Manaus needs a Costco
2 02 2007We ventured to the grocery store in Manaus before getting on the our final 5 day boat adventure. We normally love going to the grocery store just to see what kind of unusual things we can find like liquid yogurt drinks and mysterious no-name candy. But this day we were in a bit of a hurry and even though it was Friday at 10:30 in the morning, the place was packed! After picking out an assortment of cookies (we discovered key-lime cookies that are the best so far!) and crackers we headed to the check-out line. Even though every cash register (at least 20) was open, the line was so long that it wrapped around to the front door, and there was a line just to get in line! Every time the line took a turn more people tried to cut in from another direction. To avoid this chaos, I made the poor decision of leaving the longer, more chaotic “basket line” to get in the seemingly shorter and more orderly “cart line.” Apparently, the cart line is for people who trek to the grocery store once per year. The cart in front of us, for example, had 12 tubs of butter, 6 bags of rice, 5 cartons of milk, 12 bags of sugar, and 3 bottles of oil among other things, and this is no exaggeration! And while we were standing in line the amount in the cart grew because the woman continued shopping and adding to the cart while her husband waited. The whole check-out process took 30 minutes! Oh well, we definitely had a good laugh!
