Jenny Lou's Shop, Beijing

I have been shopping at Jenny Lou's for 4 years and while the place is all but essential to Beijing life if one wants to cook and eat Western food, its service, quality of fresh goods and reliability are very patchy while its pricing can be hair-raising. The pricing also sometimes doesn't make any sense. Also, one often finds two products in the same category but of quite different quality priced similarly at Jenny Lou which outside China would have very different pricing One example would be Grana Padano and Parmesan cheeses. Grana Padano, usually markedly cheaper than good Parmesan, sells for more than twice the price of Parmesan. Also, you can never, ever rely on Jenny Lou continuing to keep particular items in stock. Whether one talks of Rich Tea biscuits, vanilla pods, black pepper or pancetta, all these goods are only intermittently stocked. The only real current rival to Jenny Lou is April Gourmet, which although more reliable, has less variety and generally higher prices. As a result, there is a gap in the market and if Jenny Lou doesn't get its act together, someone will come into the market and offer better value, better service and a better and more reliable selection. Then Jenny Lou will wake up one morning and wonder where all the customers went to....

The prices are pretty high, but for Western products produced and manufactured in Europe and the US, it's not completely out of sync than other places. You'll find most of the basic Western foods here, such as chips, canned food, sausages, deli and the like. The deli probably has the best food, but it is the most overpriced (about 2-3x the price of delis you find in a basic US or Italian shop). Employees are usually not the most helpful.

I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE April Gourmet ! and no ! I don't work there !

I've shopped at JL's ever since arriving in Beijing, and whilst it's very expensive it does stock a lot of products that would otherwise be unavailable. However, I placed my first delivery order last night - mostly for wine, about 200RMB's worth. The website said that delivery was available for 50RMB to customers living more than 5km away from the Lido branch. I'm in Wudaokou. I received a phone call this morning telling me that if I wanted a delivery to Wudaokou I'd have to order 800RMB of stuff. There was absolutely nothing about this on the website, so I asked whether they would honour my order anyway given that they had provided insufficient information and I needed the wine for a dinner party this evening. As far as I'm concerned, the fact that their website is out of date is their problem and not mine, so they should honour the order and update the website. They refused to do this unless I paid for a taxi to deliver my order, which I felt was unreasonable. Why should I pay for their mistake, which has caused me inconvenience? Of course I can buy some wine from the 7 Eleven, but it's the principle: a Western-style shop charging so much for their products should provide Western-standards of service to match, i.e. absorb the cost of their own mistakes. And they certainly shouldn't advertise a service they are unable to provide. Apparently they deliver from the the Lido branch using electric carts, which seems ridiculous given that the Lido is out near the airport. Why not get a van? This was pretty annoying, but what really upset and offended me - and prompted me to write this review - was the way I was treated on the phone by an American (?) member of staff. He was extremely unhelpful and high-handed, telling me that the store could not possibly afford to honour my order as it would take 'several hours' to drive to my house (it actually only takes half an hour from the airport, and I'm pretty sure the trip wouldn't make much of a dent in JL's profit margins). Moreover he accused me of being 'irate' and 'sarcastic' and of ruining his morning. Well there's nothing like being accused of being irate and sarcastic to make you become both... Plus this incident didn't exactly improve my morning either. I understand that it would be a further than usual delivery and that after the website has been changed incidents like this won't happen again. But I do think that if a business makes a mistake then they and not tbe customer should shoulder the cost and inconvenience, and apologise sincerely rather than accuse the customer of being unreasonable.

Over the years Jenny Lou's has became famous for NOT giving fapiao to customers. Last time I came with 3 old tickets and, 2011 approching, I insisted. After 35 minutes of waiting, I got my piece of paper. Then I gave it to our accountant... who told me "it's a fake" ! So, beware. We alerted the tax services (12366), please do so if this happens to you.

went to Jenny Lou's ChaoYang branch and got some jars of Pringles for Christmas. The chips were rancid. Went back to get a refund and asked them to take the product off the shelf, so others won't have the same experience with the same batch. They refused to admit that the product they sold has a quality problem, because I couldn't show a receipt. And told me that I should contact the producer directly.

I thought they did a great job stocking a little of almost everything you would want. Our man purpose in going there, though, was to buy foreign-made formula for our baby, and ironically, the only formula this foreign goods store had was Chinese. Now I'm disappointed and a little desparate for formula I can trust.

Jenny Lou's Shop is a nice, clean store. I was disappointed when the store near Lido stopped selling pizzas and sub sandwiches. Prices weren't too bad even for some of the imported products. I rarely bought any fresh meat and cheese so I can't comment on that. I would recommend Jenny Lou's Shop.

Doors open at 8 but really 10 if you really want to buy anything. Meat is froze for the night, so you must wait till 10 for it to thaw - and it can not be good for the meat! Cheese - much has been in the case for a long time and not useable. Vegetables way overpriced. Bread - horrid. Used to have good bread, but went the cheaper route and now the bread tastes like cardboard. Service is horrid. Beware milk products - most have expired and are a day away from being saleable. Delivery??? Yes, if you buy a lot and if you don't mind it being delivered when they decide to deliver it. Avoid this place if at all possible.

I live in a small town in central china so I enjoy my foreign goods when I get to the capital in Zhengzhou, but nothing beats Jenny Lou's in Beijing. Yeah, it's expensive but it's foreign so you can't expect a bargain. I don't complain about any store that carries Dr. Pepper in China, it's canned but I'll take what I can get :) They also have frivolous things like tortilla chips along with good staples like syrup, pancake mix, cereal, coffee, etc.