I stood with two travel companions in a German supermarket. The food selection was decidedly German. I wish we had a whole section for pretzels in the U.S. When it came time to get in line, I placed my basket on the moving conveyor belt as a very German looking woman sized me up and down. As she started scanning each item, she threw them down the line. I just stood there, motionless, unable to assess the cultural differences of this situation. A giant line was forming and I was still frozen in a German supermarket. One of my friends quickly started to bag the items, laughing at me for just standing there. And as I stood like a clueless traveler, I realized supermarkets are some of the best places to see cultural differences.
In the United States, supermarkets seem to get bigger and bigger. Unless you are using the self-scanner, there is usually someone to bag your groceries. I am not some supermarket princess who needs a person to bag my groceries, but you realize what this act says about America. People are buying cartloads of food, usually excessive in size. Meanwhile abroad, they generally don’t have a refrigerator big enough to accommodate a small portion of the American supermarket.
When I lived in Italy, I discovered the cultural norms of the Italian supermarket. There is always an entire aisle dedicated to pasta. I never knew so many different shapes of pasta existed until I visited the Italian supermarket. Then, there is the line situation in Italy. If you form a line to wait for the cashier, someone will cut in front of you. This fact never ceased to annoy me. Little old ladies were usually the culprits. I would have just a few items and someone with a jumbo cart would decide their groceries took precedent over mine.
I also discovered that in an Italian supermarket, it is extremely bad form to not let these little old ladies cut you in line. Italy is all about edging closer to the next person. It is everyone for themselves and if you’re not pushy enough, you will be left behind, usually at the end of the line.
The cultural insights of an Italian supermarket continued each week, like when I learned you should never give the cashier a 50 Euro bill to break at the beginning of the day. They will just give you this blank stare, as if you just gave them Monopoly money. Then there is the whole element of produce. They don’t have codes to key in for produce at the cashier’s desk. You must print out the stickers yourself when you pick out your fruits and vegetables. Make this mistake and a whole line of Italians will impatiently grunt at you for your foreign error.
On my trip through the south, I popped in a supermarket in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. Cultural differences in supermarkets are even apparent in one’s own country. When you travel with a beer expert, you can bet you make lots of stops in local supermarkets to assess the local beer situation. A man with the thickest of southern accents decided we wanted his advice in selecting a beer. When asking for something local, he said Blue Moon was a good option. Knowing full well Blue Moon is out of my home state of Colorado, this would be the first and not the last time someone in the south told me Blue Moon was a local beer. Supermarkets in the south, especially in small towns are more of opportunities for social engagements.
You see all types in the supermarket. The hurried. The angry. The overly friendly. The sad. The unbelievable. While traveling, we can get caught up in trying to see the sights or dining out in the best restaurants. Rather, I think we also should get a taste of our destination’s supermarkets. The values of a place are helplessly apparent with every turn of the aisle. And yet, we are really not so different based on where we shop for food. There is always that gentle old man with his basket, smiling as you pass in front of the jams he is surveying. Like an airport, train station or bus depot, lives are converging in supermarkets and so are cultures.
Do you like to visit supermarkets when you travel? What major cultural differences have you found?
Very interesting article! Supermarkets are a great way to get a feel for a place and its people. I had similar experiences in Austria where you feel the pressure to bag your groceries as fast as is humanly possible or people will get annoyed at your lack of efficiency 🙂
Love this post! Spending 3 months in Russia, I definitely noticed a lot. Almost every supermarket, regardless of size, had lockers at the entrance for you to store any other bags while shopping. When you checked out, the cashier would usually ask if you wanted a bag – they cost a couple cents. Many people brought their own. If you wanted a bag, they might (if you’re lucky), open it for you – otherwise I usually stood around pulling at it with my fingers trying to get it open.
In some markets, they would put all of your items back into your basket after ringing them and then you would carry the basket to an area away from the check-out counters where you would then bag your items (usually located by the lockers).
I laughed at your comment about people not buying a lot because they don’t have room to store it. At large discount supermarkets in Moscow and St Petersburg, people would load their carts so full I had to wonder what the heck they were gonna do with all of it – literally overflowing, often with multiples of the same item.
