Friday, February 5, 2010

When all elses fail.. go Shopping

Greetings,


Okay... the whole not having water thingy is a bit much right now.  I just want to brush my teeth or flush the toilet without needing bottled water. 

In life... when all else fails...

go shopping.

There is a new store recently opened that I want to try out....

Metro Cash and Carry





It's new, big and shiny.  I had no clue what they actually sold.. so I wanted to run in for a quick look around. 

Well, I was pleasantly surprised the find that the inside was just as shiny as the outside.  And oh, the goods.  Aisle after aisle of merchandise.  A little bit this and that... a little piece of heaven.

It looked like a small (very small) version of Sam's or Costco.  Wholesale type goods, sold in bulk, at a lower price. 

I love me some Costco.

Like Costco, I assumed this store might require some sort of membership.  All sign were in Greek so I really had no idea what to expect.  Depending on the cost of the membership... and the fact that we are leaving this month... I was not sure if I wanted to fork out the cost of a membership. 

While ogling everything on the shelves... I notice that all items have two prices on their tags.  I thought one price (the cheaper one) is for members and the other price for non-members.  Maybe I do not need to purchase a membership. 

Not exactly sure about this whole membership thingy...I decided to limit my purchase.  With a few things in tow (dog food, kitty litter, several household cleaning items, etc.) we innocently head to the checkout line. 

I place the items in front of the clerk and she just stares at me.  I dumbfoundly stare back (although I deduce that she is probably waiting for me to hand her my membership card).  She speaks only Greek.  I shrug my shoulders and say "sorry English".

She then calls for management. 

Harry and I are getting a little nervous.  I'm glad I only picked up a few things... it would be embarrassing (more embarrassing than this) if we lots of goodies. 

Management comes... asks if we were on holiday... and proceeds to tell us, "This store is for business owners."

"Oh", I confess with Bambi-like eyes.

To which he replies, "but you can buy these, but you can never come back here again."

"Oh, okay... thanks", comes my confused reply. 

I am still in awe as to why I was allowed to finish my purchase and not just kicked out.   Also, I was kicking myself for not grabbing more items. 

Oh, well.... quite an interesting shopping trip.  You never know what you are going to get here in Greece.  My favorite shoe store... is a shoe store in summer and a rug store in winter.  My favorite jewelry store is now a leather shop.  You never know what you are going to get.  I enjoyed the normalcy of a Costco-like store.

Blessings,

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3 comments:

Julie Danielle said...

Oh man, I could totally see something like that happening to me here in Germany. What a fun story though...lol.

Tori Bella said...

We have two cash and carry-s in our hometown and they don't require memberships so I would've walked in and wouldn't have even thought to ask if I needed a membership.

Maria said...

Oh dear. Maybe not a successful shopping find, but makes for a great story!

 

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