11 Comments

  1. Christy
    May 26, 2012 @ 7:46 pm

    We are very spoiled in the States. People would freak out if their favorite item went out of stock for weeks. 🙂

    • Andrew
      May 27, 2012 @ 8:23 pm

      Indeed. And that is even to the brand level. What they are out of my exact brand,flavor,size combo? We don’t get so much selection anyway, but it can mean that all forms of some specific thing are gone. Like, no chicken in the meat case at all.

  2. Dalene
    May 23, 2012 @ 4:22 pm

    Rice Bubbles??? For reals? Why on earth….

    • Andrew
      May 23, 2012 @ 8:03 pm

      Yup. We found these in a store in New Zealand. And apparently the kiwis know it by this name. I don’t really understand it either.

  3. Karylle
    May 23, 2012 @ 10:26 am

    I think people should be aware with this matter and I guess this should be spread too.. Anyway, thanks for the photos of duck and a cat here..LOL..

  4. Sabina
    May 22, 2012 @ 8:32 pm

    I hear you about the culture shock and grocery stores issues. In the U.S. we have EVERYTHING!! We really do. The more I travel the more this fact is driven home to me. People will ask me about random substances and objects “Do you have this in America?” and I’ve learned to say “We have everything in America,” because it’s so true. We are so spoiled. In other countries, I can find only a small percentage of what I used to consume in the U.S. Is this a good thing? Well, it kind of is. Proves I don’t need what I used to think I did.

    • Allison
      May 23, 2012 @ 1:15 am

      The US grocery stores truly have everything. At least in the larger cities with immigrant populations. I am able to get Milka and Kinder chocolate for my husband at the same price you would pay in Germany. The Tommy condiments, all the different juices in the cardboard containers. Large amounts of Polish foods in Chicago make it easy to find some things equivalent to the German product. Including the Banana juice I found for my husbands hefeweizen.

      I found some things to tide me over in Switzerland too. Toppas were frosted mini wheats. There was a bag of chips that tasted just like cool ranch Doritos. I bough the Bran from Kellogg’s and then added my own raisins to make Raisin Bran. Switzerland also had the oddity of importing some products from the US since the exchange rate was in their favor. Single bottles of Sam Adams. And oddly enough last August they were importing the cardboard fridge packs of Vanilla Coke. 15 CHF a 12 pack thank goodness I’m not a fan of that. Funny also because you drive a hour to Germany and they have the stuff that is bottled there at normal price!

      • Andrew
        May 23, 2012 @ 8:05 pm

        Wow that is quite a spread.

    • Andrew
      May 23, 2012 @ 8:02 pm

      Exactly, we don’t need what we think we do. I do miss certain things though. None of them are healthy however.

  5. Laurence
    May 22, 2012 @ 11:13 am

    Visiting local supermarkets is always one of my favourite things when in a new place, to shock my brain into realising I’m somewhere new.

    Often when in a new country, particularly if it’s a Western one, things on the surface look the same. It’s only when you look on the shelves of a supermarket that you realise that you are somewhere entirely different!

    • Andrew
      May 23, 2012 @ 7:10 pm

      Exactly. It gets subtler though. Sometimes the products look the same but don’t act or taste quite the same once you get them home. It feels almost betraying.