Grocery Store
Air-conditioned room, quiet music and a rum and coke are required after a visit to the grocery store. I must stay that it is one of the most enraging experiences I’ve had in the Philippines. So very different than stopping by QFC on the way home! If I could have one thing it’d be a great grocery store with good produce.
As far as I can tell it is imposable to get good produce at the grocery store. The things they do have are brown on the edges and limp in the middle. This is a, by Filipino standards, top of the line grocery store where the broccoli makes you cringe. One must go to the open-air markets to get good fruit and vegetables. If something comes in a package the place to get it is the grocery store. I suppose a Filipino would think I’m crazy for trying to get produce at the grocery store, but I HATE walking from the open-air market to the grocery store with tones of bags. It’s a long freaking walk… maid in tow.
At the grocery store I got things for Kellie, David and I. I purchased these things and waited for Gene (our maid/cook and all around excellent in-charge-of-the-house woman) to finish purchasing the things she needed for cleaning the house and feeding the staff. When she arrived at the checkout I went to pay for her purchase with my credit card… because I’d used it several min before some alarm went off and it took 5 people to finally approve my purchase of PeP 2,174.40 ($40.00). (My card was actually put under a magnifying glass!) One cell phone call to speak with the driver to pick us up, and finally three guards and a bag boy to help us out. Does this seem like allot of work for groceries, hell yes!
OK, in the states I would have paid more than three times as much for the groceries that we ended up taking home. That said, some part of me wishes for the easy fluid way that I was able to take care of myself. Here everything is a bigger deal, taking more time and people.
Please don’t mistake my frustration for disliking Filipinos, as they are some of the nicest people on the planet. Shopping for seven people (Kellie, David, four staff and on of their children) is a big deal wherever you are. In a country like the Philippines it’s an even bigger task that I may not have been prepared for.
As far as I can tell it is imposable to get good produce at the grocery store. The things they do have are brown on the edges and limp in the middle. This is a, by Filipino standards, top of the line grocery store where the broccoli makes you cringe. One must go to the open-air markets to get good fruit and vegetables. If something comes in a package the place to get it is the grocery store. I suppose a Filipino would think I’m crazy for trying to get produce at the grocery store, but I HATE walking from the open-air market to the grocery store with tones of bags. It’s a long freaking walk… maid in tow.
At the grocery store I got things for Kellie, David and I. I purchased these things and waited for Gene (our maid/cook and all around excellent in-charge-of-the-house woman) to finish purchasing the things she needed for cleaning the house and feeding the staff. When she arrived at the checkout I went to pay for her purchase with my credit card… because I’d used it several min before some alarm went off and it took 5 people to finally approve my purchase of PeP 2,174.40 ($40.00). (My card was actually put under a magnifying glass!) One cell phone call to speak with the driver to pick us up, and finally three guards and a bag boy to help us out. Does this seem like allot of work for groceries, hell yes!
OK, in the states I would have paid more than three times as much for the groceries that we ended up taking home. That said, some part of me wishes for the easy fluid way that I was able to take care of myself. Here everything is a bigger deal, taking more time and people.
Please don’t mistake my frustration for disliking Filipinos, as they are some of the nicest people on the planet. Shopping for seven people (Kellie, David, four staff and on of their children) is a big deal wherever you are. In a country like the Philippines it’s an even bigger task that I may not have been prepared for.
posted by Toby Johnson at 12:04 PM
1 Comments:
Heh...sounds like you have it real rough over there, Toby. :)
Just kidding. I have an idea how frustrating some things can be over there, since my mom lived there for some time. Your posts make me smile. Keep 'em coming.
- Matt
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