Post by anaix3l on Apr 24, 2022 2:27:30 GMT -5
Before anything else, I'm curious about one thing: what would you expect to find in stores in Eastern Europe? Would you expect to find products and brands you're familiar with or would you expect everything to be alien? And what language would you expect the packaging to be in?
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So... this started from a photo of a booby-trapped kitchen in the north of Ukraine after the Russian troops withdrew from the area.
And people asking if Ukrainians like Fanta and what's up with all the English on the tea box (there's also Cyrillic too and a link to a .ua website, but oh, well).
Wait, what?!!
Well, I don't know who likes what, but Fanta is certainly sold in Eastern Europe. The thing with big global companies is that their products tend to be found... um, pretty much everywhere in the world, even if in some places, they may not be as popular as cheap local replicas as not many can afford the originals. For example, Adria and especially Fruity Fresh sold a lot better than Coca-Cola or Pepsi products in Romania in the '90s. Simply because they were cheaper. Similarly, you could buy Addibas clothing and footwear from loosely (if at all) regulated street markets. I actually had such a sports outfit for PE starting with 7th grade, when I outgrew the previous one - a purple one with white in front, so all that was missing in order for me to look like a white-bellied purple dinosaur was a purple tail.
As for English on tea packaging, here's my current tea stash. May be more varied at other times, but oh, well... notice anything?
All in English in front. Well... it is made in Sri Lanka, where English, though not an official language (official languages are Tamil and Sinhala), is still spoken by at least a quarter of the population and widely used for commercial purposes.
On the lateral sides, there's also German and French, which... I guess says a bit about their main markets?
And at the bottom, there's a little sticker with all the info in Romanian as well.
This is the standard for imports that don't have ingredients and other important info in Romanian as well. Add a little sticker (usually white, but not always, as it can be seen here) with that stuff somewhere, usually on the back, where it doesn't obscure any pretty picture or the brand/ product name. I think it's pretty common in other places too? I know it's the same in Germany - imports that don't have a proper description/ list of ingredients in German on the actual packaging get a sticker with the German translation. And I know Canada has labeling requirements for both English and French to be on the packaging, so imported items often get the sticker there too.
By the way, the sticker is not always accurate.
Okay, but, as mentioned, this is something made in Sri Lanka. Let's see some stuff made in Europe that I bought in stores here.
First up, a box of Roshen chocolates. Roshen is a Ukrainian brand (fun fact: name is a part of that of former owner and former Ukrainian president Poroshenko, who was elected in 2014 after the 2013 anti-Russian Euromaidan protests; Roshen chocolates got banned in Russia at around the time of the protests), sold all across Europe, in North America and parts of Asia. The front is in English.
Clumsy me didn't take a photo of the back, but it had ingredient lists in Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh, Armenian, Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian and a few more languages. Basically, almost all the back side of the box full of the same ingredients in multiple languages.
I'm personally not crazy about most of their chocolates, but the plain ones and this box are okay. Their jellies are a very different story... yummy!
Then, Kar Kar ice cream. Unlike Roshen, who are reasonably well known, this is a pretty obscure Lithuanian brand. Again, the front part is all in English and you can also see the oreo knockoffs in the presentation image (much, much nicer than the original though).
The paper foil (?) under the lid is also in English.
On the back, the ingredient list is in Lithuanian, English, Estonian, Latvian, Polish and Romanian.
Also, Heidi chocolate. Heidi is a Romanian chocolate company that two Swiss dudes started in Bucharest almost 30 years ago. It's very common here... and not only. Lots of German supermarkets have them. It's one of the Romanian brands I've most often seen in Germany (the most common one has to be... surprisingly, Dacia! I was certainly surprised that people with access to fancier cars would choose to buy them, but I guess they think they still have 4 wheels and are cheaper, so...). I even saw the Heidi chocolate bunnies in a shop in Melbourne, Australia... literally half way around the globe! Anyway, here's a Heidi bar. This one does have the description on the front in Romanian as well.
On the back, the ingredient list is in English, Romanian, Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak, Russian.
Also, their "special occasions" bars with messages sometimes have these messages in English. Funny little tidbit: "Paște fericit!" means both "Happy Easter!" and "Graze happily!" - written the same, pronounced the same.
And yes, Heidi is the brand that was selling chocolate with weed.
Now... if everything so far seemed tidy... enter international supermarket chains! Or why I can read Dutch and especially German easily when it comes to food. We shall ignore my unintentional summoning of Satan in a church (albeit decommissioned) during one of my talks because it didn't hit me that the venue (Der Aa-kerk) was a church until I got in front of the building and my wheels finally started spinning... Kerk... Kirche... Church... the venue was a church and it was right there in the name... but at that point, it was too late to drop the "Summon Satan!" part of my talk.
Mega Image is the biggest chain of supermarkets in Romania. They probably have well over a thousand stores (of very different sizes) at this point. There are two that are a three minute walk away from where I live. In Bucharest, where you have these big blocks with maybe over 1500 people living in one, you may have more than one such store from one end to the other of the ground floor.
