So after buying some food at the local convenience store the day I got in, I decided to do some actual grocery shopping last night after work. After leaving the office at around 6:30, I walked over to the local Tesco Metro (there are 3 different "flavors" of Tesco) to pick up some food for the week. I was greeted upon entering the store with a mass of humanity not witnessed by me since Lollapalooza '97. The store itself is a little larger than a 7-11. However there were at least 300 people in the store when I walked in. It became instantly clear that most people were not shopping at all. Instead they were navigating the aisles on auto-pilot, simply grabbing the items that they came in for. I imagine that the average person spent no more than 5 minutes inside the store. I on the other hand spent nearly 25 minutes trying to find the few items that I came in for. Some highlights of the experience included seeing the following:
1/2 an aisle dedicated to mayonnaise
Uncle Benz Chile con Carne - apparently he's branched out beyond rice
Various sorts of savory pies - most interesting = Steak & Kidney Suet Pudding
Yum.....
