Grrr! Argentine Supermarkets

[Pensador]

BAexpats, the place where it is forbidden to keep two thoughts in your head at the same time. Maybe we can agree that there are good things and bad things and sometimes one just wants to vent, as another member pointed out. I totally agree that supermarket checkout is very slow. My solution is to only shop for basics there, like milk, flour, pasta, butter, cans, gaseosa, and only go as rarely as possible. (If I had an ARG credit card I would get those things delivered.) Then I go to the verduleria every two days or so, I go to the cheese place, the butcher (for huevos de campo), etc. And the chino for last minute bottles of wine! Or to a nice wine place once in a while.

Please tell me what is good? That is within the context of modern civilization if you are able to reply it should be interesting. Because to me it was and still is HELL!

 

[cuore]

Supermarkets can be frustrating but stop whining, COTODIGITAL takes both foreign cc and cash. They have great service and their fruit and veggies are amazing
and remember
THERE'S ALWAYS AN OPTION

 

[Girino]

Please tell me what is good? That is within the context of modern civilization if you are able to reply it should be interesting. Because to me it was and still is HELL!

I get angry a lot less here than back home. People here is not aggressive, they smile to you even in buses, they excuse themselves if they accidentally push you, they are chatty and outgoing, they don't start their rant as son as you let them speak, they are not heavily racist like back home. All of these are some of the GOOD things about Argentina, despite the dirtiness, the queues, the broken sidewalks and the general crappy situation all over buenos aires.

 

[semigoodlookin]

I know with Coto, you can have it delivered and pay cash, getting a discount too for being a member. As for long lines, I live next to a Carrefour so go there regulalry, if a line is taking too long because someone is just taking the piss, I leave my trolly where it is and just leave. I understand me living next to one makes it easier to just go back later. There is a quick pay thing there where you scan your own items, which is painfully slow almost at all time, rather silly considering the name. I have been tied up in a line there before while someone is taking the piss, I leave and leave the trolly. I have been in the supermarket and seen the checkout girls just chatting away while there is a long line forming in front of them.

However, I agree that supermarkets are merely another in a long line of cases where gross unprofessionalism in Argentina is present daily. Move away you say? Why should I, just because I dislike somethings. I really wish I was enlightened enough like some to have no gripes about anything in life, but I am not. So I will continue to live here and call the bad things and praise the good things. Anyone trying to defend professionalism here is mad, it is obvious that there is no pride in professions in many situations. Now, debating why that is and if those people are justified is another matter, and in some cases I sympathize with the workers, but let's not pretend that customer care in this country is of a good standard.

 

[nikad]

Only because they're not as busy. Most tend to only have one checkout and are about the same size as the small Dias etc

Checkout is mega fast, just so you can leave quickly with your expired or about to expire groceries, and dairy that sat in their unplugged fridges overnight....

 

[nlaruccia]

Even if the chinos are crowded they're really efficient and fast. They don't waste time checking their cell phones and chatting with co-workers. They scan the items as quick as possible and they're the only ones I know that have discovered that the things will go smoother if they actually help you bag your food.

 

[scotttswan]

Checkout is mega fast, just so you can leave quickly with your expired or about to expire groceries, and dairy that sat in their unplugged fridges overnight....

i'd bet the vast majority of Chinese supermarkets don't turn off the fridges overnight.

 

[ElQueso]

i'd bet the vast majority of Chinese supermarkets don't turn off the fridges overnight.

I think you may be wrong. I thought this was a myth too, until I shopped two different ones here in Recoleta and another one in Retiro over the last 4 years or so. I quit buying anything refrigerated there, resorting only to room-temperature goods, when at all three places I'd bought stuff that had obviously thawed out overnight and then re-froze the next morning. You could tell by the shapes of things - and the most obvious was frozen ice cream bars that leaked out of the individual wrappers (I found out when opening to eat the next day). French fries in bags that had thawed and and re-frozen to a globular mass of potatoes and ice, pre-packaged chicken supremas with cheese and ham that had fallen apart, etc.

The kicker was when my oldest girl worked for a month and a half or so in a Chino supermarket in Constitucion (started beginning of year and quit a couple of weeks ago to return to school) as a cashier and reported that she saw them going to all their cold equipment and shut them down as they were closing up at night.

 

[jp]

Please tell me what is good? That is within the context of modern civilization if you are able to reply it should be interesting. Because to me it was and still is HELL!

This says more about you than it does about this country and this city.

I gather you've left Buenos Aires. I look forward to you moving to another forum.

 

[Hybrid Ambassador]

I think you may be wrong. I thought this was a myth too, until I shopped two different ones here in Recoleta and another one in Retiro over the last 4 years or so. I quit buying anything refrigerated there, resorting only to room-temperature goods, when at all three places I'd bought stuff that had obviously thawed out overnight and then re-froze the next morning. You could tell by the shapes of things - and the most obvious was frozen ice cream bars that leaked out of the individual wrappers (I found out when opening to eat the next day). French fries in bags that had thawed and and re-frozen to a globular mass of potatoes and ice, pre-packaged chicken supremas with cheese and ham that had fallen apart, etc.

The kicker was when my oldest girl worked for a month and a half or so in a Chino supermarket in Constitucion (started beginning of year and quit a couple of weeks ago to return to school) as a cashier and reported that she saw them going to all their cold equipment and shut them down as they were closing up at night.

Yack! Thawed out then re-freeze it? out of question..All good tasting Amino-Acid drained out of then you will only savour the carcass like taste ones. Once things gets freezed, it will destroy all fibres unless you thaw it over time within +5 degrees but very slowly!