They're owned by Delhaize from Belgium. Where there are three official languages: French, Dutch and German. The packaging of most of their own brand products sold in Mega Image is in these three languages.
On the back, ingredients and other info are just in these three languages and they slap the sticker with the Romanian translation.
It's similar for Carrefour (French chain) own brand products. Just French in front.
And French on the back (sometimes Dutch too), plus the sticker in Romanian with ingredients, production info, nutritional info, other info...
Then we have Kaufland (German chain) and their own brand products. Here's where things get funnier. First off, Denglish is a thing, so there's a mix of German and English in front.
And also, the German retail group owning Kaufland has stores in a lot more EU countries than the other two chains previously mentioned. So you normally get info in multiple languages on the back.
Speaking of mixing languages on the front of the packaging... Krüger is a German business and this hot chocolate is made by the Polish branch. Mostly in Polish but also some English in front.
On the back, ingredients in Polish, English and Rusian. And the sticker in Romanian.
Also on the topic of mixing languages, there's this German company from Hamburg called Dovgan, which focuses on making and reselling (their Romanian products range is entirely Romanian brands which then they resale elsewhere in Europe, none of it is made by them) regional-style products from most of Europe (particularly Eastern Europe, but they also have Dutch, Danish and German product sections)... though they also have a Turkish and Arabic range. Side note: Germany has a significant Turkish minority. They faced a shortage of people who were able to work in the '50s, so they advertised work offers throughout southern European countries like Turkey or Italy (guess nice weather wasn't among benefits). Two of the members of that little band I love, Kreator, have Italian parents who came to Germany during those days. And here's a Russian cuisine sample made by them where you have mostly German in the front, but also a bit of Cyrillic. The ingredients and nutritional info on the side are in 5 languages - German, Russian, Czech, Polish and Romanian.
Then there are obviously the imports that are just in the language of the country of origin (Italian, Portuguese, whatever) and only get a sticker in Romanian on the back.
Or the products that have just Romanian labels. Like this Mega Image exclusive bag of roasted almonds.
So... in short: you're going to see plenty of languages on product packaging here. There's going to be a lot of English in front. Especially things like cosmetics will probably almost always have English in front. Sometimes French or Romanian too, but save for the German imports I got from dm stores here and which are in German (and sometimes Italian too), I don't have a single cosmetic product that doesn't have the main label in English. That includes products from Romanian cosmetics makers like Farmec or Elmiplant. Farmec have a big international market, so that may have something to do with it too.
---
So... this started from a photo of a booby-trapped kitchen in the north of Ukraine after the Russian troops withdrew from the area.
And people asking if Ukrainians like Fanta and what's up with all the English on the tea box (there's also Cyrillic too and a link to a .ua website, but oh, well).
Wait, what?!!
Well, I don't know who likes what, but Fanta is certainly sold in Eastern Europe. The thing with big global companies is that their products tend to be found... um, pretty much everywhere in the world, even if in some places, they may not be as popular as cheap local replicas as not many can afford the originals. For example, Adria and especially Fruity Fresh sold a lot better than Coca-Cola or Pepsi products in Romania in the '90s. Simply because they were cheaper. Similarly, you could buy Addibas clothing and footwear from loosely (if at all) regulated street markets. I actually had such a sports outfit for PE starting with 7th grade, when I outgrew the previous one - a purple one with white in front, so all that was missing in order for me to look like a white-bellied purple dinosaur was a purple tail.
As for English on tea packaging, here's my current tea stash. May be more varied at other times, but oh, well... notice anything?
All in English in front. Well... it is made in Sri Lanka, where English, though not an official language (official languages are Tamil and Sinhala), is still spoken by at least a quarter of the population and widely used for commercial purposes.
On the lateral sides, there's also German and French, which... I guess says a bit about their main markets?
And at the bottom, there's a little sticker with all the info in Romanian as well.
This is the standard for imports that don't have ingredients and other important info in Romanian as well. Add a little sticker (usually white, but not always, as it can be seen here) with that stuff somewhere, usually on the back, where it doesn't obscure any pretty picture or the brand/ product name. I think it's pretty common in other places too? I know it's the same in Germany - imports that don't have a proper description/ list of ingredients in German on the actual packaging get a sticker with the German translation. And I know Canada has labeling requirements for both English and French to be on the packaging, so imported items often get the sticker there too.
By the way, the sticker is not always accurate.
Okay, but, as mentioned, this is something made in Sri Lanka. Let's see some stuff made in Europe that I bought in stores here.
First up, a box of Roshen chocolates. Roshen is a Ukrainian brand (fun fact: name is a part of that of former owner and former Ukrainian president Poroshenko, who was elected in 2014 after the 2013 anti-Russian Euromaidan protests; Roshen chocolates got banned in Russia at around the time of the protests), sold all across Europe, in North America and parts of Asia. The front is in English.
