If You Have a Shopping List…

becky    Uncategorized    

Those of you with kids might be familiar with Laura Numeroff’s books, many of which say “If you give a (fill in blank with several animals) a (something)…” Samuel ended up with “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” from Chick-fil-a at one point and we read it plenty before we moved (it didn’t make the cut when choosing books to ship).  As we’ve figured out how/where to shop here we’ve started our own sort of “If you…” about shopping, so here it goes:

If you have a shopping list, then you have to figure out the best place to go to get as many items as possible in one trip.
If it’s more than groceries, it’s likely that the mall (which has a grocery store in the basement) is the best place.
If you’re going to the mall, you’ll have to park in the car park.
If you park in the car park, then you’ll have to make sure you remember where you parked, how you left that area of the car park, and to take your ticket with you.
If you finally get inside the mall, you have to look at your list and figure out which stores you need to visit.
If it’s electronics, you’re likely going to level 3, if it’s home goods, you’re likely going to level 4.
If you parked in the basement car park (which is much better than the very confusing multi-story car park), you’ll have to take the elevator to one of those floors.
If you’re going to level 4 you have to get off in the really fancy furniture store (some of the furniture actually has Swarovski crystals on it) and tell the kids not to touch a single thing because anything in the store is worth more than everything you own and then some.
Then  you start trying to find the things on your list, going to multiple stores and sometimes having to change levels.
If you have to change levels you have to find one of the seemingly hidden lifts (elevators) to get to the right level.
And then you keep shopping.
If you have groceries to buy, that’s usually best to do at the end.
If the grocery store doesn’t have the brand you’ve figured out you like you’ll have to try a new one.
If they just don’t have the item, you know for sure that you’ll have to go to a different store later.
And once everything you can find has been purchased (sometimes with trips back to the car in between to drop stuff off) you’ll have to pay your parking fee at the autopay station.
If you have to pay at the autopay station you need exact change including bills.
At the autopay station, which is constantly saying “please insert payment, please insert payment” or something along those lines, you put bills in hoping that they’ll be accepted.
If you get your fee paid you have 15 minutes to leave the car park and you hope you can remember how to get back to your car and get the kids in within the time limit.
If you finally leave the car park you drive back to your house and look over what’s left on your list to decide where the best place is to go next.
And if you have to go shopping it’s likely you’ll have to park in a car park…

Shopping is quite the adventure and I seriously had a day when I had about 12 items on my list and ended up having to go to three different grocery stores to get everything on it and I think it took me three days.  Oh, I miss Kroger!!  We have figured out a few things that we like (and finally have 2 brands of milk that we like the taste of and are actually 100% fresh milk from the case-most of the milk here is boxed and on the shelf with a use by date somewhere months into the future) and where to buy those things. A lot of things we’re still trying and deciding what we like, what we don’t, and what we should try next.  Many items we’re used to buying just don’t exist here or are pricey.  And there are shopping options-like fruit stands and wet markets-that we still haven’t tried and will soon.  Most stores don’t have websites, so even trying to research say, where to buy a couch, is difficult because information is not as easily available and large, spacious stores with lots of options are rare.  It’s all part of the never ending ways life is different and the countless adjustments we have to make to live here.  I often wonder if I’ll ever figure it all out and decide I likely won’t, but at least I know that I go to one store to find the bread we like and another to buy cheap bananas and to have them weighed and priced in the produce section.

If you enjoyed this article please consider sharing it!