I wonder what $57 strawberries taste like?
WOW They seemed to fly off the shelves at $37.14, so why not jack up the price to $57.00? The strawberries were gorgeous, mind you but I’m pretty sure they weren’t THAT gorgeous.
Moscow Grocery Shopping 101
There are certain unwritten rules here and unless you are “in the know”, not heeding them will result in extreme embarrassment on your part and irritation on the part of the grocery store employees. You will leave in shame and disgrace and will need to immediately find another store to frequent. Luckily I am somewhat “in the know” and am quickly finding out more as the days go by.
Not to worry, this girl has decided on her grocery store of choice and is indeed welcome to shop there any time.
In case you’re curious, you can visit www.azbukavkusa.ru for a closer glimpse of my newly adopted grocery store. My branch of АЗБУКА ВКУСА is open 24/7 and is clean, bright and just right. It is kind of like a Dean & Deluca’s in NYC only a touch less upscale. It takes about 10 minutes to get there by foot and is just around the corner, down the street. To get there I walk past a BMW dealership, an Aston Martin dealership, a Porsche dealership and a few upscale clothing stores, jewelry shops and a shop that sells porcelain dishware from St. Petersburg. This is certainly quite the neighbourhood! No wonder strawberry prices are completely out of the question.
So here is what you need to know:
-have your produce weighed by the nice lady in the fruit & veggie section before getting to the cash register (trust me, it isn’t worth the hassle to do it otherwise)
-everything needs to be in a package or a bag (I have no idea why) and if it is in a package it sometimes goes into a bag as well
-200g of ground meat really isn’t all that much and 450g of cheese is waaay too much
-eggs come in packages of 6, 7 or 10
-low fat/non fat options do not exist here
-Italian and French cuisine are popular here so ingredients are readily available (for a price...) which also means I can (sort of) read most of the labels
-foie gras is available in small, medium or large quantities
-Lay’s, Ruffles and Pringles all come in bizarre flavours and small quantities (Mr. Unmentionable caved in and splurged -twice!)
-they get irritated at the cash if you don’t hand over your shopping bags right away (the hostile look shot me by the 15 year old bagging my groceries almost had me pee in my pants)
-a discount card nets you 5% off your grocery bill -hooray!
-big bills are preferred and unless you have the exact amount, don’t bother trying to get creative with the money you hand over expecting round amounts of change (this is met with a stern look)
Here are some prices to give you an idea of what is what in order of most to least expensive:
baby asparagus: руб 906.06/kg
chicken breast: руб 318/kg
nectarines: руб 236/kg
yogurt: руб 179/4
mushrooms: руб 136.50/kg
butter: руб 122/227g
loaf of bread: руб 78/small boule
tomatoes: руб 66/kg
bananas: руб 29.40/kg
As of 10:44 Moscow time on the 12th of August, the exchange rate is 1.00CAD = руб 29.777
I will let you do the math. I will also be needing a job soon if I want to eat more than tomatoes and bananas.
All kidding aside, we have found a small weekend food market where delicious, dark Russian rye bread is руб 50 and the produce is generally less expensive (see images below). As soon as we figure out what and how we are going to eat regularly we will be doing most of our shopping at the market and supplement it with the grocery store run.
Saturday’s task will be to find the other food market around our place. Apparently it is larger and has a number of buildings. They may be open 7 days a week which will make my life a touch easier and Mr. Unmentionable’s as well. He won’t have to escort me and constantly translate once I get the hang of it.
On a brighter note, I am slowly getting better at communicating day by day. In fact, the girl behind the counter at Starbucks has started humouring me and lets me do the entire transaction in Russian now (not that there is much to say, but it IS a start). This morning she had my coffee brewing the moment I stepped into the store and just confirmed my order when she handed it to me rather than ask me what I want. Is that a bad thing? Is that a good thing? Time to find a new place to pirate the wifi connection.
