Shopping in Shanghai

Grocery shopping, one of the most simple mundane tasks, no? It turns out this has become quite a daily challenge. Imagine your kitchen is completely void of basics and then you discover the basics you know and love are not available. The culture shock in grocery shopping is difficult to describe. First of all say goodbye to the basic spices you use daily. It is not to say they may not have them (although I haven't found them yet), I just wouldn't be able to read the labels anyway. So we have salt, pepper and garlic. There are a lot of mystery things at the store, which may add terrific flavors, but they are less than appealing to the eye. Also, say goodbye to the kid friendly foods, that make life easier for moms. No chicken nuggets, meatballs etc... They do have frozen pizza, but no traditional flavors like pepperoni or sausage. Instead they have pizza with tuna fish on top (which actually wasn't all that bad). The Chinese do love fresh food. There is a ton of new and interesting fruits and vegetables. There are also, live fish, eel, turtles and shrimp ready to kill and come home from the grocery store.

We have been shopping at what they call a hypermarket. It is kind of a grocery store plus plus. They have appliances, televisions, clothing, housewares. Kind of like target, but on a much bigger scale and not quite as clean and organized. They even have people stationed in the aisles to try to directly influence your purchase. So when I bought a mop, they had a guy demonstrating the wonders of his bucket system while his buddy shows me a different option.

Of course there have been pitfalls. Apparently, when you pick out fresh produce you are supposed to take it to a special station to have it weighed. Of course I was clueless in this practice and when I got to the counter the lady was talking and showing me my apples. Luckily my driver is awesome and he grabbed my apples and ran to a weigh station as I continued to unload my goods. Unfortunately he was already gone when I came across my bananas.... he didn't complain when had to run back with those. ugh!

Upon checking out, they check your receipt as you exit the building, much like costco. My driver usually does it for me. I was pretty excited when they handed me a 6 pack of soda after reviewing my receipt. It was called Chill and looked to be imported and reminded me of Sierra Mist. So when Jackson was thirsty later that day, I thought we would give it a try. When I popped it open, it seemed a little foamy Jackson and I both lept to prevent significant spillage. Much to my surprise, it was Beer!!! And they were handing it out at the grocery store. Thankfully , JP did not have a taste for it.

Also, you have to beware of which aisle you check out in. I had about ten items yesterday at the local hypermarket called lotus. There was a guy staffing the line area. (they have staff for every single task) The first line I went to he gestured no carts. OK, so I went to the next aisle and he said no cards. So I went to a third, mind you I see no signs indicating which line is which, and he grunted OK. So as I am beginning to unload, I look to the next line where is says we gladly take Visa. I then look at my line and it has a picture of the local credit card....You bet one card one line baby. At least I was prepared to say cash is fine and move on.

Now those of you who are costco addicts like me, sorry to say, the Chinese do not buy in bulk. Steve went to buy a case of peligrino and they made us take one out so they could charge us for each individually. For a family of 5 this is most challenging. This means it is back and forth to the grocery store, pretty much on a daily basis. It is hard to believe that 3 weeks ago I was a successful physician, now I can barely function in a grocery store. I never said I didn't like a challenge. Back to the store again today.