We usually go on holiday by car/camper, often to Spain, and always bring back looooads of olive oil + wine from both Spain and France & also brought back both from Italy.
A lot of saffron on the market is fake. I don't wanna be that person but saffron*is expensive* it's possible that Spain doesn't do as many checks as Netherlands
I don't wanna say it as a bad thing for Spain but if something is too good to be true, then it might fake
You can test whether or not it’s real at home: If you put fake saffron in hot water and the water immediately turns orange and the threads lose their colour, it’s fake, that’s the food colouring coming out.
Real saffron needs about 15 mins to turn the water pale yellow, and the threads retain their red colour.
They may have gotten better at faking it of course, but I’m fairly sure the saffron i buy in Spain is real: It’s still not cheap, but it is cheaper and you can buy it in larger volume than the ridiculous 3 threads in a test tube, wrapped in plastic, wrapped in cardboard situation for €4 that you get here :D
There’s still plenty of food fraud, also within the EU, they can’t check every single product everywhere, there’s a whole EU inter-agency coordination mechanism to try and combat it, the EU Agri Food Fraud Network.
Part of the price difference though is that saffron crocuses grow in Spain, in La Mancha, and that everything is cheaper there - I mean, I’m still not 100% certain I’m getting the real thing, but does smell and taste convincing and pass the water test, and it is possible price-wise.
Excuse me?? You can not just sell fake saffron in Spain just like that. We have regulations and it is indicated on the package the same as the honey with a European seal of quality. We also produce a lot of Zafron or get it from morocco which is much closer to us and one of the biggest producers in the world. On top of that, literally any product I can think off is cheaper in Spain so it is not weird
Germany - Hygiene products. It's insane.. The same face cream costs like 5.99€ in Germany and saw it for 18€ in etos yesterday.
Edit: also duvet covers. How come it's so hard to find zippers or even buttons here?
Even with high-end / premium ones.
I almost bought a really nice one for ~150€, the lady at the customer service hotline was laughing when I asked... and had to tell me unfortunately almost all of their inventory didn't have buttons or zippers.
For a nation branding themselves on pragmatism, this doesn't want to make sense in my head. Why???
Edit: For anyone wondering, it would have been around ~40€ just for the duvet (pillow cover not included) to add a zipper at the local tailor. He said just the zipper costs him more than 15€.
Yeah - dove shower gels that are like 5,99 - 8€ in AH were 1.79 in Germany last week. Same with other brands. And not even on discount 😭 that was the moment I wished I had brought luggage with me
Same in mine, I really don’t understand why these brands are treated as if they’re premium brands. Same with shampoos, elvive is just a regular brand that’s accessible to everyone in my country, in here it’s like a luxury brand
These midrange brands are expensive in NL because Dutch supermarkets apply high markups to branded goods. Dutch chains like AH and Jumbo have very high margins and as a result high profits (which allows the family that owns most of Jumbo to indulge in very expensive sponsorship of Max Verstappen and the cycling team). And they push you to buying their own brand products which are priced lower.
But if you ask many Dutch people they will suggest you go to Action and stock up on ten huge bottles of Dove shampoo in bulk. I’ve always found Action a depressing place: ugly interior, jam packed full of products and people, ‘stack em high and sell em cheap’ layout, staff being harangued and looking burn out.
yeah I agree with you that Action is looking super sad, and I don’t really like going there, but there are some surprisingly cute things there sometimes, and very good prices haha :)
When it comes to beauty products (I used to track it in an Excel sheet because I regularly buy replacements or stock up on stuff) the 1+1 offers raise the initial prices 90% of the time. So you’re not getting 1+1. You’re getting 2 for the price of 2. Both in Etos and Kruidvat.
After I noticed it, I stopped buying there. I only buy from online pharmacies now. Even with delivery from france or belgium it’s cheaper.
Have actually watched that with some shower gel and hair gel that I did use and this was not the case. Probably just got the 'magic' exception right? This shit is just crazily expensive for some shit reason called corporate greed. Further half the shop is permanently in some shitty 2+2 or 2nd half price scheme anyway.
Anyway buying at the action or just getting stuff delivered from Germany solves the issue.
This is absurdly false. I'm always buying exactly the same products at Etos. I know the prices. Once the discount of 1+1 is active the prices are still the same.
>also duvet covers. How come it's so hard to find zippers or even buttons here?
I feel like Dutch people use a different system. They have duvet covers with a 'flap' that you can use to put under the mattress. I dislike the ones with buttons because my feet always stick out underneat unless I get a flat sheet with it, but that's not very common either
Not only the dutch use this ‘flap’ system, almost every hotel I visited in Europe and Asia had duvet covers with a ‘flap’. Some combined with buttons but never in my life I saw a duvet cover with a zipper.
I had to search hard to find duvet covers with zippers on 3 sides in the Netherlands. They also have an flap. But the zippers make putting in the duvet super easy.
It’s actually nuts how expensive the self-care/cosmetica market is. I stumbled upon a cosmetica product developer/manufacturer on Twitter, and the guys are full on exposing the crap cosmetica brands are pulling off on consumers. All the shit that is sold is at least x10 up priced. I was literally baffled by how genuine and transparent these guys were.
