Grocery 101

Welcome to Grocery 101. Today's lesson will cover the differences in American shopping and European shopping using real live experiences to illustrate. So as my mother and I walk to Migros, the supermarket down the street, we notice that in order to use a shopping cart we must pay 2 Francs. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, money for a cart. And it has to be the exact coin. So we ex'd that idea and grabbed two little blue baskets (which were free). When I studied abroad in England, the supermarket had plastic/paper shopping bags. Here in Switzerland, they do not. You have to pay for this large bag to place your groceries in. Something to note for all you extended stay travellers: the shopping here is very light. They don't do the big bulky thing we do at Publix, Kroger, Sams Club and certainly not WALMART (yuk--no offense to Walmart shoppers...I had to do it for a whopping three years in VA...thank GOD that has passed). This may be why everyone here is so thin. I have yet to see a fat/overweight person. Again, no offense to my fat people across the world but they just don't live here. I'm thinking they go shopping more often than we do back home but purchase less. Another reason for this is that many people walk, ride a bike, or use the transit system to get around. I applaud these methods of transportation over lazily sitting in air conditioned buildings all day and travelling in a car to get everywhere. I want to get a bike...feel the breeze blowing in this too expensive hair (opps, don't tell anybody) and maybe tone up some areas that haven't seen exercise in months. In fact, that's a grand idea. Back to the shopping, something that's very important: after you bag your produce (fruits and veggies), you have to weigh and label them yourself. Well, we didn't get the memo. So the cashier is holding up the bags of mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, cherries, etc. speaking french really fast and giving us this look that just screams "dumb Americans." The people behind us weren't as kind in their expression (yea...exactly!). So another guy grabs all our naked bags and prices them as we wait. I'm feeling pretty stupid at this point but luckily the guy comes back fast and we can pay. Another tip to remember that I learned in Bath, England and is reinforced here is this: if you decide to use credit card over here or debit cards, make sure you sign the back because they always check at the grocery store (which if you think about it is a very important safety precaution). In terms of the food, it is pretty much the same thing you will find in an American grocery store. The selection of cheeses is divine, I must say. The downside is that everything is either in French or German. You can tell what most things are but I tried to find some packaged chicken slices that were precooked and ended up with some vegetarian concoction. Eh, I will just have to find a translation website to see if it has protein. Observation # 4: Everybody smokes cigarettes. (Btw, I did catch a whiff of something else but that's neither here nor there...if the people want, I can do a blog devoted to my day in Amsterdam! lol) When I noticed this fact, I asked my mother about the mortality rate and she says it's low. And the poverty and unemployment as well. And she says they exercise ALOT. How the lungs do that...not sure. This woman sitting next to me at the cafe smoked about 3 cigs in one sitting. Amazing. Well, my bags are here, the kitchen is stocked and new member drinks are tonight...to go or not to go...that is the question...love 'n' ladybugs...peacein' out...