Starting Tuesday, March 31, customers can purchase a basic supply kit at 80 Colruyt stores that will allow them to be self-sufficient for 24 hours. With this initiative, the retailer is responding to requests from both customers and the government to be able to remain self-sufficient for a few days in exceptional situations.
Consumers are driving the demand
Colruyt is launching a basic package containing 3,100 calories of food: a breakfast (chocolate granola muesli), two meals (kebab stew and BBQ pasta—both vegetarian), 3 energy bars (cookies & cream, raspberry/strawberry, and coconut), cashews, isotonic drink powder in two flavors, 3 coffee sticks, 6 pieces of gum, tissues, a spoon, and a flameless heater to warm up the food.
The success of the emergency kits from the Red Cross Flanders late last year shows that consumers are eager for such survival kits. These kits will be available again soon, but they do not contain food.
29.99 euros
“There are circumstances where it proves useful to be able to continue completely self-sufficiently—think of the floods in Wallonia in the summer of 2021 or, more recently, the two-week gas outage in Mons. But also power outages that last longer than hoped or occur at an inconvenient time. As a Belgian retailer, we want to meet our customers’ needs, which is why we’re launching the basic package today,” says Geert Elen of Colruyt Group.
The basic package costs 29.99 euros and will be available for purchase in about 80 Colruyt stores across Belgium. If demand is high, Colruyt is considering making it available in all stores.
