The struggle with grocery shopping
One of the things that I looked forward to when i got to USA was cheaper food than in Norway. I knew the diet would most likely be a bit sweeter, but turned out I was was not in for a treat. The entire experience was something out of the ordinary.
Going to a grocery store in USA compared to Norway is two completely different operations. While it feels like you got a grocery store on every street corner in Norway, it feels like you have to travel across the state to reach the nearest one here (In truth it is only a 10 minute walk, but when you are used to having it in the basement, it becomes a very long and painful walk). Unless you consider liquor stores as grocery stores. Those are everywhere.
The first day of shopping
The first time we entered the supermarket was a Wow-experience. It was SO big. I have worked in a store that we in Norway qualifies as a supermarket. This was at least four times as big. My roommates and me walked around for some minutes together in the green section, but then we came to the shelves. Being what seemed like 500 meters long isles and 300 different sections, we quickly lost track of each other, and when you have lost someone, just say a prayer and hope you’ll meet them again some day.
Fascinated by all the different things they had, I wondered around (by myself since everyone was lost). As I decided to try to be healthy I went to look for the oatmeals, luckily they were in the first isles. Problems then arose: There were approximately 57 different types of oatmeals. How do you know which oatmeal to choose, how can they make so many different flavors of oatmeals? I took the cheapest, which turned out to be a good choice since it was pretty much exactly the same as we have in Norway, and as it turned out, all the other 56 oatmeals.
So the selection is at least good, but the paradox of choice is so great you end up spending 30 minutes for every grocery you buy. For me, the best example was the pasta. After wondering around for 90 minutes (and this is no exaggeration), i finally found the pasta. It was four shelves away from the oatmeal. 90 minutes. Anyway, I looked at all the options they had, got amazed, did not know which one to chose and ended up with nothing. That night I had Minced meat and pasta saus for dinner.
When I finally got done shopping, I spent about 30 more minutes trying to locate the others. I was satisfied with finding 2/3. So we went through the incredibly inefficient cashiers, and by the time I got out, two moons had gone by. While the time spent at the supermarket has gotten considerably lower, thinking that you will get in and out of that place with dinner for some days in less than 30 minutes is just wish thinking.
The prices
So then to the prices, that I believed would be so cheap. There are times that I am wrong: I thought I was good in Ping Pong, I believed that it would not be ‘that hard’ to take a masters degree, and I thought I would win in the lottery without playing. None of these mistakes lives up to the misjudgment I had about the food prices in Boston.
I read an article in a Norwegian news channel about the farmers in Wyoming that has to slaughter their cows and shut down operations because the prices of meat and milk is too low. It was no less than extremely disappointing when I looked down at the prices that held the same - or even higher prices than what we have in Norway. I do not know if this is a general thing in USA, or if it is only in Boston, but the monthly food budget I had in Norway gets shattered after 1 1/2 week. Which is considerably quicker than the 2 1/2 week it took me in Norway.
However, there is one way to get cheap food in this country, and it all makes so much sense why obesity is such a huge problem over here. I am eating healthy food, and it is expensive. The prices seemed to be defined by sugar and amount of fat. The more sugar or fat there is in a product, the cheaper it is. It almost feels like a discount system where you get 1% off for every extra gram of sugar and fat. No wonder people gain weight when they get here. Anyway, I will continue to buy the healthy food as long as I can, and just hope that I do not have to eat cheap food with 75% fat or sugar for some while more.
Fun fact: Walmart employs 2 200 000.