by Martha Andrus

Shopping in the Netherlands is a very different experience compared to shopping in the U.S. For starters, stores here are not open 24 hours. Most stores are closed on Sundays and on Monday mornings and remain open until 8 p.m. only on Friday. Otherwise, they close at either 5 or 6 p.m.

Grocery shopping is, indeed, a new experience. Learning what is what as far as being able to read Dutch and figure out what you are buying is honestly one of the easier things to learn. And overall, the cost of food in the groceries here is less than in the U.S. You can find almost everything you want in the groceries here, but you also have the speciality shops such as the butcher, the fresh bakery, produce, the cheese stores and fish shops.

The first thing you learn as a Dutch shopper is that you must furnish your own bag. They do not have bags for you in the groceries here unless you want to buy a large plastic grocery bag. And forget employees bagging your groceries for you - there are none.

First, to get a grocery cart, you have to insert a 50 Euro cent piece to unlock the cart. As you go through the checkout line, you put your purchases on the belt and as they are checked through, you return them back into your cart. The Dutch do one of two things. They either take their bags with them to the grocery and, after putting the products in the cart, take them out again to be scanned, returning them to the cart after purchasing and then taking them to a counter where they can put the groceries into their bags. Alternatively, you do the above, with the exception that your bags are in the car, so you take the cart to your car and transfer the groceries to the bag in your car. Either way, you have handled these groceries several times before you finally get them home and stored, so they become very familiar, to say the least! Now you understand why I say you learn very quickly how to identify the products after you have handled them so many times. You then return the cart to a stand where you will get your 50 Euro cent piece back. You do not see carts abandoned in the parking lots here.

Most of the groceries are located in a shopping centre. Preferably before you purchase your groceries, you take your cart with you if you are going to any of the other stores in the centre for other purchases. You must also be sure you have another bag with you if you are planning to fill your other bags with groceries. For a lot of Dutch, their shopping trip is made by bicycle, so you can imagine seeing people with the bags on the sides of their bicycles and on the baskets in front of their bikes; some even pull a small cart. To say the least, they don't buy large quantities if travelling by bicycle, so several trips to the grocery are needed weekly.

Recycling is a very politically correct thing to do here. When you purchase Coke and other soft drinks in plastic bottles, you are charged 25 Euro cents for each bottle. You then return these bottles to the grocery, where there is a machine that collects them and gives you a receipt for 25 Euro cents for each bottle. You redeem the receipt at the checkout counter. And on practically every corner there are recycling bins for glass, which make it very convenient to recycle, so most people participate.

The bread and desserts are by far the most enjoyable products in Holland, along with the cheese and fresh fish, of course. The breads are baked daily and you can smell that fresh bakery aroma as soon as you walk into the stores. The desserts and pastries are also baked daily and they are very proud of these products, as they should be. They are very elaborately prepared and heavenly to eat.

You have to be very careful when you are purchasing meat because they do sell horse ('paard' in Dutch) meat. It is not something you see a lot but I learned this very early on and am now sure to read every label before purchasing anything that resembles beef!

Martha's partner, Jac, provides specialist tax advice for expats in The Netherlands. He can be contacted at:

Multibreen BV
Individual and Corporate Tax Consultants
Located in Leiderdorp, The Netherlands
Phone: 071-541-9220
Email: multibreen@xs4all.nl