Supermarket Sweep

Heh. Does anyone remember that program? I think it was on when I was about 11. I remember watching it sometimes and seeing the people run all around the perpetually stocked “store” with its aisles upon aisles of products. So many things for the contestants to choose from. If a Spaniard watched that program or came to the US and went to a grocery store, I think they would wonder why in the world our stores are so huge.



I’ve been here for over a month and a half now. It’s starting to be that time when you need to “restock”. The toothpaste you brought from home is getting low and you’ve noticed that your deodorant is going to need a replacement in the very near future, unless you really don’t want anyone to sit next to you in class.


This is when a trip to the supermarket comes in to the picture.


I have been into a variety of them since I’ve been here, not because I ever really needed anything, but more out of curiosity. Super Sol, Spar, Super Coviran, Mercadona (see, they don’t all start with ‘s’!), the list goes on. And they’re all different, just as Safeway isn’t the same as Albertson’s or New Seasons.


First off, they are much much MUCH smaller than any standard sized market in the U.S. You could probably fit the entire Spar into the produce and bakery sections of your average Safeway. There are not aisles upon aisles of different brands of the same product. No, there are just one or two brands of each product, possibly three if you’re really pushing your luck. And, obviously, the brands are different here than they would be in the U.S., although you can for sure find Coca-Cola and Cheetos here. (Side note: Cheetos are really big here-you see kids walking around with a bag or two all the time.)

In the U.S., you go in for a tube of toothpaste and you encounter an entire half an aisle of possible toothpastes to choose from. Here, you don’t have that problem. I went in and got to choose from three. It made life so much easier to just have to look at three toothpastes and not have to decide if for the next couple months I wanted “cavity protection” or “whitening power plus bleach” and in mint or winterfresh. I chose the one I bought because it was the only brand I recognized. (Colgate) Go figure. The power of marketing in action.



They keep eggs on the shelf, not in the refrigerated section, and all the produce is right in the front of the store and if you want something, you ask for help in getting it because, as I have mentioned earlier, you can’t touch the produce here. If you want a cut of meat, you need to ask the butcher directly, who will gladly cut you something from the various pieces of meat that are kept in the meat section. And do they have meat. Wow. Every kind and actually, it’s slightly disturbing to see that much in one place. I have never asked for anything from there but it’s just different not to see the pre-packaged ground beef and chicken that you would find at home.

The candy section is severely lacking in my opinion, seeing as they don’t have gummy bears or Rolos. Instead, they stock chocolate bars from all over Europe, which though that may satisfy some, doesn’t quite cut it for a gummy bear aficionada like myself.

There are barely any cereals. I think I’ve mentioned before that cereal as a breakfast food isn’t very well received here, which is fine with me considering that Napolitanos (a rectangular croissant-like bread with cacao in the middle) or even fresh bread with apricot jam is much tastier. They do stock a lot of breakfast cookies and packaged breakfast pastries that, although they sound decadent, aren’t anywhere as rich as most of the pastries we have in the U.S. For the most part they are quite bland and aren’t very sweet. If you go into the bakeries, you will of course find pastries with chocolate, cream, and sugar, but still they aren’t as rich as the ones you would find in a store at home.

Speaking of bread, they don’t have a whole lot of whole grains here. Most of the bread you find here (in stores or in bakeries) is white bread, although you are sometimes able to find a loaf of wheat if you really really try. The grocery stores here sell what they call “pan de molde” which is the equivalent of a packaged loaf of bread from the store in the U.S. but it’s not very popular since most people buy fresh bread every day from the bakery. The funny thing I have noticed about the packaged bread here is that most of it comes with the crust cut off. I think that phenomenon just started catching on in the U.S.-bread without the crust-but here it’s the norm. Hmm...

I have also discovered that peanut butter is not widely known in Spain.


Um, okay...


This again, is something that I would have never thought I would discover about this country. I always thought (like I did with pancakes) that most of the world knew about peanut butter, but no, it’s quite unknown here. You can buy it at the Corte Ingles, but the thing is, (and I asked Feli about this) many Spaniards don’t know what peanut butter is. Since I found this out, I have been quite happy that Feli does know about peanut butter and that she keeps a Costco sized jar of Skippy (extra crunchy!) in her pantry.


Anywho, that’s pretty much the lowdown on grocery stores here. My thoughts on the differences between here and there? I like the fact that you don’t have to feel overwhelmed by all the different brands of the same product but seriously, someone from the Rolo company needs to start some hardcore marketing in Spain...