Tesco out of Poland? Żabka and Biedronka opportunity.

Polly, why don't you post more about these things? I'd love to know more about how the logistics worked, whether you had problems with bureaucracy, etc etc.

Price fixing has a very negative image here in Poland.


Still a thousand times better than the sort of shops that were there before Rossmann came. A huge worry though is market traders who are being pushed well away from centrum.

Well, let's say it happened. The bigger retailers would actually make *more* money, because prices would have to be set at a level that would allow the small shops to survive. Let's say 1L of Tymbark costs 4.20zł in your local shop and 3.30zł in the supermarket. Suddenly, the supermarket has 90gr more to spend on convincing people to visit them - so they can then afford to give away tea/coffee, they can afford to create IKEA-style play areas for kids, etc etc. End result? The small corner shop goes out of business regardless.

Polonius would have another daft commie plan like forbidding adverstising or state inspectors skimming off the excess profit. PRL all over again...

So what is your sure-fire Delphiand*pa scheme to ensure the survival of family-owned corner shops?
Most Poles are fed up with far too many TV adverts and, retail prices being equal, would gladly patronise mum & dad shops.

Friend of mine, the late Jan Wydro of Oil City, PA, was involved with a group called Americares for Poland and their work included an annual Candylift to Poland. Several tonnes of sweets came by plane and were distributed via Caritas (Father Stefan Gralak was in charge). I had about 20 stops towards the end, as I found out about worthy institutions, I added them. I visited, quizzed kids on their prayers, good deeds, behaviour and preshcool or school progress and passed out treats. That's all there was to it. No bureacracy I could see. I dealt only with the mainly Chruch-related or other charitable institutions, not the regime.The commie regimes from Gomułka to Jaruzel were or purported to be very pro-Polonian and gratefully accepted such aid esp. when shortages abounded. I suppose if customs had found a duplicator nestled amongst the sweets, the operation might have run into problems.

Firstly, what does no prayers = no sweets for children have to do with the topic of this thread?
Secondly, if a foreign owned chain were to offer free sweets to children who came and publicly proclaimed their prauers, would you promote that foreign owned chain which chooses to do what all Polish owned chains choose to not do?

It went off-topic Harry because St Pollyanna couldn't resist lecturing me on my cafeteria Catholicism which was how we ended up talking about charity. Delph was questioning Polly about his charitable activities. which Polly had mentioned earlier. To be fair to the saintly one, I don't think there was any suggestion that the kids wouldn't get sweets if they didn't know their prayers, just that they had to suffer for them first :) He had said earlier in the thread that he played Santa in these places so really it was just part of the old 'have you been a good boy/girl/' routine.


And not just the centre. There are definitely fewer in general. Another problem is that EU regulations regarding food hygiene etc will eventually be more rigorously enforced and small home producers won't be able to meet the regulations so you won't see a woman sitting at the roadside selling chickens or homemade sausages or raw milk. Street sellers are beginning to be seen by the authorities more and more as hawkers, peddlars and undesirables.

I am really sad about Halla Mirowska because it's one of the few really 'old' shopping sites in Warsaw which was a proper market before the war and I know it will be unsympathetically developed. It won't be 'restored', it will be modernised. One could do a lovely development there on a smaller scale but in a similar style to the Leadenhall Markets in London. Why not recreate something of the atmosphere of Warsaw shops at the time when Halla Mirowska was built, with some period shop fronts etc. I actually like it the way it is now, run down and slightly tacky though it is, because it is 'authentic'.

That's what the traditional św. Mikołaj does -- egzaminuje z paciorków i dobrych uzcynków. I would never don a Santa-Creep suit, go ho-ho-ho or hang out with flea-bitten reindeer like some commercialised Lapland Troll.

You're getting your Hale confused. Hala Mirowska is still open, and still has a fairly rubbish 100% Polish-owned supermarket taking up most of the space. Hala Gwardii is the one that has closed, largely because it was mostly occupied by what was probably the worst supermarket in Warsaw, which, perhaps not co-incidentally was Polish-owned. As far as I know there have been no final decisions have been taken as to the future contents. I don't think it will be completely rebuilt, it simply doesn't need that. I'm hoping for a market-stall style thing but I fear it might just be a supermarket.


We used to have a rule banning people from changing posters' names. Given that you clearly feel that rule no longer applies to you, can you please confirm that it also no longer applies to anybody when they are referring to you, so we can all add another 'o' as the third letter of your username.

Yes Harry, you're right. I call the whole thing Hala Mirowska but anyway this is what I was referring to:

english.eurobuildcee.com/?page=news&id=20225&link=warsaw-looking-for-hala-mirowska-partner-

It seems they're planning a fresh food modern market hall and community centre. Well that's what they say but we'll see..........anyway the city is looking for a 'partner' for this venture. What do you want to bet it'll end up being Carrefour or similar!

How many Polish-owned chains can you list? Żabka is the only well-known one. There used to be MarcPol. Dunno if there are any others in Wrasaw. Piotr & Paweł?

I'll happily wager a cup of tea and a slice of cake against a pint of beer that whatever ends up in Hala Gwardii is neither Carrefour nor anything similar. The only supermarket chains which might have been interested in that kind of space in that kind of location were Bomi and Alma, but both of those are now bankrupt - what is it about Polish supermarket chains and going bankrupt anyway? I doubt that Biedronka would be interested, it's too big a space for them, and they also already have three supermarkets within a couple of hundred metres of Hala Gwardii (two on ul. Grzybowka) and one in Kino Femina. Zabka wouldn't be interested in a space in HG either, and they already have four places within a couple of hundred metres (one on Jana Pawla in the Atrium, one on Elektoralna, one at Grzybowska 2 and one right opposite HG).

What do you say, supermarket bet accepted?