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Schnitz & Giggles
What happens when an American and an Austrian sit down together to debate culture? Is it going to be a victory for US? Will the Wiener take it all? Are they even making sense? Listen in and find out more about living la vida loca in Vienna & Austria.
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Schnitz & Giggles
[S1E4] Shopping Strategies: Unpacking the Quirks of Austrian Grocery Shopping
Have you ever listened to two grown men talking passionatly about grocery shopping? Well, this is your chance of a lifetime!
The latest edelwisecrackers podcast episode whisks you away to the aisles and delightful chaos of shopping in Austria. We're joined by the ever-observant Spruce Wayne, who hails from the land of tulips and windmills, and Dr. Schnitzel & Mr. Giggles appreciate the input of Mr. Algebro, who isn't afraid to school them.
This episode is a a guide to mastering the rapid-fire bagging game that Austrians have turned into an art form. Let's chew over the nuances of local sandwiches, compare expat shopping strategies, and learn words like "otherwhere" while crying in the tortilla aisle.
Stroll through the evolving supermarket scene of Billa, Billa Plus, Super Billa, Billa-Billa, and Billa² as well as the curious case of limited Sunday shopping, and explore the excitement of finding unexpected treasures like Pop-Tarts with the help of the local expat-community.
Austria. Once you shop, you won't stop. Except when their opening hours put a spoke in the wheel of your shopping cart.
Guten hallo and welcome to the next episode of the Edelweiss crackers podcast. Guten hallo to you. I'm Michael, I'm Lucas and today, I think, we're going to talk about grocery shopping, the thing that everybody wants to know about.
Dr. Schnitzel:Everyone needs to know and wants to know about.
Mr. Giggles:More than anything, that concept sounded a lot better when we were brainstorming and then, when I said we're going to talk about grocery shopping, it sounds less exciting, less exciting, oh.
Dr. Schnitzel:Before we start I just see we have a caller here. Let's see who it is, Hello.
Spruce Wayne:Hey, this is Spruce Wayne.
Dr. Schnitzel:Is this Bruce Wayne or Spruce Wayne?
Spruce Wayne:No, Bruce is my cousin. This is Spruce Wayne from the Netherlands, Ah cool, you're calling. Yeah, I really enjoy your podcast guys.
Dr. Schnitzel:Glad you like it?
Spruce Wayne:Yeah, I thought the joke about me was really funny.
Dr. Schnitzel:Cool, yeah, and thanks for just being who you are.
Spruce Wayne:Yeah, but I mean it was funny and all. But you know, there's something that was a little bit inaccurate about it.
Dr. Schnitzel:Oh, you refer to the whole Spar issue.
Spruce Wayne:Yeah.
Dr. Schnitzel:And the spruce? Yeah, because it's not really a spruce, right.
Spruce Wayne:Right, it's not a spruce.
Dr. Schnitzel:What tree is it then?
Spruce Wayne:It's like a birch or something.
Dr. Schnitzel:You're wrong.
Spruce Wayne:Oh, I knew it was funny for some reason, but I wasn't quite sure. That's why I called. I thought you would know as the expert.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, it's a fir tree.
Spruce Wayne:Ah, fir sure.
Dr. Schnitzel:It's one of those Christmas trees right Spruce, fir
Spruce Wayne:Yeah, kind of like the tree that's on the logo, exactly.
Dr. Schnitzel:You know what's funny about the whole spa and the tree, because you should probably know it if you're really a Dutch person.
Spruce Wayne:Well, I don't know, I was really just focused on my name being included on a joke.
Dr. Schnitzel:Okay, let me tell you. Okay, the word De Spar" in Dutch really means the fir tree. It doesn't have to do anything with saving, but the word spa in German does mean save, save money.
Spruce Wayne:So did my Dutch brothers fall into a pun.
Dr. Schnitzel:They created a pun for German speakers without even knowing it. So the Spar brand was founded in Amsterdam, which is your capital city, by the way.
Spruce Wayne:Yeah, it's pretty close by to where I live. I'm not going to tell you though.
Dr. Schnitzel:Oh yeah, you have a secret, secret lair. What are you talking about? Oh, nothing. There's this guy in the States that has a similar name and he's yeah.
Spruce Wayne:I told you he's my cousin, Bruce. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he borrowed my voice for his secret ide.. I got to go rescue a kid off windmill.
Mr. Giggles:Okay, great, do that. Well, that was an interesting phone call.
Dr. Schnitzel:It's good to know we have fans in the Netherlands as well.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, I mean, I couldn't even get a word in edgewise in that conversation.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, he was pretty intense.
Mr. Giggles:You know you did all the research on the grocery store thing, so I didn't have much to contribute there.