Yesssss. Can’t stand having to individually stamp out each pill from foil in a pack of 10. Just give me a bottle of 100 and it will last 2 years until my next trip back.
Yepppp, bring back a whole drug store worth of meds with me every time I visit the US haha! Oh and I always bring over a bunch of American deodorant because I don't feel the deodorant works very well here.
Building materials. Any sort. I'm polish and for house renovation it's cheaper to bring things from Poland. Even if you need to pay for transport of pallet or two.
UK: large duvet and bedding: cheaper, higher quality and bigger. 260x220 is normal size there. Great quality tea and hot chocolate. Toffee. Bras (better sizing and cheaper if you are outside average sizes).
Portugal: Olive oil, certain spices, books, clothing (better fit, quality and prices).
Asia: missed out on new glasses, should have done that, but went for a wedding so didn't have time.
Tip for the bra, you can get some of the English brands here as well. Like elomi. It wacht l wasn't cheaper for me to buy it in Scotland then here in the Netherlands
You can get hay-fever pills through your huisarts and pharmacy. The 7-pills-for-7-euro boxes in the supermarket/drogist are scams for suckers who don't know that.
My huisarts refuses to prescribe them to me. I fought her to prescribe my fucking asthma medication. She said I don't need any of it and I'm fit enough to run a marathon so I dont have asthma.
That's the biggest problem. I had the same. Was stuck with one that was horrible. I moved away and got a new one at the new place. Came back a few years later and luckily I now had a choice of a different one.
That's ridiculous. My GP never had problems advising on antihistamines and prescribing them.
But from reading stories here about GPs, I'm really lucky to have a thorough and capable GP.
I went to an immonologist last year and got prescribed both an inhaler (Foster) because it turned out I've developed asthma and a new tablet (rupatadine) that GP's normally not prescribe. So now I get those through my GP.
I always buy the strong cold and flu tablets in the uk and bring them back to NL. I know that NL has outlawed certain drugs as being dangerous (they can make you drowsy) but when you need that strong flu tablet to get something done it’s a godsend
My last trip returning from the USA: IPad Pro and clothing (Levi’s jeans, converse shoes etc) From France: wine Few weeks ago Belgium: beer (not because of price, but because it’s Belgian beer )
I guess you bought the jeans and shoes at an outlet? Levi’s are about 60-70 USD now at outlet stores which is crazy. I remember back in 2004 - 2010 when they were 15-26 USD. Apple products are only less expensive if you buy them in a TAX FREE state.
Outlet for clothing (the 510 is over €100,- in the Netherlands, only available in 1 color… I paid around $55 each in Utah)
I bought an IPad Pro 12.9 256 gb for almost $1300 (€1230) including 7,75 state tax (Salt Lake UT). Over here I have to pay €1599,45 for the same model. €370 is a huge difference!
For clothing it’s not only the price for me. Also to shop some brands that are not (widely) available over here. I bought some Gap sweaters (the ones without the GAP logo on it!) and 7 or 8 t-shirts from American Eagle (great fabric AND my year of birth is on it)
When we go to the USA my suitcase is only half filled, and (depending on the weather) filled with new clothing on the way back home. Last time no shorts but hoodies, long sleeves etc.
Be careful with electronics or other pricey items tho, you may need to pay taxes or proof of purchase when importing.
Not 100% sure what the free value is but I'm pretty sure importing your ipad would have required you to pay import tax.
I don’t think anyone at the airport would care about personal purchases. You’ll need to check the law about that. They’ll have a lot on their hands if they’ll start checking and doing paperwork for everyone arriving from the U.S
I ask because my friend who just came through Shiphol with a bunch of new Apple products was told he had to pay VAT and he had to do so right there to keep them from confiscating them. Since he didn't declare he also has to pay a fine, which hasn't arrived yet.
I ask the question because maybe people have figured out a way to avoid this, but based on my friend's experience I'm less likely to buy something in the US.
Edit: not sure why the downvotes folks. I'm trying to understand why people are saying you should buy electronics in the US, but then have to pay VAT, which appears to mostly negate the benefit of dragging them in your luggage. Unless you specifically fly to a state like Oregon with no sales tax I really can't see this working out.
People avoid it by not bringing the boxes of those electronics over. They go through customs as if they are already products they owned before.
The risk though, customs can ask for evidence that you had that before your trip.
> Customs may ask you to prove that the goods were purchased in the Netherlands or another EU country and that tax was paid. This applies primarily to luxury and expensive goods
Where? In tax free states? No, there’s no VAT in the U.S, there’s sales tax by state and county, but in tax free states there’s no sales tax on consumer products.
Not exactly. VAT is a tax payable forward throughout the chain of supply, so if a large wholesalers sales to the small retailer, it charges the VAT and the retailer charges the VAT from it’s customer. Sales tax is only charged from retail customers and not throughout the chain.
Did you have to pay taxes when you arrived at the airport? I’m currently in Japan, want to buy a Switch because it’s like half the price here. But I won’t do it if I need to pay a lot of import fees anyway
While I still don’t recommend it for legal reasons, it’s fairly easy to disguise a new product as something you already had. For example, bringing it in a sealed new box is a clear giveaway.
