Supermarket scavenging

March 27, 2009 - 8:36 AM by Jessica · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, Food, General, Israeliness

Just back from a food shopping trip, which is an unusual event for me, as I generally dislike supermarket experiences. (Not counting Eden Teva Market.) It’s not just that food shopping in Jerusalem can be a third world experience, but the supermarket on Thursday nights offers a sensation of the world coming to an end, or at the very least, the sense of impending war with Iran, as all shoppers fill their carts to overflowing and checkout lines are long, very long. And that’s without mentioning — although I will — the search for a shopping cart, and then seeing if you have one of the plastic tzuptziks that you need to ‘rent’ the cart, unless you keep a supply of five-shekel coins.

But what is fun about food shopping in Israel, and particularly in the chain stores, is the search for unusual products, ones that you wouldn’t expect to see in your neighborhood Supersol Deal, Rami Levy or Mega Bool. I’m talking about the excitement in sighting ShopRite Brown Rice Crispy Rice cereal, a new Ben & Jerry’s flavor, or a package of Aspen Products Cool Shades paper plates in “4 assorted colors.” It’s finding the Czech beer you like amid all the Goldstar and Tuborg bottles, discovering that scallions can be purple, spotting decent-looking tuna steaks in the frozen foods section and — this is a major one — seeing that American-style brown paper lunch bags are now available.

To those of you from the real western world, these kinds of discoveries are ho-hum, and happen all the time in the local supermarket. But for those of us here, on the Middle Eastern front, it can often be a wondrous occasion, and not one to pass off flippantly. It explains why so many local Israeli papers have a consumer products section, briefing readers about food news. Consider Greer Fay Cashman’s Market Wise column in the Jerusalem Post business section, as well as Eva Ben-David in other sections of the paper. It’s always sort of funny to read those columns, because does one really care if Strauss has a new ice cream flavor? Then again, I always make sure to skim those columns.

It’s not that there aren’t great offerings from the local manufacturing industry. There are. I’d say it’s more about the thrill of the scavenger hunt, finding those unexpected treats during what is often a mundane chore. Happy hunting.

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