Dr. Schnitzel:It's fantastic how much you can say about groceries and supermarkets here in Austria, vienna. I mean the whole spa idea that it's a fir tree. Is this great pun that they even play on in their meat section because, as I said, the bar is fir and in German it's die Tanne. Yeah, tanne is the word for the tree, but there's a brand, the butcher of spa, the whole company sub-company is called Tann, the TA and N. Is that a?
Mr. Giggles:German brand or an Austrian brand?
Dr. Schnitzel:It's the own spa brand. It's a spa brand.
Mr. Giggles:Oh, so they're really leaning into the whole tree motif.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yes, and, by the way, we asked this question yesterday. I asked the question, you asked the question how you call the place where butcher works Right, a butchery, a butchery? Yeah, and you know, I have a good friend called Mr Algebra.
Mr. Giggles:I saw that Mr Algebra did comment on our Instagram page.
Dr. Schnitzel:So shout out to Mr Algebra, who was the first to reveal those things to us that we don't know.
Mr. Giggles:And look, listeners, we're not too proud to admit when we're wrong or when we maybe don't know the right word, so feel free to correct us on our Instagram page, right, because?
Dr. Schnitzel:my doctor title is only in Schnitzelri, that's right.
Mr. Giggles:We can only be experts in so many things.
Dr. Schnitzel:Experts in such a narrow thing, but there's so much more we can uncover and discover concerning supermarkets and buying groceries.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, there really is a lot to talk about, but as we are hoping to provide some helpful information to foreigners living in Austria, or maybe internationals who are looking to move to Austria, maybe we can either scare you away or give you some useful tips.
Dr. Schnitzel:I mean there must be a reason for us to pick that topic. I mean there must be something special about it, right?
Mr. Giggles:Well, there's certainly something special. I mean, you just were walking back from the grocery store today on the way to record.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yes, I just got my lunch there.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, and I guess that's. I don't think. I've often said while living in the States that I just grabbed my lunch from the grocery store. But why not? What's wrong with you? Well, because we have so many other options. You know, we can just drive through fast food place and just grab something. I think the only times I would get food to eat at the grocery store was like fried chicken. You're fried chicken at the grocery store.
Mr. Giggles:Fried chicken is some of the best fried chicken. I can't prove it. We can argue about that, but fried grocery stores do fried chicken very well.
Dr. Schnitzel:Fried chicken is the best kind of chicken. It's a green.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, I could sit with that. That would be a different podcast episode. I suppose Less is made into a schnitzel, but that's not a different one. But it's also fried, so it's just a different form of chicken, but I think we're getting especially, especially when it's pork.
Dr. Schnitzel:We're getting like that episode, we're getting way out of work. Yeah, so what do you have? Yeah, I just had a. What do you have? I had a mozzarella sandwich, one of the pre-made ones. The pre-made ones because it's just bagged, it sits there, you can pick it up and just, I got myself a drink, went straight on to a cashier and I paid. Good, and I did pay.
Mr. Giggles:Good stuff, that is something that's similar to grocery stores in the States.
Spruce Wayne:You also pay your stores.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, I do remember one of the first lessons that was given to us as new staff was how to order a Zemo at the grocery store.
Dr. Schnitzel:So you just had arrived in Vienna and they took you.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, it was like day two or three. We were doing stuff in the school and I think it was Trisha Klein, a shout out Klein family, like they sat us down. I remember her like either she was at the whiteboard like writing things down, maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I do remember that we were writing down our order. Did you have to slide show about it? I'm sure Matt put together a great slide show, but I do remember them like walking us through the process of what to say.
Dr. Schnitzel:As in theory or literally, walking you there and both.
Mr. Giggles:Wow, yeah, they walked us through the steps before we actually walked over all together as a group.
Dr. Schnitzel:So how did you feel like was there hot beating when you first ordered?
Mr. Giggles:Oh for sure, yeah, but that was a very, very stress inducing thing initially. Right, because they're just kind of waiting for you to order, and there was a whole group of us, so everybody was like practicing what they were going to say, trying to choose the meat.
Dr. Schnitzel:And also it can be stressful for locals and non-locals, this ordering process, especially at lunch time, when there's lots of customers going at the same time and there's only one or two people at the counter and they have to serve 10 people and they have all different orders, and if you don't get your order right away, then you're like okay, get back in line, yeah no, that's you.
Mr. Giggles:That can happen as well. It's like ordering beverages at a restaurant when that waiter comes up, you better be ready.
Dr. Schnitzel:The friendliness in Austria.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, I feel like it's kind of a good introduction to doing anything in Austria. That's like a good first step, like a good hurdle to cross as an expat.
