There are subtle differences.

Different food is available to purchase. The advertising is different. The layout is different (Supermarkets in America don't have those moving ramp things). Especially different is the Produce and Meat section... you guys eat a lot of weird animals and plants!

He was probably showing how a similar item looks like but with chinese writing on it.

To bad all foreign products in china are fake!

And this is the type of crap I hate...I go to the grocery store minding my own business and every chinese has to watch what im doing.

Xifei...You should focus on what types of groceries your going to buy in the supermarket rather than watching what "weird" things the foreigner will do.

Learn to mind you own damn business.

It was probably a funny translation.  Grocery stores are prime targets for Chinglish.

That, and the meat and produce sections are quite different.  You won't find a pile of chicken feet in American supermarkets, or assorted fish parts.  Also, the soy sauce and instant noodle sections are considerably smaller, while our Italian and Mexican food sections are larger.  Also, bigger selection of bread in American markets.

Well, for once, the products they sell in Carrefour are rather different than the one they sell in France. The biggest difference is probably the butcher/meat aisle, and the haunting, sad absence of the giant cheese and charcuterie aisle thingy.

Yes, we have more variety of things and real food. Lots of meat, spices. I miss good cheese and cream, sour cream, cream cheese, bacon, beef that is tender. Our stores are bigger also.Many things Chinese eat, we throw away.

You ask if supermarkets back home are so different from the ones here.  

Yes, they are, and for many reasons.  And without anyone getting offended, because please notice I will not say which one is better or worse.  I had a supermarket back home as one of my business interest for many years, so I am very aware of the different techniques used.

Among the differences you find:

1.- Many supermarkets are located in shopping malls, and with more than adequate free parking surrounding the mall.

2.- Store owners or managers understand and value repeat business from valued customers.  And to get that, you must give a pleasant and clean looking store, fair prices, excellent customer courtesy and service, no spoil or out of date merchandise on shelves, fast respond to customer demands, employees trained and aware that customer is first, and always right.

3.- Merchandise is bought and placed on shelves to sell.  A good manager will know what his particular demographic customers will want and buy. And that is what he will need to carry, and not what he wants to carry.  He will talk to customers as they visit the store, listen (and/or seek) to suggestions from them, and act on them.

4.- Merchandise on shelves will be clean, free of dust, and out of date products removed.  Stacked in neat, straight rolls, all labels facing front, right way up.  Clearly priced either on item or shelf. 

5.- In many stores, stocking of shelves is done during slow or off hours, with few customers in store.  Also, in many stores employees are dressed in a sort of uniform which is color coded, with red for meat and seafood products, green for produce and fruits, white for bakery items, gray for general merchandise, etc.  And no cell phone calls allowed when working.

There are many other points, I tried to hit the more obvious ones.  In closing, I would say in my opinion, here supermarkets are profit oriented, back home they are customer oriented as the only way to really make profits.

Just allow me one example.  Many foreigners do love pancakes, waffles, etc.,  for breakfast.  Many supermarkets here in China do carry maple syrup, but do not carry pancake or waffle mix.  I have tried talking to some to see if they will bring it, and the answer I always get is that maple syrup is used for French toast, so no need for pancake mix.  And then they wonder why foreigners do not buy more maple syrup ?

Back home, after store manager is told on the need to sell pancake mix to complement the maple syrup, he will have it on the shelf within 5 days.  And that is called CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, a concept unknown in China.

In British supermarkets you can't buy live fish, prawns or frogs (or any live produce). There is a big choice of cheese and bread, but hardly any tofu. Chickens come without heads or feet.

Ever been to April Gourmet by Gongti? Picture one the size of carrefour. And they try to make ours feel...more cozy like this one

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/SafewayLifestyleProdu...

Yes for one thing some of the supermarkets here are smaller and the workers seem to throw the boxes everywhere and don't seem to notice customers much here. I was at a Jenny Lou's and that's exactly what I saw happening. Everytime I saw boxes or workers crowding the aisles talking to one another I couldn't go that way so it limited my shopping experience to only three aisles instead of the maximum 6 aisles.

the biggest difference is how they stock the shelves box boys in the us will take the goods purchased to the car for the elderly at least a 1000 more choices and yes you can purchase live fish t bone roast milk that is healthy we dont have to worry if the food is contaminated or not many differences

Supermarkets back in the UK are very different to here. The staff there try to help the customers and are usually friendly, whereas here it seems the customer is just an unfortunate inconvenience. The stores are clean and many have toilets, which are also clean, so you don't need to let the kids piss and crap on the floor, if you did you would soon be thrown out of the store for being unhygenic, dogs are not allowed in food stores apart from guide dogs for the blind. People do not manhandle the meat and fish so we can trust that it is clean and not had god knows what virus deposited on it by umpteen customers. Our local one is so bad in this respect I refuse to let my wife buy any meat there at all. There is more real choice of everything there, not umpteen variations that look different but in reality are not. Example cakes and bread, here cakes are all the same sponge pumped up with air and smothered with artificial cream and fruit. Cakes there come in all styles from sponges to fruit cakes, some are light and fluffy some are heavier and you are soon full. Bread is the same with many different varieties all with their own taste and texture. Chinese people have no idea about cake and bread, where did that idea of dumping sugar into bread come from.

Generally it is pleasurable to shop in a western supermarket, in  a Chinese one it is simply something that has to be done.

i live in jinan and do all my shopping at chinese supermarkets and my biggest complaint is at check  out. i swear to god and i dont believe in god, they always do this, i put the heavy objects first so they can be rung up and put in the bottom of my non environmentally plastic bag that i always buy, but they will deliberately reach to the back and ring up the light items first which crowd the counter because i refuse to bag them to the bottom of the bag to be crushed, so then the lady will try to take  the bag from me and  put light items in to the  bag  and i say no, very loudly and point to the heavy items. complaining obviously does not help either, just another annoyance than makes me drink scotch or dry gin straight, yuk.