Our Grocery Store

This is a post I have wanted to do for a long, long time. What with all the hubbub recently about the outrageous increase in food prices, I thought now would be a good time. This pictures were all taken last November, thus the cheaper prices.

It is hard to get pictures in Super Express. If the guards catch you, they make you stop or leave the store. I guess they are afraid that you might be doing price comparisons for their competitors. Which is ridiculous because there is no competitor of any significance on the island. By the way, in my travels around Mexico, I have come to believe that the word SUPER when used with a grocery story, actually means tiny.

Once through the door, you immediately run head long into the produce department. I was lucky. I was there the day they had just restocked fruits and vegetables. It is not uncommon to go to buy a tomato and find them all rotten....or nonexistent. One can never depend on finding what you are looking for on any given day. I think it is a testament to my camera and my ability to use it that everything looks so good. Trust me, it isn't this inviting in real life.

I am constantly hearing tourists run around the store asking, "Where's the milk?!" Well, the answer is simple. Right here.

Milk is highly pasteurized here and sold in boxes. Refrigerate after opening. We have as many types as the folks NOB. Just not in the refrigerator section.

More produce.

They were having a special on fantasy squash the day I was there.

Eggs are not only sold in the traditional cartons, but like this also.

You can grab one of those plastic bags and buy just as many as you need. One or five. Doesn't matter. That is one thing I really like about Mexico. It is possible to buy just one of anything.

Butter, some prepackaged cheeses and the ubiquitous hot dog. The name of the favorite brand of hot dog here is FUD. It is not pronounced like Elmer's last name, but rather sounds like the English word FOOD. Trust me again. They are anything but food.

The whole top row here is devoted almost entirely to chili peppers. All kinds and degrees of hotness. We love our peppers here.

Again, choose the type and size onion you want and go.

Our store also has a bakery and deli counter. These are some of the richly decorated cakes that they put out. Look good, don't they? Slather some lard frosting on a hamburger bun and you'll know what they taste like.

They also sell doughnuts, hamburger buns in disguise again, and these muffins. A friend of mine calls them cupmuffins. They are kind of a cross between a cupcake and a muffin. Not too bad but don't expect a burst of flavor.

Cheeses from the deli counter. Sliced to order. We do have a fairly good selection. Especially if you like manchego.

A look behind the deli counter. There is a great selection of hams. And that is it. No salami, no other kind of meat at all.

It is possible to buy freshly ground hamburger, pork and chicken. I usually get my ground meats here instead of buying the prepackaged ones. Of course, it takes a long time to get your order because any local who comes up to the counter will just shout out their order. And of course the butcher stops what he is doing and grabs the 23 chicken legs that they want.

Prepackaged chicken. A friend once mentioned to me that she thought the chicken here was more flavorful than NOB. I don't know why that should be, but she is right.

On the opposite side of the store from the produce, is more dairy. Yogurt, Jello Cups, that sort of thing.

Beans and sugar. This is usually where the sale items are put.

We also have a small frozen section. Vegetables, pizza, french fries. Some bags of fruit.

And ice cream. Maybe.

Snacks. Almost everyone of them is flavored with hot chili powder OR salt and lime. Lime is on everything.

There is a small selection of canned goods. Nothing exotic, just the staples.

And a nice selection of liquors and wines. Note that you can probably get the same thing up a block at Covey's or at the Naval Store, enter behind the base just past La Lomita restaurant, far cheaper.

A fine selection of beers.

A lot of space is devoted to this brand. I don't buy beer here but I enjoy seeing my brand on display.

The day I was there, they also featured these gaily decorated bottles on an end cap. I thought it was a fancy fruit juice.

Until I looked closer. Fruit flavored wine beverage. I wonder how many of them they sold?

Most laundry detergents here are sold in bags. There are some that come in plastic bottles, but it is far cheaper to buy the powder in bags. Except it doesn't always dissolve in the machine and coats your clothing with white powder.

Fabuloso. What can I say. Possibly the best cleaning product ever made.

And finally we come to the thing that we have been dreading since we entered the store. The checkout lanes. Where they never have change. Where people constantly cut in line. Where people put their goods on the conveyor belt to hold their place while they shop some more. Where they make the clerk back items off the list until they have enough money with them to buy the remainder. I have learned to just take a deep breath and plunge through it. I don't need my blood pressure shooting up again.

So there you have. I hope I have conveyed to you a sense of grocery shopping here and why I hate it.