Taiwan Adventures: Grocery shopping in Taichung

Grocery shopping in Taiwan seems to take forever! I try to go every Monday and then stock up for the week. The shops are so crowded on the weekends that it would take me twice as long!! Every other week I head to Costco about 20 min away and can purchase things like milk, cheese, bagels, and cereals that are harder to find at regular grocery stores in our area. When I do find those items at a regular grocery store they are much smaller and very over-priced. If I don't get to Costco at 10:00am when it opens, it will take me at least an hour to get through the store. There are grocery cart traffic jams, people stroll through and take their time, and as samples are always being given away there are lines all over the store of at least 10-20 people (they will wait in line for 15-30 min for a small bite of bread because it's free). All of that combined equals a very slow shopping experience.

I race home to put the cold items away. By now the process has taken about 1.5 to 2 hours. I then head back out to hit the local grocery store about 15 min away where I pick up meat products. I can get various frozen meat products at Costco but our freezer is very small and wouldn't fit the large quantities we would have to purchase. I can also get produce but I prefer to go to the markets for those items because they tend to be fresher and less expensive. Stopping by the local grocery store typically takes about 30 minutes total. 20 of those minutes are spent trying to find parking and then trying to get out of the parking garage.

I race back home to put the meat in the refrigerator. You're probably wondering why I don't go straight from Costco to the grocery store... It gets so hot outside most of the time that all of my frozen items would thaw in that amount of time in our car.

So, I've been shopping and racing around town now for about 3 hours when my grocery list is almost complete. The final and easiest part is stopping by the local market after I pick up the kids from school. They love to see all of the fruits and vegetables, meat, chickens, and desserts that are sold there. The market we like to go to the best is right down the street from Andrew's school and has a free parking lot that we can easily park in. It's a quick trip, we get to practice some Chinese with the vendors and most of the time we run into some friends.

Needless to say, while the experience is an interesting one, sometimes I yearn for the ease and efficiency of grocery shopping in the US! :)