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The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

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Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#51

Post by pcurve »

tobr wrote: post #16

Yes! Walking into a grocery store is one of the best things about traveling. It is one of the few genuine everyday activities that are easily available to a tourist, but is going to be quite different to what you’re used to from home, sometimes in surprising ways. Hopefully this will not disappear entirely as brands and chains become more and more homogenized across the world. One of the saddest examples of this is h…

One of my favorite memories of traveling in Spain is just doing that, and finding so many 30-35 cent canned beer being sold individually. Cheaper than water.

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#52

Post by ljm »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #42
tobr wrote: post #16

Yes! Walking into a grocery store is one of the best things about traveling. It is one of the few genuine everyday activities that are easily available to a tourist, but is going to be quite different to what you’re used to from home, sometimes in surprising ways. Hopefully this will not disappear entirely as brands and chains become more and more homogenized across the world. One of the saddest examples of this is h…

Latin America too. Interestingly, each country has it's own name, often the name of an old-time ice cream company that has since went out of business. In the US it is "Good Humor." Took me a few years during my backpacking days to figure it out. While odd, I never thought of it as "ugly."

Same with crisps/potato chips. You'll get 'Lays' or 'Frito Lays' or whatever everywhere, but in the UK it's 'Walkers'.

Whole bags of microscopically thin slices of deep fried potato, loaded with salt or sugar in some form or another.

Of course, you get the fake antique alternatives to attract the millennial crowd too. e.g. Old Mout Cider claims to be 70 years old but is just a hipster offshoot of Bulmer's, with a carefully crafted narrative and bizarrely appealing design for a hitherto unknown drink, customer support hotlines and all.

There's a lot of amazing local stuff you can find when you're not in mass-market brand outlets.

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#53

Post by tootie »

jedberg wrote: post #48

Whenever I'm in a new country or region, I always make a point to go to the grocery store and the McDonalds. Both tend to have unique items that you can't find anywhere else.

Vegetarian McDonald's in India was certainly different but it was also kinda gross.

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#54

Post by donarb »

ImaCake wrote: post #34
lanrh1836 wrote: post #13

I would say farmers market even more so than a grocery store, though I usually do both. Ironically I also love going to foreign McDonalds. Always fun to see what local items they have.

>Ironically I also love going to foreign McDonalds. I make a point of getting a McDonalds cheeseburger in every country I visit. Austria has the best meat (Germany the worst). Poland tasted like Australia (my home) and the UK burger was the most plastic like. Italy, UAE, and Hong Kong all deviate quite a bit from the "regular" menu but I visited the latter two at the airport so maybe they are outliers.

Funny because McDonald’s is now featuring items here in the US that are popular overseas. Currently they are featuring a Grand McExtreme Bacon Burger from Spain and a Stroopwaffel McFlurry from the Netherlands.

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#55

Post by donarb »

rcpt wrote: post #28
qychtkd wrote: post #8

Libraries are also a good way to tour a city. Get a transit card from a grocery store or a convenient store (also a lotto ticket because you never know). Start with the main branch, then on to the various neighborhood branches. It’s important to pick a section you are interested in beforehand. Fiction might be too overwhelming, so I’d go for the math or computer technology sections. Once you’ve done this in multiple…

Cemeteries to

Record and book stores as well.

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#56

Post by dsfyu404ed »

maxerickson wrote: post #47
archy_ wrote: post #46

Sadly, this doesn't apply to America. Our grocery stores are very much homogenized, and in many parts of the country the only grocery store will be Walmart. Urban areas will have higher end chains that stock a wider variety and some foreign and independent stores with unique selections, but once you get past the cities and into rural America, your options for groceries are about the same from town to town.

How big is "town"? The towns of ~10,000 that I know that have Walmarts have multiple competitors to the Walmart, and smaller towns don't have the Walmart but may have a local grocer.

I know of "towns" that are the ~4th largest city in the state. Their economy is tourism based calling themselves a town and having a town style government fits their brand image better.

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#57

Post by maxerickson »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #56
maxerickson wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How big is "town"? The towns of ~10,000 that I know that have Walmarts have multiple competitors to the Walmart, and smaller towns don't have the Walmart but may have a local grocer.

I know of "towns" that are the ~4th largest city in the state. Their economy is tourism based calling themselves a town and having a town style government fits their brand image better.

Yes, I was asking for their meaning there, not trying to discuss the borderline meaninglessness of the word.

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#58

Post by cm2012 »

fbelzile wrote: post #31
qychtkd wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still can’t get Mr. Big in American grocery stores.

Or Kinder Surprise eggs [0]. No problems going to Walmart to pick up a firearm though... [0] https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/feat...

My local grocery store (New York City) has lots of kinder eggs always. So do some local corner stores.

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#59

Post by Scoundreller »

quicklime wrote: post #50
archy_ wrote: post #46

Sadly, this doesn't apply to America. Our grocery stores are very much homogenized, and in many parts of the country the only grocery store will be Walmart. Urban areas will have higher end chains that stock a wider variety and some foreign and independent stores with unique selections, but once you get past the cities and into rural America, your options for groceries are about the same from town to town.

I've been making it a point to visit grocery stores in every country I visit for the last 10 years. I tend to agree with you that grocery stores tend become homogenized within a country (and not just in the US), but there's always a lot of variation between countries. You'll probably find this strange, but as a foreigner, I was really excited to see Walmart for the first time, and I found it just as interesting as vi…

> And there's a section where you can pick up guns and ammo while you're buying milk and eggs!

Please please, this is impossible in America. The guns aren't in the fridge!

Re: The best way to tour a city is through its grocery store

#60

Post by gumby »

msla wrote: post #41
gumby wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

East Palo Alto has only one, and struggled for years without a grocery store or bank.

> East Palo Alto has only one, and struggled for years without a grocery store or bank. I understand that it's an independent polity, but it's also surrounded by other urban areas. I can get a 51 minute bus ride from an apartment complex in East Palo Alto to a Safeway, which does cost about $5 but that's a discussion for another day; my point is, East Palo Alto only has "one grocery store" if you ignore everything su…

An hour's bus ride (assuming you catch the schedule right) each way is pretty ruinous for someone working long hours or with kids to look after. I think it hardly counts as "local".
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