My Auchan Token

For years now, there's been a quarter in my vehicle cup holder- my Aldi quarter to get a cart. Here, I'm without my quarter and my vehicle. But now I have a new thing- my Auchan token. 

While I went to one Auchan with my colleagues last week, the mid-day rush of a crowded grocery store was quite overwhelming. This week I decided to beat the crowds, and left my house around 8AM. Sadly, I just missed the direct bus, and ended up walking more than half a mile straight up hill to catch the next closest bus. Luckily this was pre-shopping, and my only baggage was my shopping totes and tired self. I got to the Auchan and decided I should take a cart rather than the pull-along caddy. While my initial thoughts were that I'd buy too much, I find my spatial awareness in a cart much better in allowing me to judge the quantity of my purchases. 

After finally procuring my Auchan token, I was on my way to meander through the beautiful grocery. 

My first stop was the produce: there are so many types of potatoes and mushrooms and tomatoes! I found a discount on zucchini, grabbed a cucumber, and a few normal (aka cheaper) tomatoes as well. I also got a beautiful quartet of red bell peppers. I'm learning more vocabulary from perusing the grocery stores than I thought! 

I took a turn through the beautiful bakery, but restrained myself from anything. Next up was the meat. The Auchan had the best selection and prices I've seen so far, and I left with a pack of pork chops. I am insanely proud of myself for not walking out with the family pack of discount meat that was beckoning loudly to me. I walked by the seafood. I picked up a package of something on sale that seemed a decent price (luckily at home Google translate told me I got haddock, though it seems incredibly thin and light for haddock). Today I circumvented the fresh fish and seafood, as my schedule this week doesn't support cooking that. I grabbed a few beverages from the shelves: there are so many low-sugar fun drinks here! 

Through the course of my store, I found a few fun things: 

• a beautiful dark chocolate raspberry bar (though the raspberries have their seeds still in them, and get stuck in my teeth).
• a sugar-free berry creme hard candy that I was hoping would be reminiscent of my childhood Creme Savers. They were good, but lacking on the creme aspect. 
• fun pestos that were on sale! 
• gorgeous little pistachio pudding cups
• An interesting black forest cake chocolate cherry milk 
• clearance plain yogurt for my lassi drink and clearance milk for my boxed mac and cheese! 
• The Tex-Mex aisle was filled with some familiar looking items... and some not so much like a "French taco" kit. 
• The "American/British" portion of the shelf was sadly mostly British, minus a tiny jar of peanut butter for a whopping $7. Also Heinz canned mac and cheese ?!?! I found the packaged bread aisle more in line with home, as they had loaves of processed white bread, neatly square shaped, and marketed as "American sandwich bread". 

I neatly navigated packing all my groceries and hadn't bought too preposterous an amount. However, to my great chagrin I found that while the quantities of my purchases fit into my bags, the weight of my purchases did put me to my limits. Luckily, I found the bus stop quite close to the grocery. To my horror, my most direct bus didn't come at it's appointed time, and I was quite concerned at the prospect of trudging with my heavy burdens through the course of half of Luxembourg. Just as I was about to give up all hope, more than five minutes later, my bus came and I was spared the arduous walk home. 

While many here go to the grocery a few times a week, my American mind is still going to try for the once a week trip, which I hope to help my wallet and my crazy small freezer.