What a cool place this is!…read more I happened upon this place while walking by on holidays in amsterdam. It has everything you'll need and more. From the outside it's a bit a deceptive, looks like a cheap discount store, but oh no, once you walk in, you'll find lots of beautiful products including furniture, kitchen utensils, house appliances, a wide selection of picture frames, storage units, lots of party wear, good selection of food and drinks, all very reasonably priced. It reminded me a bit of small ikea shop! Lots of great accessories for every occasion you could think of. Well worth a visit!

From an American perspective, this place is like a Bed, Bath & Beyond with out the Bed and half the…read moreBeyond. There were plenty of items for interior design, but they weren't really tremendously attractive and mostly for living rooms. There were some unusual food items for sale here, including dried ramen and other random Asian foods. I don't have a ton to say about this place since it was just so "bleh" for me.

I went in here when they first opened and all I could think is, what a bunch of junk. But it's kind…read moreof like dollar or pound shops, you have to know the art to shopping here: - You should be looking for something specific - Limit your list to candles, batteries, some beauty products, candy, bottled water, kitchen utensils - Don't try to buy socks, makeup, jewelry, pillows, etc. here I found bike light batteries 5 for 1 euro. They were 2 for 4 euros at Hema and 2 for 6 euros at Blokker (both of which were sold out when I tried to buy them there first, and then on a whim thought to try the Big Bazar), so this is a significant savings. I also bought a spatula for 99 cents. They are open til 7pm during the week which is nice. Enjoy your savings!

What a amazing place to find gems love the guy behind the…read morecounter always giving us a great deal

This is a crazy discount store filled with the most random stuff. Some days I find some great Hello…read moreKitty merchandise at super low prices, a Ramones alarm clock, and a giant box of flavored condoms for 2€, other times they are pushing boxes and boxes of South Korean flag fuzzy bedroom slippers, the ugliest bags you ever did see, and tons of ugly useless stuff. Unfortunately it's mostly the latter rather than the former, but no matter what it's always an entertaining 5 minutes to check out what this place holds. One note of caution: they don't take returns and don't give refunds, so be careful when buying anything complicated or expensive. I bought a sweet Hello Kitty electric hot water bottle for 5€, but it only worked 2 weeks before it died, and I was very sad. So be careful what you shell out your money for!

This place is great because it's cheap. My husband and I didn't know it existed till a local…read morementioned it to us by our Airbnb. It's dirt cheap. We were able to get beer for €0.59, CRAZY CHEAP!!! They had the essentials we needed to put together a tasty little tapas meal at home and some great chocolates. PROS: - food was inexpensive - employees were nice and helpful - frozen food - Veggies - have small cart if you can't rent regular basket CONS: - Small, not as much variety - No bakery - limited cold sweets - €3 to rent a grocery cart!! Weird

This is a big open warehouse with a combination of new items (probably overstocks) , used items…read more(probably from Estste sales ) and artwork and furniture . Lots of it is junky, but there is enough to make the trip worthwhile. They have an aisle of new souvenirs such as puzzles, delft style ashtrays , coasters etc. . Another aisle is cookware and glassware, another table of collectibles, lots of clothes , tools, odds and ends, and new items - some trendy oversized incandescent light fixtures , original boxed Star Wars collector item spaceships, etc. There is a whole bin of authentic looking neon Ambulance worker jackets , another bin of actually quite beautiful linens with hand embroidery and cutwork. In the middle is a huge table of original signed and numbered canvases of mostly contemporary abstract art. The artist would generate multiple canvases of the same themes with slight variations . But still decent and they are large - some as large as 3 feet by 2.75 feet . And each one is 1 euro !! That's an easy way to add some pop to any apartment . They also sell bikes and many look to be new . The back had a couple of really nice antique wardrobes in beautiful condition , selling for about 150 euros. The inventory Changes all the time . Yesterday they had apparently cleaned out someone's bar and they had nice vintage wines for 3 euros each. We tried a bottle to test before buying more. It was amazing - a 1974 Medoc. When we went back, it was all cleaned out . Such is life when shopping at thrift stores!

I was wondering for the longest what the hell is Action. I would run across colleagues who would…read moresay that they got their coffee mug,water boiler, and other meaningful or meaningless items off their desk or from their house at Action. I finally spotted an Action store, so I toke the chance to see what was all the talk about this discount store. What comes to mind when I think of Action is a discount store equivalent to Blokker, Yen Store, Dollar Tree, and 99 Cent store from the states. I think this store is definitely ideal if your a college student, frugal or on a tight budget. They have tons of school supplies in here for students.

Cute shop with a lot of unique little things to add into your home. Ideal shop if you have kids or…read moreyou just want to express your creative side. They have a lot of fun things in here that I would present for a housewarming gift,birthday gift or Sinterklass or Christmas gift. If your looking for something reasonable in price, then this shop is also great for a white elephant gift exchange. I love giving gifts for special occasions, so it is good to know where to go.

The front part of the store is a bit junky / gag-gift type, but the back part has some nice home…read morestuff: I remember particularly the picture frames and dishes. It's worth stopping in and having a quick browse. One piece of advice in case the store is reading this: the staff were entirely occupied with doing their own things and did not interact with the customers. I found a picture frame that I liked but did not see a non-display model for sale. If someone had offered to help me I probably would have bought it.

Great Hema winkle in the Station Amsterdam Centraal. It's not small by any means but smaller than a…read morelot of their other locations. But the selection is close to what you'd find down on Kalverstraat or de Kinkerstraat. Most of the staff appears to be laboring away at that food area near the front window. People do line up to buy that stuff. It does look good! So I guess if and when I'm traveling in a hurry and want something prepared, I'll go there. The Hema person working there smiled at me today when I was shopping, looking at the fresh bread selection. I had my face mask on and even though I smiled back, not sure if she saw it. I think she did. Nice place. One of the flagship stores at Centraal station. I'm so glad it's open again!

I guess the best analogy I can make of Hema to any store in the US would be that it is similar to a…read moreTarget. They are all over the city, super convenient and carry items of utility for low prices (well by European standards). After coming from the other side of the Equator (and clearly not well prepared for the brutal Dutch wind), my fingers were about to fall off from frostbite. I came in here desperately seeking warmth and shelter from the snow and wind. Oh yea, I needed gloves too. I found a nice pair of fleece gloves for 7 Euros. Hey, not too bad. They kept me warm the whole time I was in A'stam and now I have them safely stowed away in my luggage, ready for another use and hopefully in back in the land of Hema :-)

Lidl's a small/medium supermarket in De Pijp. Nice selection of food. I'm from New York, so I don't…read moreknow what prices are typical for supermarkets in Amsterdam, but Lidl's prices seem fairly low. Beer seems to cost about 1/5 as much as it does in NY, and that's the good Dutch beer. They accept many different forms of payment. As a visitor, you should have no trouble in this regard. Signs are only in Dutch, but it's easy enough to get things done without speaking Dutch. The cashier spoke perfect English.

My family of 5 spent a week in Amsterdam and we shopped here for 60% of our food - items to be…read morecooked at home. Wow! The prices were so cheap, even for organic items. Baked goods were available in the mornings and fresh fruit and veggies were aplenty. But it seemed the inventory changed from day to day; some things weren't there when we went back the next day. Just what we needed for our Airbnb stay.