hunting and gathering

Buying food is an interesting activity here. There are basically three types of places to get groceries. There is the market, where you can get really fresh seasonal foods like fruit and veggies, cheese, meat and fish, eggs, and mostly anything that I call real food. Nothing processed, and no paper towels or toilet paper! So if you need something other than real food, you gotta go somewhere else.

One option is the neighborhood grocery store. You can spot them from far away because they always have half the store out on the street. Obviously, they aren't very big, so why not expand your store by using the sidewalk? That is where they put the fruits and vegetables. I like going to these places because they are friendly and helpful and there is not much stress there. (more on stress later) The problem with this type of store - it's kind of like the local 7-11 - is that there is a very limited selection of things they sell. But it's quite different in different stores so you never know what to expect.

In both the market and the local grocery, I'm always on foot, so I can never buy more than I can carry. There aren't any grocery carts in these stores anyway, just a hand basket. I bring my own bag or cart for toting everything back to the apartment. (they are not very generous with plastic bags anyway)

The other option is to go to a supermarket. There is a whole lot of stress in doing this. First of all, you need a car to haul your stuff home. One exception is the Leader Price near our apartment - it is a mid-size supermarket so I go there sometimes, but only if I am desperate to find something I can't get anywhere else. The stress at these stores begins when you have to enter at their specific place. If you try to enter the market where it makes most sense to enter, they yell at you - loudly - in front of everyone in the whole store! So you have to figure out specifically where they want you to enter the store. Then you get a cart, but you have to pay for the cart with only a one-euro coin. No one-euro, no cart.

In these big stores, If you buy fruits or veggies, you have to weigh them yourself and mark them. Now, some stores put a picture of the fruit on the machine so you just put your thing on the machine, press the picture, and out pops the price sticker. But some machines require that you know what you are buying and know the name of the item IN FRENCH! There is a lot more stress involved in that option. The first time I sent Kate to the store to buy a bell pepper, I forgot to tell her about weighing it. When she went to pay for it, she got yelled at by the cashier. Really yelled at, not just politely told that she had to weigh it. The cashier caused a big scene in the store because Kate had no idea what she did wrong. So the cashier had to leave her seat, walk over and price it then come back to the stand.

And the other stress is brought about in trying to decide which checkout line to enter. They are marked by how many items you have and how you intend to pay. Under 5 items, one line if cash, another if card, another if check.... 6-10 items, 11-20 items, 30-40 items.... geez, at some point, I lose count!! And if you end up in the wrong line, I am quite sure that you will get yelled at.

Paying is another thing..... at the store by my house, you must pay cash if it totals under 8 euros. So you need a calculator too. And you can write a check only if it is over some amount (I never write checks) and you can use your card only if the total is over 15 euros. So I have to figure all this out in my head before I go pay. Way too complicated!