My OperaA Tale of Two Shoppings
Tuesday, February 5, 2008 9:30:15 PM
I decided to go to the real supermarket today, instead of the Oxxo so I could get some nice meat and vegetables 
Walking there I noticed that there was some sort of farmer´s market going on in the park, so I decided to take a look. It´s amazing how good fresh fruit and vegetables smell. I could have lingered there forever. But I decided to just take note of the prices and see what the supermarket had to offer in the way of fruits and vegetables. I thought I was being a good, smart shopper.
Access to the supermarket parking lot is controlled by a gate and people in a both. When the cars entered, they were directed where to park by traffic control people. I guess with the many people, they didn´t want people driving around forever looking for a spot that might be six feet closer to the enterance like people in America do.
Entering the shore, the impression was like a Super Walmart (which they do have, I saw one from the plane ) There was general merchanise, on one side and food on the other. Well, there wasn´t as much general merchanise as Walmart. So I went up and down the aisles seeing what was available for while. The meat was not impressive. It was too expensive. What looks like about 3/4 pound hamburger was about 3.50. And why was the pollo (chicken) YELLOW?! Ok, where are the vegetables? I looked all up and down the aisle, no fresh vegetables. In some corner of the store? No! Unless I was completely blind the supermarket seriously did not have fresh veggies! I wonder if this normal for Mexico?
A lady was demo'ing some guten wrapped in a tortilla. That was surpisingly good, so I bought that, some salsa verde, tortillas and Lift (apple soda) for 49 pesos.
Back at the farmer´s market, I noticed somebody was selling old video game consoles, Atari 2600's, Intellisions, some weird 1970´s Pong game. That was kind of interesting, but I didn´t buy one. What was gonna do with one the novelity wore off in about 5 minutes? I wound up getting a kilo of onions and a kilo of tomatoes for 15 peso´s (about 1.50) So on my big shopping day, I spent all of $6.50. Also at the farmer´s market, there were taco stands galore but I didn´t get a taco. One place was kind of strange though. The seller put what looked like creamed corn into a cup, added some mayonaise and what looked like cayenne pepper and served it to her customer. It´s hard for me to imagine that would actually taste good, but I´m sure there are American foods that Mexicans will say "What the hell?" to as well.
Well, that´s it about shopping for now.
Walking there I noticed that there was some sort of farmer´s market going on in the park, so I decided to take a look. It´s amazing how good fresh fruit and vegetables smell. I could have lingered there forever. But I decided to just take note of the prices and see what the supermarket had to offer in the way of fruits and vegetables. I thought I was being a good, smart shopper.Access to the supermarket parking lot is controlled by a gate and people in a both. When the cars entered, they were directed where to park by traffic control people. I guess with the many people, they didn´t want people driving around forever looking for a spot that might be six feet closer to the enterance like people in America do.
Entering the shore, the impression was like a Super Walmart (which they do have, I saw one from the plane
) There was general merchanise, on one side and food on the other. Well, there wasn´t as much general merchanise as Walmart. So I went up and down the aisles seeing what was available for while. The meat was not impressive. It was too expensive. What looks like about 3/4 pound hamburger was about 3.50. And why was the pollo (chicken) YELLOW?! Ok, where are the vegetables? I looked all up and down the aisle, no fresh vegetables. In some corner of the store? No! Unless I was completely blind the supermarket seriously did not have fresh veggies! I wonder if this normal for Mexico?A lady was demo'ing some guten wrapped in a tortilla. That was surpisingly good, so I bought that, some salsa verde, tortillas and Lift (apple soda) for 49 pesos.
Back at the farmer´s market, I noticed somebody was selling old video game consoles, Atari 2600's, Intellisions, some weird 1970´s Pong game. That was kind of interesting, but I didn´t buy one. What was gonna do with one the novelity wore off in about 5 minutes? I wound up getting a kilo of onions and a kilo of tomatoes for 15 peso´s (about 1.50) So on my big shopping day, I spent all of $6.50. Also at the farmer´s market, there were taco stands galore but I didn´t get a taco. One place was kind of strange though. The seller put what looked like creamed corn into a cup, added some mayonaise and what looked like cayenne pepper and served it to her customer. It´s hard for me to imagine that would actually taste good, but I´m sure there are American foods that Mexicans will say "What the hell?" to as well.
Well, that´s it about shopping for now.
