Amanda’s Chile Moments

I went grocery shopping today. There are many things about this weekly task that are the same as in the States, but a few modifications just to keep me on my toes and remind me that I am in Chile still.

First, the security guard at the front door. He checks to make sure you aren’t bringing in anything that someone might think you stole from the store, or that you might use to steal from the store. My backpack/diaper bag has to have it’s zipper pulls taped together so I can’t open it and fill it with store goods. The guard does this a thousand times a day, so he hardly even looks at me as he tapes my bag.

Next, after I find my bread (in a bag on the shelf instead of the freshly-made kind Rachel can’t eat, that has to be weighed at a special station), I head back to the produce section. I’ve learned after two years FINALLY which things have to be weighed and which do not. This is the key to a happy eventual check-out, because the checkout clerks do not have scales at the registers. You MUST weigh your fruits and veggies in the produce section. And yes, the store employs someone, sometimes various someones, to sit there all day weighing your food. I weigh my grapes, my tomatoes, and my kiwis. I don’t weigh my spinach, my parsley, my oranges, my mushrooms, or my brussel sprouts.

When I hit the meat counter, I start looking at the prices. Today it so happens that the pre-packaged chicken pieces are cheaper than the exact same ones that are in the case. But the whole chickens are cheaper in the case. So I choose appropriately, get my case chicken weighed by the meat man, and move on.

I decide that I need milk. Milk here comes in one-liter specially-lined cardboard boxes called tetrapak. I have two children who drink a lot of milk. I buy two cases of 12 one-liter boxes each. I bring along a 25th loose box of milk so they can scan it at the register without opening my cardboard case. Twenty-four liters of milk will last a week-and-a-half at my house, but I don’t have to worry about it going bad or refrigerating it. It’s treated a special way with rapid high heat so that it is room-temperature stable. That is something I will miss in the States!

Today I did not bring any returnable 2- or 2-1/2- or 3-liter bottles for Coke. I decide not to buy any since the non-returnable bottles of the same size cost about half as much again as the returnable ones. If I had, I would have to take the bottles to the machine in the back of the store and feed them in the machine mouth to get my voucher for the bottles. One less thing to deal with today.

I also decided not to take a number at the deli counter to wait for someone to cut me lunch meat or slice cheese. Too many people, since Chileans eat lunch meat and cheese on their weird bread for both breakfast and afternoon tea. Besides, Rachel can’t eat any of it.

The last stop before the check-out is the toiletries. I can pick up for myself the hand soap and the shampoo I need, but I have to ask the clerk behind the counter (once I get her attention) to hand me the shaving cream and the deodorant I want to buy.

I make it to the check-out. Today I remembered to weigh the right things, so there isn’t any trouble. No, I don’t want to add on the giant chocolate bar the clerk offers me. Only plastic bags are available, so there’s no questions to answer. I pay the college-student bag boy (since the store doesn’t) and head for the car.

Another successful grocery stop!