Things I've Done Wrong at the Supermarket

One of the things we talk about with missions teams at our church in San Diego is cross cultural awareness. We usually talk about the importance of observation when going to a new country. We tell people to spend some time watching the locals in different situations and follow suit. I have to admit that I have often failed miserably at this, specifically in one area.

Down the road from where we are living is a large supermarket called Mega. We have been shopping there for water and snacks frequently.

After shopping in the Mega for two and a half weeks and walking around the store with our backpacks, Andy noticed that there is a bag check right next to the door. Yesterday I went in and talked to the employee, and found out that we were supposed to be leaving our bags at the front and picking them up when we are done shopping. Probably to prevent theft.

Last week Andy and I were ready to pay for our groceries. There were two empty lines, and the cashiers were chatting to each other, just waiting for customers. We put our groceries on the counter, and the cashier said, "solo boletas." Huh? We must have looked pretty confused because I saw the other cashier role her eyes and motion to her friend to just go ahead and let us pay in her line. I smiled meekly at her and said, "gracias." When we got home we looked up boletas, and found that it means tickets. Now I am not sure what kind of tickets we needed to have, but I now know not to go back to that line.

Yesterday I stopped in to pick up two bananas for our lunch. Just like at home, I took two bananas from a bunch and brought them to the cashier (the no boletas required line) and put them on the counter with my other groceries. Right away the cashier yelled to the bagger, and he took off running with my bananas. Hmmmmmm, what did I do wrong this time???? After a couple of minutes the bagger came back with a bag and a sticker with the price for the bananas. I asked the cashier what to do for the next time, and she said I needed to weigh them first, get the sticker, and then come and pay for them.

Thankfully, the employees have been very nice to use throughout our mistakes, and I am learning the hard way to ask ahead of time.