Wednesday, October 10, 2012

A quick guide to supermarkets in Almaty



For me this is the weakest point in my experience of living in Almaty. Western products are hard to find and I tend to stock up on some dry items as supply chain management is not as advanced as in other parts of the world. You do get a few supermarkets but they are nothing compared to supermarkets in the States or the UK.

Get used to not being able to read a label... here a product would have 10 or more languages on it, but not a single one in English, French or German. You do get the few familiar products like P&G, but most could be unfamiliar to you and it will be an effort finding what product you prefer. People tend to take for granted that you know what brand of chocolate or tissue paper you prefer when coming to a country like this. When I came here a few years ago almost nothing was familiar to me (and I have travelled a lot) the only thing that I recognised was Johnsons & Johnsons and still I had a hard time getting the J&J body-lotion, as all the different products was placed in the same section of the shelve, and I kept buy the wrong product like shower gel ... everything but Body-lotion!!!.

This has improved like many other things over the years... or it could just be that I am more familiar with the products on offer. But definitely more and more international brands are seen in the shops.  

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