This is bad. We don’t have Carrefour or Wal-Mart in the UK and hopefully they will never darken our shores. I think it’s time to re-implement Dads army and the Home Gaurd to repel a Franco-US invasion of dreadful supermarkets.
Carrefour used to be in the UK back in the 70s and 80s, at least in the Midlands. My mum would drag us around there on Saturday mornings. At least we got a curly-wurly out of it !
A friend of mine met one of Taoyuan’s Tesco managers in a bar last night. Said chap maintains that altho Carrefour wil be the new owner, TESCO will still be the operator, and that regular Tesco goods will still be sold.
I have sent a few Emails to Tesco customer service to try and confirm this. It would be wonderful if it was true. We need more selection not less, and I would defintely mis some of that Brit fare.
But even though it’s British, you still can’t find marmite in Tesco.
Why aren’t there any American supermarkets in Taiwan? I miss beef jerky and Twinkies.
Wow. I never knew that. I’m from Redditch, but the 70’s is a bit before my time. I wonder why they left.
Just pop down to your local oil refinery. I’m sure they will be glad to get rid of some useless tar residue.
I thought COSTCO was American?.
Tesco has its own brand of “yeast extract”, but it’s not very good. I personally like Vegemite and always beg friends who visit Australia to bring some back. I used to like the English sausages they sold (e.g. “Cumberland”, “Lincolnshire”, etc) but now there are only two or three flavors and they’re shrink-wrapped in a factory somewhere and absolutely tasteless. I’ll also miss the “English toast”–decent bread that’s not sweet.
Costco has beef jerky from the US. The brand name I think is “Oberto”. They have at least black pepper and teriyaki flavors. There may be one or two others. Still no Twinkies or Ho Hos at Costco, though. I have even noticed over the years that many things at Costco tend to come and go. The BSE (mad cow) scare ended the Sinai Kosher all beef hot dogs, which their umbrella tables still seem to advertise. The microwaveable cheeseburgers are gone, as well as the Mexican corn tortilla rolls filled with meat and refried beans (can’t remember what those were called). The bakery no longer sells the garlic “flat bread” and the deli section with all the items in plastic covered trays no longer sells enchiladas or meatloaf. I think the smoked salmon tortilla roll things are gone, too. The sushi platter had a couple bites of sea urchin last time, which was a pleasant surprise for me.
There’s an American store in TianMu called “Wellman’s” or “Wellington’s” or something that has some good stuff. (It’s about 8 or 10 doors south of Mary’s Hamburger, if that helps). Tainan has Kolin market at the corner of NanMen Rd and FuChian Rd. I still buy Hormel’s Chili, almost every flavor of Campbell’s soup, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, and other things. That store changed hands recently and seems to be going downhill. They can’t afford to turn on their air conditioner anymore. (Or, maybe it just wasn’t hot enough when I visited last.) No more Oscar Meyer bologna, hot dogs, Bagel Bites, tortillas, bacon, etc.
It’s unfortunate. It seems that as people’s shopping habits become more suited for hypermarts, the smaller stores can’t compete. End result? Fewer choices for us.
[quote=“mod lang”]But even though it’s British, you still can’t find marmite in Tesco.
Why aren’t there any American supermarkets In Taiwan? I miss beef jerky and Twinkies.[/quote]
You could get marmite at the Taoyuan Tesco store, but not the one in Taipei. I for one will be sad to see it go, especially if after the merger a number of Tesco own brand products stop being stocked, it was the only place we could get proper mayonnaise and several other sauces and condiments. The choice in other stores including Jasons, is crap and generally way overpriced.
Cosco
Welcome
Jason
A British super/hypermarket.
I miss Marks & Spencer. I love their hummus. 
Taiwan needs one.
Well, coolingtower, I notice that, like I, you live in Tainan. There aren’t any Costcos in Tainan.
The Kolin Market has a few imported items that you can’t find anywhere else, but they tend to be wildly overpriced - 180 NT for a bag of Doritos! I don’t mind spending 30 NT for Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew, though, since you can’t find those anywhere else. However, Kolin does not have beef jerky or Twinkies. A long time back they had Pop Tarts but no longer. Also, as you mentioned, some of their food I suspect is not fresh, perhaps even expired (take a look in the back of their cheese section).
