Grocery shopping

Sunday, 10th of April 2016

If I believed in a god, I would thought such deity would be the internet. Such a powerful tool that can make the most common daily tasks possible in a quicker and easier way.

You see, when we move we tend to focus more on the bigger things, such as finding a place to live, a job, getting acquainted with the city and, as a consequence, we tend to forget about the simplest things that we normally take for granted. One of those is buying groceries, something quite simple but if you really think about it, extremely important.

   

That was one of my primarily struggles as new member of this society, trying not only to understand the all dynamic of shopping here, but also the different products and most of all, how was I supposed to take all the bags back home.

In London you will be able to find various supermarkets and the good thing is that they are all open until late (around 22h or 23h). Besides the common supermarkets is also possible to find this so called places named Pharmacy, and no they are not the typical store where you can only buy medical products but also where you can buy food, hygiene and beauty products and even electrical tools.

One of the biggest supermarket brands here is Tesco and luckly there is one just four streets away from my house. What I have noticed is that there are at least eight self check out machines at every store (all of them constantly occupied), when only one is operated by a cashier (usually empty or with one person in the line to buy tobacco), so I guess is safe to say that londoners do not like the usual chat most people tend to have with the person attending to us at the supermarket.

The all process of going grocery shopping is not very complex but when you are alone it turns out to be more difficult than it seems. First, there are no shopping cars at the supermarket, only metallic baskets so when you put two things there is already full. Secondly, not knowing where things are and what they look like is not the best situation. And lastly, the process of going back home basically transforms into an impossible mission because four streets start to seem like twenty when you have your hands full.

That is why I decided to find and easier way to this, I was tired of having to go out grocery shopping almost every day and still not being able to bring everything I wanted. And that is when online shopping saved my life. I found it was possible to order what I wanted from Tesco online and then ask for them to deliver my selection directly at my front door. I found it extremely helpful to have all the products layed down in my computer screen, that made it possible for me to see their all selection and to find the cheapest price, so in the end I did not only saved money while comparing products but also didnˋt get distracted and bought unnecessary things (like chocolates).

So if you find yourself in the same situation as me, donˋt be afraid of spending an extra 5£ for the service, it is worth it.

From a girl with food until August,

Mariana Fidalgo