Park ‘n’ Shop
Normally I wouldn’t write about something as mundane as grocery shopping. However, I normally don’t spend two hours in a grocery store. That, in and of itself, is deserving of a blog post.
All of the dust and sand and dirt that have been blowing around Dubai as of late really had me feeling under the weather with a constant buzzing headache. In no way was I up for an all day outing and I sure as heck wasn’t putting on make-up. But the girls got stir crazy and we needed to exit the building for awhile. I figured we could kill some time at a new store I’d discovered. I noticed awhile back on an American Moms Facebook group that a place called Park ‘n’ Shop was mentioned several times. I looked it up and wouldn’t you know, there was one tucked away under a high rise directly behind our hotel!
So we took the five minute walk over there. Our first discovery as we walked in the door was kid-sized shopping carts. Hallelujah! I knew the girls’ attention spans had just been doubled. (Yes, the carts are for purchase, and no, we didn’t actually buy them after pushing them around the store. I have no shame.) The second thing I noticed is that the store was practically empty. This is another excellent grocery store trait because I can let the girls chase each other down the aisles and fondle all of the produce without feeling guilty. In fact, there were more people working in the store than there were shoppers, which brings me to my third point. The guys stocking shelves double up as babysitters (and my time in the store has now tripled.) I would explain what I mean here but instead, just watch the video below.
All that said, what really made me feel so good was that I was reunited with some of my favorite foods I’d been living without over the last five years. To name a few, they had mac ‘n’ cheese, Wheat Thin’s, Skippy Peanut Butter, Kraft American cheese slices, green chili enchilada sauce, graham crackers, Betty Crocker cake mixes, fruit roll ups, Cheetos, grape jelly, Raisin Bran, Cheerios, mayonnaise, Tostitos, and… wait for it… Velveeta for God’s sake!!!! Not only did my heart skip a beat, but so did my mother’s whose been forced to travel with extra suitcases full of these items every time she visits.
Those of you who have never lived in another country have no idea where I’m coming from. Before moving to Germany, I had no idea either. We grow so accustomed to the foods and brands we know and love that we can’t fathom a place where they are no longer available to us. Dubai is a city where expats make up nearly 90% of the population. Because of that statistic, grocery stores carry brands from nearly every country in the world. Not only can I now get some of my favorite American brands, I can also get many of my favorite German brands which I grew to know and love while living there.
Another interesting tidbit about Dubai is that pork is a no-no. Muslims do not eat or even touch pork and/or pork products, therefore it is not served at restaurants and it is not found in grocery stores. But leave it to the good folks at Park ‘n’ Shop to find a way to bring home the bacon. This is the only store I have seen so far which has a “Non-Halal” (not permissible) room. It was a room full of bacon, pork ribs, pork chops, pork loins, and hotdogs… and it was magical. I may have even thrown up my hands in the touchdown stance when I entered the room, (but my mind was a bit hazy at the time and I can’t remember.) There is a special non-Muslim man working back there who must ring up and double bag everything you choose before you exit the Non-Halal room. Obviously this extra step is a minuscule price to pay for that marvelous other white meat.
The last thing I’d note in contrast to other countries in which I’ve shopped, is that there are designated people in the produce section to weigh, tag, and tie impossible knots in each of your bags of fruits and vegetables. I get the need for specialists to discern whether your tomatoes are the 30 cent ones from the UAE, the 2 dollar ones from Nigeria, or the 15 dollar ones from Japan. But my goodness, how often are people stealing produce? The knotted bags are kind of getting on my nerves.
