Carrefour - Horrible Food Quality

[rainman]

Carrefour opened a branch near my house about 2 years ago. Initially, the quality and products were absolutely fantastic. Everything that I needed was available. Dozens of different cheese, sausages, bread, noodles, sauces (everything imported, of course). They even had deer meat and also good quality steaks. Then about a year ago, they stopped refilling many of the products, even though they were nearly always sold out. Now, it has nearly all disappeared. In the cheese section, there's only korean cheese left that probably isn't even made from milk. Sausages, gone. Bread, only sweet buns with jelly. Deer meat they stopped re-filling. And where the steaks were, there are now only pig intestines and chicken feet.

The last straw came last week, when the manager told me they would no longer have fresh mozzarella cheese and when I walked to the vegetables section, the apples were rotten brown and the tomatoes had white spongy mushrooms on top of them.

I'm seriously thinking about taking my camera there in the coming days, taking photos of all the rotten food and sending it to Carrefour HQ in Thailand, with a copy to Carrefour HQ in France.

Anyone else noticed this?

[tw25rw]

"I'm seriously thinking about taking my camera there in the coming days, taking photos of all the rotten food and sending it to Carrefour HQ in Thailand, with a copy to Carrefour HQ in France."

Do it and keep on doing it. the longer this stuff is left out, the more serious a problem it is.

[kurnell]

I'd love to see some photos.

[tonititan]

I completely agree. I no longer buy any produce or fresh meat from Carrefour. Everytime I bought meat (after carefully checking the expiration date), I opened it up at home the same day and it smelled rotten. The fruits and veggies looked ok in the store, but they always turned brown within a day. I had to throw away so much food from Carrefour. Now it's Carrefour to stock up on basics, and Tops/local markets for fresh products!

[jackr]

Now it's Carrefour to stock up on basics, and Tops/local markets for fresh products!

Yep, same here. It's crud. Okay for tomato sauce, washing powder, bin liners and beer, but is overall not far off Big C.

/Be careful taking pics, though. Best do so with your camera and make like you're SMS'ing

Edited January 19, 2010 by jackr

[NADTATIDA1]

rotting spam!

[chiang mai]

Carfoo does seem to have a problem getting fresh good quality fruit and vegetables, not bad first thing in the morning but things seem to unravel later in the day.

[PattayaParent]

Probably downgrading to cater for the predominant local market?

No problems in Carrefour in Pattaya where there's a large contingent of Farang shoppers, always a good variety of cheeses, sausages, bread and Farang snacks and sauces.

[mark5335]

Probably downgrading to cater for the predominant local market?

No problems in Carrefour in Pattaya where there's a large contingent of Farang shoppers, always a good variety of cheeses, sausages, bread and Farang snacks and sauces.

Agree, no problems with Carrefour on Rama IV / Sukhumvit Soi 26 in Bangkok either.

[dttk0009]

Probably downgrading to cater for the predominant local market?

No problems in Carrefour in Pattaya where there's a large contingent of Farang shoppers, always a good variety of cheeses, sausages, bread and Farang snacks and sauces.

Agree, no problems with Carrefour on Rama IV / Sukhumvit Soi 26 in Bangkok either.

I used to shop at Rama IV Carrefour until we discovered cockroaches in the vegetable section (in the veggies). They were never fresh anyway, but that was too much for me. We shop at Foodland now and it's remarkably better. Very fresh fruits and veggies and excellent choice of meat. Carrefour is still good for small knick knack stuff though, but I certainly wouldn't recommend buying any food there lest it's packaged.

[grantbkk]

Carrefour. French. Duh!

[Crushdepth]

taking photos of all the rotten food and sending it to Carrefour HQ in Thailand, with a copy to Carrefour HQ in France.

Do it. And send a letter/copies to a few of the papers. They'll fix it as soon as they get some bad publicity.

I've stopped buying frozen stuff from my local Tops at Nanglichee after getting food poisoning 2 out of 2 times. The power to the freezer must have gone off at some point and like idiots they just keep selling it. Last time I spent a night freezing and shivering uncontrollably among other things even though it was 35 degrees. Never again.

[basjke]

Probably downgrading to cater for the predominant local market?

No problems in Carrefour in Pattaya where there's a large contingent of Farang shoppers, always a good variety of cheeses, sausages, bread and Farang snacks and sauces.

Yep especially their section where they have the cooked farang food like chicken stew and so.Most of the items in that counter look like they have been eaten previously.

Edited January 19, 2010 by basjke

[Ricardo]

rotting spam!

But one must admit, their penicillin looks absolutely fresh-grown !

Edited January 19, 2010 by Ricardo

[happyinkathu]

I completely agree. I no longer buy any produce or fresh meat from Carrefour. Everytime I bought meat (after carefully checking the expiration date), I opened it up at home the same day and it smelled rotten. The fruits and veggies looked ok in the store, but they always turned brown within a day. I had to throw away so much food from Carrefour. Now it's Carrefour to stock up on basics, and Tops/local markets for fresh products!

Had the same experience in all the supermarkets ,Tes/lotus , Big C, and Carre..with meat, its a real gamble . The problem is very obvious, but will probably never change..TIT after all.