They are also big on exact change in Russia. If your total is 155 rubles and you hand over 200, they want an additional 5 so they can give you an even 50 ruble note in change. Likewise, if it’s a matter of a few kopecks (cents), they’ll round up or down to avoid giving you 1 kopeck coins.
And bread – I have never seen so much or so many different kinds of bread as I saw at the Russian supermarkets!
I love checking out supermarkets in foreign countries! Always a great deal in buying food and treats to bring home. When I checked out with 15 packages of TimTams in Australia, the cashier just rolled her eyes and queried, “Going overseas?” They got people like me alll the time!
Interesting posts. I used to find supermarkets around the world intimidating. It’s only this year, that my husband and I became comfortable and just went in to buy whatever we wanted.
I remember our first travel trip to Europe. We were in Venice and we noticed people using gloves to touch the fruits. We did make the mistake of not printing out the stickers for our fruits. When we were in Paris, there were so many cheese to choose from in the supermarket. We didn’t know what to choose, and had no one to ask. We ended up not getting any.
It was only when I went with my girlfriends on a mini Eurotrip that I became comfortable with supermarkets. We were on a budget and supermarkets were our best friend in Barcelona, Paris, and Amsterdam.
In the US, there are many things we do take for granted. Variety is one of them. We noticed this big difference in Iceland. Where finding a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables was not only a challenge, but very expensive.
Checking out a country’s local supermarket is great for the budget traveler.
I’ve had a few experiences with supermarkets abroad, but my first is the one I remember. In Naju, South Korea I came to the register with about a dozen things and didn’t understand the concept of no grocery bags. Didn’t realize I could have paid for a few, so I fumbled my way down the street carrying all my items by hand:)
I once gave a big bill in a Czech grocery store and the clerk let out a groan like I had just punched her in the gut. Everyone behind me smirked. It was king of embarrassing, but I had just arrived in the country and only had big bills. I have since learned to take out an odd money number out of ATMs if possible to get smaller bills. Instead of taking 100 francs take out 109 if the machine allows.
Interesting post. I guess every venue has certain ways that reflect cultural differences. Most travelers do not venture into grocery stores, so they never experience this phenomenon.
I was quite surprised by the variety of products of a supermarket in Kenya. Came home with all kinds of great spices.
One of the first things I noticed when I lived in Argentina was that items at the supermarket would had odd prices like $1.87 or $3.62, but when you were paying they would round up the total and keep part of your change. I later learned that the country has a bit of a coin shortage problem. Their coins just seem to disappear…
This is a really enjoyable post. What you say about a whole section of a supermarket being dedicated to pretzels in Germany is funny, because I have seen entire aisles of them dedicated to potato chips in Pennsylvania, USA. It is so much fun to go to supermarkets in other countries. You’re right – you do learn about the cultures there. How about having to weigh your fruits and veggies in the produce section before you reach the checkout counter? I have seen this everywhere from Germany to the Persian Gulf. And the reactions when I’ve shown up with my unweighed bananas are as varied as the cultures. It’s an interesting experiment, if you have the heart to undertake it purposefully. It was an accident each time with me, but very interesting nonetheless.
We are HUGE lovers of scoping out grocery stores. Your tale of the weighing your own fruit in Italy would have come in handy a couple of years ago when I was shopping for the first time alone. I think the BIGGEST “grocery store clash” I’ve seen is the difference between one Caribbean Island and the next. On St. Croix, produce is sparce and expensive. On St. Maartin, with all of the jumbo jets coming in from Europe, the whole grocery store is HEAVEN!
Oh, one of my FAVORITE things is to check out supermarkets and farmer’s markets. They are all so different and interesting. And I think it tells you a lot about people’s culture.
I love this post! Whenever I travel, I always make it a point to stop by a supermarket because I’m just fascinated by the local products and customs. One memory that stands out was finding the aisle of burkas in Qatar. It was really fascinating for me to see something that I found so exotic so normalized in the supermarket environment.
Such an interesting part of travel! That “weigh your own produce” got me the first time, too. I was in Croatia and a little old lady helped me to key in all of the codes so I didn’t hold up the register line 🙂
Love this post and love your blog! My favourite supermarket experience was in Japan and came in the form of a 100 yen store. I had never been to a food shop where absolutly everything was the same price, in the uk we have £1 shops but they are full of junk!