Monday, September 25, 2006

grocery store madness

For any of you that haven't been to the grocery store during Ramadan... believe me, it's a place you don't wan't to be, unless you have no other choice in the matter. We've cruised in to the local Al Jazeera for the last two nights in a row and the place is always packed. You wait forever in the produce department, even if you only have a couple of items to be scanned, and then the lines at the check-out are a nightmare. Everyone's at the grocery and they're all buying carts and carts of food. It amazes me really.

One thing that I really enjoy though, while standing in line to check-out, is being able to see the goodies in everyone's carts. I think you can tell a lot about a person by what they buy at the grocery store. You're basically seeing their life as an open book, don't ya think? You see what they eat, what junk food they like and the magazines they read - so many things really. I find it all very fascinating.

Lastnight, as I was standing it line, I started thinking about what ppl buy and wondered what your favorite thing is to buy in bulk or in large quantities?

In the States you have stores like Sams Club and others where you can buy huge quantities of food items, toiletries, clothing items, electronics, automotives... all sorts of things. We don't have a store like that here in Bahrain, but we do have Geant. At Geant, you can buy regular items for somewhat less than what you pay at the grocery store. This is where I like to stock up on certain items. Not like I'm getting a huge discount, but you would think that I am by the way I buy.

These are some of the items I tend to buy in bulk:

1) toilet paper (I always keep tons in the house)
2) spray starch (I get sorta paranoid about running out of this stuff)
3) Detol - all around cleaner (One can never have enough of this! ;) )
4) tissue paper (We buy large quantities of this stuff)
5) spray cleaners (I prob have several cans of this under the cabinets, but everytime I shop, I buy more)

I buy one food item in large quantities for some reason and that's canned tomatoes. I have several cans in the cabinet, but every time I shop, I can never remember how much I have, so I buy more. I guess you can never have enough canned tomatoes. ;)

What about you... what do you buy in bulk?

6 comments:

Puppy said...

If i will look at your cart with all that tissues and cleaning stuff, i will surely assumed that u r from Virgo Sign.

I dont go shopping in Baku, but when i lived alone abroad, i was buying stuff but not bulk and much, tissues, one-use plates, forks, spoons, yougurts, jelly candy. i go shopping when i need and i cant describe it as a bulk shopping.

But i agree its very interesting to look at ppls cart :)

Veeeva said...

whats spray starch?

Anonymous said...

The best time to shop is either 11am or 4 pm, thats when all the people who would normally be shopping for literally everything, are either busy or sleeping. Or at least thats what we saw...

The Moody Minstrel said...

If there were a Costco or something similar in Manama or wherever over there, I wonder what it would look like during Ramadan!

If there were, it would probably be shut down by the religious police immediately, because only one heaven is allowed. ;-)

Um Naief said...

still breathing, spray starch is for ironing. you use it on cotton items to get out wrinkles. i love it. there's also another spray that you use on non-cotton items called spray sizer, i think.. it's also great stuff! :)

blayde, i'm gonna try the 4 pm. hadn't thought about that hour but it makes sense to me. can't do 11 cuz i'm at work... thanks for the tip.

moody, no Costco here.. but i sure wish there was. and i can only imagine how it would be during ramadan... i know that Geant is packed usually. we went this past weekend and the lines were incredibly long. fun place to shop though. :)

and i'm assuming that none of you guys buy in bulk... sadly, i feel like i'm the only one! ;)

Anonymous said...

We do have a bulk store in Bahrain. Ramez! That's where most people buy their bulk household items. Check it out.