Friday, September 16, 2011

A Little Local Flavour # 2 - Zabka Shops in Poland

Anyone who's spent a significant amount of time in Poland will know the routine of heading out to do some shopping at the nearest 'Little Frog' ('Zabka' in Polish). These local shops have spread all across the country over the last ten years and can now be found in almost every town and city. They stock a normal range of convenience products, but the big selling point is that they are open from 6am until 11pm, making Zabka the perfect place to pick up some essentials late in the evening when most other shops have closed. In 2007 Zabka began to expand into the Czech Republic (though with a different logo and design, not the iconic green frog symbol) and there are already more than 100 of them throughout the country. Zabka also has plans to expand into Slovakia in the near future. Zabka means 'little frog' in both Czech and Slovak, so the name works well in these countries. In case you're wondering (I'm sure you are), the Zabka shop pictured here is down the street from the central train station in Krosno in south-eastern Poland.

2 comments:

  1. Love this post, I recently spent a couple of weeks in Poland, was my first visit. Love ´little frog´shops you mentioned and also loved the ladybeetle supermarkets!

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  2. Hi Ami, Biedronka shops certainly give little frog shops a challenge in the cute animal logo contest. Biedronka means 'ladybird' in Polish, just like Zabka means 'little frog'. Hope you had a great time in Poland!

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