The Carrefour 2020 Thread

Fresh Sunkist oranges 18 a pop. Same orange would be 48 in Jason’s.

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Most fish has been frozen (it needs to be when staying at sea for a week or so) except fish caught by local small fishing boats. And there is flaky fish, like cod.

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I know they snap freeze prawns, the rest is just cold stored isn’t it?

Anyway, the fishmonger at the markets (“straight from the ports” - marketing line) vs Carrefour, same fish, I know which I prefer.

No, lot’s of fish is frozen. All fish for sashimi must be frozen for at least 24 hours to kill potential parasites. Other’s is packed on ice, to keep it at around 0 C.

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Ice is different to the deep freeze. Sashimi has extra requirements sure.

It takes a little longer to get to the store and cold storage/transport in Taiwan is not guaranteed OK.

They could perfectly ship ‘fresh’ fish from Europe on ice to Taiwan.

Wouldn’t buy them in either location !

Supermarkets in Taiwan often sell defrosted prepacked fish. Less problems with shipping them around the country.

Fair enough. I don’t buy too much fresh produce there (mostly beer and dry stuff, occasionally meat), but I didn’t notice any real issues with the few things I’ve bought.

The bags of passion fruit I’ve been buying recently tend to be a bit on the overripe/wrinkled size, but I don’t mind that and I get through them pretty quickly. Besides that I think I’ve only ever bought tomatoes and garlic, and I’ve had more issues buying the latter in Wellcome/PX Mart (when it’s often already started to sprout inside, and has sometimes been thoroughly covered with black mold when I’ve opened a bulb).

I was surprised to see that with chicken as well in my local branch of PX Mart - I’ve seen partially defrosted packs of chicken breasts in the fridges there a few times, presumably because they’d just taken them from the freezer to restock the shelves. I’d always assumed chicken was just refrigerated rather than frozen during transit. No idea whether that’s standard here though.

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It’s the easier way to prevent food waste, increase profit. Anyways, going deeper into the frozen foods market would take us a while.

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Yes, they usually have pretty interesting stuff in those tiny supermarkets.

Thanks for clarifying. I agree, especially from Japan. But you have to get them as soon as you see them!

I have 2 Welcomes, 1 Jason’s, 1 Carrefour Market, and 1 PX Mart within 5 minute walk from house. More within 10 minutes.

I doubt Carrefour will keep 4 places open in such close vicinity. I expect at least one of the Welcomes to close under the new ownership situation.

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Is that all the supermarkets close to your house ? So they will reduce from four options to two?
In my immediate neighbourhood we used to have Matsusei and PXmart . PxMart took over Matsusei (which was a decent Japanese supermarket ) but kept both open as fairly crappy PxMart to cover the district. Only other option is SimpleMart, which is handy for alcohol purchases but not much else.

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same when i lived in kaohsiung. there were 3 wellcomes and 4 px mart within a ±1km radius. they are really doing the convenience store approach.

the wellcomes were really run down. disgusting fresh products, funny smell from rotten food or sewage and the 24hrs stores had staff smoking and drinking outside during nighttime. not a big loss there if management changes.

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No Jason’s in Xindian. Rest same as you, 1 Wellcome, 1 Carrefour, 2 PX Mart. No imported goods to save my life…

My veggies and meat come from the organic stores, of which we have 5.

Oh yeah I forgot about the organic stores. They are for rich people and singles . :grin: Get a few things here and there from them but find them enormously boring and full of powders and packaged goods with dubious natural health benefits.

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Rich people is right. The prices at supermarkets are already too high considering income levels, but the prices at those organic places are insane.

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