The Austrians have Invaded England
Holy Crap
Growing up, the neighborhood market was the Spar-Markt. Translated, 'Spar' means savings. I always thought it was indigenous to Germany. Where the U.S. has the 7-11, Spar went five steps further. Think of a convenience store about twice the size of the largest 7-11. In this store you have a full assortment of dry and canned goods, paper products, everything for daily life that needs to be bought on a daily basis. It doesn't have the selection of a full blown super market, but this store is designed for daily shopping, not weekly or monthly shopping. (for the uninitiated, German households usually prepare and store for the preparation of meals in one day windows. The fridge you had in college is about the same size as a fridge in a typical German household.) The big difference between a Spar Markt and a 7-11 is that Spar also had a full Metzgerei and Backerei, or butcher and bakery. So a typical Spar was like a Vons, Ralphs, Albertsons, or Kroger's, only miniaturized for daily shopping.
Where am I going with this?
I'll tell you. While viewing some ads on a website created to showcase the best of them ( LBG , I found Jeremy's Fed Ex Ad on Kontraband dot com.), I ran across a Heidi Klum ad for Spar. On a whim, I did a google search for Spar, hoping to read a bit more in the language I grew up with and also to punch my own nostalgia and home country button. Well, here are two shocking revelations:
Spar: The Axis of Commerce.
Spar is not a German Corporation. It is an Austrian one. Yeah, I know. That's like saying Wales was as much a separate sovereignty to England as Austria was to Germany.
This is the funny part: Spar has the largest and greatest revenue producing chain of markets of any grocery chain in Great Britain. The Austrians have invaded. In the world timeline and geopolitical structure, this just strikes me as hilairious. "Move along, nothing to see here." for those who aren't interested...
For those who are:
Spar UK
Spar Corporate Home
Growing up, the neighborhood market was the Spar-Markt. Translated, 'Spar' means savings. I always thought it was indigenous to Germany. Where the U.S. has the 7-11, Spar went five steps further. Think of a convenience store about twice the size of the largest 7-11. In this store you have a full assortment of dry and canned goods, paper products, everything for daily life that needs to be bought on a daily basis. It doesn't have the selection of a full blown super market, but this store is designed for daily shopping, not weekly or monthly shopping. (for the uninitiated, German households usually prepare and store for the preparation of meals in one day windows. The fridge you had in college is about the same size as a fridge in a typical German household.) The big difference between a Spar Markt and a 7-11 is that Spar also had a full Metzgerei and Backerei, or butcher and bakery. So a typical Spar was like a Vons, Ralphs, Albertsons, or Kroger's, only miniaturized for daily shopping.
Where am I going with this?
I'll tell you. While viewing some ads on a website created to showcase the best of them ( LBG , I found Jeremy's Fed Ex Ad on Kontraband dot com.), I ran across a Heidi Klum ad for Spar. On a whim, I did a google search for Spar, hoping to read a bit more in the language I grew up with and also to punch my own nostalgia and home country button. Well, here are two shocking revelations:
Spar: The Axis of Commerce.
Spar is not a German Corporation. It is an Austrian one. Yeah, I know. That's like saying Wales was as much a separate sovereignty to England as Austria was to Germany.
This is the funny part: Spar has the largest and greatest revenue producing chain of markets of any grocery chain in Great Britain. The Austrians have invaded. In the world timeline and geopolitical structure, this just strikes me as hilairious. "Move along, nothing to see here." for those who aren't interested...
For those who are:
Spar UK
Spar Corporate Home
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