In my not very extensive worldwide traveling, I am beginning to pick things up about other cultures. I am learning that one of the best places to “get to know” a new culture is through their grocers. Grocery stores, at least abstractly, are a part of almost every culture. They can be giant warehouse type buildings (e.g. Meijer, Wegman’s in the US, Tesco in the UK), or they can be a series of convenient stores, to a collection of store fronts and stalls. Everybody has access to a place to buy groceries and that store or stall or market or whatever is a product, itself, of the society in which it operates. Secondly, the vast majority of the population buys their groceries from these places so that each store must, in turn, service a broad cross section of the society. Now, yes, there are grocery stores that target different demographics (e.g. Whole Foods, Aldi), but (inter-)national grocery chains must be appealing to everyone. I am struggling to come up with another aspect of culture that exists at a similar level across different cultures, yet offers such an unvarnished view of the individual culture itself. (If you think of others, add a comment)
Things of note about US grocery stores: Much of the floor space is dedicated to processed foods with an emphasis on branding. Walk into a general support market in suburbia and you will find twelve different companies that are trying to sell you canned corn, corn that probably all comes from the same place anyway. Furthermore, while the US is obsessed with overindulgence it is also obsessed with diets, US food packaging is all about the health benefits of their product (even if their product is a triple chocolate fudge gut-exploding cake). While their product may have 3,000 calories per serving (who eats just one serving anyway?), they will tell you it has 25% less fat/sugar/carbs with no artificial something or another in comparison to their “original” product.
Now we come to British/Welsh groceries. Presumably because of the EU market zone, there exists a lot of emphasis on the Britishness of the products in the store, especially when it comes to meats. The Union Jack or a “British” word thrown in between “smoked” and “bacon” lets the buyer aware of the local nature of the food. While I am all for shopping locally for the environmental benefits, this Britishness goes beyond that as if the food producers are threatened by the open EU marketplace. Continuing on this theme, I have found it much more difficult to find Continental food products than I did in the US. I have been here almost two months and still haven’t found Italian or Polish sausage (today I just found Chorizo/Chourico) but can find a dozen other types of British sausages. I have had limited choices on my Parmasean cheese purchases, and no peppers but bell peppers are in produce, although there are about ten different kinds of potatoes (yum!).
Then we come to the “ethnic” aisle. We have these in the US too, a small section of various Chinese/Japanese/Thai/Mexican food stuffs (for some reason, all of the European foods are mixed in with the rest of the American foods). They, too, have “ethnic” aisles or half-aisles here but these sections include some American food! The Cokes and Pepsis are in their own place however. What is most interesting about the “ethnic” aisle is the cornucopia of products produced by America’s great uncle, Ben.
A small selection of Uncle Ben's finest
Uncle Ben is known stateside as the fine chef who figured out how to make boiling water and adding rice even simpler and quicker. He has honed his craft with rice preparation in various quantities and through various methods and even occasionally adding wild rice or spices to the mix. Over here, on the other hand, the venerable Uncle of Oryza has far outstripped his culinary prowess in the US. Uncle Ben has his face on sauces from India, Mexico, America. He promotes complete meals and mixes. He is even in on Chinese and Thai cooking as well. My only question is, “Uncle Ben, why have you been holding out on us in the States? We made you!” Interpret those last three words how you like (good, bad, corny).
On a personal level, grocery shopping here takes about 1.5 times longer than it did in the states. I have no idea what the brands are and the store’s generic brand is everywhere and sometimes the only option (I can only get Morrison’s peanut butter). Also, there is no such thing as heavy whipping cream or corn syrup or 2% milk, so I spend five minutes in front of three or four products trying to figure out what is equivalent or close enough (answers: don’t know, golden syrup, semi-skimmed milk). On the flip side, not having preconceptions of the products or foods is somewhat liberating. If it looks good, buy it. You are not burdened by social implications or ugly childhood memories. I have bought one or two things and said why not?
Next time you are out of your normal culture, take a stop into a grocer and see what you can learn about them and about you.
