What items is Poland's market missing?

A friend of mine is looking to start importing goods into Poland and I was curious to know what is something fairly common to find in your country of birth that is hard to find in Poland? Anything you really miss? I told him to post in here but he said these forums get hi-jacked by people arguing about politics/rules & regulations, please prove him wrong lol.

Lol-your friend is right but before the circus comes to town on your post........

How about greeting cards ? They haven't really taken off in Poland as they have here in the UK.

Some baking products are hard or impossible to find, and malt vinegar and English mustard are rare in the shops. You have to ask the question though whether the mark-up for importing something raises the retail price to a level at which people can happily live without something.


The market for greetings cards is plummeting in the U.K. - they are something mainly for the older generation.


You said last night that you were in Poland.

@Maciek_G

There's only three things that I missed as an American during my stay in Poland: 1) window screens. My God, what a difference they make in quality of life, just being able to sleep at night during the summer. No wonder Poles are so grumpy. 2) Cold non-alcoholic beverages in stores. Extremely hard to find in Poland. Drinking pi$$-warm soft drinks is something I never could get used to, even after 12 years. Might as well just drink pi$$-warm ***** at least it's free. 3) Large shoes. If you have big feet in Poland, you're royally screwed. And no, they won't order them for you. You have to buy online.

You can get them made to measure very cheaply, and although the quality isn't fantastic, they last for a good 2-3 years easily.

I think they're a hard sell in Poland, people think of firanki in the same way (though they don't work as well)


Actually extremely easy to find now, any żabka, fresh or similar store keeps some drinks cool (maybe not frosty american standards but cool enough).

Wait, is it true about Americans loving ice-cold drinks then? I saw an American once getting quite hysterical over ice on Stary Rynek in Poznań, but I thought this was a myth!


Yeah, it's something that I've noticed has changed a lot. I remember it being not entirely uncommon to discover shops with turned off fridges, but I haven't seen one in a while, not even in small villages.

Many stil turn them off overnight!

Yes, it's very true,and not a myth. And practically every American that visits Europe complains about this. Americans like their drinks ICE cold. Even in winter. And no, most Polish shops have their refrigerators set nowhere near cold enough for American tastes. The drinks you buy in Żabka, etc., are pi$$ warm by American standards. There was only ONE shop I ever found in the old town of Wrocław that sold drinks cold enough for me,and sometimes I'd walk clear across town to buy a drink there. Apparently, Poles like their soft drinks to be substantially warmer than beer. And about ice, the average American consumes hundreds of times more ice than the average European.


They are a default, built-in permanent feature in the States. The windows are designed specifically to include them (American windows are designed completely different than European windows). And the doors are more often than not all double doors, with a screen door on the outside. The screens are metal and they last for many decades. Another missing thing that Americans instantly notice when in Europe.


They don't work at all. All it takes is the tiniest hole for mosquitoes to find their way in.

No what I do miss here in the States are trains and trams. Rail service in the US is very limited and very expensive. Not for the budget traveler.

In England I never used plasters, because they always came off. Microporous tape did the job of covering wounds for the whole day, but here I only see plasters in Rossman etc.

American way of making a cold drink (like ice tea).

1. Fill the glass with ice (pack it in!)

2. Pour the (already cold) liquid over it.

European (incl Polish) way of making a cold drink

1. Fill the glass with lukewarm liquid

2. Drop two sad, little, already melting ice cubes in it.

Laughing, because I'm drinking a glass of ice tea right now, made exactly as you described. The beverage has to be pre-refrigerated or else it will melt the ice and dilute the drink. The ice is not there so much as to make the drink cold, as to keep it cold. FYI, current temperature outside is -4 C. Cloudy with a slight chance of flurries.

No I did not. Why are you trying to pick fights on this forum ??

The OP asked a question-I offered a suggestion. Why refer to something that happened on another thread that bears no relation to this thread ???

Show me the post where I said I was in Poland. I have stated several times I live in the UK. I await your apology.

Best if the drink comes straight out of the fridge.

There could be a market here for lucozade. Not the healthiest drink by a long chalk but that wouldn't be a problem since the taste here is for drinks containing a lot of sugar, and I suspect it would be popular.

It was mysteriously in the local Żabka next to my work for about a week, then it vanished and it was never seen again.


I'm moving to America. That's a sane, sensible way of preparing cold drinks. The UK isn't so bad for it, but elsewhere? I remember having to beg them in one pub to actually fill a glass with ice one summer, they just couldn't wrap their heads around why I would want to drink the cider with so much ice even though it was over 30c outside.


Even the beer here can be pathetically warm at times. There was one pub in Poznań that I used to love for the fact that the glasses were kept cool, while the beer was ice cold. I guess it's also connected to the idiotic myth that drinking cold drinks will make you sick :/

I've known people here who won't let their kids eat ice cream.

Another maybe for the market here: frozen curries. More and more people in Poland like Indian food but don't always want to make it from scratch.

@delphiandomine
won't make you sick but it certainly kills the flavour. And for me, this is the main reason why Americans want their drinks ice cold, they like flavourless stuff (think US beer or US coffee...)

you've obviously never had southern ice tea (tea infused liquid sugar)

it's just a cultural thing (like japanese and koreans liking food that's scalding hot) americans think the cold brings out the flavor certainly very cold cola tastes better than lukewarm

Cold cola = liquid gold

Especially in warm weather!

Traditionally Poland just doesn't have any conceptual space for liquids that are colder than room temperature. It's kind of getting one but not too quickly.