They do have this stuff called Bovril, which I’m told is a chocolate Marmite.
[quote=“coolingtower”]There’s an American store in Tianmu called “Wellman’s” or “Wellington’s” or something that has some good stuff. (It’s about 8 or 10 doors south of Mary’s Hamburger, if that helps). Tainan has Kolin market at the corner of NanMen Rd and FuChian Rd. I still buy Hormel’s Chili, almost every flavor of Campbell’s soup, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, and other things. That store changed hands recently and seems to be going downhill. They can’t afford to turn on their air conditioner anymore. (Or, maybe it just wasn’t hot enough when I visited last.) No more Oscar Meyer bologna, hot dogs, Bagel Bites, tortillas, bacon, etc.
It’s unfortunate. It seems that as people’s shopping habits become more suited for hypermarts, the smaller stores can’t compete. End result? Fewer choices for us.[/quote]
wellman’s is a relic from earlier times…when mary’s was across the alley (in the european deli’s current space) and when mister donut was a dusty little donut shop on c.hungshan north road with a total of 8 donuts in the glass countertop and 0 customers. costco is indeed killing wellman’s off, but it doesn’t help that wellman’s produce is nearly all close or well-passed its suggested expiration date. wellman’s loyal customer base was the wealthy expat families. when costco opened, the ‘ladies who lunch’ simply told their drivers to head for neihu for a fresher, better selection of imported goods. wellman’s prices are way too high and i would suggest it as a last-resort choice when you can’t find products at jasons, costco, breeze etc.
Tesco here bears no resemblance to Tseco in UK. Apart from a very few items, it’s all geared toward local tastes.
Blame the local housewives for the shittiness of the stores here. The reason Tesco in the UK is so full of goodies is that people want them – they WANT new things and are willing to buy them and taste different things.
Not here. Here they want lots of cooking oil, instant noodles, and green veggies – but nothing “strange.” Everything has to be exactly as it has been for the last 100 years.
Don’t blame the stores for the lack of imagination of their customers.
[quote=“coolingtower”]There’s an American store in Tianmu called “Wellman’s” or “Wellington’s” or something that has some good stuff. (It’s about 8 or 10 doors south of Mary’s Hamburger, if that helps).
[/quote]
It’s Wellman’s; it’s on Zhong1shan1 N. Rd., just south of TAS, and one door south of the Subway which might now by a Subber; on the other side I seem to remember there being an oriental carpets place.
Tesco is lame, Carrefour is lame, Taiwanese lack creativity so all the “hypermarts” end up being the same with the exception of a handful of products (baked beans in tesco). Tesco was not so bad at first but it did not take it long to end up a generic hypermart like all of them, the Tesco in Taipei city was full of fresh seafood, but after a few weeks the prawn tank became a disgusting blend of have dead and decaying creatures(eventually they removed it). A friend of mine caught Tesco staff re-dated expired cheese, when he confronted the manager, all he got was a million sorrys. There is nothing British about Tesco, French about Carrefour or Geant excpet the names. The only store that is close to being from where it is comes from is Costco.
Ok I agree that they have to adapt to local tastes, but lets face it local tastes are pretty much inflexible and dull when it comes to shopping for food(especially non-chinese food). How many of you out there have Taiwanese freinds that bring instant noodles when they travel the world, or how many of you have been on “company trips” and all you eat is Chinese food, REALLY BAD CHNINESE food. Some cool products appear in stores but they never really stick (salt and vinegar chips for one, but the multi flavored pizza ones never go away). I have resigned myself to the reality getting some different products now and again and paying through the nose for them.
Oh yeah I once was checking out Wellman’s and I found curry powder with tons of mold in the jar (YES CURRY POWDER). When I checked the expiration date it was more then 2 years past. I then picked up a bunch of other items to check the dates and about 40% of them were well past their expiration dates. So beware!
i’ll take lame over no choice at all. i might try to see if the gingerman was correct with his previous post - that the product mix would stay similar.
prefer tesco’s fresh products, own brand stuff (grapefruit juice), beer selection, gingerale, cheeses, deli section (cappacoli - yum) and probably others.
carrefour gets thumbs up for fresh salmon, barbeque sauce (kraft - ain’t it sad when that’s the best you can find?), and their tuna in water.
Hey, why you think I opened an eatery/bakery and get expensive stuff imported from Europe.
