Yeah, the Wellcome stores have really become a shell of their former selves. Some years ago, they were typical supermarkets. Now they seem really worn down, understocked, dirty floors, one person working, etc. Carrefour has them beat hands down.[/quote]
I would say it’s partly Carrefour but other mid-size supermarkets like Matsusei have high quality produce at a reasonable cost. 7-11 and Family-Mart upsizing must also have damaged their business.
Welcome don’t have much foreign goods (they went for the cheaper version local goods which was a mistake long-term), and their range of fresh stuff is very limited, so they don’t have much differential, but their meat can actually be cheaper than Carrefour. They’ll probably be eliminated from the market eventually.
I went to Carrefour as an alternative to RT Mart after Costco, and I gotta say, it was second rate all the way, horrible veg, fruit and meat, they were better than RT Mart with baked goods, but just barely and they did have more foreign stuff, but nothing that I couldn’t get for a better price at Costco.
Definitely Carrefour is not good for meat, fruit and veg. Everyone says that, and Taiwanese all say RT Mart is the best value there.
BUT
Their beaked goods are MUCH better than RT Mart’s, which I think are no better than your average run-of-the-mill Taiwan bakery.
AND
There’s quite a bit of stuff that you can get at Carrefour that’s not available at Costco - their Carrefour ‘Reflets de France’ branded stuff, certain cheeses, canned delicacies. It depends what you’re looking for, I guess. (And not all Carrefours have the full range).
Wellcome has actually improved a bot, I think. The have certain ‘foreign goods’ they never used to. There’s a new foreign brand that I can’t quite remember the name of right now.
The Neihu Carrefour has gone downhill in both bakery and imported foodstuffs, IMO, and in general is a pretty disappointing place each time we occasionally give it another chance.
It’s no secret that Carrefour was performing bad globally … it’s improving but they’re not there yet … in Belgium they opened lots of neighborhood grocery style stores
Carrefour: the French and Italian style bread is deepfrozen and not baked in Taiwan probably, their Taiwanese style western bread is baked on property and is terrible
[quote=“Belgian Pie”]Carrefour: the French and Italian style bread is deepfrozen and not baked in Taiwan probably, their Taiwanese style western bread is baked on property and is terrible
Sent from my MI 2S using Tapatalk 4[/quote]
The French bread baked on site is guarantee,
Having observed in Banciao, a baker, young,
Move forth with rolling motions of his forearm bare,
A baguette formed from lump of dough,
with cellphone clenched 'tween shoulder-ear,
twexting with his loved first wench,
And yet I found this bread superior,
to one I’d spied a little earlier,
Upon a sidestreet sideshow stand,
Where baker leaned with doughy hands,
With cigarrette, alight and ashy,
Above the dough unpurely stained.
This store is probably a special case. It was originally built as a Tesco to compete with the Carrefour on Gongyi/Dadun. However as it was being built, it was announced that Carrefour had bought all the Tescos in Taiwan. So the result was they had two stores that were fairly close to each other.
[quote=“Belgian Pie”]Carrefour: the French and Italian style bread is deepfrozen and not baked in Taiwan probably, their Taiwanese style western bread is baked on property and is terrible
Sent from my MI 2S using Tapatalk 4[/quote]
Oh come on! At my Xindian Carrefour, it’s baked on site, right in front of your eyes. I often get it still warm form the oven.
Here’s five more reasons to go to Carrefour:
Ron Pampero white rum
Ron Matusalem white rum
Neissons white rhum agricole
St James amber rhum agricole
Broker’s London dry gin
These are all excellent spirits at excellent prices that you won’t find ANYWHERE else in Taiwan. Costco, on the other hand, doesn’t stock a single spirit that I’m vaguely interested in, that I couldn’t buy at a hundred other places.
This store is probably a special case. It was originally built as a Tesco to compete with the Carrefour on Gongyi/Dadun. However as it was being built, it was announced that Carrefour had bought all the Tescos in Taichung. So the result was they had two stores that were fairly close to each other.[/quote]
Interesting. I enjoy going to the Wenxin store because it has lots of space and well organised, maybe it’s busier on weekends.
[quote=“Charlie Phillips”][quote=“Belgian Pie”]Carrefour: the French and Italian style bread is deepfrozen and not baked in Taiwan probably, their Taiwanese style western bread is baked on property and is terrible
Sent from my MI 2S using Tapatalk 4[/quote]
The French bread baked on site is guarantee,
Having observed in Banqiao, a baker, young,
Move forth with rolling motions of his forearm bare,
A baguette formed from lump of dough,
with cellphone clenched 'tween shoulder-ear,
twexting with his loved first wench,
And yet I found this bread superior,
to one I’d spied a little earlier,
Upon a sidestreet sideshow stand,
Where baker leaned with doughy hands,
With cigarrette, alight and ashy,
Above the dough unpurely stained.[/quote]
:bravo:
I was chatting with a baker at one of the Carrefours, and he told me the French-style boules and baguettes (decent for the price imho) are actually made locally with imported French flour. Asked him if I could buy some but no dice. Oh, they don’t sell that well at some locations, so if you go after 8, you can get them for half price ~$20-30NT.
