During the 18 years I worked for Ahold I learned a lot about all the processes that are important in finding new locations for a shop, or in transformation of housing to shopping and vice versa. Almost every 3 years I changed jobs within Ahold; from real estate to operational business, to new concept development, marketing and finance. Because in the Netherlands the policy always has been to keep supermarkets close to the inhabitants a lot of creativity was needed to plan new shopping centers or supermarkets in our crowded country. New ideas on cityplanning and good communication with all parties involved were needed. A lot of my current work is commissioned by governments in a region, where the number of inhabitants is declining. Here other problems are getting visible. Not every city can offer anymore the same facilities as before. On top of this are the changing needs of the citizens. The citizens make other choices than they used to do, the environmental factors are becoming more and more important. In order to keep the main citycenter interesting for everyone in the community, the government has to make choices, that are not always obvious and easy. We help them to make those choices and also to communicate the choices made. In the following phase of project management we support all parties in the implementation and execution of the proposed actions.

The Ahold Company is an international company, with shops in many European countries, the USA and Southeast Asia. During my time at the company they were extending, and the language became more and more English. Especially when they started in the USA, we had many meetings through the phone. The professionalization of the company brought a lot of English terms and working conditions to us. New methods were introduced and spread throughout the company. Already in my first years at Ahold I was sent to some countries to see if some companies were interesting enough to incorporate; reports about locations and economic possibilities were some of the items to investigate. Later on, I went to Czechoslovakia to talk with people from Jihlava to find out what were important factors in this country for urban planning and retail in general. During my job as private label manager at Ahold I did the central buying of one of the brands of Albert Heijn (the Dutch supermarket) at AMS (Associated Marketing Services) in Switzerland. This AMS was a cooperation of different supermarkets in Europe, like Carrefour, Mercadona, ICA, Edeka, Safeway and Kesko. The spoken language was English. Every product was (and is) identical in every country. Especially the way to find the right ingredients for a product, that suits every country were interesting sessions. Not only the learning about the cultural differences but also the negotiations about the products made this job special.