K-Mart and Prices

[sinikala]

I was gob-smacked in the UK at Xmas when I saw the huge amounts of imported food for sale in the supermarkets. Apples from New Zealand.... in Somerset!!!!

Not really. Apples are seasonal, I haven't seen them on trees in England in December have you? They'd have to be put in cold storage for 3 months... which uses energy. OK New Zealand is as far away as it gets, but if they ship stuff from NZ to Oz, and boats go from Oz to the UK anyway it doesn't make a great deal of difference if they are stored for 3 months in a fridge, or in a fridge on a boat for 6 weeks or flown in fresh from NZ.

There are far crazier examples like Young's shipping UK prawns to Thailand to be hand peeled and sent back again. It supposedly uses the same carbon footprint as storing them in the UK. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/business/t ... prints.htm

I don't mind paying top dollar for niche products, nowadays we can get many more things here than when I arrived 8 years ago, almost everywhere sells some sort of UK marmalade, usually Baxters, peanut butter widely available, tinned soup has taken off. Cheddar is available everywhere and we can now get Famous Five out in the sticks (previously only available in Stockmann) ... although our local S-Market seem to think it is a bit too thick and chop it into chunks of Famous Two and an Half.

The variety of fresh veg is usually passable, but if you want mange-tout we still have to buy them from Helsinki or Tampere. I used to complain about the rotten onions outside of the short period when you can buy decent "jättisipuli", I gave up... the locals seem to think mould is acceptable, so I only buy frozen chopped onion these days.

There are still a few other examples where the local products are a bit crap ... stock cubes are always Knorr/Maggi which are gross (or is that gras?)... I assume BSE is the reason that they don't market Oxo here.

Decent fresh bread other than rye would be nice, cooking apples and chocolate Easter eggs have room for improvement. Also don't understand why there is no double cream but you can buy smetana, but all in all nothing worth complaining about.

[Rosamunda]

I was gob-smacked in the UK at Xmas when I saw the huge amounts of imported food for sale in the supermarkets. Apples from New Zealand.... in Somerset!!!!

Not really. Apples are seasonal, I haven't seen them on trees in England in December have you? They'd have to be put in cold storage for 3 months... which uses energy. OK New Zealand is as far away as it gets, but if they ship stuff from NZ to Oz, and boats go from Oz to the UK anyway it doesn't make a great deal of difference if they are stored for 3 months in a fridge, or in a fridge on a boat for 6 weeks or flown in fresh from NZ.

In Somerset ,apples are picked from September through to November and December is a still high season for local apples. They are easily stored in cool dark conditions and don't require refridgeration. I would expect to see imported apples in April/May/June before the French Golden hit the markets. But cherries, strawberries etc are already seasonal by early summer.

[Hank W.]

And your point in this (3 times) is what? Finland has it's own food culture. It's what definitive of the country and it's people. If you don't like it, buy imported stuff that's double the price.

Thats the European way of saying it.
The Finnish way is to take the axe and make the whiner into small pieces to use as bait.

[Hank W.]

The crazy import prices you see are NOT necessary - 'ask the man who owns one.'

Which explains Behnfords' prices, and why your store next door is selling everything they have at half price. Yes... yes...

[sinikettu]

The last piece of Stilton (Christmas only stocked) has been sold from Myyrmäki City Market.
I have been watching it since end of December...lonely lump of Stilton in a Camembert patch.
Someone probably thought it was Danish Blue or Aura, and bought it by mistake.
Bet it was as dry as a block of wood.
Why is it only stocked at Christmas?

They now have "famous five", which falls appart into five seperate cheeses, when Maippi insist on trying to slice it with her dam Finnish cheese plough. She moans if I hack a chunk off as it makes her cheese plate look untidy!

They also have "Hand made Oak Smoked Cheddar from Ilchester..?"...BUT @ a price that made me think it had to be a typo.. ..7 Euro for a quite small bit ...made me yearn after a drop of scrumpy to wash it down with....Oh yes... Apples...Anyone ever seen an English Coxes apple on sale in Finland?
Me thinks the English dont export apples to Finland wonder why....

[CH]

(And Hellmann's is made from the basic real mayo ingredients - OIL, WATER, WHOLE EGGS AND EGG YOLKS, VINEGAR, SALT, SUGAR, LEMON JUICE, NATURAL FLAVORS, - the only thing that shdnt be there is the sugar - you can use it for dressing a salad - but it is not 'salad dressing' - that is Miracle Whip and the Swedish-Finnish crap - with sugar almost ingredient #1)

Well, um... no it isn't. Basic mayonnaise is egg yolks and vegetable oil. Check any cookbook, or online if you don't happen to own one. Here, let me help you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise.

Usually, mustard is added as flavoring and to stabilize it and some kind of acid like lemon juice or vinegar. I make it by using just egg yolk, vegetable oil (usually sunflower) and lemon juice. That's it. And it does taste about the same as the stuff you buy here commercially. Or, as Wikipedia says in the link above about the traditional recipe: "Mayonnaise made this way may taste too strong or sharp to people accustomed to commercial products." Like I said, to me Hellman's tastes bland, and seems to be whipped with water to make it lighter. In my opinion, water has nothing to do in a real mayonnaise. Nor whole eggs or sugar. I do add water in my home made mayo to make it lighter, but that is then a base for a dressing for me, not unadulterated mayo.