I try not to give in to Taiwanese bland food taste and I have to pay a price for it …
Just go to any eatery/coffeeshop in Taiwan they all serve the unified plastic-bag-only-nuke-me food, all tseak house serve the same black-pepper-to-much-starch sauce, and the same corn chowder soup … Taiwanes are dull when it comes to eating and food, even the home made stuff tastes the same, they put then dishes on the table and all tastes the same … mushy white rice is the next thing they like over healthy brown rice … go figure … :s
Go to any bakery … it’s all the same … unified disgusting can-we-call-it-bread-? Greasy/sweet mayonnaised buns with tons of sweet corn, buns-where-you-think-contains-chocolate-or-cream contains dry fish or meat, red beans … bluh …
When you need to go for the money … you need to sell crap … that’s what the big guys do … sell localized-crap-and-make-money
Sorry but I had to vent
I have heard of Bovril and forgot to mention that in my last post.
Apparently Costco is being built on He Wei Rd, next to the police station directly across the road from the front entrance of B&Q. I am not completely sure about this, however. I heard about Tainan Costco groundbreaking a long time ago and then they put up that “wei qiang” aluminum fence. That used to be a weed-choked field. I think I even remember seeing a tarpaulin Costco sign on that fence for a while, but the last dozen typhoons probably did away with that.
The population of Tainan is 720,000, but if you add YongKang, RenDe, and maybe GuiRen, that’s about a million. Only a million people and we have 2 Mitsukoshis, 2 RT-marts, Tesco, 2 Carrefours, Geant, 2 Far Easterns, Focus, and 2 B&Qs. It’s hard to imagine all these can survive at the same time. I hope Costco doesn’t have trouble in Tainan.
Belgian Pie:
Well, this is really a bit overstated. There are so many different sorts of food in Taiwan. The choice (in Chinese) food is unbelievable. And, yes, they are not so fond of Western style food, but can we blame them ?
[quote=“belgian pie”]
I try not to give in to Taiwanese bland food taste and I have to pay a price for it …
Just go to any eatery/coffeeshop In Taiwan they all serve the unified plastic-bag-only-nuke-me food, all tseak house serve the same black-pepper-to-much-starch sauce, and the same corn chowder soup … Taiwanes are dull when it comes to eating and food, even the home made stuff tastes the same, they put then dishes on the table and all tastes the same … mushy white rice is the next thing they like over healthy brown rice … go figure … :s
Go to any bakery … it’s all the same … unified disgusting can-we-call-it-bread-? Greasy/sweet mayonnaised buns with tons of sweet corn, buns-where-you-think-contains-chocolate-or-cream contains dry fish or meat, red beans … bluh …[/quote]
You said it, belgian pie. If you think that food in Taiwan (in general) is NOT salty, spicy, or sour, but everything is at least a little sweet, it makes sense that “real” Western food is hard to sell. When Tesco first opened, I remember buying a small jar of “Hot” salsa. It wasn’t terrible, but I won’t get it again. Now, I’ve noticed that they only carry “Mild”.
Up until 30 or 40 years ago, there was little or no food in Taiwan that was baked in an oven. That’s why baked goods here are so weird. Once I ate at Red Lobster in the US with a Taiwanese friend and I ordered the “rice pilaf” appetizer. It’s white and brown rice with butter and something like parsely flakes in it. My fried said “Eeeeew! How can you eat that?” Regular white rice is boring–so, spice it up a bit. If you think about it, Taiwanese bread is exactly the same thing to us–bread, with butter and green flaky things on it. It seems every culture doesn’t seem to like other cultures’ staple foods. With everything needing to be “a litle sweet but not too sweet”, it makes sense that Taiwanese people can’t tell the difference between crackers and cookies. Also makes sense that birthday cake to us tastes like styrofoam–birthday cake should be very sweet to the Western palatte.
Someone mentioned earlier that Costco seems to be the best as far as following the selections available in the home country. The more the hypermarts localize their selections, the more of a guaranteed customer base Costco will have. (Of course, you’re SOL if you don’t live near Taipei or GaoXiong.) Let’s hope Costco doesn’t sell out and “go local”, like ICRT did last year.
(And…what’s up with the butter that has perfume in it???)
TESCO has Bovril, ML.