Our local Markt.

There are many "super markets" around that bear little resemblance to their American counterpart. The leading high end market is "Konsum", which is NOT pronounced ANYTHING like consume. We have a small, satellite Konsum in our neighborhood. But I have also shopped at the Konsum in Schillerplatz-a very large, very high end store. Indeed I shopped at the high end store just yesterday. I filled three of my bike bags with groceries and then biked 5 miles. We were hoping the quality and selection would be greater than our local store. The selection was greater, but I am not sure I want to routinely bike 5 miles loaded up with groceries.

Anyway, the things I have found that shock me about "supermarkets":

1) They put saccharin in some of their breakfast "healthy" fruit drinks
2) They put MSG in all their canned soups. All except one brand. That brand puts 30% of your average salt requirement in a small, single serving can - undrinkable.
3) They love olives. In our local store there is a section on the shelf for canned olives, but also one for fresh. Indeed, in the larger stores the selection of olives boggles my mind. I have not explored, yet.
4) You can not get a decent Muesli.
5) Every egg is stamped.
6) They really love chocolate. There are shelves and shelves of chocolates. Even in our little store, where space is a premium, one side of one aisle is all chocolates, and additionally there are two displays.
7) The best lettuce for salad makings are in bags.
8) Even in the large, fancy super high end Konsum, the amount of space, the amount of fruit and vegetables, I would estimate is 1/10 of what we have in a supermarket in Seattle. And that might be an overestimate.
9) It is apple season, and we are having a hard time getting mouth watering apples. This weekend we are going to try to go to an Apfelfest, to see what kind of apples they have there.
10) Beer is not sold in 6-packs, but in cases. Although you can buy singles. The only size bottle is 1 liter. Some of the beer is pretty sketchy, some so delicious. Our landlord bought me a few bottles of "Budweiser" that is brewed in the Czech Republic, that is suppose to be really good. That will be interesting. We share a 1L bottle a night with dinner.
10) The yogurts are very creamy, much smoother and flavorful than anything in the US
11) They put meat in with their potato salads, and sell a variety of potato like salads in single serving plastic containers that are yummy.
12) Pork is the major meat.

The supermarkets typically have a meat/deli section. I prefer to buy from the local Fleischerei. Just like the bakeries-but that is for another blog.

So, if you are what you eat, Germans are a combination of pork, potatoes, beer, olives and 2X chocolate. And I suppose Americans are an odd combination of fresh fruit and vegetables, and potato chips.