Unlike in Kraków, in Sevenoaks, there's always something open when you need to buy odd groceries.
On Sunday nights, it's the Sainsbury's local at the petrol station by the railway (I told you I live at the dodgy end).
Last Sunday, I had a urgent need to buy emergency dark chocolate to make emergency chocolate caramel shortbread (I would have taken my own photo but... uh... we already ate it).
I selected suitable chocolate and took it to the cash desk.
Cashier: Hi
Me: Hi
Cashier: Do you have any petrol to pay for today?
Me: No
Cashier: Do you need any help with your packing today?
Me: uh... no it's fine, honestly.
Cashier: Mumble mumble mumble bags today?
Me: I'm sorry?
Cashier: Will you be reusing your bags today?
(I'm still not sure that this is exactly what she said)
Me: Ummm.... I suppose so... I usually use them for something.
Cashier (apologetically): We're supposed to ask everyone.
She didn't elaborate on why. And since she had just handed me the bag herself, clearly I wasn't going to be reusing it today. I was confused. What precisely did J Sainsbury want me to do with my plastic bag? And would I be held to account for my irresponsible bag use every time I approached the checkout? Should I start to think up interesting things to do with my shopping bags so that I have something to tell the cashier every time?
Life is complicated here.
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8 comments:
Aren't there any shops in Kraków that are open 24h a day? That's hard to believe!
Of course there are 24h shops in Krakow.
Pinolona is in phase III.
Grass is finally much greener in Sevenoaks than in Krakow ;)
It seems that she has settled in pretty fast...which is good.
Congratulations Pinolona. In 6 months you will not even know that Krakow existed ;)
No! no no no !!!
I know there are 24h shops in Kraków!
There's the one at the top of Starowiślna for a start, opposite Poczty Głownej.
And then there are all those 24/7 Alkohole in the same vicinity...
I won't ever forget that Kraków exists!! How can you say that?! I love Kraków!!
Anonymous 2 you are horrid.
It's just that in Poland you are aware that Sunday is Sunday because things are shut, and in the UK you wouldn't know...
They started a plastic bag levy in Poland just recently. Fantastic. Now, instead of getting a seperate bag for each onion, tomato and cucumber you buy, people will finally start bringing their own.
They have that in France: it's very distressing - at lunchtimes we went to this huge Intermarche in the middle of nowhere and had to run from checkout to checkout looking for the last one who hadn't given out her bag ration yet.
Woe betide you if you Forget your Bags and have to juggle five tomatoes, a baguette, two cans of tuna and box of Jordan's Crunchy on the metro home...
You see, this would be the FIRST thing to send me straight to the travel agent to buy a ticket back to Poland. The whole rigmarole involved at the supermarket cash-desk drove me nuts when I lived in England and I don't miss it one little bit.
Do you collect points, do you want cash-back, do you want school vouchers, do you want this bag or that, do you want to adopt a polar bear..........AAAARRRGGGHHH
No, I just want to pay for my groceries and leave as quickly as I possibly can. Thank you.
I want to adopt a polar bear!
(and they always ask if I have a klub konesera card at Alma. It's coming, just wait...)
News from Warsaw: Auchan has stopped handing out swathes of Auchan-branded plastic bags to put your groceries into. Instead, they hand out swathes of unbranded plastic bags. Benefits to Auchan:
1) Cheaper - not having to overprint bags in red and green
2) NOT US MISTER! - when the bags end up as witches' knickers in the highways and the hedges, the Finger of Guilt is not pointed at Jeziorki's favourite French hypermarket.
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