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anonymous
Q: Why do I go to foreign food supermarkets?
I keep heading to the foreign food shop to buy things and when I get to the checkout I realize I lot of the stuff I could have bought at a local supermarket, but I'm at the counter so I buy them and pay more. What is it that you actually buy in a foreign food supermarket that you can't buy somewhere local? Do we just go for brands we know, trust a bit more (I mean how different is skippy compared to a chinese peanut butter)? I feel like there is an assumption that local supermarkets wont stock this stuff but they actually do.
I haven't done much research,and I could be totally wrong, and in fact there are very few 'foreign' items you can get at local supermarkets. These are just the musings of someone sitting at their desk.
Import foods in China are overpriced, but some people buy them because they trust them more. Not only foreigners, local people too, especially if they want to buy milk, milk powder for their baby.
Normally I dont buy imported food, can find Chinese products, there are many which are good, just search, ask Chinese friends.
If you want cheese, have only imported or very few Chinese, here cheese is not popular. Bread also, and little different, many bread-like things have too much oil.
At the foreign food shop, I buy cheese, cold cuts, bread, chocolate and incidentally some things like green herbs, mayonnaise, fruit juice. These things are hard to get by in other shops, or they are too different (Chinese bread... yuck). If you buy stuff that can easily be obtained in other places, just be aware of the costs. Vegetables for example are far too expensive in the foreign food store, can't imagine anyone buying those.
But your Skippy peanut butter is interesting. I tried a Chinese brand once and threw away the whole jar after trying it. Disgusting. And even within the Skippy assortment I'd rather have the ones with the dark blue lid, with pieces of peanuts in it, than the smooth homogeneous stuff under the light blue lid.
So try things that you might like, don't stick with what's familiar only, there are some pleasant surprises out there. Don't be afraid to pay some more if it is about quality, but don't be a fool either. I found a place to buy sugar for 3,5 yuan a pound (500 gram) while most Chinese supermarkets charge more than 6 yuan. (for my coffee, I drink a lot of coffee. And the coffee itself... 160 gram for 44 yuan or 500 gram for 68 yuan? Same brand, same contents, different package. Not a difficult choice).
A good way of comparing prices is in percentage, not in yuans or dollars. What interest does your bank offer? You can usually do better. I save like 40% on the sugar. I spend 100% extra to use the subway instead of the bus, but I think it's worth it. A taxi would be 2000% extra and I usually think that's not worth it. Etc.
Chinese peanut butter tastes exactly the same to me, I just go to the western shops for things like pasta sauce, pesto, certain meats, crack cocaine, crunchy nut cornflakes and the like. You know, the little luxuries that make a house feel like home.
Scandinavian:
I find Chinese pasta to taste identical to imported pasta
mArtiAn:
Yeh, but it's got more bugs in it. I bought some with bugs 'in' the pasta itself. Took it back with my complaints and got a hamper of stale crackers as compensation. Result!
