re: #49 The Vicious Babushka

This is a Thing

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As a former longtime expat, let me clear this up:

Supermarkets in Europe (and presumably other areas) will stock unusual items their expat customers request as a gesture of kindness. Nothing more, nothing less. The shelf you see there is full of garbage because their customers have requested that garbage.

I was in Sevilla, Spain 2 months ago. I ran across a shop called “Taste of America”. Here is what they sell:

- many breakfast cereals and pop-tarts (as you see in that tweet)

- peanut butter

- Dr. Pepper

- yellow mustard

- Stubb’s BBQ sauce (shudder)

- cake mixes

and that is about it!

They didn’t start this shop to insult Americans or to editorialize about American tastes…they did it because American expats miss certain supermarket items they cannot find abroad, and they are willing to pay a premium price for a taste of home. Same deal with all of those crazy UK supermarket shelves one finds all over the internet.