Weather: Somewhat cloudy and 10C at 8:30am Looks like a good day.
We decided to make a run down to Ghia to find the Iceland Store and then take a wander through Leroy Merlin; a sort of Home Depot knock off.
Iceland is a grocery store that has at least three locations in the Algarve selling 'only' British food and drink products. Guiness, Patterson Wafers, Kippers, Fry's Chocolate and all finished off with every staff member wearing a Pork Pie hat. Leroy Merlin on the other hand sells toilets, bidets, curtains, rugs, pressure washers, screws, nails and anything else necessary to build or maintain your home.
We had not been into the Iceland grocery store of about 5 years and when we drove to where we remembered it being it was gone. In its place was something called The Food Company. It was in exactly the same place. Mystery!
Well, not quite. It was exactly the same location and it was British goods only but the hats were gone along with the fancy meat counter and expensive merchandising. We were greeted by very large cardboard department signs in both Portuguese and English. Hmmm! Not sure what to make of it unless the Portuguese language police closed Iceland down. Naah, doesn't seem like something the Portuguese would do. Some of the goods were still marked Iceland so maybe they are cutting costs and become a discounter.
UPDATE: After doing some research Iceland is a British company founded 44 years ago and specializing in FROZEN food only and dry foods that don't have to be refrigerated. Even the bread was frozen in the store described below. They have many stores in several countries where British expats live. Apparently a Spanish company runs the Algarve and Spanish franchises so that explains the name change???
Anyway our reason for visiting was to buy some particular British gravy flavourings for our special friend back home. Voila we found them.
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| Perhaps Covid was responsible for the dumbing down on Iceland. I couldn't find any information about Iceland (see update above) on my computer and all three locations in the Algarve are now The Food Company. In any case just its existence shows the sheer number of Brit's who live here, holiday here and will pay extra to have a touch of home. |
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| L.M. is a great store for DIYers. Note the canvas covers to keep your car cool. Lots of help and even a pastelaria (bake shop) to take your money if you didn't buy anything inside. I would love to describe all the really different things they have but that might be a bit boring for everyone but me. That's assuming that anyone else ever reads this. |
In a post a while back I referred to all the white paint that L.M. sells and they only sell it in 5 gallon or 20 litre pails. Here's the evidence.
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| Just like Henry Ford a 100 years ago. You can buy any colour as long as its 'white'. Note: For you people under 60 Henry offered his cars in black only. |
1 comment:
Love the idea of canopies to keep one's car cooler.
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