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I make a list. Every time I go to the grocery store, because if I don’t, I never get the food I need. Making a list helps me think about what I will be eating that week, instead of seeing interesting food at the grocery store and buying it on a whim. Even though I go through the effort of making a shopping list every week, I always forget to look at it while I’m in the store, making it regretfully, useless. I always think that because I made a list, I memorized what was on it. So, grocery shopping rarely goes as planned. 

There is no specific day I go grocery shopping. I usually like to go on Sundays because growing up, it was always the day my mom would go grocery shopping. To me Sundays don’t have a religious connotation, but it is a day to get things done. We always went grocery shopping, cleaned the house, and finished all our work on Sundays. Even though I do this every week I usually end up going back to the grocery store at least one other time during the week because I ran out of food (always my favorite cereal, and almond milk), or wanted to eat something very specific. 

I also always go alone to the grocery store. I like to put my headphones in and walk down our long street. Listening to music always puts me in a better mood when I go grocery shopping. I’ve been to grocery stores in more central locations, and it always makes me so nervous when the stores are so crowded and loud. Putting headphones in drowns out the noise, and I can focus on what I’m doing. 

I always go to the same grocery store, the little Carrefour on my street. It’s maybe a five-minute walk from my apartment, so I go there mostly for the convenience. Now I decided to stay at this grocery store because I know where everything is, and I can shop very quickly.  

I start by walking through the sliding doors and grabbing one of the misshaped black baskets by the door. Then I walk around the sale section, look at what they had for prepared foods, and move onto the fruits and vegetables. Carrefour used to sell my favorite couscous and vegetables dish, but recently they haven’t been selling it in the prepared food section. I always buy zucchini, carrots, and apples once a week. I like to eat apples as a snack, and I make my own couscous and vegetables dish regularly, so I always need to buy these. 

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Then I move down to the shelf with the Bio products on them. In this section I consistently buy chickpeas, and plant-based milk. In the beginning of the year I would try a different plant-based milk every week. I think I tried pea milk, faro milk, coconut milk, and almond milk. Now I only buy almond milk, because it is my favorite. Then, I turn around to the shelves of freshly made bread, and buy a loaf of precut, whole wheat bread. I also like to make toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches throughout the week, so I need to buy bread often.  

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Then I move into the aisle with various cereals, and different fruity flavors of jam. I usually start with the cereal because I know exactly where my favorite flavor is kept. I always buy the fitness brand cereal with dark chocolate pieces. I know this is not the healthiest option for breakfast every day, but paired with the almond milk, it is delicious. 

I usually don’t have to buy jam every week because it lasts for a long time, but when I do, I buy the carrefour brand in the cherry flavor. I like how tart the jam is, and how it has pieces of cherries in it, which is delicious when paired with the salty sweetness of the peanut butter. Then I move into the pasta section. Every week I usually buy the barilla brand of couscous, and one or two boxes of spaghetti. I usually buy spaghetti and rotini.  

By then I usually move back into the main section of the store, but sometimes I go into the back and buy a box of Ritz crackers, or salt and balsamic vinegar kettle corn chips. Then I usually buy one pack of cherry flavored yogurt. I always eat my yogurt with my box of the plain flavor of fitness cereal. I bought that box in one of the first weeks here in Florence, and I still have not managed to finish it.  

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After that I am pretty much done with my shopping, When I’m done, I take out my headphones, because I don’t want to be disrespectful to the workers. I pay for my groceries and always rush trying to put everything in my bag. One of the biggest surprises to me about Italian culture is that workers in grocery stores never put your items into a bag for you. Usually they ask you if you would like a plastic bag “una busta?”, and if you said yes, they would throw one to you and expect you to put all your items into the bag. Putting all my items away felt like a race against time. The workers switch to the next customer while I am sweating from panicking to put all my items away in time.  

Then, I put my headphones in and walk home, holding my bags in a certain, mysterious way that created a permanent bruise on the side on my leg.  

I think I’ve gone grocery shopping with my roommates only a couple of times. They always like to go after their last class of the day on Mondays and Wednesdays, but I have another class and cannot go with them. We also don’t share a lot of our food. It quickly became confusing trying to figure out how much everybody owed everyone, so we started buying our own food. I like going by myself, it allows me to either take my time while contemplating what I wanted to buy, or as fast as I like. 

I mostly go to this grocery store. Sometimes I stop by the Vivi market in the city center to buy peanut butter, tomato soup, and pancake mix. This little grocery store sells a wide selection of foods from all over the world. Some of the sections they have is Japanese, French, English, Indian, and American. I usually stop buy every couple of weeks to buy peanut butter, but if they had a good selection, I would buy random products. 

I want to try going to more farmers markets in Florence because I am curious about the difference in freshness and quality between those products and the ones in the grocery store. I also want to eat more locally grown, and organic products because the quality of American products does not equally compare with Italian products.  

Grocery shopping here in Florence has been a very different experience for me. Back home the grocery store I went to was almost as large as a warehouse, giving so many options to choose from, it was almost impossible. I prefer grocery shopping here. The stores are much smaller, and I love learning how to say different kinds of foods in Italian. Grocery shopping also gives me more of a sense of independence. I get to decide what I am going to eat every week, and I must go out and buy it myself. 

I would say the grocery store is one of my favorite places because it has so much food, and I always have fun while I’m there.