You want me to put what..Where?

I am beginning to venture out into the world of German shopping (let’s face it I can not go more than a few days without feeding the shopping bug) and have stumbled upon a few things I thought you might find interesting (might being the key word here).

- Germans bag all of their own goods, be it groceries, clothes, home goods, it doesn’t matter. The cashier sits (that’s right I said sits….) at her register and passes your items over the scanner and then politely sets them on the other side of the counter for you to bag yourself…with bags you brought mind you. This is great for two reasons. One, everyone uses reusable bags (they are very conscious about the environment here) and two, you don’t end up with 50 bags each holding a single item. The only downside of this however is that if you are not used to bringing your own bags with you every where you go, carrying your goods out to your car can be quite challenging. Oh, and you have to find another use for that cabinet that is dedicated to your never ending supply of plastic sacs.

- Shopping carts need coins. All of the carts are connected by chains, and in order to get a cart out you have to slide a Euro in the slot on the handle to release the cart form the chains (have not fear, when you are done and put the cart back on the chain you get your money back!) Although this simple invention is something that I think should be carried across to the states it to has some disadvantages. I do love the simple fact that there are never carts scattered all over the parking lots (after all who want to loose their money) however, if you don’t have a Euro you better hope that everything you need can be carried in two hands….and trying to trick them by using a quarter instead of a Euro definitely does not work (believe me I have tried).

- If you do not buy anything you have to ask “permission” to leave the store. All of the entrances and exits are guarded by one way electronic gates. The only way to leave once you are in the store is to go though the check out line. Sounds normal right….unless you did not find what you came after (which when you do not know what the store carries, happens quite often). In this instance you have to go to the customer service desk and asked to be buzzed out of a special gate. Let’s just say that I learned this through trial and error. The first time I got stuck inside I figured that I would just politely wait at the “in” gate for someone to come along and sensor the gate to open and while they were coming in I would quietly sneak out…NOT SO MUCH. As a tired to go out the gate an alarm went off letting everyone in the store know that I had gone tried to go out the entrance. Not my best moment.

- EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays. Germany pretty much shuts down for the day. You don’t realize how much you are used to 24 hour stores until you don’t have them. The only thing you will find open on Sunday is a Gas station…each town has a rotating schedule outlining which one gas station will be open on Sunday just in case you need to make an emergency run for milk or bread…Everything else will have to wait till Monday morning.

It is interesting how much the little things have impacted our everyday lives. So this week as you head out for your groceries or turn toward Target don’t forget your bags and feel free to pick up a little something for me :)


I hope I have not bored you with my shopping extravaganza. I am trying to stay diligent however, coming up with blog topics weekly is not always as easy as it seems. Therefore, if you have any questions or interest feel free to leave a comment and I will be happy to respond :)