I am considering opening a shop selling English Products ie HP Sauce and decent tea bags. The question is do you think there is a market for it?

I am tired of trying to bring my favourite food in my case when I return to the UK and I am fed up with paying the high price for listerine......

Any thoughts would be welcome


Pete

There's a British Food Shop in Cassino, run by Michelle Ryan, she's on FB, if it wasn't so far away, I would certainly use it. Where are you? There are no british food shops down here in Puglia, as far as I know, although LIDL is quite good for cereals and instant coffee.

Help if you said what part of Italy. There was a shop in Verona. Still has a few things, but I don't think they researched what products to stock and when etc. Esselunga sell H.P sauce.

Wow thanks for the fast reply. I am in the north in Casale Monferrato. Where all the large mosquitoes live. But I might try to open on the outskirts of Turin or Milan.
I know some products are available over here but they tend to be very expensive, and thanks for the tip on the brown sauce.

Before I go spending money on stock etc. It would be interesting to know if people would go. I know I would also have to stock items that the local italians would also like. Any suggestions on what you would like to see in the shop if it was near you would also help.

I have heard of a shop in Perugia called The Wee Shop. but it is the only one I have heard of.

just looked on "the wee shop" site. is it just me or are the prices almost double those of a normal UK supermarket. No wonder Italians avoid UK products ... if the prices were more reasonable I'm sure most would at least try some of them. My son went with some friends on a school trip to London last year and when they got back they all wanted HP sauce, Tizer and english sausages ...

You are correct their prices are high. I know I can bring UK food to Italy and charge a more realistic price...... But I have only met a few English people over here and wonder if there is a market for an English shop.

Florence has "The Olde English Shop" in the centre. €5 for a big bar of Cadbury's! The best was in a deli on a side street - Tiptree's Little Scarlet jam for €18!!! I know it is about £5 in the UK because it is "special" for some reason, but that was taking the p!!

"Tizer"! Now there's a word I haven't heard for centuries!

I'd understood that, but opening such a specialised shop and limiting yourself to only English clients obviously means selling less and needing to keep prices high. (There again I remember a pack of Divella in UK supermarkets costing double the price in Italy).
I'm sure you could aim at Italians too - why buy earl grey when you can pg tips/tetley ... or mulino bianco when you can get the whole mcvities range ... not to mention christmas crackers, cadburys drinking chocolate,custard powder and bisto gravy. I can only say that half the stuff I order online from the UK is for my Italian friends.
Here in Salerno there's "La Casa Bianca" which specialises in foreign foods. Prices are ridicously high but it usually has at least two types of cheddar ...

As a kid I used to collect empty abandoned Tizer and Barr bottles for the 10p refund to supplement my pocket money. I must be getting old as I nearly said " ah the good old days"

Here was I thinking there's nothing English I'd be particularly interested in... and then you said that magic word: chedder. The king of all cheeses. I'd definitely love to have a shop here that sold chedder.

We are in Sardinia. There is a shop in Cagliari that has been around for years (so obviously a market despite not being a large ex-pat community) that sells everything from Heinz tomato ketchup to Colman's mustard powder. A large tin of Heinz baked beans, for example, sells at €1.90. The shop does not have a particular UK bias (more international) as it also sells curry sauces, coconut milk, lemon grass, tacos etc.

Thanks, curry sauces are a great idea. I have occasionally found curry sauces here. I think to start with I will just try and bring over UK products. I am working on a list of items. ( The ones I miss the most first .

Pete

In my very small part of Italy there is an "Asia/Africa" place that is half a phone-internet centre and half a little shop. It is aimed at the growing number of Pakistan - India - Africa - Bangladesh people here. It's great for cheap spices and basmati rice. It's also the only place I have found Heinz baked beans (2.30 Euro a can) and it sells Exeter Corned Beef. Remember the red funny shaped cans with the little key to open them?

Here is a list of foodstufs I have brought back from the UK.

T-bags....loads of them.
Gravy granules.
Cheddar and some smoked cheeses.
Bacon and sausages and sometimes a big ham. Lots of bacon.
Heinz salad cream.
Cadbury's..... all kinds including Chocolate Buttons.
Irish butter or Lurpak salted.
English mustard.
Hoola Hoops (kids eat them on the plane)
Cider.
Food colouring in little bottles.
Jelly Babies.
Ginger nut biscuits - the hard crunchy ones.
Jacobs Cream Crackers or a Jacobs cheese biscuits selection box.
Treacle or Golden syrup.
Strong curry paste.
Brought some Soreen Malt Loaf a few times.

I also buy as many medicines as I can. I'm not paying 9 Euro for children's Ibuprofen or the disgusting Tacchipirina here when I can get it for less than 2 quid in the UK and I can get packets of paracetamol for 16p !!!!


Non foodstuffs that I've brought back for the kitchen include a kettle, egg cups, an egg poacher pan, a three tier steamer, a cup tree, a gravy boat, a butter dish, an egg timer (the ones with sand in) and a teapot. This was before the days of Amazon.

I have just ordered from OH ( in the UK at the moment) many different chinese sauces, which I use in stir-fries, little packs of garlic/rosemary/cajun spices you put on roast potatoes, Eat Natural( organic) brand fruit and nut bars, porridge, Tetley Earl grey and vanila teabags, Regae regae sauce.

He also brings paracetamol/Neurofen/Tixylix when needed.

I use filo pastry in cooking and it is almost impossible to find. Got a Greek one some time ago from a small Arabic shop, where I also got Tahini paste to make humus.I miss the different varities of humus in the UK supermarkets....

Are you planning on stocking perishable food items as well or mainly dry foods?