Bruno G. Santos

The idea for the store came from brother and sister Ana and Fernando Freixo, who worked in the Azores archipelago for a few years.

Ana Freixo told The Portugal News that, like her brother, she was a teacher “for several years” on some of Azorean islands. Her brother was the first to return to mainland Portugal and soon after Ana returned and decided that she would have to change the course of her life.

Ana described her previous career as “exhausting” and because of this she thought about opening a business that had some emotional connection. Being Portuguese, “from Coimbra”, she fell in love with the “natural environment” and all the Azorean gastronomy and culture, together with her brother, she decided to open a grocery store dedicated to Azorean products.

Logistically difficult

The grocery store has “only a small representation” of the products most sought after by customers. The Azorean culture encompasses a wide variety of products that hardly ever reach the store. The difficulties relate not only to the small production of certain very specific products but also to the logistical difficulty of bringing products from the islands to the mainland. According to Ana Freixo, transporting products becomes complicated for cities where there are no airports. The costs associated with transport, in this context, become quite high.

Coimbra, due to the presence of universities, receives several Azorean students who visit the store to get in touch with their origins. The same happens with Azoreans who live in mainland Portugal, who come from different parts of the country to visit the Coimbra store. However, some mainlanders are attracted to the grocery store, not only because they have already visited an Azorean Island and want to remember a certain product, but also to ask for advice on the islands and places to visit in the Azorean archipelago.

Purchases can be made in the physical store, but there is also the possibility of purchasing the products in the online store at https://100-acores.lojasonlinectt.pt/ . The website is available in Portuguese, English and French.

Author

Deeply in love with music and with a guilty pleasure in criminal cases, Bruno G. Santos decided to study Journalism and Communication, hoping to combine both passions into writing. The journalist is also a passionate traveller who likes to write about other cultures and discover the various hidden gems from Portugal and the world. Press card: 8463. 

Bruno G. Santos