Grocery Shopping...

One of us met up with a new student – just arrived on the island – in the produce section of our favourite, fully stocked, grocery store. As she was standing there surveying the shriveled sweet peppers, soft onions and small heads of lettuce, the young lady asked if the produce on the shelves was the best price on the island as she was obviously showing signs of sticker shock. Our reply: “It's where we shop all the time as this store has the best prices and selection.” Then she asked whether the small local produce stands in the streets would be worth shopping at. Our reply: “If you're a local you might find good prices but it depends on the range of tan that you might be sporting at the moment. Very dark people get to buy for less, others – not so much.” She said thank you and carried on shopping with a deer-in-the-headlights sort of look.

After living in the Caribbean for almost a year we have become pretty accustomed to most of the challenges and joys that make up life here. Our initial yearnings for Tim Horton's donuts and coffee have subsided and our memories of the huge open bins of fresh vegetables at Superstore are fading. At the time, we didn’t appreciate it for what it was worth, but we now know it was it was close to being heaven on Earth. It was a destination with everything under one roof. And affordable. These days we can only dream of dropping in there for a visit.

We do our shopping in what we think is the best store in Grenada. Our friends often comment on the variety of healthy, tropical food that we must have access to living on an island. There are some locally grown fresh fruits that we can select but they are seasonal. It's great when you can pick them right off the tree but then you have wait a year to do that again.

There are no big box stores... take your time to discover where the local fish market is located and what time the fish come in, find the best bakery in town, find out when and where to get fresh vegetables from local farmers, and be sure to smile and ask questions as you go.

If you want “fresh” (and we use that term rather loosely – mostly meaning non-moldy, non-soggy, non-fly-ridden food), you really can only go to the stores after they get their shipment in from the small inter-island cargo barges and freighters, which is typically on Sundays. Perhaps it's just the time of year (Oct - non tourist season), but we have discovered that it's best to wait until Mondays so they have a chance to unload all the goods and stock shelves. Fancy produce imports (like blueberries, cauliflower, broccoli, strawberries, apples, grapes, etc.) can take up to 2 or 3 weeks to arrive from whence they came. Imagine those bright, beautiful blueberries that you just bought at your local grocer to put into your morning cereal or dish of ice cream. Now imagine them after they’ve been sitting in your refrigerator for 2 weeks – wrinkled, with a bit of fuzzy mold starting to grow. Or, imagine them 2 1/2 – 3 weeks later if the boat is late or should you not be able to make it to the store on Monday. Would you pay double our normal full price for them?

We typically pay almost double the price of what we would in Canada in the fresh produce department (Barbados is even more expensive). The shipping issue is obviously a huge part of this and that trickles down to the consumer big time. We have covered some of this in a previous post. We have learned that some household and produce items are less expensive in one or another of three locations where we shop, so our quest to fill the shelves each week takes a bit longer than we enjoyed in Canada. Example – great tasting “Shure Fine” brand strawberry jam from Trinidad is less than half the price of “Smuckers” brand that we bought in Canada, and it tastes every bit as good.... score.

Yes, we have learned a must-do's for our shopping survival needs:

1. Substitute - if the store doesn’t have it, find a substitute for your recipe. You can make do if you’re willing to get creative.

2. Inspect everything – touch, look, smell. Take a long hard look at those potatoes, onions or tomatoes before you buy them. If they don’t look appetizing now, don’t buy them even if you need them. Just go with what’s appetizingly available and make do. You’ll just have to wait and hope for better shopping next week.

3. Check and re-check the expiration date. The shelves are often stocked with expired food.

4. If they have it now and you think you may need/want it in the near future, then buy two of them. If you see it, buy it. We have never regretted this except for the first time. We saw English crumpets on the shelf 5 months ago and haven't seen them since. We just wanted to try them but thought we could wait for the next shopping trip... nope.

5. Carry instant hand sanitizer with you all the time. The hand wrapped chicken will juice you, so will the fish, ground beef, and some of the not-so-firm and perhaps slimy vegetables during non-tourist season.

Minor complaints aside (aka "island fever" starting to kick in...), such as extremely high beef prices at EC$79.38 / pound (CAN$40.00/lb), we are grateful to have found our shopping sources and our newly honed shopping patience. We have also met many interesting people along the way in the process. It takes a while to figure this out but it's still worth it in the end.