supermarket/grocery stores/bio-food

[ralucas]

Hello,

I am moving to Helsinki in a couple of weeks and I would appreciate any suggestions about the best places to buy food - supermarkets, groceries, bio/organic food...I intend to look for an apartment in Helsinki municipality and I won't have a car at least for a month after the relocation...

Thank you

[karen]

There will probably be at least a small grocery store within a block or two of where you live. There are larger "hypermarkets" if you leave the center. Don't worry, you'll find plenty to eat.

[interleukin]

The biggest food stores are the Prismas (part of the S-chain of stores) and the Citymarkets (part of the K-chain). A number of those will be easy to reach by metro or train or bus. Until you find out the nearest one to you, you can go with the biggest local K or S store. LIDL can be found in several places as well (Itäkeskus, Pasila, Kamppi), they are quite popular. For organic food, most of the bigger "normal" stores will have a certain selection of these foods. For more exotic organic stuff, you can go to specialised bio-shops (e.g. the one close to Aussie bar, just opposite the Kamppi shopping centre). Another such place is in Lasipalatsi (the white building opposite Sokos). You will figure it out once you are here.

What is going to kill you is not that you can not find large stores or that you can not find what you want, it is the prices

[ralucas]

thank you, it is very useful to have a broad idea where to start, especially when relocating with a 6 months old baby...btw baby food can be found in those shops? and are prices so high indeed?
thanks again

[Upphew]

:btw baby food can be found in those shops? and are prices so high indeed?

http://www.k-citymarket.fi/Tarjoukset/? ... rjous=2310

[interleukin]

If you are the type to try to get stuff at special deals, you should consider getting the S kortti (S card, used in Prismas and S stores) and the Plussa Kortti (plus card, used in Citymarkets and K stores). Both are free (actually the S card costs maybe 30 euros but it is a deposit sum and you can get it out later I think) and I think most people around here have both. You do collect points the more you shop, but I personally have not been so impressed with the usefulness of that. But both store chains also have a number of special prices for those who have the cards (it is of course to lure you to come to their store and buy everything else you need while you are there anyway). I personally don't chase the special prices unless they are really good, but sometimes it is stuff you would be buying anyway.
At least larger stores such as the Prismas and the Citymarkets will have a service desk at the entrance where you can get help (in some kind of English) with filling out the card forms.

The same cards will also give you points/discounts at various other stores depending on if they are collaborating with the S chain or the K chain. Kodin Ykkönen for example (a furniture etc store) collaborates with the K chain, various pubs and restaurants will give you S points. You will see soon enough.

tl;dr: Get a Plussa card and an S card. Discounts in many stores in Finland. Cards are free.

[am I Finnish yet?]

There is baby food in every grocery store, bigger selection => bigger store, smaller selection => smaller store, you get the picture.

Don't worry about finding food, there is plenty, probably more or less what you are used to now.. Half the fun is trying new stuff anyway, isn't it?

[ralucas]

thank you for all these hints...very useful indeed...@am I Finnish yet: it is fun to try new stuff, especially when you are 6 months old and have just started solids (as my daughter is)