Christmas crowds at supermarkets and specialty shops: ‘Whip cream, bake-off rolls, gourmet’

A spokesperson for Albert Heijn speaks of a ‘cozy Christmas crowd’ and says that Albert Heijn everywhere replenishes articles as quickly as possible if they are running out. In order to spread out crowds, the chain recently advised customers to get sustainable groceries at home earlier. Plus has noticed that it is busy all week and also counted on fuller stores on Friday. “In any case, the end of the week is always the busiest,” said a spokesperson.

Now that many other shops and the catering industry have to keep their doors closed, expectations for the holidays at the supermarkets are extra high this year. Retail expert Paul Moers recently predicted that the Christmas turnover of supermarkets will exceed 1 billion euros for the first time this year.

Jumbo is noticing a greater demand for both daily groceries and special products for the holidays. “What we also see is that products from our special Christmas range are running fast: the traditional Christmas products such as whipped cream, bake-off rolls, gourmet, pork tenderloin, carpaccio and ice cream cakes.” Popular Christmas dishes at Albert Heijn this year include shrimp cocktails, stewed pears, roulade and tiramisu.

Specialty shops are also very busy. Despite the closure of restaurants, many Dutch people still want luxury food and drinks, and the local butcher or cheese shop, for example, reaps the benefits. In fact, some butchers were so busy a few days ago that they could no longer take Christmas orders from customers.

On this last Friday before Christmas, there were long queues at specialty stores. Like in Nijmegen: around noon, no fewer than thirty people were waiting for the cheese trader De Wit. Some people doubt whether they want to wait, but eventually decide to join. “Well, we would like a cheese board for drinks,” says a woman who, after some hesitation, joins at the back.

Things are going pretty well online too. Bol.com says that there have been recent days, such as Sunday and Monday, on which ‘more orders were placed than on days during the Black Friday Week’. The company gave priority to Christmas-related products. In addition, corona-essential items such as hand soap, mouth caps and baby items are given priority.

Many people also order meals and dinner boxes online for Christmas, now that the restaurants are closed. Mathijs Heijting, CEO of the platform Thuisuiteten.nl, speaks of extreme crowds with thousands of orders. According to Heijting, people have to work day and night to be able to process all refrigerated orders and deliver them to people’s homes.

If you have forgotten something for Christmas dinner, you can also visit many supermarkets during the weekend. During Christmas Day, slightly more supermarkets will remain open this year than in 2020, according to figures from Opening Hours.nl, i.e. 44 percent. On Boxing Day, a Sunday this year, 80 percent is open. That is slightly less than last year.

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