An Education in German Shopping
We have found our small local grocery store within easy walking distance of our apartment, but we hadn't really explored to find someplace to do the large weekly trip. Well, Saturday we changed all of that in a whirlwind of shopping that left me a little overwhelmed and grateful that it was done.
Backing up, we have a friend (Cindy) that moved from Austin to Dresden 3 years ago. Since she has learned all the lessons, she offered to come in town and help get us settled. She arrived late Friday night and we didn't get up particularly early on Saturday, but once we got up and moving, there was no stopping.
We first tried to find a "large" grocery store and drove about 15 minutes toward Munich. This store ended up not being particularly large. We made a few purchases and headed back to the apartment to drop stuff off and regroup. Cindy found what she was looking for on the map, also toward Munich.
We again went off toward Munich and I was in no way prepared. I'm not really an introvert, but large crowds, off-kilter sleeping schedule and a new culture/environment made what was about to occur an overwhelming experience.
First of all, the parking near this grocery store was a 4-story garage. This in itself was not a huge deal, but seeing as how it was Saturday and lots of people were shopping, the garage was nearly full. It look a good ten minutes driving around to finally find a spot. The next shock came when we walked in. The grocery store was in what most Americans would call a mall. We first passed a Saturn store. Think Fry's electronics except without the super tech-y stuff (like oscilloscopes and voltmeters) that Fry's tends to carry. We actually needed a few items, so we ventured in. Did you know you can get a €1400 (~$1850) coffee machine? Neither did I. Glad I'm not a coffee person who would consider such a thing necessary. We purchased the few voltage-related things that we couldn't bring from the states (a proper hair dryer for Lisa and a new beard trimmer for me), we got in line to pay. Watching the people in front of us reminded of us another large difference between Germany and the US. People over here use credit cards much less often than in the states. I don't remember what the person in front of us bought, but they handed over several hundred Euros in cash. It was odd.
Next it was off to grocery store, which was in the ground floor of the mall(!), to buy food. This place reminded me most of an HEB Plus. They had EVERYTHING and then some. We wandered around while I got steadily more stressed and tired.
We did learn quite a bit though, which is helpful. The Germans have fewer frozen foods. They have WAY more beer and cheese. Wine is cheaper. Hard liquor is available in the grocery store, but, alas, tequila is scarce. The main point of the trip was education, which we did get. So, success!
One final trip of the day was to the hardware store / garden center that is about a 5 minute walk from the apartment. We needed a small item to fix something in our shower, which we were able to find. The garden center was actually nice to find as our apartment has window boxes (a competitive sport over here) and I will likely want to get a few things to put in them since the last tenants left them rather barren.
All that rambling to say that, while there are many small, local grocery stores that are different than anything I have seen in the states (especially in the burbs), the big hokin' grocery store was familiar in its sheer scale and variety of products. Yay!
Backing up, we have a friend (Cindy) that moved from Austin to Dresden 3 years ago. Since she has learned all the lessons, she offered to come in town and help get us settled. She arrived late Friday night and we didn't get up particularly early on Saturday, but once we got up and moving, there was no stopping.
We first tried to find a "large" grocery store and drove about 15 minutes toward Munich. This store ended up not being particularly large. We made a few purchases and headed back to the apartment to drop stuff off and regroup. Cindy found what she was looking for on the map, also toward Munich.
We again went off toward Munich and I was in no way prepared. I'm not really an introvert, but large crowds, off-kilter sleeping schedule and a new culture/environment made what was about to occur an overwhelming experience.
First of all, the parking near this grocery store was a 4-story garage. This in itself was not a huge deal, but seeing as how it was Saturday and lots of people were shopping, the garage was nearly full. It look a good ten minutes driving around to finally find a spot. The next shock came when we walked in. The grocery store was in what most Americans would call a mall. We first passed a Saturn store. Think Fry's electronics except without the super tech-y stuff (like oscilloscopes and voltmeters) that Fry's tends to carry. We actually needed a few items, so we ventured in. Did you know you can get a €1400 (~$1850) coffee machine? Neither did I. Glad I'm not a coffee person who would consider such a thing necessary. We purchased the few voltage-related things that we couldn't bring from the states (a proper hair dryer for Lisa and a new beard trimmer for me), we got in line to pay. Watching the people in front of us reminded of us another large difference between Germany and the US. People over here use credit cards much less often than in the states. I don't remember what the person in front of us bought, but they handed over several hundred Euros in cash. It was odd.
Next it was off to grocery store, which was in the ground floor of the mall(!), to buy food. This place reminded me most of an HEB Plus. They had EVERYTHING and then some. We wandered around while I got steadily more stressed and tired.
We did learn quite a bit though, which is helpful. The Germans have fewer frozen foods. They have WAY more beer and cheese. Wine is cheaper. Hard liquor is available in the grocery store, but, alas, tequila is scarce. The main point of the trip was education, which we did get. So, success!
One final trip of the day was to the hardware store / garden center that is about a 5 minute walk from the apartment. We needed a small item to fix something in our shower, which we were able to find. The garden center was actually nice to find as our apartment has window boxes (a competitive sport over here) and I will likely want to get a few things to put in them since the last tenants left them rather barren.
All that rambling to say that, while there are many small, local grocery stores that are different than anything I have seen in the states (especially in the burbs), the big hokin' grocery store was familiar in its sheer scale and variety of products. Yay!
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