I had bovril some years ago and I thought it was a beef extract like oxo,
Taiwanese food tasts almost everywhere the same, why? Because they put either soja, msg or oyster sauce on it … unified jail food … plus they overdo everything … too much koriander, too much ginger, too much starch … too much msg … too much everything …
Most soup isn’t soup, it’s gloryfied dishwater with a bone in it (BTW expensive bone)
Some Taiwanese won’t even touch the best western soup, only if it contains a lot of starch …
Bread in Taiwan isn’t bread it’s a baked mess of flour, chemicals, sugar, lot’s of grease …
And these foreign hypermarkets sell this stuff in their ‘fresh’ department … in the name of the holy money …
I have worked on real estate issues with hypermarket operators both in Europe and here, and this gave me quite an insight into their businesses. Their operations have to be very much localized everywhere. Speaking about Europe, anyone from England would be very surprised to see how different the selection of goods is at Tesco’s in, say, Eastern Europe. It would be nothing but stupid to sell the same stuff everywhere. They want to make profit and they can only succeed if they serve the local majority as opposed to a few expats. Believe me, if there is substantial demand for something, they will sell it.
Also, it may be shocking to many but most, if not all, Western European hypermarket operators provide sh*t quality, depending on how strict regulations are in the subject country. Re-dating in hypermarkets has frequently been on the news in Eastern Europe for a while now, and have eventually triggered regulators to take a closer look. I’m sure the same will happen soon in Taiwan - nobody in the world likes to eat expired food and hopefully the authorities will realize the related risks.
Considering the swap deal, it seems to me that Carrefour and Tesco carefully searched for markets where competition regulations are rather loose. Without knowing too much about details, I doubt takeovers of this significance would be approved in most of the mature Western economies.
As to Taiwanese food:
Yes, it may often be boring and dull to us foreigners. (Although I need to point out that after only five months here I’m nowhere near getting bored with it.)
But.
Nobody ever should be blamed for what food they like. How stupid is that. People are different, that’s it. If somebody wants to eat cooked rice all day, be it. What’s wrong with that? Nobody’s forced to do so.
If steakhouses want to serve the same boring pepper sauce, it’s up to them. In case nobody eats that, they will go bust and next time they’ll probably think about changing something. As long as they survive selling boring stuff, it’s very hard to blame them. Yes, their approach may not be the same as in many Western places where restaurants try to create some kind of “art” by the way they cook but that’s there and we’re here, people think in different ways.
The steakhouses in Taiwan do good business because they are darn cheap and include all … from salad bar to dessert and drinks … no one cares about the ever present pepper sauce because it’s so darn cheap … servuce and quality is crap tho … but who cares … it’s CHEAP … Steak with noodles!
… Steak w/ green pepper (real)cream sauce and fries Belgian style … that’s the way to go … and a good beer … apple pie … yummie
I agree with most of the complaints here, but I have an idea. Instead of complaining about crap food, let’s do something about it. I can write in Chinese. I can maybe type up letters “on behalf of the foreign community” and try to find the right people to send them to in the different hypermarts. (I already have very high level–but indirect–connections with Carrefour and Tesco.)
PM me with:
The exact chain and location in question.
The things they no longer carry that you miss.
The things they carry that you like very much, purchase often, and don’t want to lose.
The things you wish they might carry.
Your comments and suggestions about the chain/location (try to be positive, if possible).
If you can PM me in this format, it will be easy for me to compile details and put them in the appropriate letters. I COULD search the whole forumosa for people’s comments, but that’s too much trouble, considering I’m doing this for free. And for the satisfaction of “getting our voices out”.
Maybe I’ll be blown off as “some piece of white trash who learned how to type in Chinese.” Who cares? I guess you can’t expect any results at all, if you haven’t given any suggestions to begin with. At least by writing to them, our future bitching and moaning can be justified.
(As a hobby, I’m working on a “white paper” regarding the statistics of ARC holders in different cities, etc. Including some of those statistics in my letters to hypermarts may make it sound more convincing. That’s another issue and I won’t get into the details on this forum.)
I completely agree. That’s the way to go. For us.[/quote]
Not only for us, I have several Taiwanese they come here especially for the deliciuos (real)cream sauces I make.