The bulk meat come in frozen, and i've seen them do this!!. They defrost it it all in big tubs of tap water[ with all its own implications ] and then stack it all in the open display for as long as it takes to sell. Meanwhile people come along and bare handed sort through it all[ to get the best i guess.] So add the unwashed hands to the meat also and you have the recipe for disaster.

I now only buy frozen 2 kilo packs of meat from Macro, and repack it into smaller portions at home. Safer and a little cheaper..

[canuckamuck]

In Chiang Mai I get my western food stuff at Rimping, and veggies and meat at the local market as I need them. We use Carefour mostly for packaged foods and household items.

[dumbnewbie]

Carrefour. French. Duh!

Well yeah, but I thought the French took food quality very seriously. No?

[dave111223]

Villa is worse for expired stuff.

I used to buy meat there; often their frozen hamburgers. Then one day i grabbed a package of them and noticed that the expiration date stickers looked different than they had 2 weeks ago (different font/format), and i noticed the plastic packaging had been sliced open and resealed. So it seems they have a policy of cutting open packaging and replacing the expired stickers with newly printed stickers...pretty gross

I never buy meat products from Villa any more, unless i'm 100% it wasn't on the shelf last time i was there.

I also bought a loaf of bread there once which had been "baked that day" according to the expiration label. It had mold all over it the next day.

[eTiMaGo]

rotting spam!

Isn't it supposed to look like that? probbaly makes the stuff taste better

Probably downgrading to cater for the predominant local market?

No problems in Carrefour in Pattaya where there's a large contingent of Farang shoppers, always a good variety of cheeses, sausages, bread and Farang snacks and sauces.

Agree, no problems with Carrefour on Rama IV / Sukhumvit Soi 26 in Bangkok either.

Likewise on Chalermprakiet R9/Udomsuk

Carrefour. French. Duh!

Hey! I resent that

[bonobo]

Serious question:

This has me a little concerned, so which Bangkok stores seem to have adequate food quality?  based on where I live, where I am driving, and what I want for dinner, I do shop Carrefour (Phetkasem), Tops (Central Pin Klao), Villa (Rapprapruk), or Fresh Mart (The Mall, Bang Khae).

[adtravels]

I find the Rama 4 shop to have excellent quality fish, meat and vegetables, It helps to go early in the day.

[bendejo]

I get a lot of meals at street vendors and have had good luck in terms of food quality.

The worst food poisoning I've encountered in Thailand was from a bar-b-q chicken at Tesco.

Try explaining that one to the guidebook writers who say to avoid street vendors and stick with reputable sources of food.

I'm leery of frozen foods and keep away from them. I like ice cream but stick to the soft stuff at the name places. I recently splurged 300b for a pint of Ben & Jerry's, fingers crossed as I wolfed it down.

[dttk0009]

Serious question:

This has me a little concerned, so which Bangkok stores seem to have adequate food quality? based on where I live, where I am driving, and what I want for dinner, I do shop Carrefour (Phetkasem), Tops (Central Pin Klao), Villa (Rapprapruk), or Fresh Mart (The Mall, Bang Khae).

I would still highly recommend Foodland. Never had an issue with them. Carrefour has bug infested greens and Tesco once sold me a defect water-cooler and refused to take it back or exchange it. Tesco is off my list permanently and I'm not buying food at the french place anymore.

[tigerfish]

anyone ever had any problems with wine purchased in the above metioned supermarkets.

they seem to have difficulty in understanding the concept of storing in a cool, dry place. and lets face it aint cheap over here!

[simcity]

I am French, but Carrefour is out my list as well

Villa is totally out, it sold me items with a new sicker added to the old one

Tesco is not so good for fresh food stuff

The best I find so far is Tops / central in Pinklaow with best yoghurt, and some items I like (tuna in olive oil)

*central revamp is food center when Lotus open next door ! before was not interesting

I do Macro for smoked salmon / frozen berries / fresh salmon / organic veg near wisutacasa (not all have the same items)

Foodland is ok, i drop in it some time

But I still go to the fresh food market for many items (duck fillet / prawn / beef cheek)

Edited January 19, 2010 by simcity

[bkkjames]

Good thing you aren't slamming Te=co or a law suit would be coming TV's way.

Agree about CF by the way. Trying to compete with the above and Big See has seen a lowering of standards / products offered.

I never buy any meat at any of these 3.

Still ok for household stuff though and much cheaper than Villas, Tops and Foodlands for this kind of thing.

[MrHammer]

The only two times I've been sick with food poisoning in Thailand has been after having bought some fresh meat from Carrefour and Tesco. I stay away from both their processed food and meats.

[rainman]

I'm definitely going to snap some photos and send off those letters. From my experiences, as of right now, I would rank the supermarkets in this order:

1. Villa Market

2. Foodland

3. Tops

4. Tesco

5. Carrefour

My experiences with Villa Market have been very good, but then again the nearest Villa Market for me is in a "high-so" zone with houses starting at 100 million Baht all around it, so that might also be why. At Tesco I buy maybe bottled water and toilet paper, that's about it.

It doesn't matter what country a certain supermarket chain is from, there should be at least some basic quality (no expired foods, no "mushrooms" where they don't belong, no rotten food, etc).

[dmax]

then just go to the local market outside town were you will get all the pork and fesh beef you want , problem solved !

[rainman]

then just go to the local market outside town were you will get all the pork and fesh beef you want , problem solved !

You mean the one that's been laying there without cooling all day long? With flies sitting on top?