Mr. Giggles:Like if you can go back there to the grocery store and order yourself some lunch, and you can do it without having to switch to English. You can practice it basically every day. Yeah, yeah, and you get a nice reward. Yeah, nice reward. It's a little stomach, a delicious little sandwich. Yeah, I mean, that's certainly something different from American grocery stores. I think also maybe not that it exists being the difference, but maybe the amount that it's used, like the frequency with which you will go to the grocery store to buy a sandwich for lunch quick, is probably higher here than it would be in the States. At least it was for me, or it is for me.
Dr. Schnitzel:That sounds pretty interesting because you'll think the concept of stores, supermarkets we get bread and milk and all those basic supplies. Wouldn't they be the same in the States and in Austria, or like at least Europe and North America?
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, I guess the concept obviously is the same.
Dr. Schnitzel:You go in, you grab something, whatever you need, and then you pay yeah, and then you leave.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, yeah, but there's. I think the biggest difference that probably most expats could agree with, most American expats would agree with, is that time between paying and leaving. That's the crucial. I think that's the crucial time of difference Is where most things can go wrong. Yeah, I think it's probably the highest stress point of the grocery shopping experience.
Dr. Schnitzel:The highest stress point of living in Austria.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, period, maybe I don't know there's some pretty high stress points. Okay, we'll talk about that. But at least for grocery shopping and what I'm referring to what Lucas is referring to probably as well is bagging your items, because what would the expectation for a local be in?
Dr. Schnitzel:your grocery shopping. If I buy more than just a sandwich and a drink, I can buy some groceries for home. I mean, you have your little cart, your, what do you call it? Your trolley, your cart. We call it a cart. Yeah, yeah, who calls it a trolley? The Brits, I think Brits. Okay, yeah, so we call it. We call it Enkopf's wagon, of course that's your go.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, yeah, you have to say it like that every time. Yeah, every time. Boys, where is my Enkopf's wagon?
Dr. Schnitzel:So you have it filled up with groceries, so I fill it up yeah, check out. So the checkout. There's this little, how you call that, the black thing that moves, the. We call it Föderband.
Mr. Giggles:What do you call it? I don't put it on the. Let's look it up. Yeah, maybe look it up. This is just good. This is a good podcasting right here, Good show.
Dr. Schnitzel:What is it called? The? It's like an escalator for for things, but like a moving walkway, it does. It does four items. It's like the thing in the in the airport, right, yeah, what's it called? There's a conveyor conveyor belt.
Mr. Giggles:Ah, conveyor belt, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. I mean, I guess that's what it's called, or.
Dr. Schnitzel:Föderband.
Mr. Giggles:No, never heard that. Put it on the From the ear, from the ear, yeah, but like what would we say? Well, dear listener, if you have any ideas about what you would say when you're putting your items on the check-out stand belt, I don't know. Anyways, I think you all know what we're talking about the flat food escalator, the food mover, food moving system.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, they scan. It's my turn. Decrete you with quick and mostly friendly gruskott. Yeah, you would be nice if you'd read them back. And then the check-out and check-out and they are like beep, beep, beep and then you quickly put the things either back into your Ankoff's wagon, your cart or right away in your bag, that you either brought along with you Exactly or purchased. Yeah, you actually have to also put that on the belt if you want an extra paperback, because it can bring you home.
Dr. Schnitzel:And you also pay a couple of cents for that. You got to prepare.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, you got to prepare. They don't have those afterwards, that's the thing they're in the line. You have to have an idea of what you need.
Dr. Schnitzel:When you're done with shopping, you have like 20 items just rolling around at the cash here, yeah, and you're like, oh, I don't have a bag. Then worst case scenario is you have to go back and squeeze them behind the other customers.
Mr. Giggles:You got to read through their lines. Actually, go and have an excuse, please, they're lying, they're lying.
Dr. Schnitzel:And then you take a bag or two, and usually they're below the whole bag.
Spruce Wayne:Yeah, they're not easy to get to.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, you should really have to get on your knees, basically Get them out. Or sometimes you will ask another customer can you get me one? Sure, but the customer might say like no, I'm sorry, I'm busy.
Mr. Giggles:I'm waiting to pay your.
Dr. Schnitzel:There's no way, no way, I can't do that, and then you pack all your stuff and which this is the most stressful part of grocery shopping.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yes, Because it's easy to say you get everything done and you pay and everything, but the next customer is just waiting in line. The cashier is not waiting for you, not at all, never, never, never waiting. So and there are no more dividers If your potatoes and apples and oranges and milk cartons and everything are just still in the area and the next customer comes in like and suddenly their potatoes and their bread is like on top of your stuff, although you know the bill over here has this little swinging divider thing.