BTW: why can’t we pool together and ask like my suppliers to import stuff we want … can be done … some of my suppliers they have regular/weekly shipments arriving from Austaralia, Europe, US … by air … monthly or bi-monthly by sea
At risk of being off this subject: a brief steakhouse note.
belgian pie and Balasz mentioned steak in Taiwan. The partially “on the subject” part of this is that I read that TGI Friday’s reported losses recently. The article said that it was because of the opening of “Tasty”, or “Xi Ti Niu Pai”. “Xi Ti”, or “SheeTee”? Ironically, this sounds like “Shitty Steak” to Western listeners. I have eaten there once and it was a cheaper service, furniture, and silverware version of “Wang Ping” Steak. Still better than night markets, Royal Family or “Matador” (Dou Niu Shi). Wang Ping typically attracted the birthday, Valentine’s, anniversary, etc. crowd, because it’s expensive. Tasty, admittedly, really has found the right market for Taiwanese people who want steak. This could be because the ‘80s thinking of “anything imported or exotic is better” has worn off and peoples’ practicality is starting to mirror the economy.
Off the subject:
My big piss-off about steakhouses is “Dou Niu Shi”. They have something like 30 people working there–all spread around the room. Whenever someone enters or leaves they scream at the top of their lungs “HUAN YIN GUANG LING”!!! You can’t even have a conversation in that place. Why doesn’t just the receptionist say this? The staff probably doesn’t want to have to yell all the time and the patrons definitely don’t want to hear all that.
Back on the subject:
Exotic things cost more. If hypermarts are giving up on the foreigners-in-Taiwan market, I guess that’s believable given the current economy. Maybe it is an economy problem that is downgrading the hypermarts and not necessarily bad management. I wish we could tell them what stuff we really like and then they don’t need to order the rest. (I was kind-of working on that in my last post).
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.[/quote]
Unfortunately DM Wal-Mart is in the UK… they merged with Asda a few years back…
[quote=“TheGingerMan”]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.[/quote]
Alas, after a few emails, a couple of long distance calls, and a depressing talk with a senior manager at Carrefour…
All Tesco products will be removed from the shelves effective early Dec. . I pressed him for an exact date, but was told "that has yet to be finalized.
What a drag! So, we have two months to stockpile our favorite items. I’m heading off to the Taoyuan branch tonite, with my emergency-only credit card in hand. Time for some serious hoarding action…
who was that drunken manager? it’ll probably turn out to be some clerk or cashier… :fume:
Tesco isn’t anything amazing, but I really like it becuase it’s the only example in Taiwan of a good supermarket with actual supermarket prices.
The store in Xindian is never crowded, has nice wide aisles, good fruit and veg, and a decent range of products (not a vast selection of Western good, but a little mroe than Carrefour, or RT Mart, and a few choice items amongst their brand broduct sleection that you can’t find elsewhere).
Carrefour and RT Mart are just not as good, not as nice, and always horribly crowded. Breeze, Jason’s, City Super etc are great but too expensive for regular shopping. Costco just sucks - pay for the privilege of shopping there, can’t use any credit card except their own, and not even great stuff (American junk food aside).
Why do they all have those funny escalator/travelator things, which your trolley wheels lock into? Do Taiwanese people who’ve never been abroad think that Western supermakets all have them too?
Why do you have to put coins into the trolleys to unlock them? Do they seriously think people are going to steal the trolleys if they don’t lock’em up? I mean, even in the heart of inner city America, supermarkets don’t have to lock up their trolleys for fear of rampant gangs of trolley thieves.
It is the solemn duty of bored teenagers all over Britain to steal trolleys, mess about with them and dump them somewhere. They get hours of enjoyment and they only need to put one pound in the slot. Every lake, canal, pond and public park in England has a shopping trolley in it. Ah, happy memories.
No this coin thing is to actually get people to return the trolleys to where they took them, saves the store on manpower, meaning lower overhead … in Belgium it’s the norm …
Come on … if you wanted to steal a trolley you just put 10 NT$ in it and of you go …
Could some kind soul pls tell me how to get to the Xindian Tesco using public transport? I’ve searched everywhere (including their website) and can’t find how to get there. :help:
One (or more) of the Xindian line MRT stations has a regular free shuttle to Tesco – they’re small coaches plastered with the Tesco logo. Can’t miss 'em. I’m just not sure exactly which MRT stations, but I’m pretty sure they go from Xindian Station.
I don’t really understand what you’re getting at here.
They have those escalator things so you can push your trolley from one floor to another.
Brian[/quote]
There is something peculiar about the Costco ones in particular. I always wandered why they had the trolley puller people at the ends then found out that there was an incident and everybody piled up and spilled off the end with major carnage when a trolley stuck.
I used to tell my daughters to work hard at school or they could end up being check out chicks. I bet people here tell them they will become end of the escalator trolley puller people if they don’t study.
. I pressed him for an exact date, but was told "that has yet to be finalized.
