Adventures in grocery shopping

Since all the stores here have very random hours next week for Christmas, or are shut down altogether, we decided to make one big grocery trip on Saturday to get everything we'll need for the week. I figured it was a good time to capture one of the many mundane tasks that is just different enough here to keep us on our toes.

The two closest stores to our apartment are in North Sydney. They are stores we have in the U.S. (IGA and Aldi), but nothing like their American counterparts.

We start off our grocery trip with a walk up to North Sydney.

It's about a 10 minute walk along nice, quiet streets. Luckily, it's uphill on the way to the store but downhill when we come back with our groceries.

The grocery stores are very small compared to American stores. The IGA we go to has about 6 aisles that are probably 40 feet long. The Aldi is even smaller. This means that there are some things the stores just don't sell. For example, grocery stores don't carry many hygiene products like soap, shampoo, etc. You have to go to a separate store for those kinds of things. More often though, the smaller stores mean that there is just less selection and nothing is sold in bulk. For example, rather than 8 different brands of mushroom soup to choose from, you can pick from 2 or maybe even just 1. This can make grocery shopping simpler because rather than having to choose between a bunch of varieties of an item, you just take what you can get!

Since the stores are small, most people just carry a basket. There are big rolly baskets which you can carry or roll/drag. I always drag it. =)

At Aldi, you can use grocery carts but you have to leave a deposit so you don't make off with their very fine carts.

One of our biggest challenges comes when we buy produce. Everything is priced by kilograms or grams, so we are never quite sure whether we'll be paying a solid fortune for some fruit or if we're getting a bargain!

You might think that we'd get better about guesstimating prices by this time, but sadly I have not. It's a surprise at the cash register every time!

The produce selection is also a little different than back home. There are lots of mangoes and lychees. (And, of course, the ubiquitous pumpkin, AKA butternut squash.)

Another weird thing about the produce section is that there are no baby carrots! I used to eat those like crazy at home, but somehow this doesn't look as appetizing:

Mexican food is pretty scarce in Sydney. So when we're in the mood for Mexican, we make it ourselves. The Mexican section in the stores is pretty small, but the only thing we haven't been able to find is black beans (canned or dry). Who knew black beans would be such a commodity??

Looks a lot like home.

The stores also have some interesting vegetarian options. One of our first weeks we found this "nutmeat" in a can. We, of course, had to buy it and see what in the world this was. It turned out to be kind of a paste made out of some nuts and other protein-y foods. We've gotten by without it since then. =)

Looks scrumptious!

The one area of the store that Australians don't scrimp on is the tea section. This is a big tea country, so you can find pretty much any kind of tea you want there.

So much tea!

The other thing you're assured of having a great selection of is chocolate, which is great news for me! There are varieties of Lindt bars and truffles that I've never even heard of, and TONS of choices! On the downside, it's pretty expensive, so I don't take advantage of it very often.

Just a small display at the end of the aisle. Much more in the main part of the store!

Paying for groceries presents its own challenges. The stores are just not designed for big grocery trips like Americans like to make. The checkout counters are small - they really only fit a small basket. When I use a big rolly basket, I never know quite what to do with it, so I just balance it up there too.

Basically, there's no counter space, so you end up just wedging your grocery into what space is there and let the cashiers figure out how to scan them and get them into bags. Usually they put the bags on the floor and put the groceries in them there.

After that, all that's left is to tote the groceries home until the next trip!

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