One thing that I have come to appreciate about America since being on this trip is the variety of products that are offered in any typical grocery store. Not to say that we necessarily need an entire section devoted to types of toilet paper (hmm, do I like 2-ply, 4-ply or mega-ply?) like we do, but I do like having options. Particularly when it comes to options of quality.
Russian grocery stores, even the large ones, typically offer maybe one or two choices of a product such as toilet paper or tissues and these are liable to be more between color or brands rather than quality. Karlie bought one brand of toilet paper that advertised itself as "soft as a lamb" (or something like that, since we had to interpret based on pictures) and I bought a more generic brand. Though the lamb variety was about 10 rubles more, it was no better or softer than the other brand, it basically just had a different pattern. All of us have observed that everything is pretty cheaply made, the tissues I bought practically shred in my hands. Wrapping and packaging materials are of poor quality as well, tearing or falling apart with little effort.
When it comes to items such as fruit and vegetables, there is very little variation among the stores. One can find apples, bananas, grapes and citrus pretty easily but much beyond that is pretty rare. Readily available vegetables include mushrooms, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes--but only in the big stores, the little neighborhood stores offer a pretty sparse vegetable selection. All of these can be bought at a premium. Sure, I know it's out of season but even so, similar products (certainly apples and potatoes at least) are widely and relatively inexpensively available at home. I believe that Russia imports a lot of its produce but even still, my occasional spoiled American mentality sometimes looks around and goes, "So...this is it, huh?" Even though in the States, I would pay more for produce that is imported and I don't usually find it necessary to eat blueberries in March (hey, don't put anything past me--I LOVE blueberries!), I never doubt that it will be available to me somewhere. And beyond blueberries, I can find kiwi, papaya, pomegranate, mango, cherries...basically, my options are limitless. And let's not even start on toilet paper, cereal, or shampoo!
Just a thought.
With a renewed appreciation for American grocery stores, пока!
Marie, just to put things in perspective, growing up in the Soviet Union in the 1970s, toilet paper could only be found in major cities like Moscow. It was very common for people who had no access to TP to use newspapers instead. My parents were somehow able to procure big reams of off-white wrapping paper, so we'd cut it in squares and that was our TP. We also did not have air fresheners and used to burn matches to eliminate odors. So what they have now is actually pretty good!! Now you can buy TP everywhere, even in a small village. That's progress, right?! Also, oranges and mandarins were only sold for about 2 weeks in December, right before New Year's holidays; so for many years, long after they became available year round sometime in the 90s, a citrus smell evoked memories of Christmas/New Year's in me. When I come back home and go shopping, I'm genuinely happy for the Russian consumers because they do have A LOT of choices compared to what we used to have. What we used to have are empty shelves in grocery stores and bread lines.
ReplyDeleteP. S. I just had blueberries the other day ($2.98/pint). :)
I know that coming so soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, it's amazing that they have the variety that they do! And I have certainly not wanted for anything while I have been here so I hope I didn't come off as complaining too much! They were merely observations (and perhaps an early seasonal craving for blueberries)!
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