Supermarkets are only markets here. Super may be awarded later, when the customer experience has been improved. Based on three outlets reviewed our experience is as follows.
No bread of the healthy kind and touching the baguettes will bring soggy old cucumbers to mind. The cheese selection is very limited and the packs are tiny, which is very sad for us cheese lovers. The obvious benefit is that the sour smell of dairy consuming Finns is absent. Row after row of processed food in US inspired packaging brings the floating plastic viewed during the last snorkelling trip to mind. Plastic packaging must be eliminated asap.
Buying ice cream requires at least two revisits to the fridge to change to an un-melted pack while queueing.
Most customers take the wait very patiently, leaning over their carts supporting their chins in their fists or nibbling on their smarties.
Leaving the supermarket we witness two workers pushing and dragging a full cart of black bananas escorted by guard prepared for the worst with a walky-talky in hand closely pressed to the lips and prepared to call for backup.
Local fruit and vegetables are excellent. To tap the riches extensive research is required. Just last week we ate the bitterest wok ever prepared having not removed the seeds from a long green thing. Many exotic vegetables rot in the fridge as we fail to understand the culinary opportunities they present.
The music is loud. Noise from several sources make a dense and dirty carpet. For demonstration:
Credit cards get a beating here. They don’t like them here. Last night I heard crying from my wallet. It was the chip in my credit card complaining about his pains. The lady cashier looked so pretty and petite but surprised with her roughness.
My father would like it here. Groceries are packed in boxes. He likes to pack things in boxes. I like it too.
And last there is a science behind the cashiers. There are the blue basket lanes, big cart lanes, premium lanes, lanes for disabled and pregnant. Once we did the mistake of going to a big cart lane with a basket. We were told off. Slightly agitated M emptied the basket in a cart and appeared back at the cashier with a mean smile. The trick is we learned that you take a cart, place a basket in it and when closing in on the lanes choose the short one and dump the superfluous vessel.
Some economist would cry about opportunity cost here. If you have your smartphone with you it’s OK. This post, including the photos, were produce in the queue.