I don't have my usual commersial mayo at the moment (I never remember its name, but the plastic tub with a blue lid... it has even less sugar (no sugar?) than the other brands here), but I have Felix kruunu majoneesi, and its ingredients are: Rapsiöljyä, munankeltuaista (7%), viinietikkaa, vettä, sinappia, sokeria, etikkaa, suolaa, säilöntäaineita, elintarvikeväriä, mausteita. They do add water and sugar though, although sugar is the 6th ingredient. Now Hellman's Real Mayonnaise: Soybean oil, water, whole eggs and egg yolks, vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, natural flavors, calcium disodium edta. Water as the second ingredient??? Oh, and sugar is... um... wait, let me count... 6th!

So, have you ever made mayo?

[Karhunkoski]

Yup, it's not only the lack of buying power which can boost pricing.

Take for example tins of Heinz Beans. In the UK a decent sized supermarket will easily take a single pallet load of beans in one delivery - the pallet leaves the manufacturer, passes through a regional distribution depot and arrives at the supermarket

In Finland, very likely the whole country only takes a delivery of a few pallets. As these pass into regional distribution depots, these pallet loads have to be broken down (picked) and a box or two added to mixed pallets of slow moving product lines, which are then delivered to the supermarkets. This picking of boxes from the warehouse and then re-stacking of different types of products onto a new pallet takes a lot of labour, and is expensive.

Think how much it costs to employ a guy (can be double his hourly wage after the extra costs an employer pays, insurance, his overalls, his sick pay, holiday pay, somewhere for him to take a dump, etc). It could easily take him 5+ minutes to go collect a box of beans and restack it onto a new pallet. Employ him at 15€/hour, this will cost 2.5€, or add 21 cents to the price of each can of beans.

It doesn't explain all the cost difference, but this DOES have some effect.

[Rosamunda]

The crazy import prices you see are NOT necessary - 'ask the man who owns one.'

Aha!!! Did Gray's finally find someone stupid enough to sign a franchise agreement for Finland

[sammy]

Finland has the 'cuisine' it deserves!

Possibly - but then again, those that mention "cuisine" and vile, mass-produced gunk like the said spritzers, bottled/canned mayo etc in the same sentence also deserve what they get

[sammy]

The last piece of Stilton (Christmas only stocked) has been sold from Myyrmäki City Market.
I have been watching it since end of December...lonely lump of Stilton in a Camembert patch.
Someone probably thought it was Danish Blue or Aura, and bought it by mistake.
Bet it was as dry as a block of wood.
Why is it only stocked at Christmas?

Poor Myrtsi, lost an archaeological treasure there... Stilton Tut-Ankh-Amen But... doesn't Stockmann have Stilton available all year round? (not sure, I rarely buy any Stilton - not because I'd dislike it, just tend to go for Gorgonzola or Roquefort when feeling "blue-cheesy")... or have you tried the Hakaniemi hall, there's a few goodish cheese shops there...! I guess Stilton just does not sell enough in quantity... faces stiff competition from Aura (which is quite different, but has a long tradition here)

[Karhunkoski]

For those telling about Finnish salaries, 'a few pallets' etc. - I wonder how these Hakaniemi people can have prices so different from the seemingly popular CM. (Yeah right - tell me because they work 24 hrs a day for nothing - that also pays the high freights etc that you suppose exist). No wonder we have the system in Finland we do - the number of apologists for such things as Kesko.

You should try reading what people write Ron, in particular the one about "a few pallets", and then perhaps refrain from suggesting that anyone was attempting to explain away local differences in pricing. If you want to have an adult discussion and even bring people to your way of thinking, you should perhaps consider dropping your clear personal dislike for Kesko and instead argue some valid points that don't just make you sound like an angry ex-supplier?

Many of us who now live here consider local produce pricing to be better value than where we lived before. Plucking out foreign or luxury goods and then grumbling about the pricing is pretty pointless. Those who really want them pay, the rest of us perhaps don't. Yes Finland has a less developed food culture than some places in Europe, it bothers me little as the other positive aspects of living here drown out any complaints about not finding Prawn Cocktail crisps in my local S-Market. If I felt as strongly as your good self, I would probably have left by now. Your solo crusade on an internet forum is unlikely to change the status quo, you have 3 choices.....

[Hank W.]

not finding Prawn Cocktail crisps in my local S-Market

The thing is - you just didn't look hard enough as I am dead certain I've seen something of the sort... or was it prawn crackers....

[Rosamunda]

(Estonia now offers a neat chance to bring good stuff back in bulk - same with Riga)

I've just booked the ferry/hotel for a few days in Tallinn in February. Since the car has to go "van" rate we can even stick the ski box on the roof if we want to for no extra charge, maybe even the trailer! So PLEASE PLEASE feel free to share your list of Must Haves and Great Bargains from Estonia (preferably with address of store) so I can stock up before we come back.

Thanks.