When you go to the grocery store, what do you see? Fruits, vegetables, buggies, aisles with boxes, checkout stations, and maybe a bakery?
Just like every grocery store in America looks a little different, grocery stores all over the world are different too!
Would you like to go on a trip to the grocery store with us? Come follow along!
Most stores now have shopping carts/buggies and baskets available – some even have the fun “driving cars” for kids! All the buggies in Ukraine are pretty hard to steer, because the back wheels are not locked, so the buggy kind of swerves all over the place (especially when it’s full of groceries or my kids!). Next time you go to the store, check the wheels on your buggy! Are they locked or swiveling?
In Ukraine we have grocery stores similar to Walmart, Publix and Costco – but the products they carry are much different! There are many brands of food made by Ukrainian companies or farmed from Ukrainian farms. Apples, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, raisins, seeds, wheat and herbs all come from Ukrainian farms. Some fruits are sold in season; for example, strawberries are only sold a few weeks in the summer when they are ready for harvest! The rest of the year we can only buy frozen strawberries.
However foods like bananas, oranges, avocados, peanut butter and some cheeses are imported. These products are made in one country and then shipped to another country. Our family’s favorite yogurt is made in Poland, then put on a refrigerated truck and brought to Ukraine! Imported products used to be very expensive, but now the prices are a little bit lower because more Ukrainians buy them. For example, avocados here cost $3 each! How much are avocados at your grocery store?
When we go to the produce section, we pick out our fruit or vegetable and put it in a little plastic bag. Each fruit or vegetable has a sign with the name, price and button number. The price is listed per kilogram (about 2.2 pounds). Then we take the bag to a scale to weigh it, and we need to find the right button on the scale! When we push the button, a sticker comes out with the price and barcode for the cashier to scan. Our kids like to stick the sticker on the bag!
Some produce in Ukraine is very inexpensive compared to American prices. For example, carrots cost about $0.15 per pound and potatoes about $0.10 per pound!
After we’ve gotten all our groceries, we head to the checkout. In Ukraine if you want to put your groceries in a plastic bag, you have to pay for it! So we collect our plastic or reusable bags at home and bring them with us. There are no paper bags available, and no grocery baggers either! As the cashier is scanning the items, I am bagging all the groceries as quickly as I can.
Once the total is ready, we can pay in cash or with a debit or credit card, just like in America. Ukrainian money is really colorful (you can read more about it here!). Usually we can drive the buggies in the parking lot to unload groceries into our vehicle, but some stores don’t allow the buggies outside! We are very blessed to have a van here, but most people in Ukraine do not have cars, so they walk to the store. That means that they can only buy as much as they can carry home.
Does your family go to the grocery every day and purchase what you need for the day? Or does your family go to the store once/week or even once/month?! How many bags of groceries do you think you could carry home?