Supermarkets

21 Marzo 2006, Lavariano

The supermarkets in Italy are a cause for long, quiet periods of concentration. Not only am I trying to decipher the language, but also I’m unfamiliar with the brands, some of the products, the prices and the quality. Of course things are done differently in almost every country when it comes to supermarkets. Oh sure, the overall concepts are the same, that is, get a trolley or a basket, walk up and down the aisles, locate your desired items, go through the checkout (a.k.a. cashier) and pay for your items before placing them in your car.

However there are always little things that trick you up until you learn the ropes and play the game like a local.

The shopping trolleys here (and in other parts of Europe) require a coin to release them from the brotherhood, and at the end of your shopping experience you return the trolley to the brotherhood to reclaim your coin. This of course eliminates the need for the trolley boys and girls that we navigate around in the car parks at home as they push a snake of trolleys back towards the bays inside. It also stops customers from taking trolleys home, where they then end up in backyards, or abandoned in local creeks, or on street corners like sad, lonely bachelors.

Things are arranged differently at the supermarkets here. The selection of clothes, underwear, and household items is much more extensive. More like Target or Kmart but with a comprehensive selection of food as well. Of course, this being Europe you can also purchase alcoholic beverages at the supermarket. The range available will change in accordance with your location. In the north of Italy I’ve noticed a more extensive selection of beer from Germany.

There is always a huge delicatessen section with cured meats, cheeses, and antipasto. Imagine your normal deli at Coles. That alone would be half of the cheese section. This of course is in addition to the two aisles of pre-packaged cheeses. It’s hard to imagine how so much cheese gets consumed, but when you return home and look in the fridge it becomes obvious that there are at least 5 varieties in this house alone.

The fruit and vegie area is just different. Apart from the different variety of fresh product available, you put your items into a plastic bag and then take it to a weigh point where you usually (sometimes it’s staffed) have to put in the corresponding code, take the bar coded sticker, seal the bag and label it with the sticker. This means that at the checkout it just gets scanned as any other item. If you get halfway through processing your trolley load and have fruit and vegie that haven’t already been ‘tagged’ it causes real havoc. It’s a bit like being declared the dunce of the class and placed in the corner, but only more public and delivered with a look of complete incomprehension from the cashier who suddenly has to deal with your incompetence as a shopper.

The supermarket today also had little plastic gloves for shoppers to wear as they were selecting their fruit and vegies. Very hygienic and simple but I was shocked by the common sense of such an initiative. It’s ironic; this country seems to often lack common sense (from my cultural background) but it’s also full of inventions and ideas to circumnavigate problems….Naples is full of examples of this, instead of addressing the problem itself, they create a way around it.