Groceries and Culture

I remember going to the grocery store shortly after we arrived here in 2012. It was a necessary evil but I’m not sure going to the grocery store in a new country with a major case of jetlag is the best idea. We spent approximately two hours perusing the aisles and maybe bought two bags worth of stuff. Thankfully, this time around was much smoother.

I have found that going to the grocery store is one of the best ways to learn about a new culture. One can quickly come to a pretty accurate conclusion about the do’s and don’ts of a new country and what is most important to the people of that country, (regarding food anyway) within minutes of entering a grocery store. Here are some of the interesting things I have learned while grocery shopping in CZ.

Even the small shops have a decent selection
of fruits and vegetables. Mushrooms are a staple in this country.

In CZ and much of Europe it is commonplace to grab a shopping basket on the way into the grocery store. These can be found in some grocery stores in the U.S. as well but in my experience they are rarely used. I wouldn’t say that grabbing a basket is required here, but the majority of people seem to follow this unspoken rule. Having said that, depending on what part of town you might find yourself in the rules seem to change. For example, in one part of town if I choose not to grab a basket because I only need to pick up an item or two, I may be followed around the store by a security guard the whole time, while in other stores, basket or not, no one seems to care. Rule of thumb: when in doubt, look around and copy the locals. Speaking of security, I’m sure there are security guards in many grocery stores around the U.S. but I never really noticed them. Here there are security guards posted in just about every store, because they don’t have security cameras everywhere.

Now, on shopping trips where it is necessary to buy a bit more I can always use a cart instead of a basket. However, any store that offers a shopping cart, whether it’s the larger chain or the smaller local grocery, you will be required to insert a coin into the shopping cart, which will release the chain that binds all the carts together before your are able to actually use the cart. This system seems to work rather well in preventing people from either stealing carts or leaving them all over the parking lot.

Grocery store across from David's school

Buying in bulk is not really a thing here. I’m sure some people do it but I would venture to guess it would be mostly expats. The only bulk buys I’ve seen from locals are water, boxed milk, and beer. In fact, you can actually buy toilet paper by the roll in most stores. For us, buying large quantities isn’t practical anyway for a few reasons. The first issue being that refrigerators in Europe are half the size of those in the U.S. It can sometimes be challenging to fit even a week’s worth of items into our little fridge. Secondly, even if we could fit a large amount of items into the fridge we would be seriously challenged to actually get them home. Our choices of grocery stores require either a ten-minute walk one-way or hopping on a bus for about 15 minutes one way. In other words, there is only so much we can carry at once. Lastly, items tend to spoil here much quicker than in the U.S., which means planning meals for more than a few days at a time really isn’t possible.

Small shops often owned by Vietnamese immigrants

Some of the major differences in grocery shopping here vs. the U.S. occur during checkout. I have found that in the U.S. checkout workers often ask personal questions, comment on something you’ve bought, interact with children in line, or in general make some kind of small talk even if they don’t know you. Perfect strangers may strike up a conversation while waiting in a long line in the U.S. This is quite unlikely in CZ. Small talk is not really even a thing here and store checkout is as speedy as possible. In fact, it should be a new Olympic Event, keeping up with the scanned items that are flung your way as you try to place them in an organized manner in your bags. Oh yes, baggers don’t exist here either. You are required to bag your own items and you can either bring your own personal bags with you to do so, or you can purchase bags at checkout because they won’t be free.

Side note: I’ve decided to try one new thing every time I go to the store even if I don’t know what it is. This is a fun way to explore new food options!