Before we moved to Europe, it had actually been at least 15 years (and probably more) since I’d been the primary grocery shopper in the family.  Chris was the one who did most all of it in North America. It wasn’t until we got to Italy that I took over that responsibility.  My challenges in Bolzano’s grocery stores were mostly tied to figuring out where to find things in the store (e.g. learning that the sugar is stocked next to the coffee and not the baking supplies, etc.). Here are  links about some of the challenges to supermarket shopping in Bolzano:

1. Bolzano supermarket shopping in general

2. Where to find things in a supermarket in Bolzano

When we got to Germany, I also did all the grocery shopping.  The German stores are a bit bigger than their counterparts in Italy, but not by a lot. My shopping trips there, though, were a lot less eventful than in Bolzano; perhaps the “natural classes” of things were similar (see post #2 above for the ones in Italy).  But there was still stuff to learn about supermarket shopping in Germany, of course, including how to buy sparkling water bottles.

But you might think that now we’re back in the U.S. that supermarket shopping wouldn’t be any problem at all.  But in fact, I think that supermarkets here have so far been the biggest culture shock for both of us.  Why? Well, back in 2011 I wrote about the culture-shock of going to a grocery store in Florida, when the number of choices in a Florida store that was 10x the size of the one in Bolzano left me quite taken aback at the time.

That experience was after only 2.5 years living in Europe.  But maybe the fact that we had that reaction after only 2.5 years in Europe should have prepared us for the shock of arriving in the U.S. after 7 years and walking into a huge American grocery store again.  On our first supermarket buying trip back in June we ventured — on our own! — into a store the size of at least one football field, and probably more. Well, at least that’s how it seemed.  Things just went on forever, from the length of the aisles to the sheer number of them. I mean,  where do you begin trying to find anything?  How do you figure out all different brands? The pricing differences? Special Offers? Different size packages of the same thing? Different varieties of the same thing?

Sheesh, we had it easy in Florida back in 2011:  there were only 4 types of potato salad.  But nowadays, it seems like there are at least 10 different types of any one thing – and usually much, much more. The aisle with the choice of boxed cereal alone is mind-boggling. Seriously.

Then there was the additional issue of figuring out how to get the loyalty card key chain tag that unlocks lower prices in many stores. It’s not hard, but first you have to figure out the price gap that exists, then you have to organize where in this endless store the desk is to get the card.  I guarantee you it is always at the opposite end of the store from where you are.

Actually, that’s a truism about anything in the store: no matter where you are, whatever you’re looking for next is bound to be at the other end of the store.  Which takes you about 5 minutes to walk across.

Well, that’s what it felt like in that first store, at least.  Between getting the loyalty card,  hunting for stuff and sorting out which of whatever it was we wanted to buy, we were in that first store for 2 hours.  2 hours?! Since we didn’t know where anything was and the store directories on the shopping carts were there to lead you on a wild goose chase we wound up having to walk up and down every single aisle in that store to find stuff.  When we finally got out of the store we felt like we had been through the wringer; we were completely exhausted!

Supermarket shopping is not for the faint-of-heart here in the U.S., IMHO.

Well, at least not in the Northeast.  But here in Florida, the supermarket that caused all that trouble for us in 2011, Publix, actually has several branches that are not nearly as big as the supermarket in CT (we haven’t actually been back to the larger branch that I blogged about in 2011).  So, somehow the supermarket here, after the early experiences in CT, seem a little more manageable.

It’s also the case that Publix has no loyalty card program: “All our customers get the same low prices” is what the store clerk said to me when I asked about it. So, that makes things a little easier.  Plus, Publix describes itself as the only supermarket around that still offers a service that I refer to as “southern hospitality, supermarket style.”   The other day I went to the store by myself. It was early on a Sunday morning, when the store was mostly empty.  When I got to the check-out line, the baggers were all standing around with nothing to do. So, one of them zoomed over and insisted on helping me unload the cart onto the belt.  Then, my groceries got bagged in record time by a couple more people, and a man older than me insisted on schlepping the cart with the bags out to my car with me.  (BTW, all these “helpers”  wear name badges that also say they are not allowed to accept tips.) Anyway, on the way to the car I commented on how you don’t find this kind of service many places these days, and he said that Publix really prides themselves on still offering it.  You definitely don’t find that kind of service in Europe, at least not in the places we shopped:  you bought it, you bag it — you take care of it yourself. So this is definitely a nice perk to find here in Florida.

Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t like going to the supermarket. But every little thing helps.