Bus tickets in Canada are most commonly sold at bus stations, but there are many corner variety stores designated as agents that sell local bus tickets as well. On the other hand, developing film here is always done at places primarily designed for that purpose (though of course they also sell photographic equipment and supplies.) North America is (or was, before digital became popular) filled with 1 hour photo, photomat, Black’s, and other such stores.
The latter is true of Canada as well (Ontario, anyway). If you want liquor, you go to the LCBO (Liquor License Board of Ontario – despite the official-sounding name, they have their own chain of retail shops.) If you want beer, you go to The Beer Store. (That’s really its name.) IIRC, in Quebec, you can buy beer at corner stores, like you can in most US states.
This is just weird, but it sort of reminds me of how it was illegal in the town of Carmel, CA, USA, to eat ice cream on the sidewalk. It was a very old law, however, and it was repealed shortly after Clint Eastwood became mayor.
White cheddar seems to be more common in Quebec, although you can get orange cheddar (especially packaged by weight in the deli section).
Same thing in Canada; the trick is to stay on the outside edge – don’t go in the aisles at all, except strategic strike missions for specific products. For some reason, practically all supermarkets have all the fresh foods (vegetables, meats, dairy, juice, eggs, etc.) on the outer edge.
Canada too (we call them “liquor boards” or “liquor stores”), except that in Quebec you can get beer and wine at grocery stores. (Better and/or harder liquor is to be found at the “SAQ.”)
There were lots of things I didn’t know where to shop for in Europe: basically any kind of personal item (toothbrushes, small scissors, sunscreen, soap, shampoo, mouthwash, candy, stationery, etc.) Here in Canada we would buy them at the drugstore (Pharmaprix/Shopper’s Drug Mart, Jean Coutu, etc.) – basically a large dry-goods store that contains a pharmacy. (If a store is just a pharmacy, that’s what we call it.) These don’t seem to exist in Europe.
Douglas Adams, in Last Chance to See, told a funny story about needing notepaper in Zaire. (Paraphrased, as the book is already packed up, and - no - I’m not going through the boxes to find it.) He didn’t realize he needed to go to a razor, condom, and notepaper shop to find it.
Nitpick: LCBO is the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. The Liquor License Board of Ontario (LLBO) are the folks who license bars and restaurants to sell alcohol.
I miss the Beer Store. I’m still wrapping my head around the idea that in Alberta, you buy beer at a liquor store. Well, yeah, it’ll sell beer; but it sure ain’t the Beer Store–some liquor stores out here don’t even sell cold beer and none will take the empties back. Gotta take those someplace else. :rolleyes: With its service, selection, knowledge, and convenience, the Beer Store would make a killing out here.
Yeah, this is an odd one. Growing up in Australia, we never had drug stores. There was a pharmacy, usually called the “chemist’s shop” which ONLY sold medicines, and other related things such as condoms, tampons, sunscreens, and if they were feeling extremely adventurous, they might have a little display of cheap instant coffee or biscuits etc (and that would be temporary).
In the last few years, North American-style “drug stores” have started to appear. They are still called pharmacies, but have a couple of aisles of groceries and the like. I must admit they are convenient, but there is a little bit of snobbishness in me about them - they hint of the Simpson’s Doctor Nick. These places are medical, and there should be minimal advertising, and a kindly old pharmacist in a white coat and half-moon glasses; buying TV dinners from there is just sleazy and hints that they are unethical, and well… American. That’s not a fair prejudice on my part, I know, but it’s hard to shake off.
One thing I notice when going to the States: the sheer wordiness of the road signs. It seems that it is much more common for the US to use words where Canada would use a symbol: BUMP, PAVEMENT ENDS, NO RIGHT TURN ON RED, etc, instead of the appropriate symbols. Not that wordy signs are unknown here; they’re just less common.
I’ve always thought that the greater use of symbols was so that words would not have to be translated.There still are some wordy signs here, but on bilingually-signed provincial highways they often show up in pairs: DO NOT DRIVE ON PAVED SHOULDER will be followed a short distance later by NE PAS CIRCULER SUR L’ACCOTEMENT.