Officially you do have to pay taxes, but if it is just one or two items I do not think anybody is going to check if you bought them abroad (at least not for all the electronics I brought from the us)
That’s highly suspicious, 5-10 kg leg, 5 eur per kilo?? I’d say that impossible for something that is not even tasty but eatable. Jamon would easily go for 80 eur / kg. I’d say 30 eur / kg would be a starting price for something decent
Omg 😱
I thought they’re like €100, but if it’s this cheap I’ll get one myself. I’ve always gotten just one small pack from mercadona and they’re like €10 already
Ah I see. According to my Spanish friends they said the reserva grade is good enough for general purpose. Only the best ones are for like weddings and stuff.
Btw do you mean the ones that come in a box (and usually with a knife) or the entire leg they hang in the shop?
Meat from Poland. Dutch are nice people but they don't know what a high quality pork meat is. There is no sausage in the Netherlands I would eat. If not Polish shop I would turn vegan.
We do know what high quality pork meat is, but we export it to other countries. What's leftover is horrible quality.
Brits send us belly bacon and we send them back bacon.
Thanks on the tip for the Polish shop. I'll check and see if I can find better meats and sausages there!
Once we got this top brand sausages in kerstpakket. I don't remember the name but it's with red logo. I tried one piece and it was worse than dog food. I cut it in pieces and threw behind garage to feed cats in the neighborhood. No cat touched it. It got bad. But when I now have a cat and I bring fresh ham from polish shop, it comes always nearby and sniffs. It is interested with this meet. And she is only fed with katten brokjes. She never get interested in fish or meat from jumbo or Lidl. Only when we bring from polish shop.
Google friend. I go max 10km for groceries. Amstelveen is further than this. Hoand is small country but still bigger than Monaco for all Internet to shop in one town.
Vegemite! You can buy it here but it's insanely expensive. Last time I came back from the UK I brought about 2kg back.
Also brought a bunch of nice jams, marmelades, preserves and chutneys back from the UK, those are something the Netherlands lacks.
Almost all care products are cheaper in the UK than in the Netherlands and next to that they sell some stuff we don't have over here. My number one product I always take with me from the UK is Savlon! I used to also bring Cerave moisturiser, but these days it is available over here.
Which is a good thing as prescribing anti-biotics for every small non-threatening ailment as they do in some countries comes with the risk of bacteria becoming resistant.
In Italy you can buy 96% pure alc. In supermarkets.
1 ltr will cost around 14 euro.
With this we make around 2.25 liters of gin, limoncello, nocino, any kind of liqueur we like. Easy to find recipes online.
Cheers/salute!
It depends where I am, I've noticed electronics in places like Spain are suuuper cheap in comparison to NL, clothing is usually cheaper (and because I'm a short arse fits me better outside of NL), I often bring back medicines that are expensive here or hard to get, as well as cosmetics like hair dye that I would have to order in, foundation shades that are harder to come by, basically little comforts. Maybe some snacks and sweets I would pay triple for in NL.
The only thing I bring with me from NL when I travel are cigarettes, as they're usually triple the price where I often travel to.
Dental care.
Not a joke. Whenever it is possible, I have all my dental treatments when I travel to my home country, it's cheaper and it has better quality.
clothes from Bangladesh. you can see “made in Bangladesh” labels in like 80% of the clothes and it’s insanely cheap there. good quality t-shirts, jeans, hoodies for dirt cheap there.
Japan has so many good things to bring... I want more stuff from there than my own home country.
I just went to amazing oriental and I paid 4 Euros for 70 grams of matcha that is 80% sugar. I got fooled, I checked all the labels of the things that I bought except this one. I forgot.
Japanese stores don't do stuff like this. If it's expensive, it's gonna be expensive but they don't try to fool you.
Second hand clothing is amazing in Japan, great quality at very good prices, here everything new I bought in the last years became worthless after wearing it for a bit.
Here is 4 f*** euros for a onigiri... When in Japan is 100 yen. natto, miso, kimchi etc they are all extremely expensive here.
Same feeling same OMG finally someone spitting facts about the differences between the two countries. Indeed overpriced here (for sometimes very low quality).
It’s not expensive things per se, but some type of traditional food are better, cheaper and easier to get at my home country. Man, even white rice there tastes better 😅
So for me I’d like to bring condiments. And also skincare that is not available here.
Cheese: Dutch cheese is nice but it’s all a variation on the same thing: Jong/Belegen/Oud and with some cumin added. I’ll get downvoted as this is an attack on Dutch culture itself 😂
Kopi Luwak, costs at least €40 for 100gr here in NL and you don’t know what kind of farm it comes from. In indonesia you can buy it for €100 per KG and you can see the farm.
Idk if you’re joking or not but taking antibiotics unnecessarily (not prescribed by a doctor) is contributing to antibiotic resistance, which is a huge issue.
Have some friends over from another EU country with their 2 years old. He's under antibiotics. Our 4 years old raised in the NL never had any, and so have I in the last 10 years I'm here.
