Delhaize Belval reopens after its three week refit

Delhaize Belval opened its doors again this morning at 07:30, three weeks after closing for a complete refit. There was a red carpet down, two columns of red and white balloons either side of the entrance, and the Delhaize lion on the red carpet, posing for photographs with anyone who would stand still.

The dates held exactly as published back at the start of the month. Last basket on Wednesday 5 August at 17:00, closed from the 6th to the 26th, back this morning at half past seven. Nothing slipped, which is not always how these things go.

Inside, the shape of the shop has changed more than I was expecting. Fruit and veg now has an island of its own near the entrance, under a fine mist, sitting in wooden crates instead of on shelves. The bakery run and the deli counter have both grown, and above the deli there is a lion and a dog cut out of the black wall, which is the sort of detail you only get when somebody has been allowed to enjoy the job.

Three things in there are genuinely new. There is a Picadeli salad bar where you build your own bowl and pay by weight, 1,89 € per 100 g, which is 18,90 € a kilo. There is a sushi counter, and the board above it says the sushi is made here, every day. And the tills have been rebuilt around twenty Quick Scan lanes, twelve of them card only and eight taking cash as well. The card only lanes carry a crossed out trolley, so those are for the basket run rather than the weekly shop. A sticker on the floor further up promises a wait of under five minutes. I will report back.

What it means here, practically, is that the everyday shop is back within walking distance of the campus, the flats and the offices, and August’s detour to ALDI on Porte de France or the free ride into Esch is over. If you moved to Belval in the last three weeks and have been wondering what the shuttered unit in the middle of the plaza was, this is it, and it was worth the wait.

I went in today and took the photographs above. Everything in this piece is either something I saw or something a sign in the shop said.

Take Care ☀️