10 supermarkets that no longer exist but that we still miss

You can hardly imagine it, but there was once a time when you didn’t see a Jumbo and Albert Heijn on every street corner. Back then, you could also walk into a Super de Boer. Or do your weekly grocery shopping at Deen. Oh, the nostalgia… Do you remember these 10 defunct supermarkets?

Super de Boer

Oh my… If anything makes my nostalgic heart beat faster, it’s Super de Boer. Do you remember that you could collect Fox Kids TV Cards there? Wasn’t that just the best? Super de Boer also had an ongoing savings programme: Rocks’. For every €5 worth of groceries, you received one Rocks’ point. Once you had 220 points, you received a five-euro Rocks’ voucher. You could then redeem it at, for example, Wehkamp and ICI PARIS XL. In 2009, Jumbo announced that it would take over Super de Boer. It took until 2012 for the last Super de Boer store to be converted. Goodbye, little Super. We still miss you.

C1000

Another supermarket we used to see in many villages and cities: C1000. In the early 2000s, it was even the third-largest supermarket chain in our country, with no fewer than 500 stores. Did you know that the name is derived from ‘Calculatie-1000’? That refers to the C1000 formula: 1,000 products at a fixed low price. Later, the chain also experimented with C1000 Voordeelmarkt. In 2011, Jumbo took over C1000, on the condition that around ten stores would also go to competitors. The takeover made Jumbo the second-largest supermarket chain in our country (after Ahold). Want to return to the C-1000 era? Then you can visit the C1000 museum in Hellendoorn. C1000 superfan Gerard takes you on a journey through time, past shelves full of old C1000 memorabilia. Fantastic to see.

Edah

Ah, do you remember Edah? A supermarket that didn’t survive a price war with Albert Heijn. Such a shame. It was a supermarket with a very long history. The store first opened its doors as early as 1917. Edah stands for the initials of its founders: Ebben, Dames, Aukes and Hettema. These were the four grocers from Noord-Brabant who took the first steps towards a collaboration in 1910. Anyone who still misses Edah can get a small taste of nostalgia at the Edah museum in Helmond. There, you can view all kinds of old products and furnishings.

Deen

Deen disappeared from the streetscape relatively recently. In 2021, the last Deen supermarket closed its doors. Before that, we mainly saw it in the north of our country, with most of its stores in Noord-Holland. All the stores were taken over by Albert Heijn, Vomar and DeKaMarkt. Good news for anyone who couldn’t quite let go of Deen: some of Deen’s own-brand products were also taken over by the three chains. A petition was even launched to keep Deen’s garlic sauce in the range. Successfully, too. Thankfully.

Golff

Do we still remember Golff? The store was mainly known for its fresh products and extensive fruit and vegetable section. You often saw those products featured in the weekly leaflets as special offers. We haven’t seen the orange-yellow-green logo (the most retro supermarket logo ever, if you ask me) anywhere since 2013. That was when the supermarket was taken over by Edah and Emté. Neither of those exists anymore either. People, where has the time gone?!

KonMar

Konmar existed for around 40 years. It was short for KonsumentenMarkt. Its origins lie with a baker’s son who started selling goods from a cargo bike and eventually grew into a huge supermarket in The Hague. In the 1960s and 1970s, KonMar was quite new and unique. It was cheap, but also incredibly diverse. For example, it also had a butcher’s, a fresh-bread section and a liquor store. Still, the KonMar formula did not remain successful. It lost the price war and had to sell its branches, among others to Albert Heijn and Jumbo. Sob.

EMTÉ

Until 1994, you could find EMTÉ supermarkets in only 12 locations in our country. That changed when the company came into the hands of the Sligro Group. In one fell swoop, you could walk into an EMTÉ at 131 locations. Yet even the green-and-yellow chain couldn’t beat supermarket giants Jumbo and Albert Heijn. In 2019, the curtain fell on the very last EMTÉ store. What we miss most is EMTÉ’s butcher’s section, which even won an award.

Attent

Attent was a much-loved local supermarket. Small but lovely. You mainly went there for your everyday groceries. In total, you could choose from around 3,000 products. It had a real everyone-knows-everyone atmosphere: chatting with the supermarket owner was perfectly normal. Such a shame that such a great concept has disappeared! In 2018, there were around 73 stores. Most of the supermarkets were eventually converted into SPAR stores.

Digros and Bas van der Heijden

Digros and Bas van der Heijden were two supermarkets that looked very much alike. They had the same formula and a similar logo: bright red with white lettering in the middle. Hey, we know that one: Dirk has that logo too! Correct. Digros, Bas van der Heijden and Dirk van den Broek all fell under Detailresult Groep N.V. In 2014, all these supermarkets were renamed Dirk. Just like the logo, the formula was also preserved: here you can really get the cheapest groceries. Fortunately, that’s something we don’t have to miss.

Read also:

• Hell: when you run into someone you know at the supermarket
• 12 things supermarket employees find seriously annoying
• 10 nostalgic biscuits you absolutely wanted to take to school

Sources: InfoNu Financieel, NOS, NPO Kennis, AD, Omroep Brabant
Images: Shutterstock, Facebook