Adventures at the supermercado

Last fall I wrote about our local mercado, the one I shop at daily and is one fabulously short block from our apartment. It had taken me awhile to realize that nearly everything I needed or wanted from the supermarket (a 25 minute walk, assuming zero stops at parks along the way) could be purchased at one of the tiny puestos in the mercado. I just needed to ask around until I found it.

This has nicely cut down on treks to the supermarket. It’s a haul and it’s expensive. Still, there are things we want, like good coffee or a block of chocolate. So there we go, every so often, fueled by our addictions.

What is interesting about the supermarket is that they tend to have people stationed strategically in different departments, hawking their product. For instance, in the milk aisle, someone from the brand Gloria is there to help you pick out the right can of evaporated milk or box of whole milk. Ditto for the soap section, diapers & wipes aisle, ice cream nook, and cookie area.

This whole side of the aisle is nothing but milk, boxed in nearly every way imaginable, with about half of the milk options being evaporated milk. 

This is the (compared to the US) tiny ice cream section. There are no giant freezer aisles here , just little arrangements of kiosk-like cases for similar products. The D'Onofrio lady is watching me check out her competitor's products. D'Onofrio has a lock on the Peruvian market. Unfortunately, they are a Nestle-owned company.

In the toiletry/pharmacy section, there are about six women stationed to sell beauty products. 

Every single one of these women was selling a different brand of toothpaste. Walking by feels a little like running the gauntlet.

There are an equal number of helpers in the wine section. I’m not entirely clear whether they work for the store or for a brand. 

In the meat and fish sections, there is a line on the floor indicating where you should park your cart (perpendicular to the cases, about 3 feet away) so that the carts don’t impede pedestrian access to the display cases. Parking tends to be pretty orderly.

Eggs are at checkout (unrefrigerated) as an impulse buy, like a candy bar would be in the US. Other items are in surprising places. At least, they are surprising to me and my sense of supermarket categorization. Last fall I was at Plaza Vea for baking soda. I scoured the baking aisle with no luck. I asked for help. “Baking soda? In the spice section.” Okay, whatever.

Recently I was at Wong and needed another round of baking soda. I went first to the spice section. It wasn’t there, so I figured perhaps it was in the baking section. Maybe Plaza Vea and Wong just categorized their products differently. Giving up, I asked a couple of people for help, and someone finally guided me to the toiletry/pharmacy section. It is safe to say I would never have looked for it there.

At the checkout, there is a preferential line that we can join if Simon is in tow. But we have to be careful that elderly ladies will not push their carts in front of us and cut in line. After it happened several times, we learned our lesson and are aggressive about guarding our place. 


We went to the store today to get some photos to accompany this post and I was busted before I got half of the photos I wanted. "Please don't take photos here, señora," the plainclothes store manager-type person said. I half expected him to confiscate my camera. Thus, no funny photo of the meat market cart lineup...

Shopping is always an adventure.