Saturday, June 7, 2008

A trip to the grocery store

Something as mundane as a trip to the grocery store can surprise Brian and I.

First we took Marion to Planeta Magic. Very similar to the Ultimate Playzone in Hunt Valley or the Jump Zone in Columbia but with smaller areas for younger ones. Marion loved it. And it was interesting to watch her try to interact with children who did not speak English. She didn't seem to mind though, she made her own fun.

Afterwards we went to the Migros in Wadenswil. It's much larger than the one near us. We used our Garmin to find it (thank god for Garmin, I officially love him) and waited in line for parking.

The guy in the car ahead of us was taking awhile to pull his ticket and go into the garage. Brian and I were waiting and wondering what was going on. After he entered we drove up to the ticket machine to go into the garage.

That was when we realized what was happening. The machine said "Parking Occupied." It was monitoring how many people entered and left and wasn't allowing anyone to enter until after someone left. So we were stuck waiting at the ticket machine for someone to leave.

Amazing. Can you imagine the chaos if this was to happen in the States? No where to go. Nothing to do but sit and wait.

After someone left, we entered, still laughing at the situation. Since we knew the place was packed, we picked the first spot available and headed in.

Not too much to report from the rest of our trip. It was a grocery store. But we have noticed that everything is in smaller portions. The chips, meat, milk- you name it, it is smaller here. I can't decide if it is because of the whole no preservatives so things don't last as long thing or if it is because Americans consume more on average. Or maybe a bit of both, not sure.

Oh, and it was chaos in there. People were everywhere. I haven't quite figured out how people move here. It seems like such a little thing but it feels so different here. I'm always bumping into people and excusing myself. But I'm never really sure if it was my fault or theirs.

One example: today I was looking at pork tenderloin and other prepared meats. An employee of the store was stocking the shelves and just moved in between me and the meats, blocking my path. Was that my fault for getting in the way of her work or hers for not waiting? I'm not sure. But I do know that that has never happened to me in the US!

Once we got back home, Brian reminded me why things were so crazy. Grocery stores close at 17:00 today and are not open tomorrow so everyone was stocking up. No 24 hour Giant here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is going to be an interesting adjustment for you guys. Specifically, losing the convenience of an all-night grocery store. Sounds, though, like everyone is well and having fun. Love to all.

vudean said...

Thats crazy...
I actually had the grovery store thing happen to me, they were stocking shelves at the Superfresh and I had to get by, to get somethign just on the other side of them, and they had to move their stuff and get out of the way.
After I got by and got a little further away, I could hear them talking about me and how I had to 'interupt their day' and 'make their job harder' when I could have gone (all the way) around the aisle. Abonoxious people are everywhere i guess.