Hello again and welcome back to America under the microscope. Hello, James.

Hello lulu.

So in the last episode we were talking about some pretty serious stuff.

Yeah, going to the doctors, but today we have something that's much more lighthearted.

Which is?

Going to the supermarket.

Okay. Something that we have to deal with pretty much on a day-to-day basis. First of all, maybe we need to establish certain terms like you have supermarket you have grocery store. What's the difference?

The biggest difference is simply size. Supermarkets are bigger, grocery stores are smaller. But that doesn't describe anything. So basically a grocery store will just have fruits, vegetables, meat, some basic foods like flour, rice and stuff, but usually not many options. Supermarkets are much bigger. They'll sell things in addition to food like towels, simple clothing and things like that.

So size and also range of things on they are selling.

Yes, but Americans in speech will use the two words interchangeably. Some people just say supermarket, some people will say grocery store.

其实美国人说话的时候，supermarket 和 grocery store 有时候是混用的，basically it means: to do the shopping.

Right, to do the shopping which is different than going shopping.

Going shopping can be fun, do the shopping is a chore.

Right. Going shopping you don't have to buy anything.

But do the shopping is you have to buy things you need.

That's for milk, eggs, flour.

You know from all of these information you get, generally Americans go to supermarkets not that often but they buy lots of stuff.

That's because most Americans tend to go once a week which seems to be much different than what I noticed in China where people go far more often. Americans have bigger homes so they have more storage space, so they can keep more and they're also busy, so they don't have time to go shopping a lot.

And also you guys have generally bigger fridge.

Bigger refrigerator, bigger food storage, more than one refrigerator.

Yeah, you buy a week worth of food... then pretty much that means you will have to drive.

Yes, it's almost a requirement because most supermarkets are, if you're in a larger community, the supermarkets are gonna probably be at the edge of the community or there's more space available to build the big supermarket. So you'll need to drive there and you will need a car to carry all the food back home.

So does that mean most of the supermarket would be, for example in the outskirts of the city?

Not necessarily. Like where I'm from, the supermarkets weren't that far but I'm from a small town so they are in the town. But if you lived outside of the town, you still had to drive into the town to get it. In suburbs and stuff they tend to be at like the edge of the suburbs with a lot of access to different roads, so to get to them drive.

But in major cities they can also be in...

Yes, so I've been to New York and they had grocery stores right there in the main part of the city right next to the subway.

And then the prices of things. Because in many countries, for example we talked to Alan about it, in the UK usually the bigger the store is, the cheaper it gets. But even the same chain, smaller size if it for a smaller size store usually the price goes more expensive.

Here in America, the rules more or less the same. The bigger the store, the cheaper it is. But it goes a little bit further - if you're in a small town or a smaller community, they're also gonna be cheaper than the city and also depends on just location of your supermarket. And so if it's close to good access to roads, things will be cheaper. If you live in the mountains, things will be more expensive. If you live in Hawaii, everything's expensive.

Because everything has to be transported there.

Yes.

I suppose that does make sense. So let's compare the American supermarkets with Chinese supermarkets. First of all, let's look at the opening hours. When are they open from when to when?

They never close.

So 24-hour supermarkets?

Yeah. Good number of supermarkets in the United States are twenty four hours.

That certainly is good if you are hungry in the middle of the night and you can call for any take away.

Or actually you can also buy things cheaper at night. Some things like the meat tends to be discounted at night.

Good tip for especially if you're under budget.

Also America like to use the term ‘one stop shopping’ which means Americans like to do all the necessary shopping in one place.

One stop就是一站式购物. So you get everything like apart from your normal food you have, you can buy cakes there.

Right. So like just a supermarket in my hometown you can go to the supermarket, you can buy flowers for birthdays and weddings, you can buy your medicine that for your prescription, you can buy fresh baked bread, you can get custom made cakes, you can get hot deli food, so things like hot sandwiches, fried chicken and French fries. They will have hot coffee in the morning, they'll have freshly made donuts and they'll have a range of meats, clothing, simple car parts, the list goes on and on.

So nowadays in big cities in China a lot of these are quite similar. So you can buy cakes, you can buy flowers, you can buy things like hot food. But pharmacy, so you can actually buy medicine in supermarket?

