Albert Heijn


Albert Heijn B.V. is the largest Dutch supermarket chain, founded in 1887 in Oostzaan, Netherlands. It is named after Albert Heijn, Sr., the founder of the first store in Oostzaan. Today the store has 985 locations in the Netherlands. Albert Heijn stores have also been in Belgium since 2011, with around 50 branches in Flanders by mid-2020. In Germany several Albert Heijn to-go's were created between 2012-2018 but have since been closed down since April 1, 2018 due to slow growth. Albert Heijn also operated in Curaçao from 2007-2016, until a change in ownership to Gerald Van Den Tweel who disassociated from the company changing the name to "Van Den Tweel", but chose to continue to sell the inventory of Albert Heijn products.

History and concept

Albert Heijn is the oldest organization owned and operated by the Dutch supermarket operator Ahold. The founder of the company, Albert Heijn, was born in 1865. The name "Ahold" is short for Albert Heijn Holding. In 1952, Albert Heijn initiated the self-service store. For the first time, the customers were not served one by one but could pick their products by themselves.
The stores are full service markets, known for their focus on quality stores and products. This focus on superior products is part of the reason that Albert Heijn is regarded as one of the more expensive supermarkets in the Netherlands, Belgium, Curaçao and Aruba. However, after a price war initiated by Albert Heijn itself and involving nearly all Dutch supermarket chains from late 2003 until 2006, it became cheaper.
Albert Heijn's market share is currently around 30%. The company's current logo consists of a stylized "ah" in white, surrounded by a blue background. In August 2018, Albert Heijn launched in-store counter for vegan food.
It was revealed by various news outlets in November 2019 that the store had asked its employees for pictures of them in their underwear or other tight fitting garments in order to assess uniform sizes. A branch located in the eastern city of Nijmegen was to be used for a pilot program to test a phone app that it would later roll out to all 1,000 stores.

Key people