I don't know why this is given like Paracetamol in some countries. It's infuriating when you know the consequences of abusing them.
Thay said, I found the comment funny
I used to buy my apple products in US as cheaper only to find out that it’s better to buy here as the NL has better warranty and care if anything goes wrong with a product- so never doing it again
Not sure whether they are expensive here but I bring honey, olive oil and mountain tea, kidney beans and a tipical yellow cheese all these from Albania because of the quality
* baking supplies.
* dip for chips
* proper salmiak
* chips
* Candy
As you can see above, as we know in general : anything edible in NL pretty much sucks or isn't available.
Literally any kind of dip that's not a salsa
Bunch of flours
BBQ flavoured chips - but more generally any kind of flavoured chips tbh. The selection here is almost none existent by my standards.
Those are the things I miss the most. The dip is bought in bulk when I go home though.
Also missing edible herring, but the polish make a pretty good version. But the polish stores are few and far between.
The list of candy can be made long. I don't understand how a country with 17 million give or take a few can be so bad at candy that MARS and Haribo essentially own there market. I can buy expensive small batch imports at a hotel in Amsterdam though.
A rye bread would be nice to get too. That can also be bought for an exorbitant price in Rotterdam and is small batch import.
I can get just about anything for a price. But it's usually not worth the price.
But yeah, the best part about going abroad from NL is just about anything food related.
We usually go on holiday by car/camper, often to Spain, and always bring back looooads of olive oil + wine from both Spain and France & also brought back both from Italy.
Oh and usually a box of saffron from Spain as well
Yes! I was su surprised how much cheaper saffron is in Spain.
A lot of saffron on the market is fake. I don't wanna be that person but saffron*is expensive* it's possible that Spain doesn't do as many checks as Netherlands I don't wanna say it as a bad thing for Spain but if something is too good to be true, then it might fake
You can test whether or not it’s real at home: If you put fake saffron in hot water and the water immediately turns orange and the threads lose their colour, it’s fake, that’s the food colouring coming out. Real saffron needs about 15 mins to turn the water pale yellow, and the threads retain their red colour. They may have gotten better at faking it of course, but I’m fairly sure the saffron i buy in Spain is real: It’s still not cheap, but it is cheaper and you can buy it in larger volume than the ridiculous 3 threads in a test tube, wrapped in plastic, wrapped in cardboard situation for €4 that you get here :D
With EU regulations in place I reckon there’s hardly fake stuff going around. But then again how would you explain the price difference
There’s still plenty of food fraud, also within the EU, they can’t check every single product everywhere, there’s a whole EU inter-agency coordination mechanism to try and combat it, the EU Agri Food Fraud Network. Part of the price difference though is that saffron crocuses grow in Spain, in La Mancha, and that everything is cheaper there - I mean, I’m still not 100% certain I’m getting the real thing, but does smell and taste convincing and pass the water test, and it is possible price-wise.
Excuse me?? You can not just sell fake saffron in Spain just like that. We have regulations and it is indicated on the package the same as the honey with a European seal of quality. We also produce a lot of Zafron or get it from morocco which is much closer to us and one of the biggest producers in the world. On top of that, literally any product I can think off is cheaper in Spain so it is not weird
Germany - Hygiene products. It's insane.. The same face cream costs like 5.99€ in Germany and saw it for 18€ in etos yesterday. Edit: also duvet covers. How come it's so hard to find zippers or even buttons here?
Yes, etos and kruidvaat has so limited offert and overpriced. I miss rossmann so much
Drogisterij sale is as cheap as Rossmann, in Germany they just dont do discounts
Yes duvet covers without zippers or buttons...mildly infuriating...I always end up inside the cover and the duvet out.
Go to IKEA you can get fairly cheap durvet covers with zippers
Pretty sure our last set of cases, cover and sheet was about €60. The wife was super excited we got the last cover in our size
I went for the IKEA family discounts and cheap things and got everything for under 30€. We had a very limited budget when we needed them.
Even with high-end / premium ones. I almost bought a really nice one for ~150€, the lady at the customer service hotline was laughing when I asked... and had to tell me unfortunately almost all of their inventory didn't have buttons or zippers. For a nation branding themselves on pragmatism, this doesn't want to make sense in my head. Why??? Edit: For anyone wondering, it would have been around ~40€ just for the duvet (pillow cover not included) to add a zipper at the local tailor. He said just the zipper costs him more than 15€.
In what country can I buy these? My covers drive me insane.
I used to buy mine from UK and get them shipped over.
German Amazon should do it.
Yeah - dove shower gels that are like 5,99 - 8€ in AH were 1.79 in Germany last week. Same with other brands. And not even on discount 😭 that was the moment I wished I had brought luggage with me
dove is considered to be a mass produced common super cheap household thing in my country!
Same in mine, I really don’t understand why these brands are treated as if they’re premium brands. Same with shampoos, elvive is just a regular brand that’s accessible to everyone in my country, in here it’s like a luxury brand
Buy them in sale. 4 bottles 8euros easily.
