The experience is really horrible, shopping carts everywhere, people of all shapes and sizes and smells, pushing and shoving their way round the shop. There are no traffic lights or give way signs for shopping carts, no road rules, so its a clash of the titans, a shopping cart road duel, Who will give way? Who will move out the way to let me pass with my cart? Carts crash head-on sending passengers flying over the edge. A lemon or packet of rice becomes, another road victim in a shopping cart accident on a Saturday, at Auchan in Moscow. The casualties of shopping cart crash accidents are many, just statistics in an overcrowded hypermarket. The backs of my legs and heels bloodied and bruised from endless bumps, I make my way to the long check-out ques. A man tries to go in front of me with his cart, our angry eyes lock, mental imaginary knives are drawn, who will back down? Luckily he does and we que in silence, blood boiling.
The only sound that can be heard is the endless echoing bleeps of check-out machines scanning the shopping items, bleep, bleep, bleep. When you finally stack up your cart with bags of shopping and head for the doors, you feel like you have escaped from a sinking ship. You exit the sliding doors blinking into the gray Moscow light, breathing in the car fumes, just happy to be outside, free until the next shopping trip excursion next month.
P.S Language: Shopping "carts" aka shopping "trolleys" UK/American English.
I suppose that at least, the fruit and vegetables are tastier, and more natural 9no genetic engineering) than those one buys in the american supermarkets.
ReplyDeleteYes they are tastier, if you actually get to them, weigh them and buy them as its so damn busy in Auchan !!
ReplyDeleteYour Moscow experiences are so fascinating. You're very brave to take on a new culture. It would make me feel very insecure.
ReplyDeleteHi Englishman in Moscow
ReplyDeleteI read your blog about washing cars. You know why people were looking at you because as far as I know its not allowed to wash your cars like in england at home, you are lucky that no policeman saw you doing this you can only wash your windows but not full montytold. Your shopping Experience was funny. Once I bumped my trolly into someone in hypermarket I said sorry but that lady waited for little while and came back and bumped the trolly into me it was funny, me and my wife were laughing for long.
Devon man My car is not on street so why would it not be allowed. Please explain?
ReplyDeleteWhat you describe is very true! Shopping on a weekday in the morning saves time and nerves a lot...
ReplyDeleteHow long have you been living in Moscow? I thought everybody know what a mess these mega stores are on weekends, during the week when everybody is working in the time to go to these stores. But in a city with an unofficial population of over 18 million people, you can expect these stores to always be crowded
ReplyDeleteI can't go in the week as I would spend 2 hrs to drive 20 km it would be crazy. Moscow is very over crowded, dirty and expensive!
ReplyDeleteI hate it as well but have to go every so often for stocks.
ReplyDeleteShopping experiences are not disimilar here. I only go when I have had lots of sleep and have oodles of patience :)
ReplyDeleteHi Eternally it can't be as crowded as a chaotic as Moscow!
ReplyDeleteCome to it more philosophically. Try to see that hypermarkets fights as an exercise. The more you fight the stronger you become. Just imagine what a plush feeling you can have if you come to any other hypermarket in some foreign city after Moscow shopping havoc!!! You 'll be the king of shopping. Just one your "Moscow shopping stare" and everybody stays away, no que for you ))))))) Good luck for your shopping (sometimes i'm ashamed for our people that's true))) Oleg the Ubiquitous
ReplyDeleteI went to a Moscow Auchan once on a Tuesday afternoon. It was a zoo. Worse than any Saturday shopping experience I've had anywhere else in the world. I shudder to think what your Saturday outing must have been like.
ReplyDeleteI do know people in Moscow who go as early as possible on Saturday morning. They say they can be back by 11:00 a.m.
P.S. We say "shopping cart" in the US. At least the part where I'm from.
Yeah... I mean shopping carts but also trolley since we live in an Anglo American world of language differences. I thought of going early but can't get up too early on a Saturday. I was there at 11.00 and it was like a zoo as you say.
ReplyDeleteI also lived there for 6 months in 2005/6.Although there is no doubt that it is a fascinating city,it is also polluted,overcrowded and unhealthy to live in,even more so for children.The stress levels and grime,coupled with often lousy weather,rude people,traffic-jams and offensive inequality of living standards make it a place to visit yes,but to live in avoid!!
ReplyDeleteWe are here on a 3 to 5 year sentence to pay the mortgage etc. Pray for us if you believe in a god. Thanks.
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