the german shopping experience

welcome to shopping at the "discounter" -- a reasonable priced supermarket like "lidl", similar to "aldi" which can be found in the united states. one of my pleasure since arriving in germany is browsing through any kind of supermarket to see familiar brands, beloved products, and regain my sense of german pricing (which often is rather shocking).

little german cars line up for a visit to the grocery store strikingly with their trunks pointed into the parking lot ready to take in the shopping load of their drivers.

with a euro coin in your hand you are ready to acquire a shopping cart which is waiting in line for your convenience.

little gates show you the way to the low budget shopping paradise.

another gate makes sure that you are well trapped inside with all the yummy food of which you hopefully buy plenty, notice the separation between the gate section for the shopping cart and the turning banister for the customer.

then the fun time starts: heaps of "kinder chocolate",

and varieties of haribo gummi bears,

and little chocolate covered marshmellow-foam-like balls. in communist germany they were called "nigger-kiss" but now they are called "fat man's".

of course the "surprise-eggs" cannot be missed: inside the chocolate egg is a tiny toy that the child can assemble and play with while munching the sweet brown shell.

after the sweet tooth is satisfied how about a hearty soup? in germany the base for almost every soup or broth is "soup greens" - a medley of one carrot, one stick of leek, a nosegay of fresh parsley, and a chunk of root celery that can be bought in a box in any supermarket.

in the dairy section i finally celebrated a reunion with my beloved "quark" -- a sour yoghurt-like white cream that can be eaten raw (only for hard core fans) or sweet with sugar, fruits or jelly or hearty with chopped onions, herbs, and spices. (p.s.: "speisequark" simply means "foodquark").

i was equally happy to see "mozzarella" that comes as small white balls swimming in liquid in little bags and which is fun to eat on baguette with olive oil, tomato slices, fresh basil leaves, salt, and pepper.

in case you need to make a german cheese that is "quark" cake you should not forget to buy a few small packages of vanilla sugar.

but food is not all there is, german beer is a must as well as water with strong sparkly bubbles

that comes in bottles and according to size costs 1,30 or 1,60 euros each. remember, there are no water fountains with free flowing water in germany and most other european countries.

after basic needs are met and closer to the cash register some eye candy comes along. i have missed buying flowers in ohio since they are more expensive and not so readily available. this primrose in a pot costs $0.75.

or maybe you want a bunch of tulips in yellow, red, orange, purple or pinkish...oh the possibilities!

ready to go? the cash registers barely leave space for the cart and the customer to pass through. getting out of the store without buying anything means to squeeze by the queue in the narrow check-out lane.

often items are loaded into self-brought bags or directly into the trunk since plastic bags cost money. afterwards the shopping cart is returned to its companions in order to recuperate the euro inside the little box attached on top of it.

now the shopping game can start anew.