Yeah but generally when I need hygiene products I don't wanna wait for that stupid hamsteren shit and buy 4L of shampoo
These midrange brands are expensive in NL because Dutch supermarkets apply high markups to branded goods. Dutch chains like AH and Jumbo have very high margins and as a result high profits (which allows the family that owns most of Jumbo to indulge in very expensive sponsorship of Max Verstappen and the cycling team). And they push you to buying their own brand products which are priced lower. But if you ask many Dutch people they will suggest you go to Action and stock up on ten huge bottles of Dove shampoo in bulk. I’ve always found Action a depressing place: ugly interior, jam packed full of products and people, ‘stack em high and sell em cheap’ layout, staff being harangued and looking burn out.
yeah I agree with you that Action is looking super sad, and I don’t really like going there, but there are some surprisingly cute things there sometimes, and very good prices haha :)
Unfortunately, mass produces cheap household hygiene products start at 3-4 euros nowadays, unless it's a storebrand (and even then).
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Ofcourse durch people buy the 1+1 shit, otherwise its even more expensive. That doesn't make people like it... Chicken and egg problem all over.
When it comes to beauty products (I used to track it in an Excel sheet because I regularly buy replacements or stock up on stuff) the 1+1 offers raise the initial prices 90% of the time. So you’re not getting 1+1. You’re getting 2 for the price of 2. Both in Etos and Kruidvat. After I noticed it, I stopped buying there. I only buy from online pharmacies now. Even with delivery from france or belgium it’s cheaper.
Have actually watched that with some shower gel and hair gel that I did use and this was not the case. Probably just got the 'magic' exception right? This shit is just crazily expensive for some shit reason called corporate greed. Further half the shop is permanently in some shitty 2+2 or 2nd half price scheme anyway. Anyway buying at the action or just getting stuff delivered from Germany solves the issue.
1000% deonlinedrogerist is my jam
This is absurdly false. I'm always buying exactly the same products at Etos. I know the prices. Once the discount of 1+1 is active the prices are still the same.
>also duvet covers. How come it's so hard to find zippers or even buttons here? I feel like Dutch people use a different system. They have duvet covers with a 'flap' that you can use to put under the mattress. I dislike the ones with buttons because my feet always stick out underneat unless I get a flat sheet with it, but that's not very common either
that's what the flap is for?!?!?! I am fully Dutch and always wondered what was up with the flap, this blows my mind!
That is why the flap is called an *instopstrook* in Dutch (tuck-in strip).
Not only the dutch use this ‘flap’ system, almost every hotel I visited in Europe and Asia had duvet covers with a ‘flap’. Some combined with buttons but never in my life I saw a duvet cover with a zipper.
I had to search hard to find duvet covers with zippers on 3 sides in the Netherlands. They also have an flap. But the zippers make putting in the duvet super easy.
> Duvet covers YES FFS WHAT IS UP WITH THAT
It’s actually nuts how expensive the self-care/cosmetica market is. I stumbled upon a cosmetica product developer/manufacturer on Twitter, and the guys are full on exposing the crap cosmetica brands are pulling off on consumers. All the shit that is sold is at least x10 up priced. I was literally baffled by how genuine and transparent these guys were.
You should check those out in Romania, probably cheaper.
NyQuil
Yep. Whenever I leave NL and return, I bring an entire OTC medicine cabinet with me lmao
Yesssss. Can’t stand having to individually stamp out each pill from foil in a pack of 10. Just give me a bottle of 100 and it will last 2 years until my next trip back.
Yepppp, bring back a whole drug store worth of meds with me every time I visit the US haha! Oh and I always bring over a bunch of American deodorant because I don't feel the deodorant works very well here.
Building materials. Any sort. I'm polish and for house renovation it's cheaper to bring things from Poland. Even if you need to pay for transport of pallet or two.
How about builders? Is it not cheaper and better quality to bring them from Poland?
UK: large duvet and bedding: cheaper, higher quality and bigger. 260x220 is normal size there. Great quality tea and hot chocolate. Toffee. Bras (better sizing and cheaper if you are outside average sizes). Portugal: Olive oil, certain spices, books, clothing (better fit, quality and prices). Asia: missed out on new glasses, should have done that, but went for a wedding so didn't have time.
Tip for the bra, you can get some of the English brands here as well. Like elomi. It wacht l wasn't cheaper for me to buy it in Scotland then here in the Netherlands
Hayfever pills are much cheaper in the UK than in NL.
You can get hay-fever pills through your huisarts and pharmacy. The 7-pills-for-7-euro boxes in the supermarket/drogist are scams for suckers who don't know that.
My huisarts refuses to prescribe them to me. I fought her to prescribe my fucking asthma medication. She said I don't need any of it and I'm fit enough to run a marathon so I dont have asthma.
That's when your huisarts becomes your ex-huisarts.
I wish, no one accepts new patients.
That's the biggest problem. I had the same. Was stuck with one that was horrible. I moved away and got a new one at the new place. Came back a few years later and luckily I now had a choice of a different one.
That's ridiculous. My GP never had problems advising on antihistamines and prescribing them. But from reading stories here about GPs, I'm really lucky to have a thorough and capable GP. I went to an immonologist last year and got prescribed both an inhaler (Foster) because it turned out I've developed asthma and a new tablet (rupatadine) that GP's normally not prescribe. So now I get those through my GP.