Mr. Giggles:Some do have that, but not most of them don't. But I found that most of the time there's just a whole bunch of extra stuff sitting.
Dr. Schnitzel:They don't even use it.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, like they use it as a storage space for other things, and so then there's packs of gum that you could buy, which is after the time you've already bought everything, but getting all your stuff off of the conveyor belt.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, I guess conveyor belt. Yeah, there it is.
Mr. Giggles:Float naturally.
Mr. Giggles:Getting it off of that rack and into your Einkaufswagen or into a bag or whatever to get it over to the packing shelf. That's kind of. The unique thing is that every at least the different thing from grocery stores in America is that there's packing shelves where then everybody goes over to take the stuff out of the wagon and put it into the bag. And I guess the biggest difference in the grocery store there is an employee of the grocery store who's taking the things from the person who's scanning the items. Then that person puts them directly into the bags. Much less stressful, it sounds like way less stressful because I mean you're getting served.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, it's Because you haven't really gotten into this deep enough, because it's one thing that your own groceries are on top, or the other customers are on top and mixing with your own, but then people get really annoyed with you, right? If you're not fast enough, the best thing that can happen to you is a stair, some mild, annoyed stair from some. Either the employee or the customer.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, probably both of them, yeah, probably both what's going on. And probably the people in line as well.
Dr. Schnitzel:The next customer, the next, the next, the next, because you are holding their day as being delayed, and in some other cases they might even comment and say move along, yeah. Or like what you doing here, yeah, dummy, dummy. And I have to say I mean that happens to locals too. If could happen to me, oh of course. But after one or two times you learn your lesson.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, we learned that lesson really quick, you can basically tell who's not from around just by shopping.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah just go to the grocery store and find the phone. Where are you from? I'm from Australia.
Mr. Giggles:I think to those early days of, like you know we lived pretty close to the Mercur is now Superbilla, villa Plus. Villa Plus, which is the amount of hustle that you had to have. You had to be putting those things back in the cart as quickly as the ladies scanning them, which I have found myself Like if I go back to the States at any point. I go to the grocery store you get, so you expect like you won't get through all. Well, there's that little bit of like stress immediately and like as stuff starts coming out, I start to grab it, like I started grabbing stuff to just kind of put it in my bag, and they're like well, sir, we can put that in the bag for you. Oh, sorry, I'm not from around here.
Dr. Schnitzel:I don't know, you put it in your German accent. Yeah.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, so that takes some getting. It's like a simple thing in life that takes a little bit of getting used to. But why is that? Yeah, why is it such self-service over here? You think in the socialist paradise that is Austria that'd be another job.
Dr. Schnitzel:I mean, you're getting at something here, because at the point, what kind of people would usually be employed? To the packing in the States?
Mr. Giggles:Usually like teenagers. My son was a bagger for a while.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, usually In flying it's not a high-paid job.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, it wasn't a very high-paid job at all.
Dr. Schnitzel:The main cashier probably gets more than the bagger.
Mr. Giggles:Bagger wants to become a cashier.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, that's like you work yourself up and living it one day. And that's the whole point in socialist paradise that it comes with a price. Of course, there's lots and lots of extra fees and extra taxes to be paid. So every single worker is twice as much, probably, compared to the States. So you can make a choice.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, you can start cutting costs wherever you can in order to.
Dr. Schnitzel:And so in the States you can hire two people for the same kind of job, perhaps, or at least one, and a half.
Mr. Giggles:That's a hard time job. One and a half salaries.
Dr. Schnitzel:But this one and a half salary. Half of that salary would go into taxes in Austria, so that's why there's only one person there and no one's there to help you bag your things.
Mr. Giggles:So there's a lot of different grocery store companies? Yeah, there are a variety of grocery stores and, with Vienna specifically being a more urban environment, grocery stores seem to be smaller and more like neighborhood, exactly Neighborhood centering.
Dr. Schnitzel:Like in urban Vienna, you're basically in walking distance. You can't really walk more than I don't know two, three, four, five blocks without just running into a grocery store. Yeah, it's true. As a matter of fact, the density in Austria or at least Vienna, I think it's all of Austria is super high compared to worldwide density. Supermarket per square kilometer, square mile is pretty much world champions.
Mr. Giggles:Well, when we first moved back this most recent time, I mean, we were within kind of like an equidistant walk to a location from almost every grocery store, company or brand in the country. Like they all had locations all kind of placed together and we could go to whatever one we wanted to and it wasn't like, oh, I'm going to go to the closest one because they were all the same distance. So that's not the deciding factor. Yeah, I mean, I think the deciding factor ends up being like where can you get most of what you have on your list? At one place. That makes sense, right. But I think I feel like there's specific stores that people like to go to for specific items.
