Shopping in Australia: Supermarkets

It seems to me that about 50% of the ebayers I meet to collect things I have bought from them are poms like me. One lady I met who lived on the Gold Coast was selling everything from the house in order to go back to Blighty for family reasons. We asked each other what we missed about the Motherland and, as I was still in the heady stages of my emigration 'euphoria', I didn't say a lot, apart from missing friends and family obviously. She countered with a long list of things she was clearly looking forward to seeing/having again, one of which was Tesco!

I too was a regular Tesco-ite (?), mainly because it was on the way home from work and cheaper than Sainsbury's. But it was Sainsbury's I always went to for posh food for occasions or nice treat food. In all honesty, I don't feel I've missed out by not being able to frequent either any more. The supermarkets here are just about as good and very similar and familiar to shop in.

The choice of supermarkets in SE Queensland seems to boil down to a three horse race with Woolworths in the lead, Coles in 2nd place and IGA trailing way behind in 3rd. Yes, that's right, Woolies is where you buy your groceries in oz, not your cheap school uniforms or pick and mix as you do in the UK. Look out for Big W for that sort of thing (that's Woolies owned anyway).

I haven't found a supermarket here that's as diverse as a large Tesco can be, with clothes and furniture, etc, but most do sell some basic electrical stuff, like kettles and hairdryers, at reasonable prices in a corner of the store, plus stationery, kitchenware and DVDs, etc. Prices aren't too bad, except for milk and bread which are definitely more expensive than in the UK. Since the onset of globalisation, there are also quite a lot of familiar brands available too, eg. Heinz beans and Tetleys tea. However, only Coles could provide my favourite Colemans mustard and life saving McVities plain chocolate digestives.

The great thing about supermarket shopping in oz is that they automatically pack your bags for you as they scan the things in. This saves you from (a) the infuriating process of having your purchases thrown at you down the conveyor belt faster than you can pack them, leaving the next shopper tutting and waiting impatiently for you to finish packing and get out of the way after you've paid. Or (b) the humiliation of asking for help with your packing which somehow makes you feel inferior in front of the other shoppers in the queue who are all pretending they're not watching what you've bought. The shopping is usually packed very well too, with cold or frozen goods packed together and a consideration for individual items that might get spoilt in a bag of heavy things.

The downside is that aisles are really really long and I can't always see down the end of the aisle to the last sign to know whether to bother going down it. Inevitably, I give up and go half way down before realising I don't want to be there but there's still another half mile to go before I can get out. The other thing to remember is that they don't sell alcohol, although there's usually a bottle shop next door or nearby. So you will need to plan this into your shopping trip.

But all things considered, this is a small price to pay in a shopping world of friendly service, fresh (within its sell by date) food and produce that isn't battered beyond recognition from being hurled down a conveyor belt by a sullen, underpaid cashier who doesn't give a monkeys. Eh, Tesco?