I've been in Copenhagen for just a little over three weeks now. The first week was a pretty steep learning curve as they do things quite differently on this side of the globe. Going into my fourth week, I think I've been surprised by enough. Now I feel a little as if I could - for a fleeting second - go out in public without making a complete fool of myself by committing ten social faux pas in a row. Here are just a few observations and snippets of what grocery shopping looks like in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Grocery Shopping
For starters, the grocery shops in Copenhagen are like enhanced, futuristic versions of the supermarkets I'm used to. Call them super supermarkets. In some stores, you don't even need to hand money to cashiers. You just dump your coins into a bowl-shaped contraption and it automatically spits out your change. It was surprising that the human element had been completely removed from the equation of cashiering and money exchange - the very raison d'etre of a cashier.
Daily life also includes having my phone on hand at all times in a grocery store, ready to translate anything (actually everything) that I don't understand. Everything is written in Danish so I spend an average of two minutes translating per item, thanks to those tricky danish alphabets. I rejoice when I see something I immediately recognise, like Maelk (milk) or Karry (curry).
Translating your food is important because you should know what you're eating. My roommate bought a large bag of what he thought to be potato chips. He didn't like them so he gave them to me and I cleared a whole bowl. It was only when I google translated it that I realised I had just eaten a bowl of deep-fried pork skins. Cue gagging.
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Another thing is that they don't provide plastic bags and they're pretty strict on this. It was a striking contrast to Singapore, where cashiers inundate you with plastic bags as if their lives depended on it. Here, you either bring your own bag or buy a plastic one. I, being the naive foreigner I was (and still am), went grocery shopping with a slingbag the capacity of two apples. Needless to say, I had to buy a lot of plastic bags. Still, I appreciate this eco-friendliness and now I never go to a grocery store without my trusty backpack.
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One important thing that I've learnt about shopping with Danes is the importance of a divider. It's something like basic courtesy to put the divider after your lot, for the convenience of the person behind you. I've had more than one person huff at me in discontentment at the absence of a divider, to have them slam theirs down in thinly-veiled annoyance. Oops. Do I get to play my new-to-your-country-and-ignorant-of-your-unspoken-rules card?
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Singapore is similar to Copenhagen in terms of its hierarchy of supermarket chains. In Singapore, we have Sheng Siong and Shop n Save which tend to be cheaper. This is followed by Giant, NTUC Fairprice which are the everyman's store. If you shop at Cold Storage, however, that definitely says something about your (probably high) income. Let's not even talk about Jason's.
Copenhagen matches our spectrum of price points and surpasses it with an even larger number of options. Students on a budget are familiar with Netto, Fakta, Kiwi and Aldi. Then there's the middle range with stores like Bilka and slightly more expensive ones like Super Brugsen. At the top, there's Irma. I haven't even stepped into an Irma so let this be a word of advice for anyone coming to Copenhagen: You're good if the store's not an Irma.
Also - did I REALLY just write one whole entry about supermarkets? LOL.
Also - did I REALLY just write one whole entry about supermarkets? LOL.