Dr. Schnitzel:And some also are divided up by sizes. So that's when we come to the spa brand. For example, right the spa is just one chain of supermarkets, but there's spa, euro spa and inter spa. Yeah, so the spa, if you see like a spa logo somewhere, like it's just a regular grocery store, you can buy these supplies. Yeah, all the basics. When you go to euro spa, that's like one size up, yeah, so that's bigger A few more things.
Dr. Schnitzel:You get a few more things there. You might even get some a few like simple kitchen items there. Yeah, Stuff like seasonal stuff. Yeah, seasonal stuff, office supplies you get some office supplies greeting cards, yeah, yeah. Or, for example, if you're looking into buying I don't know dog food, cat food, they have a bigger variety yeah, then yeah, when you get dog food at the smaller ones too, but if looking for a specific one, it's more likely to get them there. And then there's the inter spa, which is the largest.
Mr. Giggles:Which that's about as close of a comparison to a grocery store in the States. Yes, like your standard grocery store in the States is an inter spa.
Dr. Schnitzel:The only difference is you don't get guns here, but you get them in the States. Everything else is kind of the same.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, not many parts of the country can you get a gun in a grocery store, but I suppose there are some places.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, I mean, I've been to Texas. Yeah, I was. Yeah, okay, it's funny like you bought my Guns at a toy store there, yeah, so here's the bread section, here's the milk section, here's the gun section, self defense section.
Mr. Giggles:So do you have a favorite chain of grocery stores that you are specifically loyal to?
Dr. Schnitzel:Well, I've got to say most of the time I would probably go to the villa. It's closest to you. It's close to you, although I have a spa, not like, probably like. It just probably makes it's like 10 steps farther away.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, Well, that's kind of that. It's out at that point.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, that's too far, yeah, too far. However, like it's really it kind of grows on you, I would say I mean, that's kind of of course. That's what marketing is like. I mean good brands, they just want to make you a lawyer or a lawyer customer. But, like for the longest time where I used to live before, it's like spa and villa are probably the biggest players in their like, their own category, and then you have others like Hoover and Lidl, which are more like cheaper and kind of different style of chopping experience let's call it this way, but spa and villa kind of the big rivals here. So the place that if before the next spa, actually next spa was 10, 15 minute walk but I had two billas in, like you know one or two minute walk distance. Yeah, guess who won? Yeah, also. And then there's also the villa plus. Right, although I actually liked when you call it super, villa, super villa.
Spruce Wayne:Yeah, that's a way better name I don't know.
Dr. Schnitzel:It's been rebranded that well. They didn't ask. Up until a couple of years ago the brand was called Merkur, yeah, and then they just rebranded other villa roof. Everything is now villa villa. You know, I should call it villa villa too.
Spruce Wayne:Villa, villa.
Dr. Schnitzel:Because it's villa plus Villa plus. What Villa square like villa villa.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, yeah, you know we have a. The closest grocery store to us is a villa and I very rarely go to it, even though it's closer, because I think it doesn't seem cheaper OK, kind of belies its name and it just doesn't seem to have like the things that have the good meat selection or whatever. So I find myself going farther to the spa because I can kind of get the things that I want. Yeah, it is interesting talking to people about like occasionally, like Holfer and Lidl and even the penny marked you know three of the smaller ones They'll occasionally have like random American items, like they were the first stores that were like carrying pop tarts. You know pretty uniquely American breakfast snack. Couldn't get them here, hey, couldn't get them really anywhere in Austria. But then a few years back they just started showing up in Holfer on my special section or whatever, and then the word goes around the network hey, they've got pop tarts at Holfer.
Mr. Giggles:Everybody goes to Holfer and they sell out.
Mr. Giggles:They're gonna have to order more and then they order more and then I guess it because now I think you can find them in more stores. But it's funny how how we have certain stores for certain items. I know one of our friends are upstairs neighbors like she goes to on Saturdays when she does all her shopping. Like she goes to four different grocery stores. So she'll go to the one, come back, unload everything, take her car back out, go to the next one, Because you know you kind of find what places have the good prices on certain things. Does she go because of the price or because of the actual items? I think it might be a combination, Like there's some things that you can really only get at a certain place at a decent price maybe.
Dr. Schnitzel:That's true, because those I mean the Holfer and the little one and the Benny, they kind of are the cheaper section compared to Billa and Spa. But they also have lots of their own brands like. They kind of have like or no label. Yeah, that's kind of yeah, and the labeling makes it a little expensive. Right, because you might get a Twix and Snickers at Billa and Spa but then at Holfer you just get like some caramel chocolate bar, snicks and Snicks and some and peanut chocolate bar. That's cool, I don't know.
