Which is kind of weird, i guess. The HEMA is a department store you could compare with Marks&Spencer in the UK, or maybe K-mart in the US. I don't expect a lot of people to come out and say 'I Love M&S' anytime soon.
 |
| source |
But HEMA is different. It has a certain style.
In fact a better comparison might be MUJI.
And i have yet to meet the designer who doesn't love MUJI.
A bit of background information:
The letters HEMA stand for 'Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam', which could be translated to 'Dutch Uniform price Company Amsterdam'.
They opened their first two stores in Amsterdam in 1926. The HEMA concept was to sell everything for uniform prices: 25 or 50 cents. A Euro/Pound/Dollarshop avant-la-lettre.
Obviously their approach took off: the HEMA now has over 600 stores and is branching out to Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and France (but they don't do the uniform pricing thing anymore).
Right. That's not the point.
The point is: they just sell good stuff for good prices.
Here goes...
All images courtesy of HEMA.nl
HEMA has an online shop, which at the moment only ships within the Netherlands.
Not that I'll be needing to rely on the mailman for my HEMA-fix, there's a store 50 meters from our new house. (It's kinda sad how happy that makes me...)