WOW They seemed to fly off the shelves at $37.14, so why not jack up the price to $57.00? The strawberries were gorgeous, mind you but I’m pretty sure they weren’t THAT gorgeous.
Moscow Grocery Shopping 101
There are certain unwritten rules here and unless you are “in the know”, not heeding them will result in extreme embarrassment on your part and irritation on the part of the grocery store employees. You will leave in shame and disgrace and will need to immediately find another store to frequent. Luckily I am somewhat “in the know” and am quickly finding out more as the days go by.
Not to worry, this girl has decided on her grocery store of choice and is indeed welcome to shop there any time.
In case you’re curious, you can visit www.azbukavkusa.ru for a closer glimpse of my newly adopted grocery store. My branch of АЗБУКА ВКУСА is open 24/7 and is clean, bright and just right. It is kind of like a Dean & Deluca’s in NYC only a touch less upscale. It takes about 10 minutes to get there by foot and is just around the corner, down the street. To get there I walk past a BMW dealership, an Aston Martin dealership, a Porsche dealership and a few upscale clothing stores, jewelry shops and a shop that sells porcelain dishware from St. Petersburg. This is certainly quite the neighbourhood! No wonder strawberry prices are completely out of the question.
So here is what you need to know:
-have your produce weighed by the nice lady in the fruit & veggie section before getting to the cash register (trust me, it isn’t worth the hassle to do it otherwise)
-everything needs to be in a package or a bag (I have no idea why) and if it is in a package it sometimes goes into a bag as well
-200g of ground meat really isn’t all that much and 450g of cheese is waaay too much
-eggs come in packages of 6, 7 or 10
-low fat/non fat options do not exist here
-Italian and French cuisine are popular here so ingredients are readily available (for a price...) which also means I can (sort of) read most of the labels
-foie gras is available in small, medium or large quantities
-Lay’s, Ruffles and Pringles all come in bizarre flavours and small quantities (Mr. Unmentionable caved in and splurged -twice!)
-they get irritated at the cash if you don’t hand over your shopping bags right away (the hostile look shot me by the 15 year old bagging my groceries almost had me pee in my pants)
-a discount card nets you 5% off your grocery bill -hooray!
-big bills are preferred and unless you have the exact amount, don’t bother trying to get creative with the money you hand over expecting round amounts of change (this is met with a stern look)
Here are some prices to give you an idea of what is what in order of most to least expensive:
baby asparagus: руб 906.06/kg
chicken breast: руб 318/kg
nectarines: руб 236/kg
yogurt: руб 179/4
mushrooms: руб 136.50/kg
butter: руб 122/227g
loaf of bread: руб 78/small boule
tomatoes: руб 66/kg
bananas: руб 29.40/kg
As of 10:44 Moscow time on the 12th of August, the exchange rate is 1.00CAD = руб 29.777
I will let you do the math. I will also be needing a job soon if I want to eat more than tomatoes and bananas.
All kidding aside, we have found a small weekend food market where delicious, dark Russian rye bread is руб 50 and the produce is generally less expensive (see images below). As soon as we figure out what and how we are going to eat regularly we will be doing most of our shopping at the market and supplement it with the grocery store run.
Saturday’s task will be to find the other food market around our place. Apparently it is larger and has a number of buildings. They may be open 7 days a week which will make my life a touch easier and Mr. Unmentionable’s as well. He won’t have to escort me and constantly translate once I get the hang of it.
On a brighter note, I am slowly getting better at communicating day by day. In fact, the girl behind the counter at Starbucks has started humouring me and lets me do the entire transaction in Russian now (not that there is much to say, but it IS a start). This morning she had my coffee brewing the moment I stepped into the store and just confirmed my order when she handed it to me rather than ask me what I want. Is that a bad thing? Is that a good thing? Time to find a new place to pirate the wifi connection.
Take care. Looks like you are slowly learning how to shop and live in Russia. What a great experience.
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