Grocery Shopping in the Netherlands

You walk up to the grocery winkel(store) and as you are about to enter you get out a coin in order to retrieve a shopping cart. By the way, Europe has 1 euro and 2 euro coins, so for those of you who don't like spare change- you best watch yourself in Europe. You insert the coin into a slot on the cart's handle. As soon as you insert the coin, the chain attaching your cart to the cart stacked in front gets pushed out. (If you have ever been to an Aldi store, it's exactly like those carts, because Aldi is a Dutch store). It makes perfect sense. Everyone feels more liable to return their cart. I think Americans are more lazy and don't mind wasting money, though, so it might not work as smoothly back home.

You enter the small store and begin browsing around. Most grocery stores in the Netherlands are about the same size as a drugstore (CVS/ Walgreens). You walk past a machine which people can insert their plastic bottles or glass bottles and receive store credit. You can quickly make decisions about which brand of certain foods you want, because the store does not have an obnoxious amount of choices. For example; the cereal section is only a small section of a long shelf, instead of taking up an entire side of an aisle.

Now it's time to check out. You walk up to the check out line and see the cashiers either standing in front of a chair or actually sitting. Yes, most employees have the option of sitting during their shifts, as they help check out customers. How considerate of employers! If you want plastic bags for your purchased products, you must pay for large bags or stuff your items into tiny, flimsy plastic bags. You pay for your purchases and then hurry to place your items into bags and get out of the way, as the cashier begins sending the products of the next customer your way. However, the Dutchies are smart, so there is a sliding bar that can divide the bagging spot in half, so groceries do not mix once they start sending the products of the other customers your way.

You grab your bags, reattached your cart, retrieve your returned coin and head home.