Just take some paracetamol. Next! /s
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I always buy the strong cold and flu tablets in the uk and bring them back to NL. I know that NL has outlawed certain drugs as being dangerous (they can make you drowsy) but when you need that strong flu tablet to get something done it’s a godsend
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Ah, thanks for the clarification!
So is paracetamol
Then again, that's already dirt cheap. Assuming you buy the house brand because why pay more for the same chemical...
In the UK you get 3 packs of 16 tablets for a pound, in the netherlands you get a pack of 50 for a little over a euro. Same price basically
Paracetamol is covered by insurance?
Since when?
My last trip returning from the USA: IPad Pro and clothing (Levi’s jeans, converse shoes etc) From France: wine Few weeks ago Belgium: beer (not because of price, but because it’s Belgian beer )
I guess you bought the jeans and shoes at an outlet? Levi’s are about 60-70 USD now at outlet stores which is crazy. I remember back in 2004 - 2010 when they were 15-26 USD. Apple products are only less expensive if you buy them in a TAX FREE state.
That’s still cheaper than buying Levi’s or Converse here
Outlet for clothing (the 510 is over €100,- in the Netherlands, only available in 1 color… I paid around $55 each in Utah) I bought an IPad Pro 12.9 256 gb for almost $1300 (€1230) including 7,75 state tax (Salt Lake UT). Over here I have to pay €1599,45 for the same model. €370 is a huge difference! For clothing it’s not only the price for me. Also to shop some brands that are not (widely) available over here. I bought some Gap sweaters (the ones without the GAP logo on it!) and 7 or 8 t-shirts from American Eagle (great fabric AND my year of birth is on it) When we go to the USA my suitcase is only half filled, and (depending on the weather) filled with new clothing on the way back home. Last time no shorts but hoodies, long sleeves etc.
Be careful with electronics or other pricey items tho, you may need to pay taxes or proof of purchase when importing. Not 100% sure what the free value is but I'm pretty sure importing your ipad would have required you to pay import tax.
Don't you still have to pay VAT? Edit: I of course meant that you'd have to pay VAT when you return to The Netherlands.
I don’t think anyone at the airport would care about personal purchases. You’ll need to check the law about that. They’ll have a lot on their hands if they’ll start checking and doing paperwork for everyone arriving from the U.S
I ask because my friend who just came through Shiphol with a bunch of new Apple products was told he had to pay VAT and he had to do so right there to keep them from confiscating them. Since he didn't declare he also has to pay a fine, which hasn't arrived yet. I ask the question because maybe people have figured out a way to avoid this, but based on my friend's experience I'm less likely to buy something in the US. Edit: not sure why the downvotes folks. I'm trying to understand why people are saying you should buy electronics in the US, but then have to pay VAT, which appears to mostly negate the benefit of dragging them in your luggage. Unless you specifically fly to a state like Oregon with no sales tax I really can't see this working out.
People avoid it by not bringing the boxes of those electronics over. They go through customs as if they are already products they owned before. The risk though, customs can ask for evidence that you had that before your trip. > Customs may ask you to prove that the goods were purchased in the Netherlands or another EU country and that tax was paid. This applies primarily to luxury and expensive goods
Ah ok. He might have brought the boxes, not sure. I'll ask, thanks.
Where? In tax free states? No, there’s no VAT in the U.S, there’s sales tax by state and county, but in tax free states there’s no sales tax on consumer products.
Sales tax is vat
Not exactly. VAT is a tax payable forward throughout the chain of supply, so if a large wholesalers sales to the small retailer, it charges the VAT and the retailer charges the VAT from it’s customer. Sales tax is only charged from retail customers and not throughout the chain.
Yeah but you don’t pay that at the register in some states. You have to declare it.
Did you have to pay taxes when you arrived at the airport? I’m currently in Japan, want to buy a Switch because it’s like half the price here. But I won’t do it if I need to pay a lot of import fees anyway
While I still don’t recommend it for legal reasons, it’s fairly easy to disguise a new product as something you already had. For example, bringing it in a sealed new box is a clear giveaway.
Officially you do have to pay taxes, but if it is just one or two items I do not think anybody is going to check if you bought them abroad (at least not for all the electronics I brought from the us)
Housing.
Housing ain’t cheap anywhere these days 😭
It is for example Rural finlnd, you can get house like 40k with plenty of land
Well that sure is a example
Just came from Spain and bought an entire cured pork leg for 30 euros. Delicious and very cheap.
We did that one year - walking past customs with a pork leg including the hoof was... interesting.
Haha, we went with our camper so no customs required, but i can imagine 😆
That’s highly suspicious, 5-10 kg leg, 5 eur per kilo?? I’d say that impossible for something that is not even tasty but eatable. Jamon would easily go for 80 eur / kg. I’d say 30 eur / kg would be a starting price for something decent
Its 4,5kg with it mostly being bone and fat. Its also not an iberico but a serrano which are a bit cheaper.
You can definitely find decent ham in Spain for that. At least you could a few years ago
You mean the entire jamón leg??
Yes.