Mr. Giggles:Well, I think there's obviously with smaller stores they have less. I mean, by definition, they're going to have less variety because they have less space. So I think when it comes to like these types, when you're looking for options, bigger stores are good. I've also found the Turkish markets are usually a pretty great source because they have cheaper meat.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, they specialize on those.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, they have different specialties and different.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, and you can get stuff that you wouldn't get otherware, right Otherware.
Spruce Wayne:Yeah, otherware.
Dr. Schnitzel:That's fine.
Mr. Giggles:English learner is fine. We laughed at every time I tried to use German.
Dr. Schnitzel:My mind went elsewhere. That's why it went otherware. It went otherware, it's other out.
Mr. Giggles:But the rise of international food stores in very specific places where you can get things. That just makes for a very interesting experience, one that I don't think I really had as much in the States. Right, there's a lower store per person ratio, I would imagine in the States, with it being more spread out and dependent on cars or whatever I mean. Obviously I had stores that I knew would be cheaper for certain things, but it's not to the same level that it is. I feel here you certainly don't have the level of conversation amongst people of what they found at a certain store.
Dr. Schnitzel:Because you basically only go to the same store all the time.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, it's going to be the closest one, you get into your routine of where you go, but then somebody says oh, did you know that they have tortillas? I think is an interesting case study, if you will, in this whole thing. Like when we first moved here, there was one brand of tortilla, two sizes, and you could find them at. Maybe I think at that point, like Mercur was one of the only ones, that was now Villa Plus. But now, like Inderspar has like three different brands of tortillas, it's wild. It's wild. And when they like release a new or they have a new brand on the shelves, like that's the talk of the town.
Dr. Schnitzel:Well, especially, of course, if you're not from around, and you I mean you, for example, I think you value a tortilla as much as I do, yeah, but like if I was living in the States, for example, and then they bring in some European brand or something, you wouldn't notice it. Yeah, you probably wouldn't notice, but I was like, hey, finally, I can buy this here. So. But I think I've also observed that this selection of things offered in the stores have become more international, generally speaking, because even the smaller stores you can find a lot of Turkish stuff now, because there's a lot of people with Turkish backgrounds in Vienna and there's obviously a market for it and they noticed that.
Mr. Giggles:Well, let's take it back to the tortillas.
Dr. Schnitzel:So you weren't done yet. I'm sorry.
Mr. Giggles:No, I've I did. It made me think of, like, the value side of it. Because, like when we, when we moved back to America, I went shopping a couple days after we had just come back and and obviously tortillas being a high value item, like I walked down the aisle that has the tortillas in the States and I got overwhelmed by the amount of options. Because, like the, the tortilla aisle is like like the tea aisle here, like the section where you go find tea in in, let's say, an Irish bar a little bit bigger, where they have more options of tea, and it's just like just stacks and stacks of tea.
Mr. Giggles:That's what it was like with tortillas and I had gotten so used to just being like, okay, well, I need big tortillas. I grabbed the one package of big tortillas and then I I go back home and it's just, oh no, what do I? And I, like I remember I'm going to get vulnerable for a moment. I remember crying in the tortilla aisle Because that was so like. I mean, I don't know if they were tears of joy, possibly partially tears of joy, but just like the amount of option was just overwhelming it was crazy.
Mr. Giggles:There's a Tex-Max tears not Tex-Max tears how dare you? Oh, it's not Tex-Max. There's a big difference. So that's for a different podcast. It's kind of an interesting learning Thing if you go to a new country to just walk around the grocery store.
Dr. Schnitzel:That's true because, you know, some years ago, when I lived a different place, I was also there's also this one supermarket I was always go to and at some point they were like really reshelving everything, like they would just like the whole sort of man. You say sort of man, do we say I don't say sort of this, the sort of more Assortment.
Dr. Schnitzel:Assortment, yeah, all the sounds cooler when you say sort of off, the grand sort of more. They replaced lots of things. Basically, the management said, okay, we have so such and such, so many showing me shelves, so much space. Okay, and that's like all intention.
Mr. Giggles:Like this there's all the items with dust on them. Yeah, like they have to go.
Dr. Schnitzel:So if they collect too much dust they go and then you get replaced the stuff that people actually buy. Yeah, so I don't like to change that from one day to the next. When it got back there and the new Sortimaw had been Stacked in place, basically what, what they had expanded was the whole sweet section, like chocolate, oh dear, and the whole alcohol section makes sense, so that's like those two are the biggest section of the whole store, like something. Get like a small spot, spot for the bread and small spot for the flour and sugar, but then, like it was a really long aisle was just sweets and alcohol. It's funny so and I guess that's held, yeah you go with what's going out the door.
