers on the barcode to get the price of the apples.
After trying 3 times she placed the apples under the counter and gave me the total price of the shopping (without the apples).

"What about the apples?" I said.
"Do you really need them"
"Ummm, yes why did you think I picked them out"
"Oh"
"Can you ring someone to find out the price?"
"no"
"can someone bring another bag?"
"no"
"Should I go and get another bag"
"Yes, if you really need them"
"ok hold on, I'll nip and get some"
"Can you pay up first for the rest"
"No, Ill come back with the apples first"
"Not possible"
"Huh???, Then I'll have to queue again..."
"Yes, but you don't have to come back to this till again"

I was so amazed and in a rush that I asked her to weigh them and charge me the extra. (about 2 eur)

Even compared to England the supermarkets here are terrible, but compared to Australia (where are free and shopping packed for you by the 'Checkout Chick'), France and Italy (Size, Variety, Quality, Service) they are utter garbage.

Tesco are in Czech and Hungary already, why not Germany?

Rant over.

When I first got here, I found the MiniMAL very fast. Shopped there until I realized the prices far outweighed the quality. It looks like an American style store and is clean (the ones that I went to), but the prices are about the highest in Germany outside of OEZ and Hbf.
The produce in Germany, and probably northern Europe in general, well, it ain't the states. When anybody finds really big (>6inches in diameter), good and juicy tomatoes, please let me know!
Also looking for crooked neck squash, fresh okra, a real watermelon, cantalope, real corn, (peaches and cream or sweet yellow), and ....catfish.

Good luck finding 6 inch tomatoes. I don't think mutant crops are allowed in Germany.

There are no packers in Germany because no one wants to work for WalMart-salaries!
You can't have nicely decorated supermarkets AND low prices.
Go to Dallmayr if MiniMal is to shabby for you!

Yes, MiniMal in 5H is great. It is lovely to walk around a nice clean, open supermarket. They seem to have gone against the grain for German supermarkets as well, by actually *gasp* having stuff on their shelves!

They really took the piss though when they had some black guy working as a cashier who was always smiling, laughing and joking with the customers. I think he must have got the sack because I haven't seen him for a while. I guess that experiment was just a step too far; we can't have anyone actually having a good time. Is' verboten! Darf man nicht lachen!

Forgot to say - the reason your groceries end up in someone elses is because they are so slow at packing them. They just stand there dumbly until the cashier tells them how much it all costs. Then they get their purse out. Then they very slowly count out the exact money. Until they realise they haven't got the exact money and so try to pay with a 500 Euro bill. This means the cashier has to get it checked by the manager to make sure it isn't a forgery. The manager comes back, and says "Ja. In ordnung." The cashier hasn't got enough change to break the 500 note so has to get some change. This finally arrives and they give the customer their change. And _then_ the customer starts to put the goods all into thiir bags. Waddafu?

Then of course the cashier serves her colleague who is three places behind you in the queue since she's on her break and she's only got 30 minutes you know. And nobody says a blessed word! Fc*k me, what a country.