Clumsy me didn't take a photo of the back, but it had ingredient lists in Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh, Armenian, Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian and a few more languages. Basically, almost all the back side of the box full of the same ingredients in multiple languages.
I'm personally not crazy about most of their chocolates, but the plain ones and this box are okay. Their jellies are a very different story... yummy!
Then, Kar Kar ice cream. Unlike Roshen, who are reasonably well known, this is a pretty obscure Lithuanian brand. Again, the front part is all in English and you can also see the oreo knockoffs in the presentation image (much, much nicer than the original though).
The paper foil (?) under the lid is also in English.
On the back, the ingredient list is in Lithuanian, English, Estonian, Latvian, Polish and Romanian.
Also, Heidi chocolate. Heidi is a Romanian chocolate company that two Swiss dudes started in Bucharest almost 30 years ago. It's very common here... and not only. Lots of German supermarkets have them. It's one of the Romanian brands I've most often seen in Germany (the most common one has to be... surprisingly, Dacia! I was certainly surprised that people with access to fancier cars would choose to buy them, but I guess they think they still have 4 wheels and are cheaper, so...). I even saw the Heidi chocolate bunnies in a shop in Melbourne, Australia... literally half way around the globe! Anyway, here's a Heidi bar. This one does have the description on the front in Romanian as well.
On the back, the ingredient list is in English, Romanian, Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak, Russian.
Also, their "special occasions" bars with messages sometimes have these messages in English. Funny little tidbit: "Paște fericit!" means both "Happy Easter!" and "Graze happily!" - written the same, pronounced the same.
And yes, Heidi is the brand that was selling chocolate with weed.
Now... if everything so far seemed tidy... enter international supermarket chains! Or why I can read Dutch and especially German easily when it comes to food. We shall ignore my unintentional summoning of Satan in a church (albeit decommissioned) during one of my talks because it didn't hit me that the venue (Der Aa-kerk) was a church until I got in front of the building and my wheels finally started spinning... Kerk... Kirche... Church... the venue was a church and it was right there in the name... but at that point, it was too late to drop the "Summon Satan!" part of my talk.
Mega Image is the biggest chain of supermarkets in Romania. They probably have well over a thousand stores (of very different sizes) at this point. There are two that are a three minute walk away from where I live. In Bucharest, where you have these big blocks with maybe over 1500 people living in one, you may have more than one such store from one end to the other of the ground floor.
They're owned by Delhaize from Belgium. Where there are three official languages: French, Dutch and German. The packaging of most of their own brand products sold in Mega Image is in these three languages.
On the back, ingredients and other info are just in these three languages and they slap the sticker with the Romanian translation.
It's similar for Carrefour (French chain) own brand products. Just French in front.
And French on the back (sometimes Dutch too), plus the sticker in Romanian with ingredients, production info, nutritional info, other info...
Then we have Kaufland (German chain) and their own brand products. Here's where things get funnier. First off, Denglish is a thing, so there's a mix of German and English in front.
And also, the German retail group owning Kaufland has stores in a lot more EU countries than the other two chains previously mentioned. So you normally get info in multiple languages on the back.
Speaking of mixing languages on the front of the packaging... Krüger is a German business and this hot chocolate is made by the Polish branch. Mostly in Polish but also some English in front.
On the back, ingredients in Polish, English and Rusian. And the sticker in Romanian.
Also on the topic of mixing languages, there's this German company from Hamburg called Dovgan, which focuses on making and reselling (their Romanian products range is entirely Romanian brands which then they resale elsewhere in Europe, none of it is made by them) regional-style products from most of Europe (particularly Eastern Europe, but they also have Dutch, Danish and German product sections)... though they also have a Turkish and Arabic range. Side note: Germany has a significant Turkish minority. They faced a shortage of people who were able to work in the '50s, so they advertised work offers throughout southern European countries like Turkey or Italy (guess nice weather wasn't among benefits). Two of the members of that little band I love, Kreator, have Italian parents who came to Germany during those days. And here's a Russian cuisine sample made by them where you have mostly German in the front, but also a bit of Cyrillic. The ingredients and nutritional info on the side are in 5 languages - German, Russian, Czech, Polish and Romanian.
Then there are obviously the imports that are just in the language of the country of origin (Italian, Portuguese, whatever) and only get a sticker in Romanian on the back.
Or the products that have just Romanian labels. Like this Mega Image exclusive bag of roasted almonds.
So... in short: you're going to see plenty of languages on product packaging here. There's going to be a lot of English in front. Especially things like cosmetics will probably almost always have English in front. Sometimes French or Romanian too, but save for the German imports I got from dm stores here and which are in German (and sometimes Italian too), I don't have a single cosmetic product that doesn't have the main label in English. That includes products from Romanian cosmetics makers like Farmec or Elmiplant. Farmec have a big international market, so that may have something to do with it too.