2 min readQueen Máxima paid a visit last week to HEMA, one of the Netherlands’ most beloved retailers, as it is marking its 100th anniversary this year. Dressed casually in a chocolate brown top and blush pink trousers, Queen Máxima toured the department store’s design studios as well as one of its flagship locations in Amsterdam, where she learned how its most practical everyday products are developed while also speaking with store employees about their customer interactions.
Queen Máxima speaks with an employee in HEMA’s cosmetics section.
As noted by the Dutch Royal House, HEMA has been a fixture of Dutch daily life since it first opened in Amsterdam in 1926. The name is an acronym for its original Dutch name, Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam, which translates roughly to Holland Unitary Pricing Company Amsterdam. A century later, the chain operates close to 750 stores across nine countries. According to Hola, Máxima also revealed she is also a longtime customer of HEMA.
HEMA sells affordable, in-house designed everyday goods across a wide range of categories, from household items, clothing, and beauty products to office supplies, toys, and groceries. It could be compared to Target in the United States, Marks & Spencer in the United Kingdom, or Monoprix in France. The chain is particularly known in the Netherlands for its iconic food offerings, including smoked sausage, tompouce pastries, and stroopwafels.
An employee explains some of HEMA’s in-house cookware products.
Queen Máxima eyes a tray of tompouse cakes, which feature thin puff pastry layers sandwiched around a cream filling.
Queen Máxima has a busy week ahead. On Monday, she will travel to New York for the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she will attend in her capacity as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health. Her schedule through Thursday includes the opening session of the General Assembly, a fireside chat with Wall Street Journal CEO Almar Latour, appearances at events focused on digital public infrastructure as well as access to financial services across Latin America and the United States. The Dutch Royal House says she will present her annual report to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and close out the week with a meeting of her UNSGSA Reference Group, the advisory body she has worked alongside since 2009.
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.