Dutch supermarkets are locked in a price war over stroopwafels, with discount chain Dirk now selling a pack of 12 for 34 cents, Het Parool reports.
That works out at just over 2.8 cents a biscuit, which makes it one of the few food items actually getting cheaper.
Meanwhile, tourists are paying around €13 for a single stroopwafel in central Amsterdam.
In mid-October a pack of Bakker Joop stroopwafels cost 42 cents at Jumbo and 38 cents at Dirk. Albert Heijn was charging 42 cents for a pack of its own brand.
All three have since cut further. Jumbo and Albert Heijn are now at 36 cents, although Albert Heijn’s packs hold only 10 biscuits. That leaves its customers paying the most per waffle, at 3.6 cents each.
Retail expert Paul Moers told the paper that the supermarkets make nothing on the deals, they are so-called “lost leaders” that bring people into the shops, who then inevitably buy other things.
The holdout
Not every chain has joined in. Frisian supermarket Poiesz still charges €1.15 for the same Bakker Joop pack, which earned Moers’ “respect”.
He expects the prices could drop by a few more cents, since the chains are already making heavy losses. Eventually, he said, “the joke will wear off” and the supermarkets will move on to another product.
In Gouda, the stroopwafel’s home town, bakers are unbothered. “It’s comparing apples and oranges,” said Mike van den Berg of Berg’s Bakery and Van Vliet Siroopwafels. “As a baker you have to believe in your product.”
Moers had a final word on the bargain biscuits. They contain no butter, he said, which “says something about how blandening of Dutch taste”.