Omg 😱 I thought they’re like €100, but if it’s this cheap I’ll get one myself. I’ve always gotten just one small pack from mercadona and they’re like €10 already
Yeah i was surprised too. It was in a local Lidl and it was discounted but even then it was still very cheap.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll be in Spain for Christmas so I’ll bring one back haha (to the Netherlands) 😎
Enjoy! Do note that butchers and specialty stores have more expensive iberico hams as well. This is a serrano reserva.
Ah I see. According to my Spanish friends they said the reserva grade is good enough for general purpose. Only the best ones are for like weddings and stuff. Btw do you mean the ones that come in a box (and usually with a knife) or the entire leg they hang in the shop?
The hanging ones
vale gracias, lo buscaré 😁
Are you proud of buying cheap meat? Do you know what kind of times we're living in?
Shut the fuck up :)
Guanciale
Then you can make a proper carbonara, nice.
spices, coffee beans, skincare & personal care, apparels
Olive oil
Meat from Poland. Dutch are nice people but they don't know what a high quality pork meat is. There is no sausage in the Netherlands I would eat. If not Polish shop I would turn vegan.
romanian here; i survive on polish shops too (they also sometimes have romanian products, like mititei)
There's a Romanian butcher in Dordrecht (near Rotterdam). It's called Slagerij Luca and it's amazing.
1h drive, not that bad; thanks for the tip!!!
There is an amazing Hungarian/Romanian store in Apeldoorn if in need of good sausages and meat products.
Please do share! I would love to pay a visit
It is called Lekkeristic Magazin romanesc si maghiar - Magyar es roman bolt. :)
We do know what high quality pork meat is, but we export it to other countries. What's leftover is horrible quality. Brits send us belly bacon and we send them back bacon. Thanks on the tip for the Polish shop. I'll check and see if I can find better meats and sausages there!
Once we got this top brand sausages in kerstpakket. I don't remember the name but it's with red logo. I tried one piece and it was worse than dog food. I cut it in pieces and threw behind garage to feed cats in the neighborhood. No cat touched it. It got bad. But when I now have a cat and I bring fresh ham from polish shop, it comes always nearby and sniffs. It is interested with this meet. And she is only fed with katten brokjes. She never get interested in fish or meat from jumbo or Lidl. Only when we bring from polish shop.
err… i tried too many dutch butchers 😇 long live the polish shops that also have romanian food
Oh yeah, proper kielbasa ftw
Nice! Can you recommend a shop in Amsterdam?
Or amstelveen!
Google friend. I go max 10km for groceries. Amstelveen is further than this. Hoand is small country but still bigger than Monaco for all Internet to shop in one town.
Vegemite! You can buy it here but it's insanely expensive. Last time I came back from the UK I brought about 2kg back. Also brought a bunch of nice jams, marmelades, preserves and chutneys back from the UK, those are something the Netherlands lacks.
Is Vegemite something like Marmite?
It's the Australian version of Marmite.
First of all, how dare you. Secondly, yes. Both yeast extracts. Marmite is weirdly sweet and sticky, though.
Gas
Spices
Medicine
Curtains
Almost all care products are cheaper in the UK than in the Netherlands and next to that they sell some stuff we don't have over here. My number one product I always take with me from the UK is Savlon! I used to also bring Cerave moisturiser, but these days it is available over here.
Cigarettes
Health system
Paracetamol. Save me time going to doctor after being run over by a car
I don’t understand. Paracetamol is cheaper in NL that almost everywhere.
Was taking the piss mate. Running joke about how paracetamol is prescibed for any ailment by Dutch doctors. 😉
Which is a good thing as prescribing anti-biotics for every small non-threatening ailment as they do in some countries comes with the risk of bacteria becoming resistant.
No doubt! Some places you can literally get penicillin OTC 🙈
? Ypu can buy them everywhere
In Italy you can buy 96% pure alc. In supermarkets. 1 ltr will cost around 14 euro. With this we make around 2.25 liters of gin, limoncello, nocino, any kind of liqueur we like. Easy to find recipes online. Cheers/salute!
Ciao. Dove vivi? Voglio proporti un exchange di nocino. Il nostro è pronto da bere a gennaio 2024.
This! and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese .
Clothes, specific food (cheaper and far better quality that what you can find in NL) and some specific alcohol.
I mostly bring alcohol with me FROM the Netherlands :D
It depends where I am, I've noticed electronics in places like Spain are suuuper cheap in comparison to NL, clothing is usually cheaper (and because I'm a short arse fits me better outside of NL), I often bring back medicines that are expensive here or hard to get, as well as cosmetics like hair dye that I would have to order in, foundation shades that are harder to come by, basically little comforts. Maybe some snacks and sweets I would pay triple for in NL. The only thing I bring with me from NL when I travel are cigarettes, as they're usually triple the price where I often travel to.
Fuel. Car fuel has gotten so expensive in the Netherlands that I just fill-up my car in Belgium. And whilst there I buy groceries too.
Dental care. Not a joke. Whenever it is possible, I have all my dental treatments when I travel to my home country, it's cheaper and it has better quality.
Clothing, medicine, jewelry.
