DutchNews.nl - Opinion: Cheap (ish) and mostly cheerful: the HEMA

On the occassion of the 500th HEMA, Hanneke Sanou asks why we like it so much.

The HEMA has opened its 500th store, not in glamorous Paris or Berlin, which also have stores, but on home soil in homely Hengelo.

The company has come a long way from its 1926 beginnings when the Hollandse Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam (or Dutch uniform price company Amsterdam), owned by the exclusive De Bijenkorf, started making money out of the less well-heeled.

It took a little time for the well-heeled to stop looking down their noses at the HEMA but they did and now everybody buys there, which makes the HEMA not only a shopping institution but a symbol of democracy as well. Either that or the rich are economising.

From the gated communities in Saudi to the built-up costas of Spain, Dutch expats go misty-eyed when they even think of the HEMA. HEMA is where the heart is. Out of sight of a HEMA, out of your mind. But why? What makes the HEMA so special?

My nearest branch in Amsterdam is old and, I think, slightly depressed. It has most of the stuff that other HEMAS have but no amount of giant pictures of brightly coloured clothes pegs and cork-screws will make it cheer up. Sometimes it doesn’t have apple tart. I go there out of pity.

Could it be, then, that our lives have been marked by the HEMA in some special way? Every parent waving a relieved goodbye to their offspring knew that the first port of call would be a HEMA to get paint, a product that must have taken a serious hit with children increasingly unable or unwilling to leave the nest. It was a rite of passage: find a place, paint it with HEMA latex (two layers).

On second thoughts, that’s not it either. I can’t think of any other pivotal moments when the HEMA was an indispensable part of growing up or growing older. If it gets its act together it could perhaps find a niche in the coffin market. I would buy a cheap HEMA coffin if the advertisers could come up with an appealing, sunlit photograph of one.

It would have to be in red and white, of course. The orders from Saudi and the Spanish costas would come flooding in.

So what is it then? I think it’s the tea towels. I like the ones with the cows on them. They last you for ages.

Readers' Comments

Nice article. The Hema reminds me of the Jip en Janneke -printed baby rompers and clothes. I have not found them anywhere else. And the delicious birthday tarts for a fraction of the average price. Not to forget the doosjes rojintjes. Heerlijk!
On the other hand, some of the Hema products are really boring and dull - like the plain pillow cases and covers. Still, they are durable and that is what matters more.

By GGG | 7 June 2012 8:56 AM

I think most people go to the HEMA for the cheap, cheerfully designed and durable underwear and of course for the smoked sausage (rookworst) in winter.

By IS | 7 June 2012 9:14 PM

I think Ducth love Hema because they don't understand diversity - in a sense of choosing from 100 types of the same product - and they don't wish for much. In Paris or in Barcelona Hema would go bankrupt in no time.

By expat | 13 June 2012 2:09 PM

@expat, Hema has several very successful and profitable shops in Paris.

By pepe | 13 June 2012 10:47 PM