Journeys in Germany: The Grocery Store Experience

An outlook shown through short stories about food, culture, travel and humor.

American Songs in the Supermarket

I always had a distaste for the music playing in the supermarket chains in America. Music that was either 1. Oldies my parent’s would listen to 2. Songs I haven’t heard before by artists I haven’t heard before 3. Anything that would never be found on the top 50. Don’t ask me why supermarkets play this type of music, but they do. Strangely enough, German supermarkets do the same. Do they play German music? Nope. This get’s stranger. They play the same music American supermarkets play. I honestly recognize maybe 5% of the songs they play. What baffles me is why do they play English songs in a German supermarket? A majority of people living in Germany I have met cannot comprehend English or the lyrics, so why do they bother? I’ll never know the answer.

H-Milk

The first time I saw this, I silently freaked out. Salmonella, food poisoning, whatever you may call it. I was raised to know that you couldn’t leave dairy items out of the refrigerator for very long or they might go bad. So what was this milk in a cardboard carton stacked in the grocery store aisle, with the mysterious name “H-milk?” Was it H for “Healthy?” I soon found out this was by far a normal milk that was specially designed so it didn’t need to be refrigerated until it was opened. Now, I am thankful for this concept. I don’t have to worry about my milk going bad so quickly and I can stock up on cartons and cartons of milk.

Eggs not Refrigerated

The same day I had the shock of seeing un-refrigerated milk I also had the shock of seeing un-refrigerated eggs. The horror! So I had to do some research and 1. Find out if I could eat these eggs without dying or suffering from food poisoning the next day 2. Understand how the eggs managed to stay fresh. A few minutes of surfing on Google and I found the answer. The eggs in Germany are pre-treated, basically the summary is, any risk for salmonella is removed before they are sent to the supermarket. So they no longer have to be refrigerated. It’s even recommended that after they are bought that they remain outside the refrigerator.We’re On a Roll

For those of you that get annoyed at the slowness of checkout lines and are not a fan of the cashier who asks you how your day is going, when they clearly don’t care, come to Germany. It’s the exact opposite experience. Be prepared to quickly throw your things on the grocery line, plus don’t forget the marker, this will annoy the person behind you if you forget to designate what is your stuff vs. what is theirs. You might get a quick glance, or a “Hallo,” “Morgen” but there will be no “Hi, how are you today?” You’ll have to be ready to keep up with the cashier as he/she thrusts your items across the scanner and into the bagging area. You’ll have to quickly bag up your groceries and probably will not get it done in time by the time the cashier is asking you to pay or even worse, the next customer is beside you, trying to bag their groceries too.

Reuse and Recycle

Say bye to paper and plastic. Say hello to reusable bags. The Germans love their environment and are not a fan of non-environmental processes. It took me awhile until I remembered to bring my own. Luckily they are always sold at the checkout line, if you forget. Plus they’re super cheap, so you won’t feel too bad buying one.

Bottles Everywhere

Everything beverage related comes in bottles in Germany. If you want water, it comes in a bottle. The good part though is the Germans are masters at recycling and there are drop off places to give back your empty bottles and get change for them (pfand). Basically, when you buy a bottle of whatever, water, beer, etc. you get charged the price plus a small deposit (8 cents for a glass beer bottle, 24 cents for a pet-plastic bottle). When you return the bottle, you get your deposit back.

Rest Day

So in relevance to my post above, I usually like shopping on Sundays. It’s my day to chill and go out and shop. This is not possible in Germany. Everything is closed, even the grocery store, which seems impossible. This is good for those who are working, but sad for me as I sit at home wondering how to spend my time. It’s even more extreme in Switzerland, where shops take lunch breaks and close early. Oh, and don’t be shocked in the summer if you go to drop off your dry cleaning and the dry cleaner is gone for two weeks on vacation (what they refer to as “Holiday”). Literally, everyone takes their vacation in both countries.

Shopping Carts

Another example of the beautiful German efficiency-shopping cart coins. The Americans are still baffled as to why shopping carts are stolen and why they end up in places other than the parking lot (I have definitely seen shopping carts in places they don’t belong). The Americans are still trying to figure out a method so that the shopping carts are returned back to their proper place. Meanwhile, in Germany, the Germans have already figured all of this out. They have a plastic disk about the size of a quarter (or they have an actual coin) which fits easily inside a slot in the shopping card handle. When they go to grab their shopping cart, they will simply push the disk into the slot, a “Click” sound will be heard and the cart will be released. The original point of the coin was an incentive for people to get their money back. When the grocery shopping is done, the cart will simply be put back, a special key attached to the cart will be inserted into the handle into the shopping cart in front and the coin will “Click” out. Amazing.