The shopping blog you've all been waiting for is finally here!!! But first a test!!! The answers will be at the end so DON'T PEEK! See how many of these foods you can match with their English translation:
Juusto Beef
Kana Apple
Omena Potato
Lohi Orange
Voi Salmon
Applesiini Butter
Leipa Cheese
Naudan Raspberry
Peruna Chicken
Vadelma Bread
Can you just imagine our frustration trying to find things on our shopping list! Thank heavens most shoppers speak English and are willing to help....we love cans with pictures on them!!!
Now we are going to take you to a HUGE store called PRISMA!
The underground parking lots are very high tech. At the end of the row the number of available parking places is shown
As you can see, there are 15 available spaces in this row..
and a light above each space is red if it is filled or green if it is empty
There are plenty of shopping carts available!!!
Next you push in a 1 or 2 euro coin into the slot which releases the chain from the row of carts:
You shop with your very own coin that will be released to you when you return the cart and hook up the chain:
Now it's time to go up the escalator to the store...don't worry...it's no problem getting your cart up
As you can see, the wheel just lock into grooves on the belt!
Now we are ready to find the items on our shopping list!!!
The aisle signs are a BIG HELP!!!
As you can see, this is an enormous store. We now enjoy shopping at smaller markets. The first time we marketed I cried and kept saying, "I just can't do this!!!"
The Finns love margarine and say, "Our margarine is so good we don't have to use butter!" This entire case is filled with margarine with a small section of butter at the end:
We still like BUTTER!!!
Salmon is available all year long and is quite inexpensive on sale: $4 a pound for boneless fillets (beef is $10-30 a lb.)
Here we deal in Killograms and liters! A killogram is 2.2 lbs. Paul always drools over the smoked salmon which is expensive!
Which one is just plain whipping cream???????????????
Which one is just plain flour???????????????
Produce is done cleverly! All produce shows the country of originand a number. Push the item number and out pops a tag with the price!
Put your sticker on the plastic bag and it is scanned at the register!!! Much of the produce is "growing" when you purchase it!!! They do love FRESH!!!
But they also love dirty carrots and potatoes...can't figure out why!
The bottle deposit is $.50 per bottle and is included in the price. So when you check out, don't forget to cash in your ticket ..it can really add up!
Also, DO NOT FORGET TO BRING SHOPPING BAGS!!!!
They charge a lot for them...we often forget even now!!!
When you get your items home you then need to figure out the directions on the packages. I just look for temperatures and times.
Here's a bag of potato chips. The description is in 4 languages:
Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, & Finnish!!!
Now for the answers to the test:
Juusto is CHEESE
Kana is CHICKEN
Omena is APPLE
Lohi is SALMON
Voi is BUTTER
Applesiini is ORANGE
Leipa is BREAD
Naudan is BEEF
Peruna is POTATO
Vadelma is RASPBERRY
HOW DID YOU DO!!!
We are getting better but it is still sometimes a challenge!!!
Enjoy your next shopping trip in English!!!!!
