Shopping

Yesterday (Monday) was Labor Day, and a public holiday in the US.  So I spent the day trying to do my "big shop", which proved remarkably difficult.

In the UK we are used to having a large supermarket (or two) in the centre of every town everywhere, and I assumed it would be the same here (except they'd probably be bigger).  But there doesn't seem to be a town centre.  The whole San Francisco bay area appears to be a collection of out of town shopping centres with housing in between.

After my trip to Safeway on Sunday night I thought I should find a proper big supermarket to stock up on basics like pasta and rice, as well as toilet paper and the elusive teapot.

The first place I tried was called Mi Pueblo, which was basically a large Mexican supermarket, staffed by Mexicans for Mexicans.  I was the only person in there who didn't speak Spanish.  It was exactly like being in Mercadona on holiday, except that there were fewer English speakers and no cheap English beer.  So, more like "somebody else's Pueblo".  It did a nice line in superhero themed piñatas, but I didn't need one of those.

(As an aside, the Spanishness of California has surprised me generally.  A lot of signs are bi-lingual, a lot of the TV channels are in Spanish too.)

So, I had planned to visit Ikea next door to Mi Pueblo for a teapot, but having failed to get the groceries I wanted, I decided to strike out in search of a Walmart instead.  I was led to believe they were like big Asdas.  This would definitely have been better than Mi Pueblo for basic foodstuffs, but despite an extensive selection of coffee pots and makers, Walmart did not have a teapot or anything resembling one.  They had an entire aisle devoted to firearms but no teapot - what kind of a country is this you might ask?  (But not in a critical way within earshot of the homeland security guy, obviously!)

Food shopping is not that easy either, at any of the supermarkets I visited.  There is a lot of processed, packaged food, usually designed to feed entire families.  Very little choice of, say, pasta sauce, and what there is comes in enormous jars.  

So I went home rather despondent, unable to face Ikea at that point, and took to Facebook, where a very helpful former ex-pat told me about Target.  Having nothing to lose, and not much else on, I drove in the opposite direction and found Target, which is now my favourite US store, because it had both a kettle and a teapot, as well as all the food stuff I had already bought in the other shops, and some pasta sauce on special offer! 

So what have I learned?

(1) It doesn't make any difference whether the TV is in Spanish or English, it is all pretty rubbish.  All the good stuff costs extra here and we should all be grateful for the BBC every day.

(2) Everybody gets asked for ID when they buy alcohol over here, even people like me who couldn't pass for less than 21 under any circumstances.

(3) Nobody knows what you mean if you complain about a "wonky trolley".  I believe the recognised expression is a "cart", and apparently "wonky" means "nerdy" or "geeky" rather than "unstable" . 

(4) Americans generally seem much less able to comprehend British English than vice versa, despite Downton and Doctor Who.  The large numbers of native Spanish and Chinese speakers that seem to live here are even less able to understand British idioms, which I guess is not really their fault.  But give me time, they'll improve…