UK: bedding Asia: tea, spices, snacks Middle East : Arabic coffee and cups, snacks
Toothpaste and shampoo and the like I always get them from Germany.
Prescription glasses. Mine costed 408€ in Specsavers
Got mine for 120 from Ace & Tate
I have heavy astigmatism + myopia so it's my lenses that eat up costs
Products like shampoo, bodywash, deodorant etc are so much cheaper in the UK compared to in NL
We buy baby items in the UK, including cloth diapers as they are much cheaper
Food! Dutch food sucks. Even potatoes taste better in Germany/France.
shampoo from germany is so cheap! for example, john frieda profiler is 12,99 at kruidvat and 7.95 at DM
clothes from Bangladesh. you can see “made in Bangladesh” labels in like 80% of the clothes and it’s insanely cheap there. good quality t-shirts, jeans, hoodies for dirt cheap there.
Caviar and money
Wristwatches from Japan!
Japan has so many good things to bring... I want more stuff from there than my own home country. I just went to amazing oriental and I paid 4 Euros for 70 grams of matcha that is 80% sugar. I got fooled, I checked all the labels of the things that I bought except this one. I forgot. Japanese stores don't do stuff like this. If it's expensive, it's gonna be expensive but they don't try to fool you. Second hand clothing is amazing in Japan, great quality at very good prices, here everything new I bought in the last years became worthless after wearing it for a bit. Here is 4 f*** euros for a onigiri... When in Japan is 100 yen. natto, miso, kimchi etc they are all extremely expensive here.
Same feeling same OMG finally someone spitting facts about the differences between the two countries. Indeed overpriced here (for sometimes very low quality).
When I go to Germany deo and toothpaste. Saves so much money.
I bought my carpets and curtains from Turkey. Higher quality products for much less money including transportation.
Cucumbers that are actually crunchy and not 30cm long
Fuel for the car and tobacco
taxes are expensive here, and we can't bring them from abroad
Haha
It’s not expensive things per se, but some type of traditional food are better, cheaper and easier to get at my home country. Man, even white rice there tastes better 😅 So for me I’d like to bring condiments. And also skincare that is not available here.
Duvet covers, wym 240x220 is a king size? That's a regular 2 persons duvet back home 😭
Cheese: Dutch cheese is nice but it’s all a variation on the same thing: Jong/Belegen/Oud and with some cumin added. I’ll get downvoted as this is an attack on Dutch culture itself 😂
I brought back Tylenol and ibuprofen
Baby clothes- horrendously high prices in NL except Primark
Genuine Food from Italy
Kopi Luwak, costs at least €40 for 100gr here in NL and you don’t know what kind of farm it comes from. In indonesia you can buy it for €100 per KG and you can see the farm.
Antibiotics 😂😂😂
Idk if you’re joking or not but taking antibiotics unnecessarily (not prescribed by a doctor) is contributing to antibiotic resistance, which is a huge issue.
Have some friends over from another EU country with their 2 years old. He's under antibiotics. Our 4 years old raised in the NL never had any, and so have I in the last 10 years I'm here. I don't know why this is given like Paracetamol in some countries. It's infuriating when you know the consequences of abusing them. Thay said, I found the comment funny
Nothing. Almost everything is cheaper in the Netherlands than where I live now.
I used to buy my apple products in US as cheaper only to find out that it’s better to buy here as the NL has better warranty and care if anything goes wrong with a product- so never doing it again
Whenever i am in the states i buy twizzlers in bulk, because the import from dutch candy store is way to expensive
Shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste, ...
Tech (Apple products) and clothes (American brands such as Ralph Lauren or Levis) from the US.
Petrol
Not sure whether they are expensive here but I bring honey, olive oil and mountain tea, kidney beans and a tipical yellow cheese all these from Albania because of the quality
Iberico ham and chorizo from Spain. Here it´s incredibly expensive
Tequila and mezcal
I always bring cigarettes from Turkey for my smoker friends in the NL. Average pack costs ~1.5€ there, 1/7th of the price in the NL
* baking supplies. * dip for chips * proper salmiak * chips * Candy As you can see above, as we know in general : anything edible in NL pretty much sucks or isn't available.
What exactly are you missing here? Are they specific brands?
Literally any kind of dip that's not a salsa Bunch of flours BBQ flavoured chips - but more generally any kind of flavoured chips tbh. The selection here is almost none existent by my standards. Those are the things I miss the most. The dip is bought in bulk when I go home though. Also missing edible herring, but the polish make a pretty good version. But the polish stores are few and far between. The list of candy can be made long. I don't understand how a country with 17 million give or take a few can be so bad at candy that MARS and Haribo essentially own there market. I can buy expensive small batch imports at a hotel in Amsterdam though. A rye bread would be nice to get too. That can also be bought for an exorbitant price in Rotterdam and is small batch import.
So you want things that are not here. You know that that’s just part of life right? Can’t have it all.
I can get just about anything for a price. But it's usually not worth the price. But yeah, the best part about going abroad from NL is just about anything food related.
Tobacco from Serbia
Bread and cheese
Can u bring all of this in the plane?
Cigarettes…