Oh, and fractions on road signs–Exit 3/4 mi.-- always strike me as much more foreign than distances in miles.
> Same thing in Canada; the trick is to stay on the outside edge – don’t go in the
> aisles at all, except strategic strike missions for specific products. For some
> reason, practically all supermarkets have all the fresh foods (vegetables, meats,
> dairy, juice, eggs, etc.) on the outer edge.
Apparently, North American supermarkets have decided that processed foods are the big moneymakers. That’s why the aisles holding them are the first thing you see. There are plenty of fresh foods in North American supermarkets, but you have to walk past the processed foods before you get to them.
I’d say I’m still trying to find out how the Swiss medical system works, only one of the little differences of Switzerland is that getting information is a game of 20 questions and I’m tired of that one.
“How to go to a doctor when you have an emergency” appears to be quite similar in most countries (I said “most”, ok, yes I know it doesn’t work like that in Sudan!). The procedure for when it’s not an emergency varies from country to country.
matt_mcl, next time try a supermarket (which, unlike what a bf of mine believed, do sell toiletries in the US and Canada, too). In most of Europe the American concept of drugstore doesn’t exist at all. When I tell people about being able to buy candy, develop pictures and get your aspirin in the same place they go “ewww!”
Here in lovely Holland, the sugar is located by the coffee in the grocery store. It is not located by the dry goods like flour and so on. Took me forever to find it.
Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) is located by the cleaning materials and any suggestion that one might use it for anything other than scrubbing a sink is greeted with outright revulsion. I once suggested that putting some bicarb in the bath would help with a sunburn and you would have thought I had suggested rat poison. (So I haven’t told anyone about its being in the chocolate chip cookies). Chlorine bleach is also located by household cleaning supplies and is apparently not used for laundry.
Rubbing alcohol either has a very strange name or is nowhere to be found, one or the other. I used to use it in a mix to clean windows and mirrors but I can’t find it anywhere.
Oh yeah, and here in the World o’ Chocolate, they do not have nor have they ever heard of chocolate chips. Dutch guys eat more bread than anything I have ever seen, but they do not have bread stuffing for poultry.
Several private homes we visited. Not sure if it was a regional thing or the fact that every one of these homes were over 100 years old. ( One being 300 years old.)
In Germany you can still buy cigerettes from vending machines.
I also remember reading about being able to buy womens panties ( soiled) from vending machines in Japan.
Sprouts on pizza? Are you sure this wasn’t in a dream? Maybe at Christmas, for a joke (Brussels Sprouts = Christmas food, in case youre still puzzled).
Those single-handle mixer taps are by no means unheard of in Britain. I have one in my bathroom. Why they’re not the default form of tap is a good question.
In the US, I had a confusing time filling my hire care with gas the first time I visited (so this may be out of date). First, you’d get out of the car to fill the tank, and the station owner or a lackey would already be there, doing it for you! How nice of him. And when it was self-service, there was some weird safety contraption that you had to engage before the petrol would flow.
It’s even more effective the other way round.
On bathrooms and so on, my sister’s house has the bathroom light switch outside the door, but I think that may be something to do with the very low ceiling - there are building regulations that divide bathrooms into “zones” for the purposes of what kind of fittings may be there, and there may be no “zone” in her bathroom that’s valid for any kind of light switch. Otherwise, it’s as said; the usual bathroom light switch has a pull-cord. Mixer taps aren’t that uncommon; we have two in our house, but separate hot and cold taps otherwise. Showers vary greatly. Ours is plumbed into the hot water supply. Many are electrically heated at point of use. It’s not that unusual for bath/showers to have a combined mixer tap and shower all plumbed together - there’s a valve you use to divert the water from the tap spout to the shower head. (These can be a pain as they tend to be held in place by the water pressure, and if the pressure’s a bit low the valve pops out again.)
