Penny-pinchers, take note: this bizarre trick lets you pay very little for bottles of soft drinks and water in Belgium
We Dutch people are known as a rather penny-pinching bunch. If we can get something cheaper, we’re first in line. But then again, what do you expect with that @G$%FDTS-inflation and bizarre prices in supermarkets?! At the moment, a very penny-pinching trick is going viral, and for it you need to visit both a Belgian and a Dutch supermarket.
We recently tipped you off that you should make a trip to our southern neighbours if you want cheap groceries. In Belgium, you can get basic groceries and name brands much cheaper than here. With the following tip, you can make your Flemish supermarket tour even more interesting.
Deposit trick
So what’s going on? In Belgium, you don’t pay a deposit on bottles of soft drinks and water. Here in the Netherlands, you do have to, as you undoubtedly know. However, you can simply return those Belgian bottles in the Netherlands at a deposit-return machine. So you can take a bottle of cola from the Belgian Jumbo to a Dutch Jumbo completely legally. This gives you a hefty ‘discount’ on the bottles of drinks you bought in Belgium.
This applies to own-brand bottles. For example, bottles of water from Jumbo’s own brand or cola from Albert Heijn. The barcodes on own-brand bottles are the same, regardless of whether they come from a factory in the Netherlands or Belgium. Belgian own-brand bottles also display a deposit logo, even though you don’t pay a deposit in the country. You can only return branded products in the country where they are made. So the trick doesn’t work for those.
Supermarket shopping in Belgium: a penny-pincher’s paradise
Also bear in mind that products in Belgium are generally already cheaper, and you’ll understand that you pay next to nothing for bottles of water or soft drinks there. Omroep Brabant gives a few great examples. In Belgium, for instance, you pay 58 cents for 1.5 litres of Jumbo Cola Light; if you subsequently return the empty bottle at a Dutch deposit-return machine, you’ll ultimately have paid only 33 cents for it. The best example is the twelve-bottle pack of Cristaline spring water. In Belgium, you pay € 1.79 for it, but after deducting the deposit, you even get one cent back. That’s right: free bottles of water.
So what do you need to do? Buy your bottle(s) of water or soft drinks in Belgium, drink them empty, take them to a Dutch deposit-return machine and collect your deposit. Hello, nice saving you can spend on a beer on a terrace! Or, as befits a true penny-pincher, simply keep it in your own pocket!
We don’t need to worry that this trick will cause problems in Belgium, by the way. Miranda Boer of Statiegeld Nederland told Omroep Brabant that the numbers are very small, and that changing the system isn’t worth the effort or expense. So if you’ve still been hesitating about Belgium à la Het Goede Doel: don’t anymore. You’d be crazy not to head that way for a supermarket trip.
Also read:
- Tap-water shame is apparently a thing (in Belgium)
- Putting your plastic drinking bottle in the dishwasher? Don’t – here’s why
- Huh: are those expensive bottles of water filled with ordinary tap water?
Source: Omroep Brabant
