Come Grocery Shopping with Us!

It has been a couple weeks now since we got back from our trip to Rio, but I haven't yet gotten back into my usual swing of things. I've been eating poorly and not feeling great, so that's gotta stop. We went out today to stock up on good eats and I thought I'd take some photos of our little grocery shopping excursion.

Because we needed to restock a lot of staple items, we went to Oba--our equivalent of a BJ's or Costco.

 It's a big place. I remember we came here one of the first times we went grocery shopping after arriving in Brazil. I was so overwhelmed with the products, the prices, the people. I just wanted to cry. It's hard to get used to shopping in another country when you have no concept of what is a good brand or a good deal. Now, I'm much better at it. Because we usually hit the store early, we beat the crowds too, which is always a plus.

This whole section is just for crackers!

Basically, grocery shopping here is the same as it is in the US. The main difference is the cost of products. The cost of goods in Brazil has been rising significantly recently, so you can't count on prices remaining the same from week to week. We basically have no brand loyalty and just buy whatever is most cost effective. Some tough choices for us can be certain fruits and things that Little Man likes to eat. For example, raisins (one of his faves) are really expensive here. In Rio they cost half as much for some reason. But we buy them because he loves them. Another interesting thing about shopping here is the availability of certain produce. In the Northeast US, I was used to only one type of banana and a ton of different types of apples. Here, there is typically one type of apple available at our supermarket, and several different types of bananas. Did you know there were different types of bananas?! I didn't until I moved here.