Post 1, Groceries in Deutschland

So the main focus of this blog is going to be on comparing the similarities and differences between being a consumer in Germany and being a consumer in the USA. Hopefully I will be able to use this as a vehicle to examine what these comparisons reveal about German and America culture. Seeing as this is my first real entry, I think it would be good to start with the most obvious things that one would notice upon coming to Germany, specifically buying groceries.

The biggest difference I have encountered it the fact that on Sundays stores are not open. At all. The only place one can find stores open Sunday is at the local central station, and they aren’t exactly equipped for you to get all your shopping done. This has main times been an inconvenience, but it really isn’t an issue as long as you are aware of it. During my first month, when I was in Munich I would often forget to go shopping and end up having to go find a restaurant that was open for lunch or dinner on Sunday. Now that I have been here for over a month though, it has just become part of the weekly routine.

Another thing that I was completely unprepared for was the fact that there are no baggers, or (free) bags for that matter, at stores. Everyone brings their won bags to shop, and as the worker at the check out scans one’s items they are expected to bag them themselves. I like the idea of bringing your own bag, but the pace at which the items are scanned and you are expected to bag can be rather rapid, especially when you aren’t used to it. I am not sure whether the decision to not provide bags is an economic or ecological choice by the grocery stores in Germany, but either way I think it a great practice, one people in the US could really learn from.

The third, and last difference in Germany is the bottle returns. Most people in the USA are aware that they can return most bottles and cans for about 5 cents a bottle in most grocery stores, however not many people I know do it to any great extent. In Germany it is completely different. Every bottle or can you buy will come with an extra cost, then when you finish you can, and everyone does, return the bottles or cans back at the grocery store to a machine similar to the ones in the US, where you will then receive a ticket for the money. This is another great idea that I think stores and consumers in the US could learn from. The process both encourages recycling, and also make it a more individual process, meaning that a giant recycling truck is not required to stop at every house to pick up the glass, but can instead go to one location, decreasing the costs for everyone.

Germany so far has been a great time, in some ways it feels very similar to America, but in some ways completely different. That’s all for today, thanks for reading!