Dr. Schnitzel:I mean, you know the kind of the proportions when you go into a store here. Yeah, when you talk about the wine section and the beer section and and even the harder liquor, I don't know, is it like a sixth or fifth of the whole place usually.
Mr. Giggles:I mean we'd have to bring Mr Sattler on as a guest to break down the give him an assignment.
Dr. Schnitzel:I thought you were gonna say you have to bring on alcohol again.
Mr. Giggles:I mean it certainly is a Very robust section of any. There aren't many Food categories that get their own aisle right, because it's really literally out there a whole aisle. I was in a smaller villa yesterday and there's maybe Six or seven aisles to the, to the entire grocery store, but there's one and a half aisles.
Dr. Schnitzel:That's right, so that's just alcohol. That's just like my spontaneous.
Spruce Wayne:I think there's six one fifths about right there.
Dr. Schnitzel:Sure, maybe something like 10 to 20 percent, right off the store.
Mr. Giggles:Well, you go in the bigger inner spar like they've got a the whole back corner. It seems it's an alcohol section, wine and everything else. So I mean part of that is in the States we have liquor stores, that there are small markets as well, but they sell predominantly alcohol.
Dr. Schnitzel:So I guess that's, you know, main purpose. Yeah, we don't have as many of those here now.
Mr. Giggles:I guess those types of like smaller convenience stores we we call them also in the States yeah, they are very convenient because they're usually like with a gas station or kind, so like there seems to be a rise of those types of stores Even here, like many of the gas stations have started to include a place where you could also get, you know, you're kind of your basic, basic food items.
Dr. Schnitzel:Right, they have like a like a small deli section, right. Well sometimes right right and it used to be like you get me, you get some chewing gum, like a newspaper and some chocolate.
Mr. Giggles:That's about it road trip stuff, we're trip stuff, thanks, that's all. But I think that some of that has to do with something that we haven't talked about yet is the operating hours of grocery stores.
Dr. Schnitzel:Because that's the one thing that people moving here notice pretty quickly. Yeah, within one week. Yeah, good, seven days.
Mr. Giggles:We'll put you through the cycle.
Dr. Schnitzel:Whenever you arrive here, monday or Thursday, because you might not look very happy when you see your own self Reflecting in the, the glass store of your favorite supermarket, when it doesn't open.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, because Sundays and I can't speak for every family in the States, but like that's a big shopping day for grocery shopping. You know, you go to church in the morning, go out to lunch or something and then maybe in the early afternoon we go do our grocery shopping. Just like up for the week it was just what we would do Usually fewer things planned or whatever on that day, and Saturday is planned with a lot of other things, and so that whole process of the stores not being open on Sundays leads to a different pace of life. Mm-hmm, that throws people off, especially the first couple weeks. Yeah, I mean first couple months and years. I think you always have to kind of think through, yeah, to make sure that you get out on a Saturday, but even then on Saturday because early they close early and the really is really really compared to like the regular closing times as well.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, yeah.
Mr. Giggles:I mean six o'clock a 6 pm Close time. That's on Saturday, that's. But even regular hours for grocery stores closing at 8 o'clock, maybe seven thirty, seven thirty or whatever usually not later than that. There's not Ever past eight, and so even that process of of getting everything done before eight o'clock is down right on American right. We, we deserve the right to go out at one o'clock and buy groceries if we want to.
Dr. Schnitzel:My freedom go.
Mr. Giggles:It takes a little bit of thinking ahead Maybe speaks even to our last conversation about like friendships and it's a little bit harder to do kind of an impromptu invitation for people on like a Sunday, like after church. Yeah, you got it. Unless you already have something planned or prepared because you can't just go out to the grocery store quick get what you need for the day, Unless you want to brave one of the train station grocery stores.
Dr. Schnitzel:That's really only for the brave but specifically that's for the brave only.
Mr. Giggles:The Prottestern Villa is a very interesting experience.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yes, so that's one of the few supermarkets opening the doors on a Sunday.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, and it's wild in there. I found myself during baseball season, you know, when we have games on Sundays. That's usually a kind of part of the part of the process is that I go into the Prottestern Villa.
Mr. Giggles:I'm either extremely courageous or just a dummy, because I don't plan ahead well enough. But you know, I'll go in there and get a couple of Semmels to throw my bag for the long day out at the baseball field or something, and sometimes those lines will be all the way to the back of the store. Yes, I mean that's a like 25 people in line.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, it's not the smallest stores there, no, it's quite.
Mr. Giggles:It's a little bit bigger, but that's an experience that is kind of uniquely.
Dr. Schnitzel:maybe some of the other, I mean sometimes people would be standing in line outside the store to even to get in.
