A Guide to Grocery Store Shopping

After the previous post, I thought I'd share some additional food comments. After looking back through the previous posts, I think I've pointed out some of the things that they don't have here, but I thought I'd add some colour to what it is like going to the grocery store... and the sort of things that you can buy. Partly because I'm basically a foodie, and second because I think it's interesting.

First, I'd say their grocery stores aren't really that different in terms of layout - you still walk in, walk up and down the aisles, and then check out at the registers up front. The locations of things are slightly different - cheese, milk, and yogurt, at the store in Redhill, anyway, are in the middle of the store. Bread is still on the far wall - more on that in a minute, and fruits and veggies are still at the front. Their "trolleys" however, are full four wheel drive, meaning that every wheel can swivel a full 360 degrees.

Generally speaking, it feels like they have more choices than we do in the US. For example, we can get Braeburn, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Red Delicious, or Red Chief apples. The cheeses are varied, and generally inexpensive - Double Gloucester, Bleu, Camembert, Edam, Gouda, Stilton, etc., are all in the main cheeses section. You can pick up the Camembert for about 90p, or the one that Mich likes - the Pie d'Angloys for about £1. Of course, their cheese section is quite large. They also have a lot of sausages, and none of them are Jimmy Dean. There's Cumberland, Lincolnshire, pork & apple, and the list goes on. We've actually tried the Cumberland and the pork & apple - I prefer the Cumberland, and I think Maggie (our sausage connoisseur) does too.

The wine is quite cheap - I know of at least one Burgundy that only costs about £5-6 per bottle. Beers, on the other hand, are not. The specialty beers (beer snob alert!) are sold individually, and cost from £1.50 to £2 for 500ml, which is roughly equal to a pint, which means you'd pay £9-12 for a six-pack.

The choices in some things are really odd - bread, for example. Of course, you have the typical white vs. brown vs. wholegrain vs. pseudo-brown/white thing. But you also have sliced vs. unsliced. And should you want sliced, you have to choose thin, medium, or thick slices - and whether or not you want crust. Margarine also provides several choices, which are confusing to my poor American head. Real butter also has its own section. Between the butter, margarine, and the cheese, that's one aisle.

There's tons of sweets. It doesn't immediately appear obvious, because there's biscuits in one place, candy in another, and the little end caps with other candies and snacks. If you put all of that together, that's probably another aisle. There aren't really any "cookies", but there are plenty of biscuits, which are good. Mich prefers the shortbread with chocolate, while I'm partial to the oat chocolate. The two main brands are Cadbury's and McVitie's.

Along the way, in various places, you'll run into some stuff that either is distinctly British - pork pies, pasties (not pastries - the singular is pasty, referring to basically a vegetable pot pie sandwich), bubble and squeak, bangers and mash (both frozen!), and so, as you may be able to imagine by now, the experience is a bit different. Then, when it's time to check out, you are responsible for bagging your own groceries, while the clerk just scans away as fast as possible.

So, then you're off to the car or the bus, as the case may be. You return your trolley - which, by the way, requires a £1 deposit. You place your £ into a slot, which unlocks it from all the other trolleys. Once you're done, when you lock it back with all the other trolleys, your £ is returned. Then, if you are in the "car park" (parking lot), you push your trolley down the escalator. The wheels are magnetic, and lock the cart on the escalator, which is sloped, until you push it off at the bottom. Kind of neat, actually.

So, there you have it - a guide to the grocery store.