There's a channel here in Amsterdam called AT5, and let me tell you, it rocks my socks.

Fortunately they replay their programming at 2am for night owls like myself, so last night I got to watch a very good segment I wanted to tell you about.
The focus was mom & pop grocery stores versus the big-powerful supermarkets like Albert Hein, Edah, Dirk, Super de Boer.. etc.

They were doing that thing where you walk the streets and ask folks on the street where they go and what they think of the two kinds of shops.

One old woman said she only goes to grocery stores, because there she buys tons of extra food so that she doesn't have to go often and she always has extra food if she can't go out for some reason.

A young cutey Dutch student said that she loves going to Nightshops, which are kind of minimarkets that are (obviously) opened late. She said they have a great selection and she likes the people who run them, the charm of the clerks.

A middle aged aspiring Dutch suit explained that he goes mostly to supermarkets that have late closing times because he is very busy and he likes the prepackaged meals they had. When asked about the future of mom and pop shops, he said he was more concerned about himself and that it's tough cookies for mom & pop shops. --- what a jerk.

I sat back and thought to myself... what are my habits? Organic/alternative grocery store once per week. Ten Kate open air market once per week. And one of the big supermarkets once per week.

Then I start to wonder... am I hurting mom and pop? I pretty much only see them at the market once a week... and I really do like their stuff better. I may need to start changing my market habits... to help keep mom and pop shops going and enjoy the great treatment and quality they have.

As for the rest of the city, as much as I love this town, most of the people would probably side with the suit.... tough cookies.. gotta take care of number one. hmfff.