Mr. Giggles:Right, that's right. If it gets extremely crowded, they just shut off.
Dr. Schnitzel:They don't let you in, and then, even once you're in, you have to stand in line and 25 other customers.
Mr. Giggles:And that's with me going in at like 8.30 in the morning, like before people have gotten moving for the day, there's not as many people out doing stuff. If you go in the mid-afternoon, you really need something if you're willing to go into the store at that time. Yeah, I mean, if you're thinking about moving to Austria, just be ready for kind of a change of pace and how you do growth shopping.
Dr. Schnitzel:Let's end on a nice note. Okay, good, because even people who've moved here and first of all there's the confused, and they're annoyed and they're angry, they're depressed because stores do not open the way they're used to. But at some point some people have said they learn to appreciate that because it does get much quieter on a Sunday or like in the evenings, and all the rushing and all the stress of a regular day seems to fade away a little bit more.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, it gets compressed into those hours right before the store.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yes, like going into the grocery store at 7.30 is a bad idea. You get shamed because you don't pack your own bag.
Mr. Giggles:The last couple of months I've found myself in the grocery store at like 4.30 or 5 on a Saturday afternoon. Shouldn't have been on a Saturday. I do know, and every time I walk in there I go why didn't I come earlier? Why didn't I do something the day before? Because there's a lot of people in there getting their last minute things.
Dr. Schnitzel:You really have to be very strategic because, like when I go shopping on a Saturday last time I went ideally for me Saturday morning we have some breakfast and some lunch. We're prepped for that, and then after lunch maybe I'll go, but not too late, because by the time it's three or four o'clock all the fresh items are gone, like the vegetables, so you have to get earlier than that. So once I was like, ok, I'm going to go around 11 o'clock, but then I didn't realize that that supermarket usually gets all the deliveries from the truck at that time and the employees they have to put them in the shelves, putting everything out.
Dr. Schnitzel:Everything like was in boxes all around, and then a ton of people came in at lunchtime yeah, so then grabbing lunch or doing their weekend shopping, yeah, getting in there early, and so like I couldn't even get around the corner, sometimes you have to go back and get. Let the other customer pass. 11 o'clock is not a good time. Four o'clock is not a good time. Eight o'clock comes too early.
Mr. Giggles:I think, generally speaking, avoiding the grocery store on a Saturday is probably a good lesson.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yes, which some people do, and they all go Friday afternoon. Right, you can get very crowded, which that makes Friday afternoon very.
Mr. Giggles:So Thursday morning as well is the best time to go grocery shopping. Yeah, we didn't even talk about the very many holidays that land on weekends, those times where you have a holiday on a Monday and the grocery store I mean around Christmas time. It's especially because you know that Christmas Eve is going to close, early Christmas day is going to be closed Day after Christmas going to be closed.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, so if the 25th of December and the 26th they're both public holidays in Austria? Yeah, so if they're going on Monday, tuesday, yeah, the stores close.
Mr. Giggles:Friday, saturday, yeah, any time that like, they the stores close Saturday Six o'clock six PM.
Dr. Schnitzel:Yeah, then Sunday is closed. Monday's closed. Tuesday's closed the next chance you have is Wednesday morning to go shopping. Yeah, that's tough, those are tough, those are tough days.
Mr. Giggles:It's a hard life Prepare Got to really prepare but especially tough on. You know those are traditionally going to be days where you're maybe having guests over, you're family over.
Dr. Schnitzel:Exactly yeah, you got to be yeah Guests on the 26th of December. You better do your shopping.
Mr. Giggles:Yeah, leftovers On the 19th. Yeah, leftover, yeah, but it works out. But I do think that, again, to end on a positive note, there is a nice change of pace that comes into that, where you know that, okay, well, very rarely is needing to get something truly an emergency, and so it allows you to just kind of take a breath and say, all right, I'll just get that on the next day, be fine, enjoy my time. Not, you know, not having to go, not being able to go to the grocery store. Yeah, I mean, there's enough solutions that it's not the worst thing to do. All right, oh, I think we've talked about grocery stores probably far longer than anybody wanted us to.
Dr. Schnitzel:At any point in my life, I've never talked this much, but it's in it.
Mr. Giggles:I mean, if we are looking at helping expats and just talking about our experience, this is a thing that people spend a lot of time or a lot of thought when it comes to grocery store shopping and it becomes a pretty vital part of your life.
Dr. Schnitzel:So there's enough differences that can cause a lot of stress. It's a necessity. It's good to know what to look for and watch out for.
Mr. Giggles:Oh good, as always, when you're leaving that grocery store, make sure that you don't say good to bye-bye, Good to bye-bye.
