A trip to a Polish supermarket

OK...just wanted to make sure you were a hypocrite as I thought. That's all ;)

Since my Polish is awful and I stare at the cashiers with a dumbfounded look, I too have found that paying with a debit card is a lot easier.

In my local supermarket there are more staff than customers.

There's one woman to give you vegetables, another for bread (all she does is hand it to you), another for chocolate, another for cheese, about five for meats, about 5 packing shelves and one on the cashier.

They all look very busy, most of the time too busy for the customer.

Must be a hangover from communism, I don't know how they can survive.

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And as for paying with a card because you can't speak Polish, numbers are universal.

That is exactly what it is from...making jobs for everyone even if it is not needed. It is a Polish art to act 'busy'...

It is still light years a head of Lithuania, seriously.
In the main commercial street (Pilies) in the capital (Vilnius) there is only one small convenience shop (10 metres square) with three cash registers, but you can ONLY buy bread from one, ONLY drinks from the other and ONLY cheese and milk from the other.

There are too many things like this in Lithuania.
Poland was never part of the U.S.S.R and had a much easier time because of it.

It was a great relief for me to move back here to Poland :) but I still like an old rant ever now and again.

Odd....I have been to Vilnius a few times and it was no worse than here in my opinion. Maybe I hit different shops.

I lived there for 2 very long years.
It is seriously different, I still work there.
I have a million horrific stories from there.
I do see tourists having a good time during the summer, if the police don't rob them.
I had a gun pulled on me for a smoke, dead bodies dumped on the land I was working on, police bribes, it is a different world.

And as for communism, Lithuania has a long way to go to even catch up with Poland.

Not when they're yelling at you for correct change! I've been here three weeks, cut me some slack, k? :)

I was still dealing with this sort of thing as little as two or three years ago.

The shop is now out of business.

No :)
just kidding,
How are you getting on here?


I know there are things similar here but Lithuania had a worse time under soviet rule than Poland did during communism.

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I think I am going off topic a bit
Ah well...

Ok... If it wasn't for the language barrier, things would be great. My husband starts Polish lessons and I've been using Rosetta Stone, so hopefully things will be easier after we can speak some Polish.

I find myself saying "yes" instead of "tak" all the time.

Is that good?

I almost bought vaginal cream the other day because it was in a hand wash dispenser. Until my friend pointed it out in the shop

I still sometimes buy stuff by guessing what it is.
It makes life interesting ha ha ha.

Rosetta Stone does not teach you important, every day things off the bat. It teaches you like random things like car, plane, cat, dog, boy, girl, things like that. Basic numbers (jeden, dwa, etc) I'm on the second round of lessons and I can say things like "Man on Bike"

That won't get me far when I'm lost.


HA that's hilarious!
I bought pickle flavored noodles the other day, and I still don't know what I'm getting when I'm looking for hamburger. It's usually sausage, I picked up hamburger once.

You mean I am a hypocrite or not?
Please clarify :)

How would you the way define the difference between a whining expat and somebody who settled down here for life?

really funny! and all soooo true :)

fantastic gtd, very similiar in the small shop i go to, and i always have change, but don't tell them just to annoy them...

Loved reading this thread.

Especially SWAT security guards :D

Great thread.
I'm from Romania living in Warsaw for work for 4 months now. My biggest problem with shops was finding bread. Yeah, i know it's stupid, but in the first 2 months i only bought those sliced toast-bread. Anything else was crap. Eaven now after 4 months i still did not find a not-sliced WHITE bread. Only some semi-brown bread that is acceptable in taste. If i miss something from back home is the bread.

PS: Did i mention i love bread?

did you try the numerous bakeries throughout the city?

I would advise you not to buy sliced bread. It may be more comfortable, as you don't have to slice it yourself, but bear in mind that a bread has to cool down before it can be sliced and packed, thus it's really not that fresh when it arrives at your shop’s/bakery's shelves.

I really wish they'd get rid of the 1 and 2 grosz coins, there's just no need for them (if Holland can not use 1/2 cent coins, Poland has no excuse) - and the amount of time wasted is ridiculous.

Once in Carrefour in Wrocław, we worked out that asking for change wasted, on average, about 20 seconds per customer. It's quite possibly the most irritating thing in Poland, for me :)

I know about bakeries, ofcourse. But i generaly i just shop in one place like Real, no time to wander around. And eaven in bakeries, they have all sorts of bread, with stupid seads on it and whatnot. I only want a simple WHITE bread. It is really hard to find such bread.

And about sliced bread, well i don't like those couse i like to make my own sandwiches, with big slices not those half-a-centimeter slices that shops have.

On the other side of the coin (pardon the pun). Why not go in and do all your shopping in 20gr and 10gr coins...they seem to like the change so much.

I saw some alcoholic buying vodka with those coins the other day. Yes, he got shouted at...:)

Kelevra - buy a breadmaker! They're about 299 in Media Markt right now, and you can make your own bread to your hearts content. Much nicer than any bakery bread, too!

I did it yesterday in tesco to the girl that always gives me a very angry look when i don't have change. 17pln in coins...50gr max value.

I brightened up her day i am sure.

Yeah, I'm pretty cooperative when it comes to getting the right change out. They look at me kinda weird, like they are telling me, 'you ain't from round here, are you boy?'

LOL

but,,,

i thought men dont carry loose change, i dont, took me ages to find a wife with a big enough hand bag :)

but on the odd occasion i ever did i was quite lazy and held my hand out with change and the staff took what was neccesary...

Hey it's around Christmas now! I bet you have some better stories to tell now.

Men don't carry loose change? Hmm...curious

Just today I had the same and was cooperative. Good manners cost nothing as we say.

of course shopping in Poland is much better than enywhere else. everything is better i Poland, dont you know? and we, Poles, are the best!

Seriously, I hate shopping in pl, last time I went home for holidays I had this situation:
very old woman goes to the queue, five things in the basket - one of them was a juice. empty shop, two tills open, maybe 6 customers. she asks cashier to check price of the juice for her (obviously she didnt have enough money or didnt want to spend them). And that tw*t said something like "I am not here to check the prices for you, there is the machine, I cannot check it without billing (?) it, I will need to call manager". Of course she billed the juice and we were waiting for manager to cancel the juice etc. I was f*g furious, and when it was my turn I wasn't quite nice, waiting for any sign of rudeness from her. There would be a IIIWW. It's really a shame that I didnt take that f*g juice and I didnt pay for it, asking for manager. Next time I will know.

Seriously, there is something really wrong with customer services - probably salaries. But it still doesn't explain why we are so rude to each other...

(sorry for my english, i hope you understood the story)