Adventures to the Supermarket
On Saturday after I moved to my new home I walked, I keep wanting to say into town but I feel like that’s not right, to the high street? I guess, and did a bit of recon on the area. Went into the, I think, 5 different supermarkets and just checked them out. I had no intention of actually shopping because it was Saturday and it was busy and I had no idea what I was doing. That’s actually a lie, I bought a maltesers advent calendar, because clearly I have my priorities in the right place...
I went back on Monday, where it was a little less busy but I still had no idea what I was doing. Not knowing brand names or items makes things much more difficult. And I’m even using the same language! I’d be screwed if I went somewhere that spoke a foreign language.
Since I was apparently entertaining my sister with my messages while shopping, I thought I’d regale other people with this story.
It started off in the orange juice aisle, where the labels call what I refer to as pulp “juicy bits” to which I sent my sister a picture and said “calling them ‘juicy bits’ doesn’t make them any less gross” to which she agreed. It’s funny, but I’d prefer the “smooth” orange juice.
I also managed to forget somethings that I wanted, mainly laundry detergent, because a) I clearly never actually look at the lists I make and b) I was in a lot of unfamiliar stores and kind of panicked and just wanted to get out.
My first proper struggle was the tea and cereal aisle. I sent a message saying tea and cereal are hard and got back “you are in the land of the tea drinkers. What is hard?” Which, I mean, she had a fairly valid point. However, I am used to orange pekoe tea, which clearly doesn’t exist here. She told me English Breakfast was her favourite, which I knew, and which I’ve had from Pret a couple of times and it wasn’t bad. There was also Tetley “original” which just said black tea and since I wasn’t sure about it I just went with Twinings giant box of English Breakfast. My mother would be so proud, I checked the price per 100g or whatever it was and the 160 sachet box worked out to be the cheapest. Which, if I have a tea a day is only like a half a year anyway haha.
I did see some brands and stuff I recognized, partly because we have the same stuff and just from random pop culture reference knowledge. I found, and bough, Jacob’s cream crackers which my sister used to love when we were younger (obviously sent her a picture and got “wheeee”).
Another odd thing about supermarkets here is that they have regular full sized versions and then smaller “express” (Tesco) or “local” (Sainsbury’s) stores. But you can have 2 or 3 of these within like a 5 block radius and they don’t have as much stuff or variety. So why not just have one of the big ones? I don’t get it.
I was quite excited to find the bakery made maltesers cookies (so sue me I will try everything maltesers related I’m just happy they have them here) but was super disappointed when I actually tried them,
Trying to figure out milk was also a struggle. Their classifications for milk is not as simple as 1% and 2% and skim. So my lovely sister googled it for me and, as I like 1%, we think maybe skim. Not totally sure. There’s also apparently some that do “reduced fat” which is supposed to be 1% so I just have to look for those. (Side note I did get skim and I think it was fine, but I didn’t drink it straight just in cereal and tea. Didn’t love the Rice Krispies but that could have been the cereal itself or a combination, who knows.)
I almost left the store without buying any sugar. Which would have been a catastrophe because then I wouldn’t be able to have any tea (no I will not drink it without sugar). And then in the sugar aisle I got real excited because they have super adorable tiny bags of sugar. I was worried I was going to have to buy the massive like 1lb bag or whatever it is we have to buy at home. Kaley also agreed it was adorable when I sent her a picture of it.
My final struggle was paying, as I’ve been using cash I still can’t figure out the damn coins. So I was going to attempt to find the 80p I needed but it was hard and I panicked because people were waiting so I just said screw it and gave her a £20. Since I keep doing that I now have a whole bunch of change and it just keeps making things harder. Maybe I’ll get better. Maybe I’ll just become like everyone else and use a card for everything and it won’t matter.
Hopefully you enjoyed my adventures to the supermarket as much as my sister apparently did.
Since I was apparently entertaining my sister with my messages while shopping, I thought I’d regale other people with this story.
It started off in the orange juice aisle, where the labels call what I refer to as pulp “juicy bits” to which I sent my sister a picture and said “calling them ‘juicy bits’ doesn’t make them any less gross” to which she agreed. It’s funny, but I’d prefer the “smooth” orange juice.
I also managed to forget somethings that I wanted, mainly laundry detergent, because a) I clearly never actually look at the lists I make and b) I was in a lot of unfamiliar stores and kind of panicked and just wanted to get out.
My first proper struggle was the tea and cereal aisle. I sent a message saying tea and cereal are hard and got back “you are in the land of the tea drinkers. What is hard?” Which, I mean, she had a fairly valid point. However, I am used to orange pekoe tea, which clearly doesn’t exist here. She told me English Breakfast was her favourite, which I knew, and which I’ve had from Pret a couple of times and it wasn’t bad. There was also Tetley “original” which just said black tea and since I wasn’t sure about it I just went with Twinings giant box of English Breakfast. My mother would be so proud, I checked the price per 100g or whatever it was and the 160 sachet box worked out to be the cheapest. Which, if I have a tea a day is only like a half a year anyway haha.
I did see some brands and stuff I recognized, partly because we have the same stuff and just from random pop culture reference knowledge. I found, and bough, Jacob’s cream crackers which my sister used to love when we were younger (obviously sent her a picture and got “wheeee”).
Another odd thing about supermarkets here is that they have regular full sized versions and then smaller “express” (Tesco) or “local” (Sainsbury’s) stores. But you can have 2 or 3 of these within like a 5 block radius and they don’t have as much stuff or variety. So why not just have one of the big ones? I don’t get it.
I was quite excited to find the bakery made maltesers cookies (so sue me I will try everything maltesers related I’m just happy they have them here) but was super disappointed when I actually tried them,
Trying to figure out milk was also a struggle. Their classifications for milk is not as simple as 1% and 2% and skim. So my lovely sister googled it for me and, as I like 1%, we think maybe skim. Not totally sure. There’s also apparently some that do “reduced fat” which is supposed to be 1% so I just have to look for those. (Side note I did get skim and I think it was fine, but I didn’t drink it straight just in cereal and tea. Didn’t love the Rice Krispies but that could have been the cereal itself or a combination, who knows.)
I almost left the store without buying any sugar. Which would have been a catastrophe because then I wouldn’t be able to have any tea (no I will not drink it without sugar). And then in the sugar aisle I got real excited because they have super adorable tiny bags of sugar. I was worried I was going to have to buy the massive like 1lb bag or whatever it is we have to buy at home. Kaley also agreed it was adorable when I sent her a picture of it.
My final struggle was paying, as I’ve been using cash I still can’t figure out the damn coins. So I was going to attempt to find the 80p I needed but it was hard and I panicked because people were waiting so I just said screw it and gave her a £20. Since I keep doing that I now have a whole bunch of change and it just keeps making things harder. Maybe I’ll get better. Maybe I’ll just become like everyone else and use a card for everything and it won’t matter.
Hopefully you enjoyed my adventures to the supermarket as much as my sister apparently did.
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