Yeah, a good number of them. Yes.

I think this is a major difference. Usually in China you will have to go to pharmacy, drug store to buy a medicine.

The next major difference has to do with size. American supermarkets tend to actually be a lot bigger than Chinese supermarkets. Now in big cities like Beijing, they have some really big supermarkets like Walmart and Carrefour. They are like huge. In America in a big city, the supermarkets actually tend to be small because of the limited space, whereas in the countryside they're huge.

This is a major difference and what about the variety of goods?

There will be lots of different goods there, so you have all your fruit and veges and so on. But let's just take something like Oreo cookies, everyone knows Oreo cookies. You go to American supermarket, yes they will have Oreo cookies. But next to the Oreo cookies they'll be knock off Oreo cookie, they'll be supermarket brand Oreo cookie, there'll be another company keep brand Oreo cookie, they'll be like ten different brands of cookies like Oreo of the same product.

But they're usually cheaper.

Oh, they're definitely cheaper.

You also have the supermarkets own brand.

In addition to that, American supermarkets tend to carry a little bit of everything. So for example, a lot of Chinese students ask me things like I am so worried if I go to America, where I be able to buy such and such Chinese food. Well every American supermarket will sell rice, soy sauce rice vinegar and ginger garlic, the basics of cooking most basic Chinese food. They'll have things for Mexican food, things for Korean food and so on.

So it's also based on what the community, what the local community wants. So if you have a larger Chinese community the supermarket tend to have those kind of products.

Absolutely. So my hometown has a large Mexican community, so our supermarkets sell a lot of Mexican goods or Mexican fruits and vegetables that they want in their cooking. And also one big difference is the amount of instant or boxed or canned foods that we sell. A lot of people go into American supermarkets and they just see aisles and aisles and aisles of cans, cans, boxes, boxes of frozen foods, frozen pizzas, frozen or ice cream, frozen vegetables.

Does that have to do with the average American diet?

It does. A lot of Americans like instant stuff. They grew up with this kind of thing and they may not know how to cook or they feel it's like comfort food. It also tends to lead a lot of people having unhealthy diet because the food tends not to be the best for you.

But you have to have fresh produce section, fresh vegetables and fruits.

Oh yeah of course. This actually the produce section which is what we call the place we buy fruits and vegetables tend to be a little bit smaller than what I've seen in China because a lot of Americans tend to buy fewer fresh fruits and vegetables.

By the way here, there is a word for you produce - p r o d u c e. Usually fresh vegetables and fruits. So especially in American English you call it produce. And the produce section in China, a lot of the times in some supermarkets, you will have to find a scale or weigh machine you have to weigh them first. In America you just wait at a counter right?

You take it up to the cashier at the front of the supermarket and they will weigh it for you when you pay. And then finally when it's time to pay, so you go up to the front this part is more or less the same as China. You go to the cashier, pay, put things in the bag. But instead of you doing this yourself, they will put the things in the back for you as well as offer to take the bags to your car.

Oh how nice! Do you have to tip them or pay?

No they will refuse. It's just part of their job. They will do this. You can refuse this if you want, but you don't have to pay extra for that.

Because most of the times in China you just push the cart, the shopping cart to your car. I would love to have someone carry that for me. And then in the end let's look at two phrases that Americans generally use in day to day supermarket shopping.

So we use some phrases when we do the shopping. The first one uses the verb ‘to run’. A lot of Americans will say sings like ‘I need to run to the store’.

‘Run to the store’ meaning I have to get some daily necessities from the store.

Yes. So you're not actually running though.

Run to the store, and the other thing is?

If we need to purchase like just one item would say, just milk. We will use the verb ‘pick up’ like, ‘I need to pick up milk at the supermarket’.

So calling your husband, your wife, your family member and say, could you pick up some milk? Could you pick up some cookies on your way back?

So instead of just simply buy, we actually use the verb more commonly to ‘pick up’.

Run to the store and pick up something on the way home usually, that concludes the basic episode for going to supermarkets.

And then next episode, the advanced episode, we're gonna be focusing on something called couponing, something Americans do to save money when they go to the supermarket. In addition, supermarkets like different companies that you'll see in America.

Can’t wait. Let's see you next time.

Bye everyone. Bye.