Ugh...Grocery Stores!

I have never enjoyed grocery store shopping, especially if I have any number of kids with me. American grocery stores seem to be set up with all these special stands with items they know your kids are going to beg you for. Every corner we turn there is some type of candy, chocolate or barbie that my stubborn child won't quit asking for no matter what.

I was excited about moving somewhere else, where hopefully grocery stores wouldn't market their items to children or strategically place things everywhere frustrating parents. Well, on the plus side the grocery store we have been going to here doesn't have items strategically placed as they are in the US. They have luckily hidden their Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Lalaloopsy, Barbie and other cheap plastic toys upstairs with the pet food. There is no more begging for yet another barbie or random plastic toy she will lose interest in by the time we get home.

Unfortunately there are several other problems with grocery stores here that make it a chore I enjoy even less than before.

1. The stores are tiny...tiny...tiny... You can barely fit the grocery cart around randomly places piles.  The people shopping also strategically place their carts in the way so you can't get by...and then give you the evil eye if you even hint at wanting to get by. So, when you have a grocery cart and a stroller and two toddlers you can't move anywhere quickly (oh and today the two scooters I was lugging around with the stroller because it was the only way I could get the kids to go outside today). So long are the days of wide aisles and special car grocery carts to entertain the kids.

2. There are bouncers guarding every single nook and cranny of the store. They might be guards, but I don't know if they are armed and they are all just really tall, big, intimidating and have their hands on their radios and randomly mumble things all the time. I am not sure if there is a big shoplifting problem in Moscow, but seriously, its ridiculous! Maybe they are bored and they just give each other a play by play of shoppers walking through the store - "ladies and gentlemen, she has entered the dairy section, she is pushing her cart down the aisle and oh oh she has stopped and picked up the milk! Watch out...make sure she doesn't run towards the front door with that milk!" The stores money would be much better spent on people who bag groceries for you.

3. I can't find anything quickly, which is really my own problem. But I have to spend a really long time scanning all these products and trying to compare words on them with my little Russian cheat sheet I add to my grocery list. The kids get really irritated with this, because it takes me about 10 minutes just to find the sour cream.

4. Produce has to be weighed before you take it to the checkout. This wouldn't be a problem if I could do it myself or if there was someone manning the weigh station at all times. But they aren't. They must have several jobs at the store, because they are always gone.....and I have no idea how to yell out "excuse me, will someone please weigh my produce". So I stand there and smile, and eventually there is an older grumpy lady who yells out for someone to come weigh our stuff.

5. Checkout is slow and annoying. I have to push the stroller through first (it barely fits through the lane and its an umbrella stroller), but the kids are usually bored and irritated at this point, so they are running around. Then I unload all the groceries, push through the shopping cart and start bagging my groceries. If there is someone in line behind me then they start getting aggravated and yelling that i am not moving quick enough. In the meantime, I am trying to open up these sticky bags to put groceries in, and most of them rip in the process.

If I survive the trip at this point I still have to walk all the way back to the apartment without two toddlers and bags that are ripping at every bump :) And since cars park up on the sidewalks and ramps, there are lots of bumps as we try to maneuver through the maze.

Well today I had the most annoying trip ever, hence my post :) It took extra long because i had to look for a few new items like sour cream and heavy cream that I hadn't bought before. I was also shopping for three days worth of groceries...big mistake, it took too long. I had already lost K by the end of the trip, so I was hoping a treat would keep him from destroying the store. I put those treats on the conveyor belt at the front and the lady scanned them and she personally handed them to K. Well he threw them in the basket without a bag....heaven forbid!! I pushed the cart over out of the way because they are an angry lady behind me and one of bouncers saw the two treats in the basket without a bag (they totaled about $1.50!!...seriously people!). He was on his radio mumbling and then started talking to the checkout lady. All I understood from her was "nyet, nyet" (no, no) and she grabbed the treats away and put them away from my stuff so I couldn't have them (she had just handed these to K after ringing them up!!). So at this point I didn't care and I wanted to finish. I shell out about $100 for over priced groceries and this bouncer is worried about the mini chocolate egg in my basket! I handed her my receipt and she realized she was supposed to review it so i could have the treats back. She shook her head a couple times and handed them back to me. The bouncer just stood there this whole time, mumbling in his radio.....so I am now convinced I am on some kind of watch list at the store....maybe they won't let me back in next time :)

Now if they would spend their money on someone bagging groceries, my kids wouldn't get so bored and annoyed and wouldn't be throwing un-bagged, paid for items in the basket!

SO new family rule....we all go to the store together when A is home :)