What do American expats miss the most about living in America?

[LuckyLuke]

Need customer service like the 10-4 Friendliness Mandate at Target's U.S. stores?

"The new Target policy requires employees who are within 10 feet of customers to smile, make eye contact, wave, and use friendly, approachable, and welcoming body language,” according to USA Today. “If staff members are within 4 feet of customers, they must personally greet the guests, smile, and initiate a warm, helpful interaction,

Target Mandates Employee Friendliness

"Nothing says 'corporate joy' like a mandatory smile," one Reddit user wrote.

www.mediapost.com

We're one step closer...

 

[RogerTotal]

Food, I know there's already an entire thread dedicated to this, but just every food you can imagine is 1000 x worse than the USA equivalent

 

[lunar]

Food, I know there's already an entire thread dedicated to this, but just every food you can imagine is 1000 x worse than the USA equivalent

To add something positive about food pork chops are comparatively extremely cheap and delicious at least at the Carrefour near me.

I guess those pork chops must've been 1,000× more delicious in the U.S. then?
How far does your "deliciousness" scale go - into the trillions?

 

[Agribotics]

Customer service in the US is second to none

I have a house in Japan where I live part-time and I beg to differ. When I first went to the local city government office to learn how to pay my property taxes the head of the tax office walked several blocks with me to the local Post Office and showed me how to pay my tax bill in person, then walked me back to my car at city hall. I almost cried I was so amazed.

 

[Dim Witty]

I dearly miss being told to go to hell when asking directions. I miss cars trying to run me over when crossing the street. I miss people demanding foregners to "Speak English!" I miss people saying after mass shootings that guns don't kill people, people do. Ahhh, it's a land of many blunders. I mean wonders.

 

[Ries]

In my rural US area, I routinely see senior citizens packing semiautomatic pistols in stores. I dont miss that at all.
Every year in the US a few of them accidentally shoot themselves sitting on toilets when their guns fall and “ accidentally discharge” .

 

[hankscott]

Customer service in the US is second to none, they strive to assure their customers will come back. Argentina's has to be second to last.

I guess we shop in different places. The baristas at the coffee shops I go to regularly know my name and what I want to order and always give me a smile. The woman working at a local health food store saw me walking on the sidewalk one day and walked up and hugged me, as did a woman who works at one of the Megatlon gyms where I am a regular. The man who owns and runs the verduria around the corner from my home here also is charming and welcomes me by name. In New York City, getting a barista at Starbucks to even look at you was unusual.

 

[Ries]

I guess we shop in different places. The baristas at the coffee shops I go to regularly know my name and what I want to order and always give me a smile. The woman working at a local health food store saw me walking on the sidewalk one day and walked up and hugged me, as did a woman who works at one of the Megatlon gyms where I am a regular. The man who owns and runs the verduria around the corner from my home here also is charming and welcomes me by name. In New York City, getting a barista at Starbucks to even look at you was unusual.

me too.
I have long relationships with all kinds of argentines, among them all kinds of stores, restaurants, and businesses.
I am usually here 6 months gone six months, and when I first return, a lot of people remark on seeing me again, from the chinese woman at the corner store to the guys at the hardware store.
I am on first name basis with a couple dozen vendors.
I have known some of them 15 years.
I often get things thrown in at no charge, sometimes even gifts.

Knowing I collect them, a long time vendor at the Mercado de Las Pulgas once gave me a miniature anvil. I asked the price, and he said- just take it.
I also have Argentine friends who will lend me money, give me a ride, or book and share a vacation house with me and my wife immediately if asked.
I get much better customer service here than from bored teenagers at chain stores in the USA.
I do avoid cadenas in general here- and as much as possible patronize owner operated businesses.

 

[daveholman]

Besides family and friends? For me, good ethnic food, high quality fish, cheap consumer products, the weather and ocean in California, garbage disposals, dryers, reliable power and internet, ease of traveling by plane domestically, ease of buying/leasing a car, ease of renting an apartment/picking up and moving, uber-friendliness and desire to help by random, trusting strangers. That said, living in Buenos Aires seems in most other ways far superior to the U.S.

Hash browns. LOL
I've eaten a ton of potatoes in the last year, but I'm seriously craving some gold old Waffle House hash browns

 

[Silvie]

I was recently in the USA and now that I can't have regular milk any more, I discovered how widely available the oat milk is and how good it tastes. I haven't seen that anywhere in Argentina as an alternative.