Albert Heijn Premium for Organic Food

A post about the Albert Heijn? What? Is this a sponsored post? Nope. None of my posts are sponsored. But yes, I am going to promote a Albert Heijn initiative today. In a nuanced way, but still. Recently Albert Heijn has launched Albert Heijn Premium. And even though I don’t like multinationals, I do support this initiative. I have been a member for a month now and this is something I really want to share since it could help a lot of people! Today I’m telling you more about Albert Heijn Premium for organic food.

Multinationals

Look, I don’t want to support multinationals this way. Albert Heijn is a part of Ahold, which is a powerful multinational. I don’t think power should be centralized like it is now. There’s very little people benefiting from the system we currently have in place. Many more are harmed by it. Having a decentralized economy, with many food cooperatives, is much better. It creates more jobs, it is more personal, it is slower, more adaptive and the system would not solely be about making profit for the shareholders, like it is now. I don’t want multinationals to exists and I personally avoid them as much as possible. So, that it is my advice to you too: if you have the resources, avoid Albert Heijn and do your groceries at food cooperatives, like Odin.

However, I also have to be realistic. These multinationals are here and they have millions of customers. This is the system we have right now and it is extremely hard to avoid. Coop cooperatives like Odin are there, but in some cities they’re not present yet. If that’s the case, it’s hard to avoid multinationals like Albert Heijn.

Back-up

Right now, I do my groceries at a the 100% biodynamic food cooperative Odin once a week and try to buy most things there. I do also go to a bulk shop every once in a while to buy organic, zero waste, dry foods that they don’t offer at Odin. However, Odin does not have 100% of what I want, about 95% I would say. And so, I go to the Albert Heijn and try to make sustainable choices there for the remainder of my necessities.

If you can’t change the overal system because you don’t have a good food cooperative in your area, maybe you can change something within the existing system. That’s why I am still writing about this Albert Heijn initiative today. Albert Heijn Premium can help to change the system a little bit from the inside. 

Albert Heijn Premium

Now, what is Albert Heijn Premium then? It’s a membership really. For 12 euros a year, you get a 10% discount on all organic products. And 12 euros is not a lot because if you shop regularly at Albert Heijn your investment will be returned and you will make a profit! I have done a little calculation. There’re 52 weeks in a year. If you want to break-even you have to get a discount of 23 cents each week. That’s usually one or 2 organic products a week. One thing I buy a lot are avocados. Those are 3 euros and so I get a discount of 30 cents each time. Buying avocados once a week and I already make a profit. For me this is just amazing because I always buy my products organic anyway. If you do this too, get the membership.

However, if money is a threshold to you then this is a great initiative to increase you organic purchases. What you can do is only buy the products that are cheaper with the discount than without it. I made a list of these products below. Then the organic product is actually cheaper and so the logical choice! Also, there are some products that Albert Heijn only provides organic. These are things you can simply not buy non-organic, I listed these below too. So if you buy these products regularly, it also makes sense to get the Albert Heijn Premium for organic food. 

Organic-Only Products at Albert Heijn

• Tofu
• Any type of herb plants
• Fresh Ginger
• Raw Pumpkin
• Fresh Turmeric
• Fresh beets (both whole and pre-cut)
• Fresh Shiitake
• Fresh Oystermushrooms
• Fresh King Oystermushrooms

Cheaper or Evenly Priced Products at Albert Heijn (with Premium)

• 100% Peanutbutter (non-organic 2,25 euros, organic 2,11 euros )
• Capers (non organic 0,79 euros, organic 0,76 euros)

There are also some other benefits in the Albert Premium membership. One of them is relevant, the ‘koopzegels’. Also, you get more personal discounts, 10 every week. Those can also be very useful for the product you can’t buy organic. Think of vegan cheese for example. Organic vegan cheese is usually not offered yet. The personal discounts are based on your previous purchases and so it is likely that you get a discount on the products you buy a lot*.

Incentive

I honestly think this is a great initiative by Albert Heijn. They’re really trying to make people buy organic food and I appreaciate that. As I said, I would like to see the whole system change to food cooperatives. But, since that’s going very slowly right now, I appreciate this change from Albert Heijn. The more we buy organic, the better. It’s crucial for our future food supply since non-organic food is depleting the soils, leading to fewer areas being suitable for agriculture each year. Also, non-organic food is extremly harmful to biodiversity since it’s sprayed with toxins to kill weeds. These toxins kill all life in the area. I honestly believe organic food is better for our health too. 

I’ve written it before: government needs to change and companies need to change. But we should do our part too. And don’t give me the ‘I can’t afford organic food’ argument. The Albert Heijn Premium can even benefit you more than it costs. And also, I know that not everyone can afford organic food. Strangely enough, I only hear the money argument from priviledged people. People who go on holidays twice a years or drive an expensive car. Then at least be honest and say you don’t care about organic food. Don’t say it’s too expensive. Cut the bullshit and admit that it’s about priorities. 

Organic = Cheaper

One last argument: organic food is only more expensive money-wise on the short term. If 100% of our food was organic, we’d be better off. Right now the true price of non-organic food is paid by society. In the form of climate change, soil depletion, biodiversity loss, nitrogen pollution, etc. etc. This costs money and we pay as a society. If 100% of the food was organic we didn’t have all these costs and all in all we’d save money. Let’s aim for that! 100% of our food 100% organic. Getting Albert Heijn Premium for organic food is a great step towards that goal. 

Yours sincerely,
Romee

*I know that selling my data to companies is bad. With this membership I give them insight in what I buy and so I sell my data. That’s bad because it creates profits for Albert Heijn because they sell this data. However, I chose to still get the membership. I am not perfect and I don’t claim to be. This doesn’t mean I give up. I recently switched from Whatsapp to Signal for example. I try to change where I can and sometimes different goals collide. Right now, I chose to value the increase in organic food that this initiative can create higher than the data aspect. I hope I can change this in the future.