Ron Pampero white rum
Ron Matusalem white rum
Neissons white rhum agricole
St James amber rhum agricole
Broker’s London dry gin
These are all excellent spirits at excellent prices that you won’t find ANYWHERE else in Taiwan. Costco, on the other hand, doesn’t stock a single spirit that I’m vaguely interested in, that I couldn’t buy at a hundred other places.[/quote]
Unfortunately, it seems that many of the Carrefours don’t have the interesting selection of spirits that you mention. Neihu sucks particularly badly as DB mentioned above. As for Costco, you should give their Kirkland bourbon (Knob Creek 7yrs $599/1l) and anejo tequila (produced by the same distillery as KAH, Dos Manos, Don Camilo, ~$6XX/1l) a shot for cheap premium mixers. They also sell Cointreau cheaper than any of the hypermarts.
[quote=“Bu Lai En”][quote=“Belgian Pie”]Carrefour: the French and Italian style bread is deepfrozen and not baked in Taiwan probably, their Taiwanese style western bread is baked on property and is terrible
Sent from my MI 2S using Tapatalk 4[/quote]
Oh come on! At my Xindian Carrefour, it’s baked on site, right in front of your eyes. I often get it still warm form the oven.
Here’s five more reasons to go to Carrefour:
Ron Pampero white rum
Ron Matusalem white rum
Neissons white rhum agricole
St James amber rhum agricole
Broker’s London dry gin
These are all excellent spirits at excellent prices that you won’t find ANYWHERE else in Taiwan. Costco, on the other hand, doesn’t stock a single spirit that I’m vaguely interested in, that I couldn’t buy at a hundred other places.[/quote]
Ever heard about bake-off, it’s frozen par baked bread put in the oven for about 10 minutes … I’m not going to disagree that it’s baked on site … baguette probably could be from dough, but they have two kind, one traditional style which has a good chance of being bake-off, and one industrial which is easy to make from scratch … perhaps on Sanxia they get it from another Carrefour
[quote=“Bu Lai En”][quote=“Belgian Pie”]Carrefour: the French and Italian style bread is deepfrozen and not baked in Taiwan probably, their Taiwanese style western bread is baked on property and is terrible
Sent from my MI 2S using Tapatalk 4[/quote]
Oh come on! At my Xindian Carrefour, it’s baked on site, right in front of your eyes. I often get it still warm form the oven.
Here’s five more reasons to go to Carrefour:
Ron Pampero white rum
Ron Matusalem white rum
Neissons white rhum agricole
St James amber rhum agricole
Broker’s London dry gin
These are all excellent spirits at excellent prices that you won’t find ANYWHERE else in Taiwan. Costco, on the other hand, doesn’t stock a single spirit that I’m vaguely interested in, that I couldn’t buy at a hundred other places.[/quote]
Do they carry all of that in Xindian? I hate trekking to Tianmu
[quote=“Belgian Pie”]
Ever heard about bake-off, it’s frozen par baked bread put in the oven for about 10 minutes … I’m not going to disagree that it’s baked on site … baguette probably could be from dough, but they have two kind, one traditional style which has a good chance of being bake-off, and one industrial which is easy to make from scratch … perhaps on Sanxia they get it from another Carrefour[/quote]
This happens overseas too of course, here is an infamous case, frozen par-baked bread being shipped from Ireland to Australia, then sold as ‘freshly baked in stores’.
[quote=“Elegua”][quote=“Bu Lai En”][quote=“Belgian Pie”]Carrefour: the French and Italian style bread is deepfrozen and not baked in Taiwan probably, their Taiwanese style western bread is baked on property and is terrible
Sent from my MI 2S using Tapatalk 4[/quote]
Oh come on! At my
Xindian Carrefour, it’s baked on site, right in front of your eyes. I often get it still warm form the oven.
Here’s five more reasons to go to Carrefour:
Ron Pampero white rum
Ron Matusalem white rum
Neissons white rhum agricole
St James amber rhum agricole
Broker’s London dry gin
These are all excellent spirits at excellent prices that you won’t find ANYWHERE else in Taiwan. Costco, on the other hand, doesn’t stock a single spirit that I’m vaguely interested in, that I couldn’t buy at a hundred other places.[/quote]
Do they carry all of that in Xindian? I hate trekking to Tianmu[/quote]
Yes. It’s pretty mucht he only one I go to. I went to the Zhishan one, but didn’t see anything special (none of the rumoured vegemite).