Have you ever wondered.....

In 10 short weeks our time in St Maarten will be over and we will have lived here for 2 years. I know many of you probably have wondered about our lives on the island, so every week or so I'm going to do a post that starts with "Have you ever wondered." Then your going to get a little glimpse into life on St Maarten. This week we are wondering about the grocery stores in St Maarten.....

The grocery store here is called Le Grand Marche. It is very American. Here is a shot at the start of the deli and produce section. A tid bit- most of the fruit, milk products, and eggs are from Florida!

Here is the milk section. We always have to be careful about checking dates, since things are sent by sea by the time they actually reach the shelf the expiration date is growing pretty near. And sometimes the milk will be bad even before date because of lack of proper refrigeration between the boat and the store and then the shelf. But the selection of milk, cheese, yogurt, and sour cream is pretty extensive.
Here is a look at the labels they use. If you look close you can see that the big price is in Gilders. The smaller number is the US price...so gilders for the parsley is 2.75 and US price is $1.24. If you go to the Phillipsburg Grand Marche the prices are in Gilders, US and in Euros. Current exchange between US and Gilders is US $1= 1.80.
Here is the meat section. A lot of different stuff to chose from, most of the time good qualilty. Some even US Certified. They also have local stuff like pigs ears and chicken feet. Ummm no thanks!

Here is a glimpse of the lunch meat, hot dog and bacon section. As you can see we aren't lacking anything, the main difference is here we don't get a lot of choices. One brand is about all you get to chose from where in the US you would have 30 brands of different hot dogs to buy.

I just thought this sign was a good look into a typical thing we see in the store...a list of where all the different apples are from.
And here we are at the end of our shopping trip. See the stuff in the cart? How much do you think I spent today???
Grand total for this shopping trip was $173. Yes, for a cart that wasn't even that full! I typically spend around $150 a week on groceries and then take 2 trips to Cost-U-Less (sort of like a Sam's Club) a month each costing around $180. Total for groceries for 5 in one month.....$960!

Hope you enjoyed your journey through the grocery store....next week look forward to a glimpse into washing clothes with a European washing machine!

If you have something you have been wondering, leave it as a comment and I'll answer it in an upcoming blog!