Skip to main content

What's the deal with Tchibo?

Tchibo, Germany, life overseas
Tchibo. They're everywhere. When I got here, I was so confused by the store-within-a-store, that also had its own standalone stores. Why did their inventory change so often? Where was their stuff made? How come they sell coffee AND sports bras?

While I can't answer a lot of these questions after 5 years here, I can say Tchibo is a quirky little brand that has rotating items, usually around a theme (and often seasonal). I am finally starting to get a sense of when to expect what at Tchibo (spring cleaning, winter onesies for everyone in the family, workout gear for the new year... you get the idea). It can be a great source of useful, and fun / not useful items for the house AND they even sell furniture on the website.

Overall, I've been happy with my Tchibo purchases. Women's clothes can be hit or miss, but their ladies' pjs as well as almost anything for kids are always a hit. I appreciate their wide usage of organic cotton and fair pricing. Some of my best finds there include:


    Tchibo, Germany, life overseas
  • Milk foamer. This thing is gold for entertaining kids - it's hand-operated, easy to use, and produces lovely milk foam for your coffee or hot chocolate. 
  • Ceramic hob scraper. I have heard you can get these at Home Depot in the states, but have yet to see one with changeable blades and with the nice grip that this one has. 
  • Balaclava for kids. This is great for kids to wear under bike helmets - it keeps their head & neck really warm in cold or windy weather. I knew I wanted something 'like this', logged onto Tchibo's website, and found it right away. This is how I have come to love their shop - they seem to always have what I need and it's easy to find. (Don't get me started on amazon.de...)
  • Holiday table decor. We hosted Thanksgiving last year and I found everything I needed for simple table decor at Tchibo. Something about Depot (an exclusively home decorating store) rubs me the wrong way -maybe it's all those decorative glass bowls full of pointless marbles and candles that look like they'll never be used... Tchibo's decor is just more my (simple, low-key) speed. 
What have you found and loved at Tchibo?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Saturday Morning Comparisons: by haiku

2 haikus 9 am Sunday morning in downtown Austin: Cyclists in spandex spin by Amidst the stench of vomit and homelessness Empty streets save for a motorcycle parade. 9 am Sunday morning, Alstadt, Mainz: The sun is shining A giant farmer's market fills the plaza Pedestrians, bikers, families smiling together.

Repatriation, Month 2

We're in the second month of returning stateside. What an evolution it's been. We relied heavily on family to get us through the first few weeks, spending nearly every weekend with cousins. It was nice, but they have their own routine, and we needed to establish our own. Finally, with the house painted, new floors installed, furniture delivered (hallelujah!), assembled, and boxes (mostly) cleared out, it looks like a house we can live in. Camping had become exhausting and wore the kids out. On the other hand, suddenly having a full house somewhat overwhelmed them - they would start massive fights over a single toy, ignoring the fact that there were now quite a lot of options to choose from. Given our long-term exhaustion over the past several months, this has been an annoying challenge. We have started to establish more of a routine though, and I already feel my mood lifted because of it. I hope it's the same for the kids. The early morning school routine hurts (whyyyyy...

6 Months In (almost)

We're coming up to our 6th month here. It feels especially poignant because our kindergartener finished his first semester in an American school. And boy was that first day full of tears. That day, that week, I think the whole month - every dropoff for every kid, every whatsapp text from a friend back home - anything set me off with this horrible guilty feeling that we had made a terrible mistake. (Full disclosure: I still feel like this nearly every day, but at least I'm not in daily tears about it...?) I'll never forget that first day of kindergarten. Staying at a dumpy (yet somehow $120/night) hotel with a free breakfast (truly, free breakfast at American hotels is the saddest breakfast), our son asked us to pack him a lunch. How? I asked him to please buy, it would be warm, he could eat well, and ... I didn't have a kitchen. He said, how about an egg sandwich? I put together the saddest egg sandwich I'd ever seen: 2 dry pieces of toast (no matter how much I ad...