Technically, you’re right, but I couldn’t pass up a chance to impersonate Cupid Stunt (from 01:02)
Excuse me, will you? All my clothes appear to have fallen off.
Do you mind if I ask about this?
“when he is not conscripted”, am I misunderstanding or is there conscription for the US armed forces and it’s being kept all hush, hush.
Cripes, if I had to survive on stuff bought in Walford, we’d be eating a lot of takeout from the chippy, buying milk and chocolate bars in the Minute Mart, and getting drunk every night in the Vic. I’ve always wondered if the residents of Walford make a big shop to the local Wal-Mart or anything, or if they just shop in the local shops. No wonder they’re ‘poor’. :eek:
Litoris, I believe an episode of Little Britain has a Lou and Andy sketch set in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart (or the British version).
What was that about vegetables being kept under running water in the US?
It made me kind of go 
at first, but what I think is being referenced is the way many larger chains will have fresh water (a la fire sprinklers) pour over the fresh veggies periodically. Keeps them looking fresher, anyway. I like how at Kroger, they preceed this with the sound of a thunderstorm – kinda cute.
Elza B – sadly, I haven’t seen LB in ages – seems I can never catch it when it’s on, and I am horrible-lazy when it comes to doing things like marking my calendar for a television show. Just don’t watch much television.
I was in Bristol on a business trip about ten or eleven years ago and went to a Tesco’s at one point. What I noticed was that on the trolleys all four wheels could pivot (while typically on American shopping carts only the front wheels pivot, although Ikea seems to have the European style carts with all four wheels pivoting). I also noticed several different types of carts; regular ones, those with a single baby seat and ones with two baby seats.
As for this, keep in mind that only some Wal-Marts are the type that combine a department store and a supermarket. In much of the US, the Wal-Mart stores don’t have the grocery departments (although they do sell some unrefrigerated foods).
No, there’s currently no draft. What I assume Litoris meant is that her husband is in the National Guard or Reserves, and is periodically called to duty. In between stints of such service, he works a civilian job.
Thank you – I swear, I typed a response to that and I guess it went off into the ether. That is exactly the situation – my husband is in the National Guard. He is currently working on ADSW (active duty for special work) so not working his civie job.
Whew, after learning about stop/loss I was getting worried!
This thread makes me think of the episode of AbFab where Edina, trying to cut her household costs, actually went grocery shopping at a supermarket with Patsy in tow. It looked very much like an American supermarket to me. Edina was stumped for a moment at the shopping cart area, calling out for someone to come out and wait on her, while Patsy helped herself to surreptitious samples from the liquor department.
The original short film was nominated for an Oscar. Although the short has copious amounts of lovely nudity (so presumably, the feature does, too), it’s essentially about a clerk who stops time so he can sexually assault women out of “admiration”, so the premise itself is rather distasteful.
One other thing I remember about UK supermarkets was that all the shelves were much shorter. In the US, I can’t reach anything that might be perched on the top shelf, but the UK shelves were all at least 6 inches shorter than what’s standard in the States.
Oh, and Litoris, I’m surprised you couldn’t find saffron rice at a specialty market like Whole Foods or something. Heck, you were in the PNW, not Idaho, right?
Dude. I was in Seattle and everywhere I went, I got the treatment when I would ask for “yellow rice,” and the :dubious: look when I asked about “saffron rice.” No joke. It was the weirdest thing. I mean, I could understand them not knowing what Chess Pie or Boiled Custard was – but saffron rice?? Odd.
Oh, you were in Seattle.
They were probably just stoned.
We have beer-flavored (well, cheddar-and-beer flavored) potato chips now. I saw them at Giant Eagle last week.
Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have house-brand wines (at least in states where grocery stores are allowed to sell wine- in some they are, in some they aren’t). Most of them are pretty good, IMO. I’m more of a wine drinker than a beer drinker, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they had store-brand beer. I’d go to check, but the closest TJ’s that sells wine and beer is two hours away in Cleveland (stupid Pennsylvania liquor laws… :mad: ).
This sort of thing is one of the things I dislike about Wal-Mart. Self-checkout lanes do not like me- the ones at the Giant Eagle tend to find some problem with how I’ve scanned stuff or how I’ve put it on the belt, and throw it back at me. Maybe I will reconsider my dislike of self-checkout when the technology gets a bit better (and if I didn’t feel bad about helping the grocery store put people out of work…), but for now I avoid them. I don’t have to get everything on the belt just right when I go through the regular line.
Funny thing is, I don’t mind the self-checkout if I have less than 5 items and none of them are large/bulky, but I would rather just set my items down and walk out of the store than be forced to use the self-checkout, ya know? Ugh. The only reason we shop at WM is that my husband works for them, so we get the 10% discount. I buy my groceries almost exclusively at Kroger.
I’ve seen Aldi advertised but there isn’t one near me. A friend of mine - Kiwi living in Melbourne - was over here last month and was raving about them.
My favourite supermarket discovery so far has been Lidel. Anywhere where I can buy a dozen Mars Bar Icecreams for a pound fifty is all good by me. Granted, if you’re not after weird off-brand German dry goods, it might not be for you, but it’s brilliant for late-night, slightly pissed supermarket adventures. Luckily right behind Lidel is a giant Asda, which basically sells everything under the sun, including homebrand vodka and ‘New Zealand’ pinot noir.
Mmm, yes, LIDL is all right. And for a cheapo shop, it’s surprisingly good at fresh fruit and veg usually. And nice 70% cocoa chocolate quite cheap too. 
I wish it would sell fags and tobacco, though, thus cutting down trips to Tesco and to little local shops. (Yeah, I do get the idea that one ought to support small local shops, but not when there are so few things I can reasonably buy from them.) LIDL is a good enough compromise in terms of size, but Tesco has a post box and electrical bits and cheap socks and knickers and newspapers and the aforementioned cigs.