The Local Grocery Stores

 We have four stores to choose from which are within a one mile walking range from our home.  There are other grocery stores in town further from home but we haven't checked those out yet.  Each of our closer stores are actually department stores and they each have a large grocery section.  There is Soriana, Chedraui, H.E.B. and Walmart.  They are each quite large and we haven't really chosen a "favorite" store yet.  We like the yogurt at Chedraui and the fruit and vegetables at Soriana always look good.  Sister Day said she gets her hamburger at Walmart but that H.E.B. is where she usually shops.  H.E.B. has more of an "American" feel to it and of course, the prices are slightly higher but we can find things there we just can't find at the other stores like graham cracker pie crusts, shredded cheddar cheese, powdered sugar, and on occasion, russet potatoes.  Each store has a wonderful fresh bread section.  Anyway, here are pictures of what we see at the grocery stores and this is a mix of our four favorite stores.

Buying freshly baked bread.  At each store we pick up a pizza sized and shaped pan and mental tongs and choose the bread we want and then take it to the stand where they put it in a paper bag and put a bar coded price sticker on it.  From there we put the bread in our cart with our other groceries to take to the check out stand.  Of course, on Mondays about 6 p.m. a nice man comes by our home with his bicycle and basket selling fresh bread for less than what we pay for it in the stores.




 It may be these candy displays are special because it is Christmas time but there is a large selection of American candy for anyone willing to pay the price--but no York Mints. ;o(

It is quite normal to have big tubs of cut up chicken that is shown in front in this photo and in the back are tables with cut up beef.  At first it was a shock to see the unpackaged meat just heaped together but we are getting used to the idea..

There is a large selection of chips available.  We have actually only  bought one bag of chips and that was out of curiosity to see what they were like.  It was a mix and tastes good though it seemed salty--but then we don't eat much salt.

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 There is a large selection of fruits and vegetables.  Some of these things we recognize and some are new to us.

 Some things I am not sure that we will get used to but at least these pig heads were under glass and not heaped on a table.

The don't celebrate Thanksgiving Day here and the turkeys come out when it gets closer to Christmas--though in asking around, it is not a preferred food for some of our friends.

 There is quite a large selection of canned and bottled goods.  We just thought this clerk was doing an amazing job of balancing while stacking the shelves.

 Since Walmart is located on the second floor of the building, they have flat moving ramps to get people and carts up to the store.  The carts have metal wheels and the ramps are magnetic so the carts don't slip while they travel.

We took these two photos while standing in Walmart's "express lane."  Everyone stands in one line and we patiently move our way to the front of the line.  Once we get to the front, we are served from the first available clerk at one of the six available registers.  We all seem to move fairly quickly when using this express lane.

We were silly enough to do a little shopping during mid-day at H.E.B. on December 30th and we weren't the only ones that had the same idea!