Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Strawberry Fields

Yesterday, I hosted a book club meeting and in preparation went to the local REWE to buy snacks and munchies for the evening.

I have noted several times now that the strawberries, which come in open, cardboard containers, get picked over by customers. With apples or other large fruit I am ok with it, but strawberries and smaller fruit get bruised easily. Not to mention the yuck factor of people looking at each strawberry. But unless you catch them as they come off the truck, you end up buying strawberries that have been picked over by who knows how many people. I suppose, if you covered the cardboard containers up with cellophane as they do in the US, people here would complain how environmentally unfriendly that is.

I had a difficult time finding small crackers that could hold cheese slices finding only larger toast-like looking things or tiny flavored ones that are not suited for hors d'oeuvres. I also had to ask someone in the store what qualifies as a dip for fresh vegetables and found a suprisingly tasty one - hot pepper variation that went well with fresh veggies.

We digressed from talking about our book to discussing Walmart greeters and how that concept failed in Germany. I found it amusing that Germans think of it as an annoyance whereas I see it as a benefit to employ otherwise lonely, sedentary seniors. Well, not important, since Walmart couldn't make a go of it in Germany anyways.