A supermarket called "Gastronom" focused on foreign products, unusual items, and its own prepared foods has opened in Kazakhstan's capital, but the store's presentation has drawn criticism rather than enthusiasm from some Astana residents, according to infohub.kz.
The store offers a wide range of imported products from Europe, Asia, and the United States, including rare sweets, foreign cereals, gluten-free products, plant-based milk, sugar-free items, and unusual sauces and syrups.
It also stocks exotic fruits and vegetables from various countries. The store appears to be betting on more "rare" products that are not always available in regular supermarkets.
But not all Astana residents welcomed the opening with enthusiasm. In comments under the post, some city dwellers said they would rather see more domestic products at affordable prices instead of a large number of imported goods.
"We need to make our own; local is both healthier and tastier," "We come from America to eat real vegetables and fruits in Kazakhstan. We need to support our farmers," "Our own pasta is 100 times better," "They should have opened a farm instead—cows, sheep, etc. Meat is insanely expensive now," commenters wrote.
Some users specifically drew attention to prices and doubted that such imported products would be affordable or even necessary for Kazakhstanis.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that Kazakhstanis are ready to buy domestically produced food but do not always know in which country certain goods were made. In particular, this was shown by a study of cheeses available in Kazakh retail chains.