Friday, January 9, 2009

Not Costco

Grocery shopping
in Poland is certainly not like shopping at Costco.
There everything is super-sized and maxi....
requiring a mini-van to get it all home,
and a freezer and a large pantry to store it in.
Here, most people live in small apartments and
many do not have a car.
Whatever they purchase must be
carried home in a bag or pulled in a
miniature shopping cart.
So, to accomodate the needs of the masses,
everything is packaged in much smaller
quantities and sizes, and buying a case
of anything is unheard of.
To give you perspective I placed a small juice glass
next to the items you'll see.
This can of corn contains as much
as an average can at home, but contains no water,
so is only half the size.
MILK comes in 1 liter cartons
and is stored on the shelf,
not refrigerated.
It takes an entire box of cocoa to make
a pan of brownies.
This is a box of
CEREAL
.
Flour comes in 2 lb. bags.
Baking powder packages contain 1 tablespoon.
And this bottle of vanilla flavoring contains 2 teaspoons.
It's no wonder that people here shop every day.

3 comments:

Jodi said...

Makes one appreciate our mobility and so aware of our conveniences, huh? It must be amazing to see how others live and experience their culture.

LisAway said...

So true!! We were so happy when we found the refrigerated milks as we don't like the taste of the UHT milk (ultra heat treated, the kind that sits on the shelf for months). And in one of my English classes a student said that she thinks it's disgusting that in America you can have opened milk in the fridge for a week or two! I was thinking, "you store yours at room temperature for months at a time, and OURS, with a refrigerated shelf life of 2 weeks is disgusting?!! :)

And I really miss real vanilla. This stuff is really not the same, as I'm sure it is all chemicals, like all the flavorings they have here. :( But you definitely get used to things, don't you?

Anonymous said...

i LOVE costco. i bet one of your first stops when you back will be good 'ol massive costco!! (i personally like the churros!)