Hakaniemi - Disappointment

[elämä]

sorry, i didn't mean to upset you anti-organic people

it's a personal preference. i'm quite allergic so for me it makes sense not to eat large amounts of chemicals.
also i know the luomu mark, it's just not used for all finnish organic products.

when it comes to lidl - i just don't feel comfortable supporting an organization like that. it was pretty well covered by the danish medias when they started up in denmark how badly they treat employees, not letting them join unions and so.

karhunkoski: you're right not all organic food is organic, and yes farmers cheat. but even if 50% of "organic food" turns out to have pesticides herbicides fungicides whatever in them - for me thats better than 100%.

[jtammilehto]

when it comes to lidl - i just don't feel comfortable supporting an organization like that.

Do you feel comfortable supporting Kesko and S-Group which rip ALL people off - including their own employees?

[raamv]

Hakaniemi produce deliveries vary but are motly on Fridays... After Monday... Good Luck!!
Viiv Voan still has good stuff if you know what to buy when...and what to buy frozen!!
Se on taika temppu!!
LIDL, depending on where you are.. In Kirkkonummi. its generally Saturdays..

[Xochiquetzal]

Aldi is all over the world. Ran into them everywhere from Australia to the US. Ironically, Lidl is just a copy of Aldi - and by copy, I mean that it is HARD to tell the difference between the two. I'm sure Aldi loooves Lidl.

As I business owner myself, I can tell you that markups are not random - I shop at (and pay for the privilege of) a clean, large, well presented selection of food when I go to a Prisma or Citymarket. I am quite sure Lidl executives are just as well paid as the Kesko people. If the big stores with the bigger markups went away, would you really be happy that all supermarkets in Finland were tiny and ill stocked, dirty and kind of hole in the walls like Lidl?

Also remember that markets like Hakaniemi sell Finnish grown foodstuffs from small farmers. Without economies of scale, they ARE more expensive to produce and get to you. Hence, the mark up. People buy those because a) they trust Finnish grown products and b) they want to support Finns. I think there is an assumption that those markets are to bring food stuff cheaper - when really, they are just as often about getting homegrown, organic, locally produced product - by Finns for Finns. Young people in technical fields in Finland never appreciate the distinction of Finnish farmers and foreign produce until they get laid off when their divisions are outsourced to India or Hong Kong.

Honestly, I HATE paying VAT for my business. But then I get sick or my sister tells me how much her day care bill is in America, and suddenly I remember WHY I pay so much.

Finally, seriously, do you really think Kesko or S-group are the only large corporations with execs who get paid billions while their workers work min wage? Nearly anything you buy that comes from a large corporation has serious human resources issues. You going to boycott the world?

[Rosamunda]

Honestly, I HATE paying VAT for my business. But then I get sick or my sister tells me how much her day care bill is in America, and suddenly I remember WHY I pay so much.

As a business you aren't really paying VAT, but your customers are. You just pass it on to Vero on their behalf.

It's the VAT that you (the person, not the business) pay for the food, clothes, and other products and services you buy that pays for roads, healthcare, education, military defence etc (actually daycare funding comes out of the municipal taxes that are levied on personal income).

(just being a bit pedantic, ignore me)

...and don't worry, Lidl will never force S-Market or Kesko to "go away". But they do force them to price more competitively. So you benefit from Lidl's presence in Finland even if you only ever shop in Citymarket.

[Upphew]

Ironically, Lidl is just a copy of Aldi - and by copy, I mean that it is HARD to tell the difference between the two. I'm sure Aldi loooves Lidl.

Double irony: Lidl: Founded 1930s, Aldi: Founded 1961

[rkingsley]

Aldi is all over the world. Ran into them everywhere from Australia to the US. Ironically, Lidl is just a copy of Aldi - and by copy, I mean that it is HARD to tell the difference between the two. I'm sure Aldi loooves Lidl.

As I business owner myself, I can tell you that markups are not random - I shop at (and pay for the privilege of) a clean, large, well presented selection of food when I go to a Prisma or Citymarket. I am quite sure Lidl executives are just as well paid as the Kesko people. If the big stores with the bigger markups went away, would you really be happy that all supermarkets in Finland were tiny and ill stocked, dirty and kind of hole in the walls like Lidl?

Also remember that markets like Hakaniemi sell Finnish grown foodstuffs from small farmers. Without economies of scale, they ARE more expensive to produce and get to you. Hence, the mark up. People buy those because a) they trust Finnish grown products and b) they want to support Finns. I think there is an assumption that those markets are to bring food stuff cheaper - when really, they are just as often about getting homegrown, organic, locally produced product - by Finns for Finns. Young people in technical fields in Finland never appreciate the distinction of Finnish farmers and foreign produce until they get laid off when their divisions are outsourced to India or Hong Kong.

Honestly, I HATE paying VAT for my business. But then I get sick or my sister tells me how much her day care bill is in America, and suddenly I remember WHY I pay so much.

Finally, seriously, do you really think Kesko or S-group are the only large corporations with execs who get paid billions while their workers work min wage? Nearly anything you buy that comes from a large corporation has serious human resources issues. You going to boycott the world?

Lidl is not a copy of Aldi - even if you turn chronology upside down.

Lidl has a far wider selection. Also has fresh vegetables and fruits. Usually Aldi doesn't.

In any case - do you got to Hakaniemi with BLINDERS?? Please look at the boxes in the back of the stands - Espanja, Italia, Nederland etc. And what's the big deal about 'kotimainen' ?- much of it grown with artificial light and fertilizers - and please look at the boxes in Lidl. Many with SF addresses! And thank you very much but Finnish grown produce very often inferior to imports.(Unless of course you have a favorite turnip producer in mind)

What's this total propaganda about dirty ill-stocked Lidls? That's complete BS and am sure you know it. I can find occasional Ks and Ss with lackadaisical personnel as easily as Lidl.

And sure big shots get big salaries every place. I think the point was being made that it is nonsense to pull Lidl out and boycott them when K and S are just as much corporate crooks - and maybe worse because they have everyone paying too much.

And comments re ALV VAT are irrelevant because everyone subject to the same amount (actually a big problem does lie there because VAT is in that sense not at all progressive)

[Upphew]

What's this total propaganda about dirty ill-stocked Lidls? That's complete BS and am sure you know it. I can find occasional Ks and Ss with lackadaisical personnel as easily as Lidl.

In my experience Lidls tends to be dirty, or at least dirtier than the Ks and Asses and some of their non food products that they advertise are available in ridiculous numbers.

[rkingsley]

I use the Lidls in Lsaari,Nkumppu,Suomoja,Mankka and have seen nothing notable. Floor cleaning machines going constantly etc.

(Whereas McD's in Lommila today looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks.)

The non-food articles in Lidl are usually nothing to pay attention to anyhow.The selection revolves on a weekly basis for some unknown reason - you can often be glad the thing you don't see is sold out. Just walk by and go to the other stuff

[Mook]

would you really be happy that all supermarkets in Finland were tiny and ill stocked, dirty and kind of hole in the walls like Lidl?

Tiny?

All Lidls seem to be the same size, right? Well, I would think that the average supermarket in FInland is somewhere around the Lidl size. We don't all drive to citymarket/prisma.

on the subject of cleanliness, the old Stockmann Herkku (downtown) was probably worse than most Lidls.